Happy I was born where I was

I have now watched two documentaries about life as a woman in Iran. It is difficult to understand the totally different circumstances under which we live.

The first one was about women who "get married" to a man for a pre-set period of time, say 2-6 months. Of course with the blessing of an "Imam", a so called spiritual leader of the Islamic community. The woman in question was 17 and the man 65, and the Imam thought it was totally ok. Hello? 2013 is calling Iran. And the reason the woman agreed was that she got paid. Fortunately for her this particular woman disappeared before her time was up and took the money with her. Well done!

Unfortunately a lot of these women left with no choice turn to prostitution and drugs. No wonder!

The second documentary was about a man with four wives and a whopping twenty kids. It has a phenomenal opening scene, when you see the mother of the man, sitting on a mat, saying "my son likes pussy". "A lot". Indeed.

The husband compares wives to sheep, they may look the same but are slightly different. Or when wife number four cannot have children, "you're like a well, if no water comes, you dig a new one". Charming view!

And he hits the women and the kids, when they don't do what he wants. And not a little, he breaks fingers and bones, leaves them with a fist full of hair. When one the many kids made a slight dent on his moped he said "kids like that deserve to die". Other cultures, including mine, would call him an asshole. Actually, I'm pretty sure the Iranian women do too.

And even though the Mum of the man claims "I have five sons, and they are all stupid as sheep", it doesn't help much the women of today.

In the end the man takes a fifth wife. A virgin who believes that love will conquer all. Gosh, is she in for a rough awakening!

You know, rather than helping out here in Switzerland, with so called non-profit organizations, I would like to help them. But how?