England’s King Henry VIII famously went through six wives on his way to finding one that would deliver a male heir for the throne. Poor Catherine of Aragon was a political marriage that didn’t quite take, although her daughter Mary would survive to give Ann Boleyn’s Elizabeth a hard time. Elizabeth I was their only issue and would go on to make any mother proud, but Ann lost three subsequent pregnancies to miscarriage, and her head soon followed. Jane Seymour gave birth to the heir Henry craved, but lost her life doing so. Ann of Cleves probably got the best of the bargain when Henry – by this time morbidly obese and oozing – declared he liked her not, and had the marriage annulled. Catherine Howard lost her heart to another man, and her head followed. Catherine Parr survived the king’s fatal attractions chiefly by outliving him – he died two and half years after their marriage.
An understanding of modern genetics and a man’s contribution to the gender of his offspring could have saved Henry’s ladies a good deal of trouble and no small amount of blood, but that was nearly 500 years ago, and the science had not yet arrived at its current destination.
It looks like it hasn’t quite filtered out to the villages of Afghanistan yet, either:
A woman in north-eastern Afghanistan has been arrested for allegedly strangling her daughter-in-law for giving birth to a third daughter.
The murdered woman’s husband, a member of a local militia, is also suspected of involvement but he has since fled.
The murder took place two days ago in Kunduz province. The baby girl, who is now two months old, was not hurt.
The birth of a boy is usually a cause for celebration in Afghanistan but girls are generally seen as a burden.
Some women in Afghanistan are abused if they fail to give birth to boys. And this is just the latest in a series of high-profile crimes against women in the country.
It isn’t so much that they are untutored savages, although they are that of course. It’s that they just don’t seem to care to be anything but.
It’s been that way for centuries and I don’t see it changing anytime soon.
Well, I guess I’d be safe. We only produce boys. As I said to my doc, upon hearing the third one would also be a boy, he said, “It is only a 50/50 chance with the first. After you give birth to that first child, the probability of having that same sex is higher. It’s no longer 50/50… You’re probably set to have some kind of ball team.” He also informed me that although the male species does in fact make the determination via sperm, it is also a chance of acceptance, as in a female’s body could possibly NOT accept a certain sex, which could very well be our case, since I did miscarry one. I always wondered if it was a xx.
It doesn’t surprise me that the birth of a girl in Afghanistan is considered a burden. They treat women so cruelly all grown up. Why would they want them as a baby?
I only produce boys, too.
In Italy it’s a common belief that the mother determines the sex of the baby…has to do with the body’s pH balance (or so they say).
I wouldn’t doubt that the body’s atmosphere has something to do with it, being conducive to one more than the other. I had a friend having horrible fertility problems. After the 5th miscarriage they went to a major teaching hospital where they were doing tests to see if she could actually be allergic to him, or something odd like that. So if that was possible, why would it not be possible for a woman’s body to reject one or the other? I dunno, but it seems feasible.
“Untutored savages” is a perfect label.
+1
“Untutored savages” stuck in a time warp leaving them a thousand years in the past and determined to stay there.
Come to think of it, that’s also a great name for a rock band.
…they just don’t seem to care to be anything but.
And that really does get right down to it all. These people don’t WANT to be anything more than they are; which means it is high time we get our precious treasure out of there and let them live in the 7th century like they clearly want.
Oh no no. They’re tutored savages. Have been for hundreds of years. They’re just very very slow.
Sometimes it’s all in the training material…..and they seem to have but one book to be learned from.
more likely the mother in law is the scape goat and the husband did the deed. If they can imprison a woman for being raped…
Is like the case in Canada?
There is no shame in that book.
Greetings:
Islam is the millstone, always has been, always will be.
I worked with some wonderful Afghans during a recent year spent there at US government expense. Still consider a couple of them friends. I remind myself that that religion, and that culture, can despite everything produce some deeply decent people.
But every time an Afghan soldier shoots one of ours or an ally’s, every time I read yet again of some Taliban “court” ordering the mutilation of some unlucky girl, every time I read a story like this…I’m tempted to borrow Dennis Miller’s line, from back in the ’80s about another Middle Eastern war zone:
“It’s that few rotten million that spoil it for the other eleven.”
And how will our staying there another day, month, year or decade, spending a dollar or several billion change these people?
Not worth the bones of a single American to civilize these savages.
Time to come home and let them live in what they consider to be peace.
All I know is I paid a half a million dollars, gave up a job I liked, and spent a couple of years with hospital accounting departments and insurance folks trying to determine what I had to pay for my daughter.
She’s fine, thanks. Her birth was short, her bills were the real burden.
Their way has the advantage of simplicity. Then again, so does looking for women at the family reunion.
There are some depths of depravity that I will not follow. Hospital accounting is one of them.
– Max
Good article! Thanks. I just see that men and women are wired differently in what they want out of life. Men want a male offspring so that makes them evil just because it doesn’t comply with what a woman thinks.
Then, to compound this, you have the difference in culture and religion and once again Americans start evaluating other religions/cultures based on their upbringing and idea of what is right or wrong. I don’t agree with what happened to the woman….I’m just saying it’s their culture. I am sure that, if we looked back in our western history, there is enough for another culture to find faults with us. It’s difficult to not be judgemental yet we do it all the time.
MountainHome, it appears as though you are presenting a case for cultural relativism. You’re right – I am judging their culture according to my ideas of what is right and wrong. In this case I figure it’s wrong to murder a woman if she doesn’t bear a son and heir. I see no need to apologize for that. Neither do I consider that there’s much of anything worth considering in a culture that excuses such behavior.
Are there things that we would find along these lines if we looked back in our own culture? First – no, not much. Second – we’re not talking about looking back, we’re talking here and now. Point to King Henry VIII if you like, but again that was, what, 5 centuries ago? Plus, Henry was aware that in the days of his grandfather the lack of a clear male heir was a causative factor in tens of thousands dying, not an issue that the lack of a male heir in some heretofore obscure family in Afghanistan faces.
I really don’t give a damn if these people’s culture has excused or encouraged killing women if they produce progeny of an undesired sex for centuries. If that’s so then it’s been evil for centuries and it should stop. Now.
Well, there are behavioral differences between male and female sperm cells. Which can interact with procreative practices to affect probability of boy or girl. Google it.
I got evens, two daughters and two sons. But to buttress the point, the two daughters came first and the two sons came last. Strange how that worked.
As for Afghanistan, the sooner we’re out of there, the better. You can lead cattle to water, but you can’t make ‘em drink.
Actually, Henry loved Catherine of Aragon deeply for years, until he became convinced she would never produce a male heir and turned on her. Their relationship was very close, and he wrote many notes and letters to her describing his tremendous love for her. She maintained her love and fealty to him as her husband and king throughout her life, even through absolutely horrendous mistreatment. Henry VIII is the perfect example of uncontrolled intemperance ruining a faithful soul and almost certainly damning him.