[mikeh]

One of the blogs that I occasionally read is Butterflies and Wheels, by Ophelia Benson. She recently posted that she had been led to believe that the Egyptian parliament, in which by far the largest party is the Muslim Brotherhood, and there are other islamic parties, is debating a law that would make it legal for a man to have sex with his dead wife, so long as he has the sex within the first 6 hours following death.

Now, I already knew enough about islam (and not merely from reading anti-islamic writers, but from reading...in translation....some of the Koran and some of the writings of Islamists)to know that they are stuck in the 13th century in their attitude towards women but this struck me as particularly odious and revealing.

And this comes from a country with, supposedly, one of the more secular cultures in the arab world. Googling suggests that this is for real, and is part of an omnibus law intended to deprive women of rights to education and employment. It does make you wonder about the motives of whoever came up with this bright idea.

I'm not, for a moment, suggesting that preserving the former regime (which I doubt could have been done) would be better, but this is depressing.

[phil_20686]

mikeh, on 2012-April-30, 16:04, said:

One of the blogs that I occasionally read is Butterflies and Wheels, by Ophelia Benson. She recently posted that she had been led to believe that the Egyptian parliament, in which by far the largest party is the Muslim Brotherhood, and there are other islamic parties, is debating a law that would make it legal for a man to have sex with his dead wife, so long as he has the sex within the first 6 hours following death.

Now, I already knew enough about islam (and not merely from reading anti-islamic writers, but from reading...in translation....some of the Koran and some of the writings of Islamists)to know that they are stuck in the 13th century in their attitude towards women but this struck me as particularly odious and revealing.

And this comes from a country with, supposedly, one of the more secular cultures in the arab world. Googling suggests that this is for real, and is part of an omnibus law intended to deprive women of rights to education and employment. It does make you wonder about the motives of whoever came up with this bright idea.

I'm not, for a moment, suggesting that preserving the former regime (which I doubt could have been done) would be better, but this is depressing.

Are you even sure that necrophilia is illegal in the US? Apparently it is only illegal in 21 states in the US according to wikipedia, although I have never found it particularly reliable for stuff like this.

[Stephen Tu]

Don't make a habit of believing random blogs on the internet, particularly when they claim something particularly outrageous, without searching for confirmation and debunking. http://www.csmonitor...oey-utter-hooey

[kenrexford]

I find it troubling and revealing that Mike has that much in the way of specific knowledge about US necrophilia law. I personally have not had the need to know. LOL

[mikeh]

kenrexford, on 2012-April-30, 17:10, said:

I find it troubling and revealing that Mike has that much in the way of specific knowledge about US necrophilia law. I personally have not had the need to know. LOL

Where did I speak about US law?

I'm not an American. And have never professed to be one, nor to know about US law.

I do know that necrophilia is illegal in Canada (I think but neither know nor can be bothered to look up that it falls under the criminal prohibition about inflicting indignities upon a corpse..a typical example being setting fire to it).

However, I am embarrassed to concede that I seem to have been too credulous....along with large segments of Western Media...turns out that the notion that this law was being proposed seems to have come from a column in a government controlled newspaper, written by a supporter of the former regime, and thus presumably intended to do just what it did.

[kenberg]

This brought to mind Dorothy Parker's reported comment when she was told that Calvin Coolidge had died: "How could they tell?"

I'm with KenR on this. A law that states whether I can or cannot have sex with a dead woman would be pretty much superfluous.

[kenrexford]

Sorry, Mike. I was reading on my phone and misunderstood who was saying what. It turns out Phil is the one to worry about.

[ggwhiz]

The proposed law extends to women as well but that's a moot point and a limp excuse.

[jdeegan]

Stephen Tu, on 2012-April-30, 16:48, said:

Don't make a habit of believing random blogs on the internet, particularly when they claim something particularly outrageous, without searching for confirmation and debunking. http://www.csmonitor...oey-utter-hooey

I am of the opinion that the Christian Science Monitor blog you reference is probably correct in its conclusions, but its author has done no fact checking and offers only the merest unsubstantiated opinion. I guess when you know you are right, irony is not relevant.

What makes me highly skeptical is that as far as I know, there is no basis or antecedent in religious texts for the "six hour rule". Where did it come from?

"Rigor mortis (Latin meaning "stiffness of death") is one of the recognizable signs of death that is caused by a chemical change in the muscles after death, causing the limbs of the corpse to become stiff and difficult to move or manipulate.[1] In humans, it commences after about three to four hours, reaches maximum stiffness after 12 hours"

I would think something like a "four hour rule" would make better scientific sense.

[Cthulhu D]

Given the fairly strict Islamic rules on handling corpses, I suspect that this is completely preposterous.

[phil_20686]

kenrexford, on 2012-April-30, 18:05, said:

Sorry, Mike. I was reading on my phone and misunderstood who was saying what. It turns out Phil is the one to worry about.

I enjoy obscure trivia. Especially obscure trivia which makes the US look ridiculous.

Also, I never pass up a chance to wind up Mikeh.

[kenberg]

From the CSM article I gather that this all involves some bizarre statements made by religious crazies, cranked up by political opportunists. Thank God we don't have any people like that in this country!

[gwnn]

Googling stuff you get in your inbox can be quite depressing snopes.com destroys all magic in the world