Soccer Dad

Violence against women - lancet style

I was looking through a chart of gender ratios. Worldwide, there are about 102 men for every 100 women, but in the Gulf States, that ratio is much higher. Bahrain - 135; Qatar - 307 ; United Arab Emirates - 205 ; Saudi Arabia - 121 ; Oman - 129; Kuwait - 147. Even China with its notorious one child family that leads to the killings of baby girls has only 108 men for every 100 women.

I have to believe that the ratios from the Gulf States are not due to natural variances. It's funny that for all the talk about women's rights in the Gulf, it's usually about being restricted from going out alone or not being allowed to drive. No one protests that large numbers of (baby) girls in these countries are being deprived of their right to life.

I bring this up because Phyllis Chesler has written about a recent study in the (once respected) medical journal, Lancet. (via memeorandum)

Their study is titled: "Association between exposure to political violence and intimate-partner violence in the occupied Palestinian territory: a cross-sectional study." And yes, they have found that Palestinian husbands are more violent towards Palestinian wives as a function of the Israeli "occupation"-- and that the violence increases significantly when the husbands are "directly" as opposed to "indirectly" exposed to political violence.

The gender ratios in Syria, Egypt, "Occupied Palestinian Territories" and even Iran are all reasonable.

I guess when you don't have a real grievance it's always easier to make one up and blame the Jews.

UPDATE: As commenter Eric J observed and as Elder of Ziyon pointed out in an e-mail, male guest workers probably account for the excessive number of men found in the oil rich Gulf States.

Crossposted on Yourish.