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How does gender affect religion
How religion controls women
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Do your parents force you to wear the hijab? Aren’t you allowed to choose whom you want to marry? Is there anything you do because of your free will or does anyone oppress you? These questions are some of many a Muslim woman heard at least two times in her life. Nowadays Muslims and especially Muslim women are faced with many stereotypes caused by media, Hollywood, books and other sources. This essay deals with some stereotypes and about how Muslims really are. All opinions are mine and based on my and my friends' daily lives.
The major believe today’s society has, is that women are oppressed by their family and by other people in their environment. For the society, women are victims of Islam. People also think that they are uneducated and do not know which rights they have. Nowadays media shows the hijab - a headscarf - as a symbol of the oppression towards Muslim women. Even if there are those prejudices, the hijab does not hinder women from achieving what they want. In Islam, women have the same rights as men and can live their life the way they want to. Wearing the hijab is a commandment of God. As well as Muslims have to pray five times a day, support the needy, have to fast the month of Ramadan and to pilgrim to Makkah, Muslim women have to wear the hijab. It rather protects women from the man’s gaze and leads them to
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The prejudices of the society towards Muslims have a negative impact on their daily lives. As a Muslim, you have the feeling of a second-class citizen, even if you were born in the country you are living. It is hard to find a job because job interviewers rather want to see a woman who is unveiled instead of one with a hijab. Strangers are insulting you in the streets and say phrases like “Go back to your Homeland” or “I don’t want terrorists like you in my
The first religion and its views on women that will be discussed in this essay is Islam. Islam is a religions founded in Saudi Arabia almost two thousand years ago, by the prophet Muhammad. In fact, Muhammad dedicated much attention towards women in the Koran, the holy book of Islam. However, even though much was dedicated to women in the Koran, it was not dedicated to them in the sense of equality. Women in Islamic culture were apparently much lower on the totem pole than men, "The men are made responsible for the women, since God endowed them with certain qualities, and made them the bread earners...If you experience opposition from the women, you shall first talk to them, then [you may use such negative incentives as] deserting them in bed, then you may beat them (129)." Excerpt...
Fatemeh Fakhraie’s essay “Scarfing it Down,” explains how Muslim women suffer because of what they wear. Fakhraie blogs about Muslim women in her website she explains; “Seeing ourselves portrayed in the media in ways that are one-dimensional and misleading." Several people judge Muslim's by their appearance because they assume they're a bad person. The author of this essay wants the reader to know that Muslim women wearing a hijab are not a threat to the world.
The veil illustrates a women’s love for god, their modesty, and to show Muslim identity. The veil itself is not bad and even today is looked as a women’s choice to wear such clothing. The symbolism behind the hijab is very powerful and beautiful to show love for god and self-identity. The hijab gives women power and choice; Although, many women adopted the hijab since they will be treated better in their society. In the article “Reinventing the Veil” by Leila Ahmed, she wrote, “Changing dress sometimes empowered them in relation to their parents… expanded job and marriage possibilities… and ability to move freely in public space.” The idea that women must wear the hijab to be equal to men to demining to women. Some parts of the Islam society look as women differently depending on whether they wear the hijab, but the hijab should only be the woman’s choice and not something women have to wear to be able to walk freely and acquire jobs that men have. The western world looks at this and instantly looks down on the Islam world even when the whole society doesn’t look down on women for their choice on wearing the
The constant smear remarks from media headlines are chiseled into the minds of Westerners and no amount of “educated [and] articulate women fulfilling the modest conditions of the hijab can do little to dispel the myths” (Stacey). She writes how even when these women are simply placing their focus on the spiritually constructed values rather than socially constructed ones they still may be labeled as oppressed. Indeed, the majority of the women in the world have the free choice to where a hijab or not. The Gallup Poll mentioned earlier actually concludes that that “most women in the Muslim world are well aware that they have the same capabilities and deserve the same fundamental rights as men”
Women who thoroughly practice Islam cover themselves because it shows dedication to serving their God. Wearing of the sacred fabric contains much more spiritual context than how social norms perceive it and how other religions and cultures dictate its physical meaning. The undeniable aspect of rules of any religion is their spiritual message. It is no secret that woman possess more visible attractive qualities to lust over than men do. There is also nothing wrong with realizing the self-worthy of your body and wanting to cover it. These women wearing the hijabs for the most part are not oppressed, they are liberated and free. In the Qu’ ran, it tells women to dress modestly but does not state that they must wear a hijab- they do so out of respect for their religion. Choosing to wear a veil or hijab does not mean you are stripped of your rights. Many Muslim women, who live in Western societies that actively participate in Islam, still have the same rights as others. They are allowed education, participation in sports, and other activities that other individuals are allowed. Even in other countries where Islam is the main religion, most women are not being oppressed- they have a voice. “Women always have the right to say no…” (Sloan. 220) It seems as though people seem to be stuck in old ways assuming Muslim women live domestically
While people in the west think that women in Islam are oppressed, they do not know that Islam liberated women from oppression. There are many people who have opinions about the religion of Islam, but mostly about the women who follow it. Westerners have this idea that women in Islam are disrespected, mistreated and oppressed. In actuality, these allegations are incorrect. Women in Islam have rights and are not oppressed. The veil is widely misunderstood and many do not know what it represents. In many ways, men and women are equal as much as they are not; and this is in every religion.
