Religion Dispatches: How not to rescue Muslim women
2008 January 24
At the new Religion Dispatches blog, read my post “How not to rescue Muslim women.”
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At the new Religion Dispatches blog, read my post “How not to rescue Muslim women.”
hey koonj – like the new name?
I can’t be bothered to change it for different blogs and Baraka’s is attracting a record amount of “a”s these days…
anyway – enjoyed reading that! Chuckled at the reference to Michael Douglas and Lawrence of Arabia at the end and thought: if you hone this particular form of lecturing a bit, you might become Maureen Dowd one day! (not meant as a backhanded compliment, but if you don’t like MD I understand – I’m still wary of her, but she seems to be quite popular w. the NYTimers.)
Anyway, good points, all and it was fun to hear your voice again!
Shabana, You hit all the nails on the head. That’s really the way forward. This one bears reading a number of times.
With respect to differences, do look at
Dynastic Succession: What is the difference between India and France? and the related posts.
And if you are interested in health care, women, and Pakistan you might enjoy the following that appeared in the latest issue of the Wilson Quarterly
Pakistan Picaresque
Both are posted at http://thesouthasianidea.wordpress.com/
I wish I had even half your brain.
Fabulous!
Are boys as young as 11 being forced to marry women 40 and older?
Thank you, Baraka, maximus (love the name!) And thank you, South Asian, for the links.
Dan, is that really ALL that occurred to you to ask, after reading that discussion? Because I feel like I’m back in that same situation – wondering where to start to even examine the basis of this conversation.
Mention certain regions of the country to metropolitan Americans, and all they think they know about those regions is incest and poverty. Similar is the sort of ideological context wherein one must speak of Muslim countries. Guilt, perversion, and abuse are assumed to be universal customs within Muslim contexts. Normalcy, modernity, reasonableness, goodness are all assumed to be absent.
And this is linked to my comment about arranged marriages. This is the sort of context that silences and destroys dialog.
How is one to respond to comments like this with singular responses? How about with something like: “Are over one million American women raped every year? Are hundreds of American women battered every year? Are American girls as young as 12 becoming pregnant?” You get the picture.
Shabana,
One of the emerging questions we are grappling with is the notion of modernity in South Asia. How exactly does one characterize a “modern” South Asian?
http://thesouthasianidea.wordpress.com/2008/01/23/how-modern-is-modern/
See, in particular, the comments by Prof. Bettina Robotka.
*hums* “i can not save you/ i can’t even save myself”
[lyrics and music by Stabbing Westward]
LoA.
Assalaamu Alaikum Shabana
I have heard you speak at various conferences and have been reading your articles and blogs for a while. Thanks for so brilliantly articulating what so many Muslim women have felt for so long. It’s an eerie feeling when one attends a meeting for some social justice cause (whether in the US or abroad) and is constantly looked at with suspicion or pity due to having one’s hair covered. Thanks again!
Read the posts and the articles. Keep it up Koonj. You give me hope for the ummah.