the "crime" of trusting islamic men

[miriam_e]

Go to Amnesty International's action list, scroll down to "The Girl from al-Qatif" and take the link to embarrass the Saudi government into at least trying to fix their medieval culture.

A 19-year-old woman, known only as "The Girl from al-Qatif," has been sentenced to 200 lashes and a 6-month prison term for being alone in private with a member of the opposite sex who was not an immediate family member. Call on the Saudi authorities to repeal this sentence of flogging.

Why is it that a girl has to cover herself from head to toe and heavily circumscribe her every action, living in constant fear of inflaming the desire of the men around her, while a woman can stroll down the main street of Brisbane wearing nothing but a skimpy bikini and expect to come to no harm? Either men in the West are paragons of virtue, or men in islamic society have become so deeply corrupted by their absolute power over women that it has turned them into vile creatures.

What men in islamic (and fundamentalist christian and hindu) society don't realise is that their control and power over women debases and corrupts them. Yes, the women lose out badly, being abused and dehumanised, but the men lose too; they become monsters and lose the chance to a great future accompanied by women as equals.

Comments

[sharpblonde.livejournal.com]

Okay, I'll agree that if someone is skimpily dressed, certainly to the point of wearing a bikini down the street a certain amount of comments and leers can be expected, but comments and leers are a far cry from actual sexual assault and rape. (That said I wouldn be careful about where and when I walked around in anything at all skimpy, but that is just good sense.)

I'm not saying that you agree with it, but what gives someone the right to assault someone? I believe in self defense and defending loved ones, the weak or the unfairly outnumbered when possible, but really, that's the only time I can condone physically hurting someone.

I have no problem with someone dressing a certain way because of their religion, as long as they have some sort of reasonable choice about it. I have no problem with the restrictions on women not being allowed to see men outside her family alone, but only if those restrictions are self imposed or done out of respect for family and/or religion. I guess it comes down to freedom of belief and freedom of choice. Perhaps I am a product of my Western upbringing, but I believe these are essential rights that should apply to everyone.

On an added note, I have to say, as a woman, and more as a relatively outspoken queer woman, most of the middle east scares the crap out of me.

[miriam-e.livejournal.com]

Yes, you are a product of your Western upbringing, but that doesn't automatically validate or invalidate your views. I get really worried about the insidious insertion of cultural relativism into conversations these days. The most worrying aspect is that it is often done by the smartest and most aware. The commenter greylock above is a very smart and sensitive guy.

The problem is that we have no difficulty with criticising exactly the same aspects of our own culture, but we are encouraged to somehow consider other cultures off-limits. It comes from a reaction to the horrors perpetrated by cultural imperialism, but we don't have to swing one way or the other. We can hold to the middle road and simply consider intrinsic human rights. It all springs from treat others the way you'd have them treat you. On that basis you can be quite legitimately fearful of islamic and christian and hindu and confucian culture. They are all based upon insane premises and there is little to limit them other than people who understand the simple basis of human rights and who speak up. If we don't speak up then the insanity prevails... there and here.