Here is a video of the Taliban in Afghanistan stoning a man and a women to death for committing adultery. This is a typical scene in this area of the world. While both men and women suffer great indignities under the rule of tyrants our current cultural conversations tend to focus only on the suffering of women.

In fact the US government has stated in internal documents that were released by WikiLeaks that the suffering of women in a tyrannical country could be used to persuade the public that a war against said tyrannical country was a just cause. Perhaps kloo2yoo could provide a link to that document as its location escapes me at the moment.

Stoning of a man and woman for adultery

Stoning of 2 gay men in Iran

Are these men who are being stoned and beheaded not suffering just as bad as the women who suffer the same fate? The "inherent" value of a woman's life is made clear by a document published by the International Committee Against Execution in July of 2010.

Reading through the document you will see statements like, "Stoning in Iran is a political tool in the hands of an Islamic regime to oppress the society as a whole in one of the most savage ways. The overwhelming majority of the victims of stoning are women. Stoning in Iran is therefore a tool, among many such religious, oppressive tools, for keeping women in their place." - However you won't read anything about oppression being used to "keep men in their place".

Gay men and men who don't fit the regime's ideals of how a man is supposed to act are killed just as ruthlessly as women who disobey the rules of the regime. They are "kept in their place" just as the women are yet there is no special attention paid to the unique suffering experienced by men. People (and feminists especially) need to understand that just because a small minority of tyrannical men have absolute power over a country that does NOT mean that all men have power or that the rule of a few men is beneficial to all men.

Additionally in the report you will read statements like, "7 people including 2 women (were stoned)" or "8 people including 2 women (were stoned)" or "11 persons including 1 woman" or "12 persons including 6 women" or "3 women". Men are simply "persons" and women are noted as being women and singled out for it thereby making their deaths exceptional.

The exclusive attention paid to women as the "real" victims and men as simply "persons" or members of "society as a whole" helps to perpetuate the myth that only women can be victims and experience suffering and oppression while men's voices and experience continue to be marginalized and not taken seriously.

You can read the report here