The Western media disregards the faults in the Western culture and religion by falsely depicting Muslim women as oppressed and living very uncomfortable lives. The Western media criticizes the way women dress and states that it is a sign of female submission. They believe that women wear the hijab to show that they are submitting to the Muslim patriarchs and the teachings of the Qur’an. Furthermore, Muslim women are portrayed as oppressed and abused by their husbands. Through this portrayal, the Western media limits domestic violence to the Islamic culture and religion, which is completely incorrect. In addition, Muslim women are considered helpless and voiceless in the Western media. The media disregards that fact that there are many Muslim …show more content…
The way that Muslim women are dressed, specifically by wearing a hijab, is criticized by the Western media as submissive. This statement is incorrect because a hijab is not a sign of submission; instead it is a sign of modesty. The Qur’an states: “Say to believing men that they should lower their gaze and guard their modesty. And say to the believing women that they should lower their gaze and guard their beauty and ornaments except what (must ordinarily) appear thereof.” (BBC: Hijab in the Scriptures). This passage from the Qur’an shows that men are subjected to the same teachings of the Qur’an. This passage also proves that the Qur’an teaches Muslims to be modest and respectful to others regarding their body. It does not mention that women should wear a hijab to achieve modesty proving that wearing a hijab is the choice of the woman. The Qur’an merely says to cover their …show more content…
The Western culture disregards many factors that prove that this statement is a fallacy. The Western media spreads false generalizations of Muslim women around the world, which results in society believing in these fallacies. “In crime dramas such as CSI or Criminal Minds, Muslim women are almost always represented as victims of male domestic violence; women’s appearances in police films or television shows were often cut short by a male who asserts that he is in change.” (Media Portrayals of Religion: Islam). These kinds of television shows are examples of the way that the Western media depicts Muslim women as helpless and abused. These kinds of generalizations suggest that the Western media believes that Muslim men are more superior to Muslim women. The media disregards that fact that this issue is not limited to the Islamic culture because it is also an issue in the Western culture and religion. Furthermore, domestic violence is not and will never be limited to just the Islamic religion. This is proven by the statistic that “On any given day in Canada, more than 3,300 (along with their 3,000 children) are forced to sleep in an emergency shelter to escape domestic violence. Every night, about 200 women are turned away because the shelters are full” (The Facts about Violence against Women). This statistic shows that domestic violence occurs
There are many political, religious, and cultural factors that shape the lives of Islamic women many of them are completely different than factors in the lives of American women. Islam is one of the world’s fastest growing religions; however, Brooks argues that “Islam’s holiest texts have been misused to justify the repression of women, and how male pride and power have warped the original message of this once liberating faith.” The book also shows these factors have slowly been taking away women’s rights, rather than furthering them.
Also, Oprah’s comment that U.S. women being the luckiest in the world is a stereotype because it portrays that the West is the best and is more civilized and educated than the Middle East. The response from the Oprah Winfrey episode on Amina Lawal was that 1.2 million people emailed the Nigerian government and many of the people called the Islamic culture barbaric whereas they thought of the United States as a moral country of superiority. However, the oppressiveness of women is mainly held by Islamic fundamentalist groups and when the media many times portrays these fundamentalist groups as backwards, uncivilized, and barbaric they are many times associated with all of Islam. When all of Islam is associated with fundamentalist groups it stereotypes Muslims as inferior to the West and it justifies that the U.S. in superior to the Middle East and is why they should intervene and help promote women’s rights. The tactics that the Bush administration used by using media influence to portray women in the middle East as oppressed, which was to justify the War on Terror was successful because Evelyn Alsultany found that when viewers in the media saw Muslim women being oppressed they were outraged at the religions injustice and formed prejudicial views against Islam. However, in 2008 a Gallup poll of fifty thousand Muslim women from 35 countries showed that the majority of Muslim women do not see Islam as
The issue of women in Islam is highly controversial. As a Muslim American living in the United States many times I get judged about my religion. People think that because I am a Muslim woman in America I am being restricted from many things and can’t be like every other woman in America. Islam has many similarities with other religion and it does have its differences. Being raised as a Muslim woman in America has made me the strong and independent woman I am today. I am going to be talking about my own religion that I’m well knowledgeable of. What the media shows and how people talk badly about the religion is truly ruining the religion and its true beauty. Woman in Islam are not being oppressed for anything there’s true beauty behind this
In recent years, America’s attention has been gripped by stories of women who have escaped from the Middle East. Each has a unique story, but they all have the same themes of oppression, abuse, and domination. Americans rushed onto the scene ready to “save” Middle Eastern women and many of the activists are now been highly praised for the influence they made in the region. Others, however, have come to question whether the Muslim women in the Middle East really needed the U.S. to rescue them from Islam. *Insert Thesis*
The Nation of Islam empowered many blacks in a time and place where the concept of power was used to oppress. Christianity being a white man’s religion in the eyes of the oppressed, Islam was used in America as a tool for confirmation of beauty. The reminder of inner beauty for the people of color caused substantial growth and powerful movement that impacted American history for generations. The same principles that hoped to empower and give freedom towards African Americans is the same principles that continue to mask the beauty of the Muslim woman. How can two oppressed groups of people, blacks and woman, find two very different outcomes when practicing the Islam faith? Recognizing the differences between the Nation of Islam and the other sects of Islam faith, there is still a center focus on self identity and living into that mold. For some, that means taking back what has been taken away from them, freedom. For others, it continues to mean denying inner desires for something greater than following social norms.
