America Should Provide an Example.....Not Preach.
The rights of women. The plight of women.
Reading Arab media, I see what I think is progress.....but I'm not sure I have a right even to judge what progress is, considering my far different cultural perspective.
What do I know? How can I see through the eyes of Muslim women? And if I do have a right to judge, I think I must realize that change will not come quickly or by force.....or even by preaching.
Change will come only with the passage of time and, in the meantime, America has much room for improvement.
The answer, as with most relations between human beings, is in treating one another with love and respect.
Stealing a line from the Indigo Girls......The hardest to learn is the least complicated.
Reading Arab media, I see what I think is progress.....but I'm not sure I have a right even to judge what progress is, considering my far different cultural perspective.
What do I know? How can I see through the eyes of Muslim women? And if I do have a right to judge, I think I must realize that change will not come quickly or by force.....or even by preaching.
Change will come only with the passage of time and, in the meantime, America has much room for improvement.
The answer, as with most relations between human beings, is in treating one another with love and respect.
Stealing a line from the Indigo Girls......The hardest to learn is the least complicated.
posted by Wadena | 7:15 AM
19 Comments:
Did you ever notice that the goal of religious extremists, Islamic and Christian, is to undermine the power of their women? Is this because they perceive women as the weakest, or more likely, a fear of the true power of womanhood?
Before we set about "fixing" the world, we should perhaps address the problems of this country.
Oh yes, some of it is fear-based....I'm not sure I understand why.
Maybe it's all about a need for control and a fear of being controlled.....and the fear of loss, that is, losing power already held.
I don't know of anyplace in the world where women get a truly fair chance--religion or no.
Yes and when we say something about it, we are accused of eeither wanting to BE men, emulate men, wanting to hurt men, or live without men.
In any case, men can't seem to stop relating it to men. So even in reference points we are invalidated in our own right.
Missed you these days, Wadena! Hope all is well and cozy. Been very busy myself- tough times!
Ignore the bad men.....nothing can help them and they're not worth the stress of an argument.
All we can do is what we reasonably can do....no more.
To try to do more than that is destructive.
Balance is the key.
This is the second time today I've seen the words "treat each other", etc.
Words to live by. Thanks.
Yes Gran.....the hardest to learn is the least complicated.
:)
oh wow thanks for saying this. i got huge crap for saying something similar.
Pleasure is all mine, Rev.
:)
Bad men seem to be the norm, I think Wadena, and women who buy into it. Which is not to say that I never buy into it. I;m not that naive. But where I was naive was in my sense that deep down people kind of knew better.
I think now that bad people are just indifferent about the impact on others.
Hard questions, Lily!
Some people are just lazy, some are just selfish, some just don't care and some are totally ignorant.
Whatever.
We just have to protect ourselves from them and help others to see them for what they are.
TP, I agree wholeheartedly! I do not see many women who would lead us into war, at least not the way Bush did.
I believe women truly look at war as a last resort.
Bush's war is a first and eagerly desired resort.
See thats the subject that keeps coming up when people keep saying "but see the benefits" "see this benefit" etc, I think we did NOT do everything possible and perhaps we might have decided at some point to suddenly care about the plight of women in Iraq (doubtful) but we owe it to all involved to say we gave diplomacy every chance we could!
We sure did not care when we helped the Taliban take over. We knew what they were about what we needed them.
Hope all is well with you, and your little cold part of the world.
Spring is coming slowly here.....but finally we have Robins, so I guess it's getting serious. Still have some snowbanks, though.
Yes, I do believe that women's rights have suddenly become popular with the Christo-Fascist crowd.
Not here, of course....but in the Middle East, women's rights are of such great importance that the issue can be used as another reason why we must napalm people (with some of those oppressed women frying as collateral damage).
America.....hero to the world.
Yes- and they accuse the left of post rationalizing. Robins, huh? Thats something nice. I love birds. My crow is really angry at me though since I cut her off. I tried to just feed her once in a while, restore normalcy. But with crows it seems its all or nothing thinking. I think they do not see beyond self.
LILY BRANFORD: I am extremely concerned about your comments regarding the crow. not because of any hints of sexual perversion or deviations, no I'm wondering if you're aware that right now there's a war going on out there, and everything is at stake that we hold dear, truth, liberty, and higher quarterly dividends, and there you are sleeping with the enemy. loose lips sink ships,
Crows are mean, selfish birds. They can be entertaining companions, but we must never forget who they are.
Crows are tough, too. Very sinewy.
Not like a fish. Fish are moist and tender all the way through.
I can tell the difference between entertaining companions and what they are, Wadena. Make no mistake there.
But I also think where crows are concerned there might be common ground. Just haven't found much yet.
The Rev's meaning might require a bit of feline translation.
Wadena: Presenting a new google bomb. We are trying to get the word pussiliency recognized in our pursuit of spineless politicians... all that is required is to post the link to the definition anywhere. The link is at Earl Bockenfeld's blog. (love him like I love you)
link
I'm of two minds in response to this. On the one hand, I really support multiculturalism, and even support cultural relativism to a certain degree.
However, the situation for many Muslim women is so desperate that I can't in good conscience not speak out against it. Women are treated as property. They are offered no protection against abusive parents, spouses, or in-laws. Women who are raped are often killed in order to preserve the "honor" of their families. Widows are provided no means of providing for their families. Add to all this a culture that teaches you that your very existence is so shameful that you must be covered from head to toe.
And I think you're right, the attention to the rights of Muslim women by the Christofascist crowd was certainly to their advantage wasn't it?
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