rosalei, you are a bigot, and like all bigots, are deeply ill-informed. FGM, for example, is a purely African tradition, not confined to North Africa by any means, it is also practiced in both East and West Africa. It has nothing whatsoever to do with Islam. In the time of the prophet it was apparently practiced in Arabia, and the Koran specifically mentions it, saying that it was not necessary (as male circumcision is), though women who had had it done to them should not be ashamed.

Attitudes towards women, polygamy (which has become quite rare, actually), and women's dress varies enormously across the Islamic world. You might as well claim that all Christians are 'birthers' or believe that Jesus reappeared in the New World after the resurrection. The Middle East itself is a very diverse place, let alone the incredible diversity of the entire Islamic world.

But go ahead, they are all a bunch of misogynistic violent fascists that make women wear chadors. Just like all black folks eat watermelon and white people can't dance and orientals are inscrutable. Enjoy your narrow narrow world-view.

Well, any 'movement' that contains the likes of you dudes, well I for one sure do not want to be a member.

Why don't you all get naked and go out into the woods and beat drums together? I'm sure you'll feel much better.

And it is a well known fact that rape never happens in US prisons, even though we too have the death penalty.

In the US in fact, if you are on Death Row, your chances of being raped drop pretty much to zero, because you are pretty much in max security isolation at that point for about 10 years or so. How humane.

Proves how much more civilized we are than those damn mass virgin raping imaginary infidels.

Aside from the extremely biased source and the totally dubious secondary sourcing, the story just has some serious logical issues. I mean, exactly how many teenage girls are sentenced to death each year in Iran, that need to be raped before they can be killed?

I mean its a nasty place and (like the US) does practice capital punishment, but really, how often could this conceivably happen? And how many times does this dude say he did it? He doesn't, he's pretty vague on a lot of stuff, but you get the impression that it was more than a couple of times. There's a lot of Basiji; if he got more than a couple of kicks at the can so to speak, unless he was the designated rapist, there must a virtual epidemic of young virgin raping and executing going on. Virtual being the operative word, I think.

You buy that, I got some real interesting real estate deals for you.

I think BroadSheet's Troll Posse(TM) should flee and claim refugee status in Saudi Arabia, on the grounds that they belong to the social group of men oppressed by the American matriarchy. I'd bet Salon is one of the sites blocked by the Saudi regime, so we wouldn't have to hear their idiocy anymore. Its a win-win scenario.

Hey, I am a major Sarah Silverman fan. I find her consistently hilarious. Does that make me the male equivalent of a female Andrew Dice Clay fan?

Personally, I don't think so, but that seems to be the level this debate has descended to.

She is what is known in the trade as a "shock comic" and is extraordinarily good at it. And it is totally cool that she plays off her looks to do it. Male shock comics are allowed to be sort of good looking; until Silverman came along, female shock comics had to be fat/ugly/old, to say the socially unacceptable. Young good looking women just aren't supposed to say those kinds of things out loud.

I would take that as a win for feminism, myself.

And magdelyn, let me say this as gently as I may, your head is so far up your ass of not getting it that your tonsils are looking like grapes just out of reach. Keep on pushing, you'll get there if you try hard enough. On the other hand you could actually engage your brain. I don't want to explain the joke, but humor 101 basically states that the job of a comic is to expose hypocrisy by saying the socially unacceptable. Basic Shakespearean Fool stuff you learn in first year Lit. If you ever attended a competent institution of higher learning.

Well my teen daughters couldn't stop laughing at Twilight. (A well meaning grandmother bought it for them, without actually reading it.) All you have to do is say 'sparkling' and off they go. I mean great big hearty belly-laughs. One of them had to go to a birthday party that involved a trip to the movie. She just couldn't stop laughing afterwards, every time the topic came up.

So there is hope for the next generation.

DimBulb calling someone a "nasty creep"?

Oh god, the irony, it is to die for...

Though I usually agree with you, you are full of shit on this one.

I am an abuse "survivor" (and "survivor" is, I often think, not the right word). You don't know what you are talking about.

And I suspect you really might not understand the meaning of the word "empathize." Empathy has to be based on truth to mean anything, and that means clear, un-closed eyed examination of everything.

And naked toddlers do not sex abuse make.

I was quite clothed when it started to happen to me.

Idiot.