The oppression against women in Islamic countries has received a lot of attention. Many people even use it as an argument against Islam, saying that it “oppresses women”.

It is, of course, true that women in these countries tend to face significant challenges in many ways. However, I do not agree with how the media portrays the situation. The narrative seems to be that women are chattel while the men are privileged. The reality is that low status men in these countries also face significant problems that are largely ignored by the western media.

For example, there has been a lot of attention to the issue of women getting punished/executed for being raped. However, there has been little to no attention to the fact that men ALSO get punished for being raped. The average person likely doesn’t even know that this is happening. If a man in countries like this gets raped by another man, he is likely to be charged with “sodomy” and get punished. [1] Male rape is generally a great taboo in conservative societies like this, but it is believed to be more common than most think. [2], [3]

Another example is how a lot of people in the West don’t even know that men also fall victims of “honor” crimes and acid attacks [4], [5] simply because all of the attention is on the attacks on women. Indeed there is no shortage of violence against men in conservative/patriarchal societies yet people seem to be more sensitive to violence against women, probably because men are considered more disposable.

I am not saying, of course, that there shouldn’t be attention to violence against women. I am just questioning why there seems to be less attention to the violence that men face. Both genders deserve our sympathy.

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