Muslim Women Don’t See Themselves as Oppressed, Survey Finds

In an article written by New York Times, Helena Andrews (June 8,06), it concludes that muslim women do not see themselves as oppressed. Funny, as this is an obvious, slap-on-the back-of-the-head statement to me, as a muslim women, I wonder why it has taken “The West” so long to realise this. One reason may be that the poll was unbias in not focusing on niche circumstances within various muslim countries. Give me a dollar for every woman bashing and rape incidents in the West and you shall find me a rich woman. Lets not get stuck in that. The survey was conducted by The Gallup Organization, a widely recognized organization.  I have summerised the points made in the article below in point form, to make it especially clear.Blue colored are my comments, feel free to skip.

• “In more than 8,000 face-to-face interviews conducted in eight predominantly Muslim countries, the survey found that many women in the Muslim world did not see sex issues as a priority because other issues were more pressing.”
  

• “When asked what they resented most about their own societies, a majority of Muslim women polled said that a lack of unity among Muslim nations, violent extremism, and political and economic corruption were their main concerns. The hijab, or head scarf, and burqa, the garment covering face and body, seen by some Westerners as tools of oppression, were never mentioned in the women’s answers to the open-ended questions, the poll analysts said.”
• “Concerning women’s rights in general, most Muslim women polled associated sex equality with the West. Still, a majority of the respondents did not think adopting Western values would help the Muslim world’s political and economic progress.“
• “The most frequent response to the question, “What do you admire least about the West?” was the general perception of moral decay, promiscuity and pornography that pollsters called the “Hollywood image” that is regarded as degrading to women.”
• An overwhelming majority of the women polled in each country cited “attachment to moral and spiritual values” as the best aspect of their own societies. In Pakistan, 53 percent of the women polled said attachment to their religious beliefs was their country’s most admirable trait. Similarly, in Egypt, 59 percent of the women surveyed cited love of their religion as the best aspect.Someone should send Musharaff  and Mubarak, the two tyrants bent on pleasing its colonial power givers this bit of the survey result, so that they realise their efforts in trying to “modernise” and “westernise” their countries has not yielded results, perhaps it had an opposite effect.
  
• “Women’s empowerment has been identified as a key goal of U.S. policy in the region,” Women’s empowerment? Is it really? What is their idea of empowerment, sending feminist personalities to Afghanistan and set up Beauty Parlors? Pressing upon the women there to undress, flaunt and get on the catwalk? Sounds more like spreading curruption and moral demise. What about proper education, what about womens’ health clinics and medicine, sanitation, even basic necisities such as food, clean water, clothing and basic materials to build shelter. But ofcourse what costs them to give real help, they are reluctant to undertake.

SubhanAllah, here is the clear evidence of a Muslimah’s intelligence and lack of selfishness. Intelligence in recognising that with the plundering and looting of the people’s natural resources by their colonial corrupt governments, coalition armies deployed & destroying muslim lands (and getting their hands on muslim women in the process), poor health care and educational facilities for their children due to negligence from the rulers and the rich, and many others, the obligation by their religion for covering up and keeping their modesty is far from being an issue, it is a quality of dignity.

Source

 

“West will fail, says ex-CIA operative”

I came across the article on The Age newspaper (Australian) “West will fail says ex-CIA operative” . Sarah Smiles and Brendan Nicholson, July 11, 2007

Michael Scheuer, brings up some interesting points, such as misunderstanding the grievances of insurgents. That is “Al-Qaeda was motivated by anger towards US foreign policy in the Middle East rather than by hatred for Western culture. That included the US military presence in the region, its backing of tyrannical Arab regimes and “unqualified” support for Israel.”

As the “War on Terror” progresses, I am finding that, more than people’s misconception about “their (insurgents, etc) hatred for Western culture”, it seems that the West’s hatred for Islamic culture seems to be the driving force behind the atrocities. I am not quite sure what sort of reaction the article is meant to achieve, it seems to have a strong flavor of sending more troops to the middle east. I wonder, how many more troops, most with naively good intentions (I am an optimist) will die in ignorance, not realizing the purely materialistic agenda and deliberate attempts to mis-inform the masses of population. After all, how would a mother put a price on her son/ daughter in units of barrels of oil? I feel sorry for those who died, never knowing the true teachings of Islam and their followers, and being mislead by the real terrorist which is the media. I would and wouldnt like to witness the day when the whole truth would be revealed by Allah (swt) and the masses of population turn against their own leaders, in anger, agony, frustration and regret. That day of Judgment is inevitable.

May Allah (swt) forgive the muslims, including me, and guide us. Dawah becomes so important now, and here and every where. For every one person who is guided and brought into the shelter and protection of Allah (swt) through Islam, there will be one less on that inevitable day who would regret for being ignorant. Hell fire is not a pretty place, and only Allah knows if ignorance can be a ground for forgiveness. I came across this hadith as follows:

Narrated by Abu Hurairah (ra), Allah’s Messenger ( peace be upon him) said “By him (Allah) in Whose Hand Muhammad’s soul is, there is none from amongst the Jews and the Christians (of these present nations) who hears about me and dies without believing in the Message which I have been sent (Islam), but he will be from the dwellers of the (Hell) Fire” (Sahih Muslim, Vol 1, Chapter 240

I am not sure if it is the Jews or Christians who were alive during the time of the Prophet (peace be upon him) or all of the sects of Jews and Christian religions which was present then up to now and in the future. Being highly Scholarly would have helped right about now, but I am not! Allah (swt) knows best!

 

Single sex schools do better!

I was referred to the following interesting article about single -sex schools performing better in VCE than co-educational schools in Victoria.

http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2007/06/18/1182019032679.html

Myself, having attended an all girls school, bear witness to that! Some benefits I noticed were as follows:

1) No boys! Sorry to be blatantly obvious! We are talking about education being the top priority and how to maximize the learning for the young adults. In many cases, except for the extremely focused individual, opposite sex can cause distraction. In the presence of each other, some become attention seekers and some become attention givers and it causes disturbances to others.

2) I dont know about guys, but this is something I noticed in girls. When I was at school, in all of my classes, there was a sense of general c0-operation and group help when learning. Many a times, I have seen girls starting to get competitive with one another in a negative way and usually in non-educational aspects and loose that unity, in the presence of guys.

3) Interacting with the Teacher and asking questions becomes less encouraging for the fear of being laughed at or sounding too enthusiastic about learning. That is, if your not already distracted from points number 1 & 2.

Finally for those who argue that single-sex schools make an individual more reactive to opposite sex, it is foolish to deny that opposite sex attract for majority of the population of human beings. I believe that the reason for such reactions are due to lack of moral conduct or lack of knowledge on how to deal with the opposite sex added to the immaturity at that age bracket in high school. Islam (more correctly God) sets out the regulations for such opposite sex interactions. Its as simple as : Do you like each other? Thats great, GET MARRIED, take the responsibility for your desires and any outcome of your desires (i.e. children, financial support for the wife)

Just chatting? Just want to get to know, just want to be friends? Why not find a friend of the same sex instead of actively looking for friends in the opposite sex? Opposite sex interactions between marriageable individuals are on strictly on need basis only (By God’s commands actually). No nonsense means one is steered clear of: unwanted attention, wanted but “feed self-pride” attention, irresponsible actions which can and often does lead to corrupted morals, disrespect for the opposite sex and detrimental effect to the family unit. Society is better off!