RE: Muslim Explanation Needed.
July 2, 2010 at 9:43 am
(This post was last modified: July 2, 2010 at 9:43 am by tavarish.)
I spoke at length about this very subject on Facebook with two muslim women (one of which was an ex-girlfriend of mine). It started with a video one posted entitled "women, you will love to be muslim after watching this video, trust me" or something to that extent. It was a woman dressed in a burqa talking about how her beliefs changed her life, made her quit smoking, and gave her an awesome outlook. She lived in the US.
I simply asked the muslim women how she would have felt living in a country that was governed by Sharia Law. They came back with a deluge of retorts, none of which answered my question. They told me muslim women are held in very high regard, that they can be heads of household, men have to pay mandated dowry and supply her with payment, and that men and women just have "different roles" and are made for different things.
That's when I explained to them that "separate but equal" is something that was used in the 60s as a euphemism to soften the blow of blatantly racist activities and eliminate guilt. It didn't solve the problem, nor did it promote equality. Of course men and women can do different things, and they are physically different, but placing restrictions on things a person can do because of gender is called bias. Khadija, one of Muhammad's wives, was responsible for spreading the word of the religion around and was praised highly for it. However, how many husbands was she allowed to have? A hell of a lot less than her husband.
I'm not going to repeat any other wacky mysoginistic laws that Islam promotes, because they've been covered already.
I honestly can't understand why a woman that comes from a society based on individuality and civil liberty would want to be a part of a culture that has, in recent years, reverted to one of the most sexist in all the world. Perhaps Christopher Hitchens is right, some people do have the innate need to be slaves.
I simply asked the muslim women how she would have felt living in a country that was governed by Sharia Law. They came back with a deluge of retorts, none of which answered my question. They told me muslim women are held in very high regard, that they can be heads of household, men have to pay mandated dowry and supply her with payment, and that men and women just have "different roles" and are made for different things.
That's when I explained to them that "separate but equal" is something that was used in the 60s as a euphemism to soften the blow of blatantly racist activities and eliminate guilt. It didn't solve the problem, nor did it promote equality. Of course men and women can do different things, and they are physically different, but placing restrictions on things a person can do because of gender is called bias. Khadija, one of Muhammad's wives, was responsible for spreading the word of the religion around and was praised highly for it. However, how many husbands was she allowed to have? A hell of a lot less than her husband.
I'm not going to repeat any other wacky mysoginistic laws that Islam promotes, because they've been covered already.
I honestly can't understand why a woman that comes from a society based on individuality and civil liberty would want to be a part of a culture that has, in recent years, reverted to one of the most sexist in all the world. Perhaps Christopher Hitchens is right, some people do have the innate need to be slaves.
My blog: The Usual Rhetoric
