Wearing Hijab I recently read the story, "Shrouded in Contradiction' by Gelareh Asayesh. this story describes her conflict of clothing choice in her home country of Iran. Iran is an Islamic Republic. All of the women in the country are expected to follow both the written, and unwritten rules of Islam. Women in Iran are expected to wear hajba, which is Islamic covering.…
“Honor” is a story that illustrates the patriarchal nature of the Arab culture. There are two different families described in this story each with contrasting beliefs. The first family exhibits a progressive lifestyle while the second family is a traditional Arab family with Muslim beliefs. Throughout “Honor” I was introduced to many different characters who all demonstrated a different view on family.…
The story takes place in Mumbai, India. Westernized trade has increased over the past few decades, but this has taken a toll on the people in one of India's major cities, Mumbai. Annawadi (a slum) is filled with disease, poverty, and crime. Annawadians will do anything to get out of the slum and into the middle class, even if it means breaking the law and hurting their neighbors. Furthermore, many people envy one another for their worth and accomplishments.…
Fahrenheit 451 And Saudi Arabia Comparison Essay “Of all dictatorships a dictatorship sincerely exercised for the good of it’s people may be the most oppressive.” This quote talks about how the more tyrannical a dictatorship gets, the more strict rules and harsh consequences will be implemented to the people of their country. In Saudi Arabia, the people are living in a dystopian society as rules have harsh consequences, censorship of the internet, and the fear of ISIL. In Fahrenheit 451, people are living in a utopia which turns out to be a dystopia as technology takes care of people problem’s but in return take their humanity away from them, with the censorship of knowledge, and the fear of the hound.…
Freedom The idea of freedom can be seen in collection 2 of our textbook. Freedom is shown in the Speech I Have a Dream by Martin Luther King Jr.…
The treatment of women in fundamentalist religions The treatment of women in the Middle East is barbaric, unjust and unthinkable. In Afghanistan alone “87 percent of women report having experienced physical, sexual or psychological violence or forced marriage”.1 In the Middle East women are seen as unequal in comparison to men just because they are born a female and are seen not to have the mental capacity of that of a man. The Quran itself has many conflicting ideas on the treatment of women. However, the Quran was written around 610AD so it has to be taken into consideration the fact that the attitudes and status of women back then was not the way it is today.…
The novel, “A Thousand Splendid Suns”, by Khaled Hosseini, shows the cultural aspects of religion in many different ways. The novel starts in the 1960’s, outside of Herat, in Afghanistan, where a young girl named Mariam lives . She is one of the main characters of the story along with a girl named Laila.…
To support her second reason, Hasan mentions different actions taken by Western nations to prohibit the burqa usage; she assumes that governments and some feminists are so obsessed with banning burqa that they did not take a time to reflect what is the relation between clothes and women’s empowerment. In the author’s opinion, by not listening what women in burqa have to tell, politicians and citizenships from Western countries are treating these women as objects, suppressing their rights. As a final assumption to her second reason, Hasan presents other reasons why women can choose wearing a burqa, such as “identity, cultural values, political symbolism,…
This intersection of gender, religion and ethnicity, creates issues which Muslim women face on a daily basis. These Americans are constantly barraged with comments that vacillate between being called oppressed or labeled a terrorist, all due to a simple piece of clothing; the hijab. Interestingly, it is hard to imagine a devout Catholic or Baptist, who wears a hat to services, being subjected to the same remarks. Nevertheless, Muslim American women are often asked why they wear a hijab and or if they feel oppressed by it? Dalia Mogahed, Director of Research at the Institute for Social Policy and Understanding, responded with the following: I wear the hijab, “because it’s an act of devotion to God.…
This results in the perspective of seeing women as objects/animals that man can do as pleased which lead to the dehumanization of women in Saudi Arabia. Next, there is plenty of dehumanization from the novel Fahrenheit 451, "Hell!’ the operator's cigarette moved on his lips. "We get these cases nine or ten a night. Got so many, starting a few years ago, we had the special machines built” (Bradbury 24).…
In the article “From Bikinis to Burkas”, Al-Solaylee uses the idea that life in the Middle East was at one point, no different from the western world and was therefore better than what it is now, making this emotionally based article propagandistic in nature. This creates a sense of moral duty to some conservatives in regards to the current war in the Middle East. Al-Solaylee creates the impression that the American invasion is simply working towards restoring their previous way of life through his portrayal of Yemen in the 1940’s. Al-Solaylee’s story about his family is used to paint a picture about the struggles and changes in Yemen and implies it to the entire Middle East with no counter arguments. Al-Solaylee states that the…
From its creation, America has been a beacon of hope and freedom to many countries who have aspired to adopt their democratic values. Yet, these values have not always been sought after by other countries, and instead are sometimes imposed upon the ones who rarely accept them with open arms. The Middle East is a seamless example of countries exhibiting resistance to the American way of life and democracy; with many leaders rebelling against the notion due to religious reason. Particularly, Saudi Arabia has been a Middle Eastern Country that has had very close relationship the United States, and over time has adopted forms of its culture even though it clashes with their own. Saudi Arabia has become more Westernized and modernized with the discovery…
Articles A and B address the conflicting opinions on the Burqa ban. In article A written by Jean-Francois Coupe, he pushes for the implementation of the ban, however in Article B written by Nabila Ramdani, she strongly opposes the ban. If someone were to formulate an opinion on the burqa ban based of these articles they would be forming it on misinformation . Neither of these articles properly represent the perceived pros and cons of the ban due to their faulty evidence and reasoning.…
In Saudi Arabia woman are seen as virtually nothing. They have restricted resources and are put at a great disadvantage being that they cannot go out in public without permission from a male. This type of power is referred to as power-over. Power-over is the ability of one person to carry out his will against another (Sutherland, 2013, p.151).…
Major Book Review Beyond The Veil Fatima Mernissi Syed Rizvi Fatima Mernissi’s book “Beyond The Veil” talks about how women are treated in Islam, political circle and the Arab culture. Like everything it has two sides, some people argue Islam empowered women in ancient Arab, where women were deprived of their rights. And, the other side argues, that women are mistreated in Islam, and have a lower status than men. In her book, Fatima Mernissi depicts both side of the story.…