Female Oppression : Religion Or Culture?

Jean P. Sasson wrote a true event story about a Saudi Arabian princess. It was about Sultana’s own life story and the whole book is in her point of view. To protect her identity she had to change names and obviously not explicit hers. It’s a nonfiction story of the outrage that is forced upon women throughout Saudi Arabia even today, a story that leaves readers praying for change before it is too late for the next generation of girls growing up in Saudi Arabia. This story is quite scary and very unbelievable how women around the world are being treated. Even though Arabians have a very different point of view of religion and marriage it’s really all sexist and very sad what women have to go through, no matter rich or poor.

Reflecting upon your inquiries on the first paragraph, the male dominated perspective does not seem to serve men either. You mentioned sexual assault and violence in your post. Associating victims with female gender as well as perceiving female victims as weak does not seems to help understanding how to support male victims of assault and/or violence.

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.

Women across cultures face similar forms of oppression in varying ways. The stories of Maxine Hong Kingston, Nicholas D. Kristof, Sheryl WuDunn, Banana Yoshimoto, and Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie bring awareness to these heartbreaking yet inspiring narratives of the lives of women outside of North America. While some of the works are fictional, there is still an air of realism that accentuates the general ideas conveyed in the individual narratives. Themes such as tradition, assimilation, racism, classism, education, and point of view in story-telling are present throughout these books. This allows readers to understand different systems of oppression on a global scale and can possibly inspire a form of altruism that can lead to philanthropic

Religion is powerful in that it controls followers’ behaviours and beliefs throughout their entire lives; it is a form of social control. Catholicism is one of the most widely known religions influencing more than 2 billion people around the world (Ross). Within Catholicism not everyone are seen as equals; men have greater privilege than women. The bible and church are from a male’s point of view (Christ 86) and passages within the bible are used to enforce a sexual hierarchy. In fact, the oppression of women begins with the first story in Genesis about creation, which portrays females as being inferior to men and even of an evil nature. This one passage is the main source of justification of oppression of woman in the church (Daly 13).

This article, by Elizabeth Segran explores how many women faced inequality in the Islamic world but started to acquire their power through the Qur'an and their religion. The author states “For decades many women believed they had to choose between their Muslim identity and their belief in gender equality so they made a global movement called Musawah, which means equality”(1). This movement is powered by the ideals that Islam does not favor men as many have thought to be the case. However, because patriarchy has had a strong stance in Muslim countries these females believe it is due to the way they have interpreted and read Islamic texts. As we have learned in this course so far, there are numerous ways to interpret Islamic texts. It just so happens that gender has a great effect on how it is understood by individuals.

he second article being looked at is ‘Muslim Women’s Quest for Equality: Between Islamic Law and Feminism’ by author Ziba Mir-Hosseini. This article looks at the plight of women in both the Middle East and Southwest Asia and looks the the distinction between sharia law and fiqh. Mir-Hosseini argues that Muslim women will be treated as second class citizens as long as patriarchy is justified and upheld in the name of Islam (pg.629). Both the invasion of Iran and Afghanistan were justified on the basis that Muslims were in need of “freedom” and “democracy”. By doing this is has brought upon many internal and external struggles. Muslims in these countries see the “neo imperialist intervention as a direct assault on their religion” (pg. 631). Further giving more reason to legitimize the power of radical Islamists such as Al-Qaeda.

"The Women's Rights Movement, 1848–1920 | US House of Representatives: History, Art & Archives." The Women's Rights Movement, 1848-1920. N.p., n.d. Web. 10 Oct. 2014. <http://history.house.gov/Exhibitions-and-Publications/WIC/Historical-Essays/No-Lady/Womens-Rights/>.

Prior to taking this class, my feminist knowledge was not lacking, but I do feel like I know more about the different perspectives after completing this course. I also feel like I have more knowledge about the issues and oppression women face in today’s society. My expectations of this course were a little different from the reality of it. After the introduction post, I thought that the focus would be very much on stereotypes, but in fact there was a broad range of study. In the rest of this paper, I will be talking about how my awareness of the history and experiences of women has grown, feminist concepts and feminist explanations (theory), how family, culture, and society shape us, and finally understanding the gendered dynamic

Women have been oppressed by men since the beginning of time. It is only now that society is doing something about this and realizing the negative effects this injustice has had. The maltreatment of women affects females in their day to day lives, since long ago, and still in present day. Characters from The House of Mirth by Edith Wharton, The Awakening by Kate Chopin, and ‘Proem’ by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, will reveal how the oppression of women can affect people's lives in a negative way.

Cultural Relativism is the idea that “right” and “wrong” are only specific to a culture and because of this it can be extremely oppressive to women. Accepting the rules and laws that are used to oppress women because of the belief in cultural relativism is not just harmful to women but can also be dangerous. Cultural Relativism, in its most common definition can be quite alluring, because it seems it teach us that we must be tolerant of other cultures, it most cases that is a good thing, but it the cases of rights of women it is downright inhuman. Cultural Relativism is a flawed concept, because it is assumed that there is no set of universal moral standards, so we should just accept things like genital mutilation and arranged marriage that

I feel that girls encounter more obstacles and provisions, thus growing up is more difficult for them. For one, society put a lot of emphasis on how a girl should behave and how she should look like. This puts so much pressure on girls to conform to what society “expects” them to be. This often affects a girl’s self-image resulting in low self-esteem and insecurities.

Looking at the arguments presented by these scholars, it now seems clear that the Quran is being misinterpreted in a way that is oppressive towards women. The question now is, what is causing the oppression of women in the Middle East? Some scholars have argued that the oppression of women in modern middle eastern societies has been due to the presence of Islamism, a movement that has been gaining ground since the Islamic Resurgence of the 1970s. This is something that Leila Ahmed agrees with in her book A Quiet Revolution: The Veil’s Resurgence, from the Middle East to America when she mentions this in the context of the veil. She says that many people in America and Europe during the 1990s assumed that the hijab was just a practice of being

As is the case for most western religions, the patriarchal systems and traditional gender ideologies of Judaism continue to be reflected and enforced within the religion. This tradition of gender inequality stems from both the texts and the long global history of the religion, and has often worked against the "fairer" sex (Gaunt 478). A large portion of Jewish law seems concerned with putting women in their place and restricting their roles as humans and spiritual beings; these ideas found a greater voice following the eruption of the feminist movement in the 1970s. However it would be prudent to remember that Halakha, Jewish law, is not solely concerned with

The characters portrayed by Leila Aboulela to a great degree vary vastly in their levels of religiosity. This novel showcases a wide spectrum of Muslim identities. Most of the devout believers follow Islam, as they are constantly expressing their faith, thru means of prayer, recitation or other adorations. These religious members are accepting of veil culture, because they have more to value than materialistic objects and western culture. For instance, the young school girls that wore tobes, while Najwa skirts to university. Also, the servants she had back home, as she would be coming home from a party at dawn, they would be make their absolution, “A light bulb came on. They were getting ready to pray. They had dragged themselves from sleep in order to pray. I was wide awake and I didn’t,” this quote from the novel, illustrates a young Najwa understanding the basis of Islam and the importance of prayer (Aboulela, 32) However, this is an evident class divide, illustrating that those with wealth are more secular and those with less are humbled towards their faith. In her time in London, Najwa befriends woman at the local mosque and develops an interest her recitation. Her realization and locality to religiousness triggers her spirituality.