Quote:
Originally Posted by charity
wow-wee.
not commenting on goverment-religion, not commenting on sexual abuse, am commenting on original thread.
i'm thinking should i include a warning...ok warning: this may be offensive.
these lifestyle choices are choices they are convicted to. its a CHOICE.
i think many westerners need to take a lesson in modesty and autonimity. i really believe that if a person wants something, they will strive for it. if that means certain freedoms, then they will seek them out. people cannot be "oppressed" without abuse. that is why it is a choice. if peoples were being abused and oppressed for 2000 years, dont you think the time would come sooner or later that they would rebel? just because we cannot see the reasons why it would be a choice, does not mean that it is a forceful way of life.
and of course there are flaws to any system, discrepancies that in time a culture seeks to ween out but that is with anything.
dont get me wrong, i'm not trying to glorify, in fact that is why i say, when a tradition/way of life no longer begins to work, you will see it change. again this is true with anything.
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Charity, I see your point, and I agree with part of it. Not all women in Middle Eastern/primarily Muslim countries are oppressed. But their options are limited. What are honor killings (by a woman's family, if they think she has disgraced them by having relations with men), besides oppression? The threat of an honor killing is also oppression. Here in the US, honor killings just don't happen (unless the family involved has relatively recently come to the US). Part of that is our 1st world justice system, but most of it is our Western moral code.
And when you say things haven't changed in 2000 years, so it must be OK...when my mother was young, she was told that she had 3 career options, in case she didn't get married...she could be a nurse, a secretary, or a teacher. That was 50 years ago, and how things have changed since then! I agree that change, rebellion happens because it needs to...but I feel positive change is still happening in the M.E., especially in terms of women's options, and women's right to self-determination.
For example, AFAIK, women are meant to stay home with their families in the M.E. But there are no real options for gay women to lead their own lives - and I'm sure there must be gay women there, too!