“Religion is an incredibly sensitive issue in Egypt, with many Christians and Muslims refusing to accept people leaving their congregation”(9). The article “Egypt: The forbidden love of interfaith romances” by Ali Gamal shows the challenges that inter-faithful relationships in Egypt have attend to; specifically, focusing on struggles faced in attempt to be with their significant other. Specifically, as the Egyptian law extremely restrictive towards inter faithful couples they are unable to marry in Egypt without both partners being Muslim. To illustrate how strong Egypt implements their marriage law, Gamal describes a couple Abeer and Mohammad, whom have been married for 24 years after she was forced to switch from Catholic to Muslim; although,
It has been such a joy reading “The Norton Introduction to Literature” by Kelly J. Mays. Of all the stories that I was assigned to read, one story in particular stood out to me because of how the author used words to create a vivid image in my mind. The story I’m talking about is “Araby” by James Joyce. James Joyce does a great job creating vivid images in the readers mind and creates a theme that most of us can relate. In this paper I will be discussing five scholarly peer reviewed journals that also discusses the use of image and theme that James Joyce created in his short story “Araby”. Before I start diving into discussing these five scholarly peer review journals, I would like to just write a little bit about “Araby” by James Joyce. James Joyce is an Irish writer, mostly known for modernist writing and his short story “Araby” is one of fifteen short stories from his first book that was published called “Dubliners”. Lastly, “Araby” is the third story in Dubliners. Now I will be transitioning to discussing the scholarly peer review journals.
Imagine getting off the plane for the very first time after living the majority of your life in a Muslim country. The first sight you see is a couple being publicly affectionate. This is my grandmother’s very first encounter on Canadian soil. To any Western this is a social norm, but to an Arab woman it is a cultural shock, which is perceived as uncomfortable at the least. Although she is closed minded, it partially is not her fault, as I have lived with her in Tehran and Dubai –two Muslim cities located in the Persian Gulf and the Middle East. (PDA) Public display of affection is forbidden in these two countries. To me public affection is not just “…people making out and touching each other inappropriately…” it is the respect you have for your self and the people around you that is brought about through your identity. (Davis).
Islam, a religion of people submitting to one God, seeking peace and a way of life without sin, is always misunderstood throughout the world. What some consider act of bigotry, others believe it to be the lack of education and wrong portrayal of events in media; however, one cannot not justify the so little knowledge that America and Americans have about Islam and Muslims. Historically there are have been myths, many attacks on Islam and much confusion between Islam as a religion and Middle Easter culture that is always associated with it. This paper is meant to dispel, or rather educate about the big issues that plague people’s minds with false ideas and this will only be touching the surface.
Walking through the halls of public schools in the U.S., Muslims are encircled by the Hollywood-like trials of the dunya from every angle: the way female’s dress, the way opposite genders mingle, and the way rumors run through the school like wildfire. Engrossed in such an environment for at least thirty hours a week, many Muslims drift away from their core values as they start to act upon their natural desires without any sense of restraint. They start to perceive notions such as a serious premarital relationship and a party replete with drinking and dancing as acceptable. Over time, fellow Muslims drag other brothers and sisters into this life of living without any restraints, causing the deterioration of the Muslim youth. At the end of the day, only the strong Muslims, who carry their Islamic faith in their hearts, survive.
The book Muhammad, by Michael Cook, describes the impact Muhammad has had on the world as we know it. It explains why Muhammad chose the paths he did, and how certain laws came about. Cook offers a very objective view of the laws and policies Muhammad outlined in the Koran, and the traditions that are carried on that supplement his written law.
Religion and Family can be very large contributors to an individual’s life decisions. Ed Husain’s authorization of The Islamist, exploits the decisions made between beliefs and family members with intriguing detail and heart: which reverberates similar things in my life as well (less extreme obviously). Hussein talks about his life as a child and his relationship to his parents while growing up in a small Muslim community. As Husain grows from 16 to 20, so does his belief and interest in the Muslim faith. However, his faith develops into more of a fundamentalist view called Islamism, which in turn goes against most modernistic views in Islam today, and correlates sharia law with personal, political, and social life. Husain develops some realizations and faces a few personal hardships, which make him decide to return to a formalistic and normal lifestyle after 5 years as an Islamist.