Language issues also impact immigrant women’s abilities to develop therapeutic relationships with health care providers and express themselves effectively in healthcare settings. In an ethnographic study on communication challenges for immigrant women in rural Alberta, Higginbottom et al found that communication challenges extend beyond verbal communication and impact immigrant women’s abilities to build trusting relationships with their healthcare providers and results in miscommunications due to unshared cultural meanings of language. (HigginbottomAlberta:300-301) Reitmanova reported that, in addition to preventing access to information for immigrant Muslim women in their study, limited English fluency also made it difficult for immigrant
This research will demonstrate the concept of Quebec majority versus the ones that are considered "other" or minority, specifically Muslim women. The methodologies and surrounding utilized by the print media along with the specific scope of specific issues created polarization amongst minority and greater part gathers. This research will summon an Orientalist focal point to show how racializing talks are portrayed in a monitored subtext over and the news print to support the protection of Quebec character. The strategy that is utilized is the basic analysis of two newspaper articles that are reflected from Gazette and Lap Presse. This examination aims to identify the importance of the representations of Muslim women in the specific recorded understanding of Quebecois in their particular dialect and culture. This essay will reveal that portion of the media procedures within the Quebec context. This will exhibit that Muslim women are minimized and victimized on the premise of their race, sexual orientation and social character. Revealing that the news print media makes harming depictions of Muslim women. The end goal is to counter these negative depictions. Individuals must be instructed how to think fundamentally about the media and build up the fitting media education ways so that they can comprehend what social value are implied.
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
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.
Among other studies done on young Muslim women who hijab, one women said “"I lived in a co-ed dorm and it was really the first time I had to deal with unwanted attention from guys. I guess that was the first time I really understood why it was necessary to wear a scarf, because as soon as I did, all the idiots left me alone” (Ali, 2005). Another woman’s view was “because I began to realize that what people think is nowhere compared to Allah, and so, how could I blatantly disobey an order because of 'standing out?” (Ali, 2005). It would also surprise many that in some of these women’s cases, their choice to hijab was not only not forced, but also not even supported by family members. Some of these women’s parents had hard times coping with their daughters taking up this wardrobe.
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
Firstly, the Jews and Muslims are divided by their different cultures. The three main cultural differences are their clothing, beliefs, and foods. Common clothing that Jewish men wear is the Kippah and Tallit. The Kippah is a skullcap, also referred as a yarmulke, which is worn during prayer or throughout the day, and can be worn under a street hat. The Tallit is a large rectangular fabric made of wool, cotton or synthetic. In each of the four corners are strings tied in a specific pattern called tzitzit. On the other hand, Muslim women wear the hijab, abaya, or burqa. The hijab is a folded piece of square or rectangular fabric that is a typical form of modest women's dress that folds over the woman's head. The abaya and burqa both cover a woman’s entire body; however the burqa covers the face, including her eyes.
In theory, it sounds great - but the truth on the ground is very, very different. When women sacrifice themselves for their husbands (or other men), they are taken for granted and easily walked over.
The role of woman, her position and status in society, and her nature have been issues of debate and discussion informed by religion, tradition and culture, misogyny, feminism and - many times - downright ignorance and bigotry.
The Quran commands the believe, both men and women to lower their gaze and keep modesty. However, the women have been obliged to fulfill certain additional responsibilities in the matter of dress, adornment etc. the relevant verses are,