Do Muslim Women Need Saving?

Muslim women living in North America and Europe often face scrutiny over their choice to wear the veil, even though many Western people do not fully understand the practice.

This is because they believe that everyone should be treated equal. Specifically they believe that gender does not define a person. A photograph of a women playing soccer in a hijab(Doc#7)demonstrates that there is no difference between a man and women. This reminds me of nows days because now mostly every gender is capable of doing any work the opposite gender is capable of. Furthermore we have also seen many other ways of showing support to women. In one of the document we analyzed it was a photograph of “Afghan men wear burqas to campaign for women's rights”(Doc#2). This is important because the photo demonstrates that if most women have to wear a burqa then why they can not be equal and have everyone wear them. Just because they are men does not mean that they can not wear them. Due to all these oppressions I learned that they were times when we saw the reactions of people (women). One of the documents says “I chose the second one. I decided to speak up”(Doc#6). The big idea of this quote is to explains how many women were tired of the mistreatment and started of thinking of ways to get their words out. In another document a women also mentions “I am woman, woman, a woman a statue of love, and I will” rise!”(Doc#1)This is important, because we need to have people who have the growth mindset to know that they are going to

This furthers the gap between the notion that most non-Islamic people have around the world, which relates to the aspect of vainglory, because in the US, like many countries around the world, women are seen as political figures, physicians, and have simple freedoms. Compared to other ares of the world that contain a predominantly Islamic ethnicity, the rights of women less restricted as they are in Afghanistan. In the US and other countries that allow freedom of religion and expression, the burka is completely optional based on the individuals preference. In order for the Taliban to gain power, they had to convince the public that they were in the best interests of women and not only men. However, the truth is that the Taliban regime has cruelly reduced women and children to poverty, worsened their health by denying them adequate healthcare, and deprived them of their right to an education. In some cases they are denied the right to practice their religion. As a result of these measures, the Taliban was ensuring that women would continue to sink deeper into poverty and deprivation of rights. This would ensure that their future would consist of them having limited skills needed to be considered a civilized individual in modern day

Yet inequalities may not be the case for women in more westernized nations as they receive greater freedom (60). This is where the great diversity between modernist Muslim’s and conservative Muslim’s come in. Modernist Muslims argue genuine Islam is compatible with modern west society and political ideas such as democracy and the equality of women. The views of women in society are supported by revelations of the prophet Mohammed. On the other hand we have conservative Muslims where they believe in

Women are still being isolated today even though a new form of government is in use and has been fifteen years since the rule of the Taliban. “Life as an Afghan Woman” points out that “women are [still] often hidden and isolated. Islamic extremists insist that women and girls stay at home, and can only leave if they are fully covered and accompanied by a male relative.” Most women wear a burqa that completely covers their entire body, showing male dominance outside of the home as well. Women must cover themselves to avoid the possibility of men looking at them in an inappropriate way. Women have to dress in a head to toe burqa for the benefit of men. Also, the fact that girls live with their husband’s extended family often results in them being

In the past, Islamic women were not granted the right to vote or join in politics, but over the years the legal status of women in Islam has relaxed and changed. Muslim women in the Middle East have the right to vote, and may join in politics. Along with this, they are permitted to have vital government jobs. (Braswell, p.155) A woman 's status , however, is not as high as a man 's is in society. They still must follow many traditional customs. An example of one custom is that women are encouraged to do is dress modestly, by wearing veils in public. (Lippman, p.38) Although Muslim men and women are not looked upon as equals in every sense, there has been a lot of improvement and many changes have been made in the women 's favor.

unequally in marriage, in court, and in society. Difficulty through marriage for Muslim women can come from age, divorce, and having to be subservient to their husbands. Not only is there difficulty in marriage, but also in the unequal treatment in the islamic justice systems, such as when “evidence given by a female witness counts for half that given by a man” (Dargie 22). Although the societies of major Islamic countries differ, it is clear that women are not represented equally to men in any of them, for example having to dress and act certain ways so as not to attract any attention from men. However, there are Islamic women who are willing to change how their religion views females by speaking out and encouraging others to do the same.

In her autobiographical comic Persepolis, Marjane Satrapi, within the first five pages of the book, tells the reader that she was born with religion. She immediately explains (in regards to the Islamic practice of veiling) that “I really didn’t know what to think about the veil. Deep down I was very religious but as a family we were very modern and avant-garde” (Persepolis, 2003, pg. 6). For western feminists, this ambivalence towards the veil has been a common topic of discourse. In secularized western countries, the veil is often viewed as a symbol of patriarchal oppression. In France (where Satrapi currently lives), for example, there have been numerous laws banning different forms of the veil (such as the burka and the niqab) with many critics, such as former French president Nicolas Sarkozy, arguing that they are “oppressive” and “not welcome” in France (“The Islamic veil across Europe,” 2014, pg. 1). This is the western view of the veil, but what do Muslim women think of the veil and the fundamentalist values that westerners often associate with it?

