I have learned a lot more about the entire Muslim culture than I had ever knew I could or even had intended to. Not just topics discussed on my blog but other interesting facts that I found during my research that just didn’t fit into my particular area of study. Initially I had intended to research Muslim women wearing the veil in Iraq because I realized I knew nothing about the country we were at war with. However, after starting I realized this approach was far too narrow, and that it didn’t make sense not to include other Muslim women simply because they weren’t from Iraq, especially considering how similar I found all of their practices to be.
I’ve found many reasons for women to wear the veil. My research gave me a completely new perspective on the entire situation. I never looked at the women wearing the veil as a religious conviction, simply as a symbol of submission and inferiority to men. I never considered it to be on the same level as not engaging in pre-marital sex for Christians, or not eating meat with blood in it like for orthodox Jews. When in reality it is the same thing. It is all culturally relative; their religion has just been integrated into their culture.
The major difference I found however is that members of these other religious groups are not terrorized for not abiding by their rules. Women are living in fear of being attacked for not following the modesty rule and going into public without veiling. Yet, this is seemingly only because of religious extremists who take the Bible literally. This occurs in other religions also though, so it’s unfair to pinpoint just Muslims. More often in the South, some Christians who take the Bible very literally do not accept homosexuality; often times this leads to the assault or murder of homosexuals.
I have learned things are very difficult to understand outside of our own culture. It is no fault of your own; it is just difficult to understand something you haven’t been brought up with. You’ve been raised to follow the social norms and behavioral expectations of our own culture, no one else’s. That is why cultural relativism is so difficult. Comprehending and accepting another culture as if it was your own is not an easy task. Even after all this research on Muslim women I don’t feel I completely understand it, I just know the logic behind it, and as an outsider looking in you cannot expect much more.
1 comment:
I was really fascinated by your topic and I agree that we should know more about the culture of the people we are at war with. As a woman, I was especially interested in you blogs and how they focused upon the oppression of women in Iraq through veiling. The approach you took in conveying your information was very well done. I liked how you incorporated current events and history into your blog so that the reader can see the changes, or lack of change that has occurred with the wearing of veils among Muslim women. I also liked how you explained the meaning of the veil and the background and style behind veiling. After reading your blogs I gained a better understanding of Muslim women and how religion has become embedded in the culture and how it has affected the rights of women in Muslim nations. The current event articles were the most interesting part of your blogs in my opinion. Through reading the articles I learned things I had never known happened before, such as honor killing and the extent of violence men exert on women for either wearing a veil or not wearing one. The article dealing with the women who was sentenced to 200 lashes and 6 months of imprisonment was astonishing to me. This article was a great example of how it is hard for us to understand other cultures and the way they do the things they do and the reasons behind them. This certainly was true for me, since it is hard for me to understand why the victim in a rape case would be punished almost as severely as the rapist. The same goes for fathers stoning their own daughters for their personal decisions to have romantic relationships with other men. These articles were hard to read, but after reading all your blog entries I now understand that the reason for these actions stems from their belief system and society tries to hold to the laws of the Qur’an. Also how the raising of children plays into the cultures opinion that men are superior to women. Men are raised to believe that women are lower than them and women are raised to understand that they will marry at a young age and are expected to be faithful to their husbands and only have sexual relations with their husbands alone. They also come to understand the punishment they will receive it they fail to adhere to these expectations. Again, I truly enjoyed reading your blog and found your topic very interesting and feel that you did a great job in choosing interesting ways to relate your information.
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