Hindus and Muslims Most Likely to Abstain from Premarital Sex

[maynardsong]

I can't put my finger on it, but as a Hindu lady, I'm not liking this article very much. Plus, India has an extremely high HIV rate, even if the Middle East doesn't, so obviously there is extramarital sex going on. And twenty-somethings in Mumbai and Bangalore absolutely go out and hook up. Social mores aren't really terribly different from the

Comments

I'm reading the comments so you don't have to

[skellington1]

There are several predictable comments along the "BUT OMG SHARIA LAW muslims kill girls who have premarital sex" vein, with varying degrees of fervor. A few people pointing out likely issues with the study (age at first marriage, self reporting bias, etc). An atheist speaking in Conspiracy Theory Caps (maybe it's just me, but the real nutters tend to Capitalize Things Randomly). And of COURSE a whole lot of "My religion (or my version of my religion) is better!" Cause the world needs more of that

Re: I'm reading the comments so you don't have to

[maynardsong]

ugh, and don't forget the "lol look how backwards brown people are" comments. I don't know why I'm particularly sensitive to those, but that's how it goes.

Re: I'm reading the comments so you don't have to

[skellington1]

Because they're bullshit and you've seen them too often? Because they're generalizing about you? Perfectly good reasons to be sensitive to 'em, I think (not that you need a reason). There is a lot of flat-out racist stuff in that comment thread.

I also missed the broad generalizations about the (undefined in the article!) 'developing world,' and the apparent willingness of the commentariat to lump Hindus and Muslims in together... despite the fact that if you're not looking at skin color, the clear groups are "Abrahamic Religions" and "Hinduism."

Re: I'm reading the comments so you don't have to

[maynardsong]

That made me do a double take too. I'm not about to take offense to being lumped with Muslims, there's enough Islamophobia in the Hindu community that I don't want to add to. And really, that's not an insult. But it does make me go WTF because Hinduism and Islam, like you said, have more differences between them than do Islam and the other Abrahamic religions!

[mutive]

I'm rather disgusted by this:

"The burqa really works," Sullins said. "When you cover your women head to toe with cloth to keep them from being viewed by men outside their family, and you keep them strictly segregated from men throughout their growing years until they get married, you're going to have less premarital sex."First of all, burqa =/= Muslim. It's a few very extreme sects that promote this. Most Muslim women wear a headscarf or no veil at all. Which isn't particularly restrictive. (And which you can be quite sexy in a head scarf, if you feel like wearing it with a mini skirt and a skin tight top. I saw a lot of girls rocking that look when I lived in London

[maynardsong]

The self-reporting, for sure. I do wish they'd looked into the role that colonialism played. I mean, before the Taliban, if I'm to believe Khaled Hosseini, Afghan girls went to school and got romantically involved with boys and stole sexytimes on the sly.

Aside from the burqa != Muslim, Hindus self-reported LOWER rates of infidelity than Muslims, even though it's Islam that's associated with the burqa, not Hinduism. RIDDLE ME THAT, AUTHOR OF THIS STUPID POS ARTICLE!

[mutive]

Yeah, there's a lot of fail in it.

I do suspect that self-reporting plays a huge role. Maybe not all of it, but I suspect it plays a larger role than the magical burqa. *eye roll*

[squeeful]

keeping women away from men probably *does* reduce pre-marital sex

At least the heterosexual extra-marital sex...

[poetic_pixie_13]

(I have no idea where this comment came from. My bad

[teacup_werewolf]

I love everything about this comment.

[maynardsong]

Hearted.

[redstar826]

. One of the bedrocks of the brown girl code is that you don't tell anyone outside your circle of trusted friends what your girl's been up to.

seems to me like in an ideal world this should be true for everyone. Broadcasting other people's personal shit isn't cool in general.

[mimblexwimble]

"In many countries around the world -- but in Muslim countries specifically, there's just much less interaction between the sexes," said Adamczyk. "It's just going to be much less likely that they're going to meet a potentially romantic partner."

Oh, please. I used to live in an extremely religious area of Saudi Arabia and even there I knew of a bunch of people who hooked up regularly. Mostly because of something called the Internet.

[pamelalillian]

lol ikr

most of the ppl i know who got pregnant out of wedlock attended my mother's church and a lot of kids hooked up behind the building during service so... to the point where the preacher addressed it in a sermon, so religion dictates isn't gonna stop anyone.

[nicosian]

Side eyeing this article's assertion, for all the reasons so brilliantly stated

[crooked_halo]

I could not possibly love this comment more.

To me it seems that this article is trying to argue for adding Burquas to Christianity too.

"The burqua really works." Seriously? What is that?

There are just so many issues with both this article and with all of the unnatural ways that religions have tried to shape 'sexual morality'

[pamelalillian]

gonna look for that book!