Within the Middle East, the largest population of the men and women are Muslim. The Muslim religion suggests that women wear a veil or hijab, which is a head scarf that only exposes a woman’s eyes, accompanied by a burqa which is a full body cloak. The sole purpose of the clothing is to cover a woman’s feminine features from men’s eyes. The Qur’an, an Islamic scripture, supports and slightly obligates the uniform by saying that women are to be conservative, “let them wear their head covering over their bosoms, and not display their ornaments.” (Qur’an). It could be inferred that women wear the burqa and veil willingly because of their geographical location. However, when Muslim women are withdrawn from the Middle East, and are placed

Lila Abu-Lughod is an American anthropologist whose work is focused around descriptive ethnography and mostly based in Egypt. Her work aims to tackled three main issues: the relationship between cultural forms and power; the politics of knowledge and representation; and the dynamics of gender and the question of women’s rights in the Middle East (Columbia). Lughod in her book Do Muslim Women Really Need Saving? sets out to get rid of stereotypes that muslim women because of frequent ‘honor killings’ and the practice of veiling need to be rescued. She coins the term for the exploration of saving muslim women ‘Islamland.’ There is the perpetuating stereotype and dominant narrative that muslim women need saving and islam is a threatening

In every country around the world, women's lives are shaped by the influences of both society and by religion. “The Quran, Islam’s holy book, mandates that women have the right to seek education, choose their own mates, work, possess and inherit wealth or property, divorce, and remarry” (Hurley 76). So despite the Quran’s clear support for women’s rights and equality, why do many people feel that Muslim women are oppressed? The hijab head covering worn by Muslim women has been in the news on and off for some time now and has been a topic of many debates. Here in America, one would feel this requirement on women as oppressive, but most Muslim women feel that this is a way to be looked at not for their beauty, but for their minds. The issues here is that people have a hard time differentiating between culture and religion, two things that are completely different but have a huge effect on each other. People also have a hard time understanding things that are different. Just because it is different than how we live, doesn’t necessarily mean it’s wrong.

Looking at the arguments presented by these scholars, it now seems clear that the Quran is being misinterpreted in a way that is oppressive towards women. The question now is, what is causing the oppression of women in the Middle East? Some scholars have argued that the oppression of women in modern middle eastern societies has been due to the presence of Islamism, a movement that has been gaining ground since the Islamic Resurgence of the 1970s. This is something that Leila Ahmed agrees with in her book A Quiet Revolution: The Veil’s Resurgence, from the Middle East to America when she mentions this in the context of the veil. She says that many people in America and Europe during the 1990s assumed that the hijab was just a practice of being

Here in the United States, some individuals think that by wearing a hijab you are you enforcing the belief that Muslim women are being forced to wear one despite the reason that some of these women wear it’s a sign of freedom. Therefore, it appears that to some women, the veil is unjust; while other women feel it is not unjust but a decision they made on their own in dedication to their religion. Still, for many women especially the ones in Western countries, they have no choice and for that reason alone, they are being made to wear a

Within the Middle East, the largest population of the men and women are Muslim. The Muslim religion suggests that the women wear a veil or hijab, which is a headscarf that only exposes a woman’s eyes, accompanied by a burqa which is a full body cloak. The sole purpose of the clothing is to cover a woman’s feminine features from men’s eyes. The Qur’an, an Islamic scripture supports, and slightly obligates the uniform by saying that women are to be conservative, “Let them wear their head covering over their bosoms, and not display their ornaments.” (Qur’an). Muslim women, instead of feeling oppressed, view this as a positive aspect in their lives, influenced by their devotion to Allah. Their acceptance could be influenced by their

The Islamic culture has it differences and similarities to every culture. They have one of the oldest cultures, dating back to the seventh century. In the Islamic culture they have an ideal way of how their people should act. Women ‘must’ be submissive, and covered up head to toe to be considered modest. They have high expectations for their women that can be considered overbearing compared to other cultures like the USA. News Editor, Devon Haynie claims that the USA and the UK have the most influential cultures. They influence what you ‘should’ do and what you ‘need’ to be doing. It can cause clashes between two cultures. They come up with the ‘beauty standard’ every woman should follow. They influence women