Time to pressure Musharraf

Ali at Eteraz is calling us all to pressure President Musharraf of Pakistan. You may be familiar with the current sorry state of women's rights in Pakistan. To give you an idea, if a woman who was raped does not have three to four male witnesses to corroborate her story, she herself will be charged with adultery. A blind girl was convicted because she was unable to identify her assailant. The Women's Protection Act would go a long way to addressing these injustices. Ali is asking us to email President Musharraf, in whose hands the fate of the bill now rests. I have done so myself. He provides a sample text and more details if you would like inspiration or further information.

Daddy blogs

Who knew? There is such a thing as a Daddy Blog. Of course, if you stop and think about it, it makes perfect sense. There are probably blogs for just about everything. But I am the kind of person who hasn't stopped to think about a lot of things, so it surprised me.

Following the breadcrumbs left by a recent commenter, I found myself in Total Depravity, which defies its name and turns out to be a wonderful little blog about being a daddy, with everything from personal anecdotes - told with a deft touch - to poetry to the bizarre. I mean, what would YOU do if it was your dad who told you to jump off a bridge?

The blogroll is entitled Blogfathers (groan) with one of the listees sporting the wonderful name of A Family Runs Through It.

I was at a student party a number of years ago (OK, so it was a LOT of years ago) where one of the young men caught my eye. He'd taken the hosts' baby and was cradling the sleeping child on his shoulder, even as he carried on animated discussions with the other students. I was very impressed.

I'll let you guess the end of the story. There's something about a guy who really likes kids...

It's nice to know that beer commercials do not tell the entire story. These Daddy blogs show another side of men, one we should probably see more often.

Women's rights vs. fathers' rights

John Burgess at Crossroads Arabia recently posted concerning women's medical status in Saudi Arabia. In the case cited, a woman in labour needed a Caesarian, but her husband had signed papers disallowing the procedure, even if it meant death for his child. The Saudi doctor involved managed to persuade the husband to change his mind, but he was shaken. He also came to the conclusion that the ultimate decision in cases like that should be left in the hands of the mother. It's awfully hard to argue with a conclusion like that (although any number of Wahhabis probably would) and I'm certainly not going to be the one to do it.

One of the commenters though brought up an excellent point:

However, in the West, we have many issues to the other extreme. Men are not consulted regarding abortions. Also, many women have given up children for adoption without the man’s knowledge, or consultation. Custody for men was also rarely given, despite circumstances.

Justice is rarely found at extremes and these are the two extremes: when women have no say and when men have no say.

In any properly functioning system, authority and responsibility must go hand in hand. You cannot strip someone of any authority and at the same time impose responsibility on them, or vice versa. If we are going to strip men of any say in what happens to their children, we must also absolve them of all responsibility too.

Not that I would advocate doing so. A balanced approach, that recognizes the rights and responsibilities of all three people involved in the birth of a child, is the ideal. Most couple probably find this balance all on their own - I know that this was the case in our home. But the courts must often make decisions when couples haven't been able to resolve these issues on their own, and the lawmakers in Western countries should be looking for a better balance when it comes to the rights and responsibilities of fathers.

Gleanings from the blogosphere, Aug. 24

Weekend Fisher contemplates the ethical implications of "holy violence" at Heart, Mind, Soul, and Strength, starting with Biblical examples and adding her own invaluable musings.

The Anchoress sings the praises of he-men and links to a disturbing, devastating and very cogent post by Fausta about being male and female in today's society.

Technorati tags: Violence, Sexism