Saying that western countries provide free healthcare services and jobs is a generalization.Do you really think that every western country has free healthcare (especially for immigrants)? Let me give you America as an example. Before saying anything further, I just wanted to point out that I am also an American citizen. I have been living here for the longest time and I have faced facets of life here as well. So, I, very much, count myself as an American. Believe me when I say that I am trying my best to present this situation from a sociological perspective.
Did you know that muslim females are feminists as well? Why do I bring that up first? Because they are against the objectification of women. It's funny how this logic works, right? You say that Muslims objectify women, but did you stop and research about why they ask woman to cover up? Did you also know that men in Muslim religion are supposed to have a hijab? They are not supposed to look at women out of respect, and objectify them in some way (by thinking of them sexually, which happens more than you'd think when an attractive women passes by). I am pretty sure you're going to say that not all men objectify women just because they're not all covered. That's not what I am saying at all. I am just saying that Muslims believe in intellect above all, rather than physical beauty (whether it's male or female). Did you know that their headscarf/hijab wasn't meant as a sign of oppression but as a sign of looking beyond the outer beauty and onto intellect? It's a sign of liberation above all of these norms that we have to follow in our society reciting that women have to look pretty to get noticed. Did you also know that men tend to listen to pay more attention to attractive women? It's inherently social (and yes, I am psychology student as well). Why do you think we have so many eating disorders or any other social disorders more common in women these days? It's because of highly stupid expectations of women from the media. Islam as a religion promotes enlightenment and liberates women from all of these norms and notions for women that objectify women as sex objects so they look sexy on magazine covers and music videos. Western media has sexualized women greatly (as per a lot of scholars today). Many people, who are not familiar with the religion, tend to attack it by the view that the media promotes. I highly recommend everyone to not do that.
Also, you're telling me that I am looking at things from one perspective. But I feel the same when I read your comment. I feel that you're not willing to look past your bias about Islam. You're saying that Islam is against homosexuality, but so are many other religions. Why are you forgetting other major religions? Christianity being among them. If individual christian chooses not to follow that then it's on them, same as if individual Muslim doesn't choose to focus on that one ideology. I keep on seeing you only refer to things to Islam, completely failing to look at others as well. I won't comment further on this because these topics tend to get very controversial. And I want to stick to social phenomenons. [Side note: I am not trying to defend one religion by saying that others do it too. My main concern is that you've explicitly pointed out a phenomenon in Islam which is shared by other religions which you didn't point out.]
Did you know that there are anti-immigrant protest going on in US? A lot of people get so mad that immigrant come and "take" their job without realizing that it's the merits and capabilities that matter as well. Not only that, there's a lot of anti-immigrant sentiment going on here (which is quite funny seeing as America itself is land of immigrants and the only true "Americans" are Native Americans).
I was at a grocery shop once. Some lady asked me something and I didn't hear a word she said because I was busy reading label of some product. When I looked at her, she was really exasperated and said something like why are you in this American. I said. "excuse me?!" and she was really flustered because she realized I knew English. The funny thing is that I was merely another brown colored individual, not even any other difference. You're making racism out to be very insignificant as if offering services as healthcare (which, with insurance costs, really doesn't help a lot of poor people and is usually designed to help with well-off crowd) and (mostly low paying) jobs out to be a compensation to deal with Racism. That's no excuse. Many immigrants don't even end up getting good jobs in western countries, but people don't even realize that. They are so hell-bent on thinking that west provides for everyone who comes.
I am NOT saying that West doesn't do that for many other individuals. No, America has many assets like free public education, Government aid and scholarships, food stamps for the poor and other great resources. BUT we can't not look at the follies.
I am not saying that the Western government have to bend to their every whims. However, they still do hold the rights to protest because they're mostly like not doing it because they think that women need to be oppressed. In Islamic religion, and let's not distort it with Culture, women are allowed to go out and sought for enlightenment and in fact are encouraged. It's the same with male. Those people protesting the gym being near the mosque may find that unacceptable because they consider mosque to be a place for sacred worship where they glorify religion and it may be offensive to them in that regards. Honestly, I am guessing that they would probably just move their mosque (or at least I would). I still don't understand why the notion of women covering up is so hard to grasp or swallow for some people? I mean, we are all familiar with nuns. They're considered to be so pure and close to god when they give up practically similar things for the notion of pursuing God and yet no one seems to have a problem with them. Yet, Muslim women who cover are automatically labeled as oppressed. That's double standards.
You know if there's one thing I love about America, it's the fact that I actually got to learn about true Islam here. I honestly think that if I were in another country like India (because that's where my parents are from and that's where I was born - before I came here at a very young age) then I may have mistaken into thinking that they are oppressed and I may have been victim of Islamophobia - due to a lot of cultural norms associated with religion there - but I am glad that that didn't happen! I have NEVER seen another woman like my friend who is muslim and more of a feminist than I will ever be (and I consider myself deeply feministic). She doesn't care about what other people think, regardless of it being a guy or girl. She believes in equal rights and treatments. She rejects the unreasonable norms of society (which is the true meaning of feminism). She does what she likes and she doesn't have to care for her appearance. She is the most confident and broad-minded person I have met. She's more free than me, and I don't even wear hijab, nor am I tied by religion like her! When I see the world through her eyes, even I get shocked at how judgmental we are as human beings, myself included. It's actually quite sad that people don't realize their own inner reservations sometimes. I am not asking anyone to convert to Islam - just to be more open to the people. There's nothing wrong with that, right?
Also, you said about the women having the right to show her breast in Canada. One example I can give you is that separate countries have separate rules. Do that in front of a catholic church in America and they will protest the heck out of it. I am not saying that women should or shouldnt have those rights. I am just saying that everyone has different view of feminism. According to you, physical freedom counts as feminism but according to Islam, Men and women should be covered and have respectable distance so they could have platonic relationship and delve in professionalism. That's their feminism. They could have intellectual pursuits (after all, let's not forget the 'Islamic golden age' that happened at the same time as European dark ages - no one ever brings the intellect there, do they? Because media never tends to go back in time on how the "Islamic culture" created the notion for the first hospitals, the toothbrush or the first university and other inventions that we modified today). It's rather sad that people only choose to look at what media shows. Look beyond the biases and you will see the sea of truths. That's a very wise saying, indeed.
I completely see where you're coming from. There are various perspectives to this debate. And as you mentioned, one cannot generalize one population since there are different phenomena involved. However, one can always beware of the Euro-centric form of thinking that we, as westerners, may be victims to. We need to be critical as well of our own society that we grew up in. Just because a society is different doesn't mean that they're entirely wrong. They get repelled because they think we're trying to transform them, just like we get repelled when we think that they're trying to force us into making too many accommodations for them. If we learn to look at things from both perspectives, then perhaps we will have less wars? We can only grow as a civilization if we start to learn from other cultures and religion, and if we decide to actually research thoroughly on it before having pre-conceived biases.
Edited by Shona_Mayur - 10 years ago
Book Talk
Anupamaa
