Muslim Women

I was interested to learn more about the Muslim community in a historical context. I resepct each and every religion and love to learn about their beliefs and why they have their beliefs. I personally feel that their attitide about women is a little behind in it's time and that is why I assumed that this was a traditional form of thinking for them. The Quran was clear when it said that woman and men were equal in their spiritual life, yet this is where it started and ended because concerning other subjects this is definately not the case.
It is believed that Allah made men superior to women because men spend their wealth to maintain them (pg.314). It is also said that good women are obediant, this is something that bothers me because this form of thinking is introduced to them on the foundation of their religious beliefs. It's like when people say "Oh I'm Catholic so I can do what I please and just got to confession", that frame of thought is missing the whole point. I think that people feel within themselves what is correct, and I find it hard to believe that an individual could feel that women are not equal to men in any situation. I do understand why women accept this form of sexism though, they are raised in this religion and want to obey Allah, they want to be a good woman according to their society. As you can see from the following video they start early...

Chinese Foot Binding Practice

I wanted to pass this story along to all of you that I found on NPR, I found it very interesting.



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Chapter 8

As I was reading through Chapter 8, the remarks from Senecs the Younger regarding the moral impact of wearing skimpy silk garments caught my eye.

"..if materials that do not hide the body, nor even one's decency, can be called clothes...Wretched flocks of maids labour so that the adulteress may be visible through her thin dress, so that her husband has no more acquaintance than any outsider or foreigner with his wife's body".


This observation seemed a little extreme to me but we can definately compare it to our modern times regarding the way younger generations dress in contrast to their grandparents or parents generation. So this shows us that the way a woman dresses has always been a topic of great concern and out cry to people through out history.

Vacation In the Middle East?

http://www.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/meast/05/21/tourism.vacation.iraq.sights/index.html?iref=allsearch

So I thought this was a very interesting article on CNN about how people are drawn to visit present day Iraq because of the historical richness. Great article it gives you a different persepctive than just thinking about Iraq as a war torn country.

I'm finally on! I have to admit that I hated doing this because it's one more thing for me to check everyday. Although it will be nice to have some communication more than once a week with the class.