I've been reading various Middle East-related stories this afternoon, and I'm reminded of a little-known fact I first heard anecdotally from an Arab friend: it's very common for Arab parents to murder female newborns because males are more profitable. I'm not familiar enough with all the customs to tell you exactly why, but intuitively it makes sense. Arab women have a harder time getting educated, and aren't strong enough to do the same manual labor that men can do. Women are often treated like property in the Arab world.
Murdering your newborn daughter is monstrous, and the cumulative effect of many such murders can cripple a society. Consider Saudi Arabia, which has 1.37 males for every female aged 15-64 years old! More than a quarter of the men will never find a wife! In other Arab nations the ratio is:
- 1.13:1 in Brunei
- 1.14:1 in Jordan
- 1.42:1 in Bahrain
- 1.51:1 in Oman
- 1.65:1 in the United Arab Emirates (!)
- 1.77:1 in Kuwait (!)
- 2.36:1 in Qatar (!!)
If you look at the rest of the countries in the world you'll believe me when I say that these sex ratios are simply not seen anywhere else (in the United States and France the ratios are 1:1, for instance). Imagine how awful it would be for a poor man in Qatar with no prospects, knowing for certain that he will never be able to find a wife, because even the stupidest, ugliest, most whiny woman will have her pick of the available men. Not to mention the fact that the king/sheik/dictator/whatever will have a harem of hundreds.
It's no wonder the men from these nations are so grumpy and disaffected.
Update:
As TMLutas points out, it's unlikely that female infanticide is the primary cause of these skewed sex ratios, and I want to be clear that I'm not claiming it is -- however I do think it's a contributing factor (along with other sorts of abuse). Even absent modern medical technology, women have longer life expectancies than men do. The most significant factor may be the large number of foreign workers who immigrate to oil nations to work in oil fields.
The point of this post wasn't so much to condemn female infanticide, but rather to call attention to the gender disparity itself (hence the title).
Don't forget the issue of the dowry which the brides parents must pay to marry her off.
That's what I thought as well, although it seems to depend on the circumstance. In most of these Arab nations now -- with the scarcity of women -- it's the men who must pay money to the woman's family to marry her.
It gets worse, Michael. In the typical Islamic country, men aren't allowed even to get near unmarried women who aren't close kin. This tends to encourage a covert culture of homosexual pederasty, in which the involved boys, typically between the ages of 12 and 16, are involuntary participants -- sexual chattels.
Apparently, this is now "coming out" in a significant way in liberated Afghanistan. See this Jamie Glazov article for details (I can't get hyperlinks to work in your Comments feature):
http://www.frontpagemag.com/Articles/ReadArticle.asp?ID=246
FP: I don't know if that's worse than murdering female infants, but still... it seems like every time you turn over another rock you find something sick and disturbing.
I hate to be the party pooper here but wouldn't infant killing show up in the numbers prior to the 15-64 age group? Death at birth would show up in the infant sex ratios. Death shortly due to monetary calculations would show up in the under 15 numbers.
Look up those numbers and it becomes clear that what's going on, however unusual or wrong, is not primarily infant killing.
I find the data fits the idea that the requirements for adult women in these societies are killing them in unusual numbers. I don't have the data to support this but it might be honor killings, heat prostration from those clothes, or something else entirely like highly underfunded female medical care.
There seem to be three types of sex distributions going on in the muslim world
Normal:
Example: Iraq
Distribution description: Men start off in greater numbers but decline with each successive age group. This is consistent with most other countries including the vast majority of non-muslim ones.
Heart Beat:
Example: Bahrain
Distribution description: At birth normal, 1.03. Childhood, normal, 1.02. Adult group, abnormal at 1.42. And old age, relatively normal at 1.04
Ascending:
Example: Kuwait
Distribution: Male proportion of the population never drops but keeps rising over time.
It's not likely that these three distributions would arise from the same behavior. The heartbeat distribution might be evidence that reform governments have stamped out female unfriendly cultural practices but the reforms were recent enough that they haven't worked their way through the population.
The rising distribution is the most alarming evidence of female unfriendly social/political policies but infant killing doesn't seem to predominate even there as, again, the big jump is from the under 15 to the 15-64 group everywhere while predominant infant killing would show up in a high at birth number and a high jump in the under 15 number. I didn't see that pattern anywhere.
There's a lot not to like about a sex ratio number of 1.37 men to women but promoting an inflammatory idea like female infant killing when it's not supported by the data doesn't do anybody any service.
TML: The CIA numbers aren't the only source for my information. As I mentioned, I have heard the story from at least two middle-eastern friends who both agree. I don't know how the CIA collected these numbers, so I don't know how they relate to reality, but I'm pretty confident in my sources.
With sterilization (for childbirth) and absent advanced medical care, women should have as long a life span as men, although I'm sure that horrible treatment does take its toll on many women.
Part of the mystery might be solved by looking at maternal mortality in childbirth which a contributor on my blog's discussion forum says is disgustingly high (women apparently need permission to go to hospitals and some men feel they are unislamic and refuse).
I'd say that infant killings would be showing up in high initial male:female ratios and possibly in raised child mortality. Women dying in childbirth explains the hump in the 'heartbeat pattern. The only segment that remains a true mystery is the old age loss of women more than men in the 'ascending' pattern countries.
I've also read that the skewed gender ratios in these oil countries may be due to influxes of foreign men who work in the oil fields. I don't think that female infanticide is the only reason for the disparity, and I should make that clear in the post.
I was looking for data about gender ratios around the world (for something I am working on) and that is how I located your blog. I find it interesting that you only include information about certain types of contries, which no offence, looks questionable. If you are discussing this topics of this nature, could you please please talk about the disproportionate number of men to women in INDIA? I was really upset to find out that, only recently did it become a crime, for mother in law to murder her daughter in law. For the record, Brunei is not an Arab nation, the majority of their population is considered Malay. Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Iran are not Arab countries either. It really frustrates me these people that think Arab and Muslim are synonyms. Something else that might interest you about women in the Middle East. There is one country where a man can divorce a woman, but under ABSOLUTELY NO circumstance can woman divorce a man. That country is Israel. I was friends with neighbor of mine when I was growing up. Her grandfather (who was from Poland and not Roman Catholic), thanked God every morning that he wasn't born a woman. Either have everything out there or don't talk about it at all. Thanks! Best Regards, Nicole.
Nicole: You're right, Brunei is not an Arab nation. My mistake. However, I never mentioned Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Iran, so it's absurd for you to criticize me for calling them Arab.
If you want more information about "INDIA", why not just go to the CIA World Factbook? There, I helpfully provided a handy link to you.
Furthermore, from my initial research on the subject, it appears that you're wrong about divorce in Israel.
At least in theory. The page also says that women tend to have a weaker hand in the Rabbinical courts because, among other things, they are often the ones seeking divorce. Anyway, you were wrong.
As for talking about everything or nothing, start your own blog. I write about what I want to. There's no way to cover "everything" on a topic without writing many books, and I simply don't have the time or interest to do that. If you want more complete information or more opinions, do your own research.
A man who refuses to divorce his wife is imprisoned by the civil authorities in Israel until he agrees to grant his wife the get.