While Coptic Christians are determined to keep their identity, they are facing major adversity in their place of origin: Egypt. Facing around 80-90% of the population is of the Islam faith is tough for the Copts, but the way they are treated by their government and fellow citizens is simply unf...
Nawal El Saadawi was born in 1931, in a village called Kafr Tahla, which is located in Cairo, Egypt. She was born into a poor family being the second eldest of nine other children, and as a result when growing up, money was always scarce in her household. Her father, who was a government official, had always encouraged Nawal to study the Arabic language. He also strove the teach the young lady about self-respect, and at the same time told her that it was okay to speak her mind, and that she should always stand up for what she believed in. As is fairly common in Egypt, at the age of six Nawal was circumcised by the midwife of the family. After her circumcision, she bled for several days, until finally the wound healed and the midwife rejoiced, but she claims to have always felt like a part of her was missing from that point on, as if she was never able to fully heal her wound. Her parents died when she was at a very young age, causing her to be forced into supporting a large family with little to no assistance, but despite all of the hardships she faced growing up, and the walls that were in her way due to religious oppression of women, Nawal El Saadawi attended the University of Cairo, which had been very male-centric, and graduated in the year of 1955 with a degree in psychiatry. After this large moment in her life, Nawal went on to become the director of Public Health in Egypt, in which she then met her Husband, due to the situation at the office where they shared the same office space. Her husband, Sherif Hetata, shared her leftist views of Egypt, and had been imprisoned for 13 years prior to their meeting, due to his participation in a left-wing opposition party. During the time she worked as the director of Public Health, she...
Every young boy has fantasized or dreamt of that girl next door. We often study them, watch them, and even hatch elaborate schemes that, we hope, will send a probe of insatiable lust into their brains. Alas, those probes are not met with any phenomenon that would resemble a surge of insatiable lust because most of the time we are too shy to say anything at all. James Joyce introduces the reader to such a relation in his short story, Araby. In Araby, Joyce, voiced through an unknown narrator, chronicles a young North Dubliner longing for adventure and escape, while the prevailing theme of the story is consistently the object of the narrators erotic desires, his friend Magnan’s sister.
Picking an original and engaging topic that is able to span all five of the very different authors’ novels we examined this semester proved to be a difficult task. Though there are certainly similarities between each book and overlying themes that connect them, ultimately I didn’t want to get tied down into the shifty and unsafe territory of placing novels together solely because one, they are all written by women; or two, they all emerge out of the Arabic world. However, there are certainly broad themes present in all of the novels, and I chose to focus on how women express, or can’t express their desires and wants, and how the ability to do so leads to agency and freedom in one’s own life.
Moreover, the main character of this arguably structural fictional novel, travelogue and biography, which encompasses both historical and biographical events, begins his journey through the truths of studying eleventh century Egypt. Amitav places himself in the story as a doctoral student who is given the opportunity to study social anthropology. As we learned and discussed throughout this course, there are a variety of methods in which to study religion. Social anthropology focuses on“the study of human beings and societies viewed primarily as both the creators and the creations of culture . . . sociology of religion . . . focuses its attention on social behavior and the way in which religion interacts with other dimension...
In some areas especially in the Northern Egypt, various other groups considered to be minorities associated with other origins apart from Arabian Peninsula also exists, but discrimination against such groups is very minimal as compared to Yemen, where Ethnic and religious minorities are considered to be ‘Occupiers’ who brings a new identity for the Yemen people, the decedents of the family of prophet Muhammad.
Since the middle of 21th century, there has been a rapid increase in the number of intercultural marriage, which is the result after the Supreme Court declared the lega...
Recommending marriage highly, the Prophet Muhammad condemned celibacy. “ Marriage is my tradition ”, he said to have stated. “ He who rejects my tradition is not my followed ”. Not only does marriage bestow social prestige and status on men and women, particularly on women. It also incurs religious merit on its practitioners. Traditionally marriages have been arranged by the parents and are the culmination of involved and often lengthy negotiations between the families of bride and groom. A permanent marriage is of particular importance, and it a couple’s first marriages it is publicly announced and celebrated lavishly. The institution of permanent marriage constituted t...
Once Egyptian citizens reached the peak of their adolescence they were deemed ready for marriage by Egypt's societal