It is important to keep in mind that each woman should be allowed to decide if she wants to wear a hijab or not regardless of her religion or culture. In a feminist perspective the hijab is seen as constricting and as a form of oppression to the female sex. However this feminist view exists in two forms, the Muslim form and the Western form. Western media and culture has constantly played off that the Hijab or any form of head dress is a form of oppression keeping women below the regular society, however not all Muslim women feel that way. Many wear their hijabs or other respective version of a headscarf as an identity, which is very personal and important to many of them.
has contributes to the issues that Muslim American experience, which are prejudice and discrimination. In the U.S. perspective, Islam–and therefore all Muslims–are associated with the stereotypical Western views. More precisely, stereotypes such as: representing Muslim women as being oppressed (Peek 281), associating Muslims as terrorists (Sethi 145-146), and categorizing them as “un-American” (Peek 278). For example, oppression is when several related forces conspire to immobilize, reduce and mold the lives of individuals (Frye 152). Muslim women are portrayed in the media as an oppressed victim by being forced to wear her headscarf, forced to be submissive to men, and forced to stay in the domestic environment while women in the west in the same situation are seen as choosing that lifestyle (Peek 281).
Many Muslim women feel that wearing the hijab causes political debate and controversy in the United States. Nadine Naber an Arab fashion and beauty blogger, had an interview discussing the topic of Arab women facing discrimination from western culture. Although she said that she has not faced a lot of discrimination she did say that “the women are under constant pressure to represent Islam in a positive light and against Western misrepresentations of Muslim women as oppressed and, often at the same time, hypersexualized.” (Peterson). With this being said, the controversy causes Muslim women to have to represent Islam in a positive light because western culture already has this idea of who Muslim women are can what they are going to do the the western society.
Stereotypes will continue to follow Muslim women, but they just brush them off and continue doing what they’re doing, which is something every person should do.
To begin with, the hijab is uncomfortable and impractical in today's modern society. The hijab causes more problems than it solves. Many people either are scared of someone wearing it or they hate the person wearing it. It is very difficult to
Historically, Muslims have often been the targets of abuse and ridicule, usually because they dress differently and practise a different faith, however, due to recent repeated terrorist acts by some extreme radicals and the Islamic state (ISIS), the fear and hatred has increased and developed into prejudice, which is an unfavourable attitude towards a social group and its members. After the terrorist attack in London, anti-Islamic attitudes were rampant, resulting in comments like the one above, and reinforcing group distinctions. People are more likely to categorise themselves as a certain social group, when they perceive the difference between themselves and people in out-groups, as more significant than differences within the in-group (the
Women who have the misfortune of living in predominately Muslim societies often are confronted with adversities concerning their rights in marriage, divorce, education, and seclusion. Consequently, many Westerners seeing a lack of equality towards women in these societies consider it as a confirmation of their own misconceptions about Islam itself. Islam is often rejected as being an intolerant and violent religion that discriminates against and subjugates women, treating them as second-class citizens. From a Muslim’s perspective, Islam’s stance on women can be approached by two opposing views. Scholars amongst the Muslim apologists have claimed, “The verses in the Qur’an represented Muhammad's intention to improve a debased condition of women that prevailed during the Jahiliya, the time of ignorance before Islam came into being.” (Doumato, 177) If inequalities still exist between men and women, they cannot be attributed to Islam, but are a result of the misinterpretation of Islam’s true meaning. Others have entirely denied the notion of inequality between men and women in Islam, claiming that the alleged inequalities “are merely perceived as such by foreign observers who confuse seclusion and sex difference with inequality.” (Ibid.) Many Muslim apologists defend the Koran as noble for the very fact that it raises women to an equal status of men despite their inferiority.
Even though the main responsibilities of Muslim women are to take care of children, serve the husband, follow gender-specific commandments, traditional responsibilities and assistance in political as well as religious decisions are still held by women in Islam. Many teachings of Muhammad that protected the dignity of women contain one of his most well-known sayings about this topic: "...the best among you are those who treat their wives well." So it can be stated that women are not oppressed in Islam. Among the reasons of perceiving Muslim women as victims of oppression stands head and body covering.
Women in Islam, the stereotypical married off whilst still a child, uneducated oppressed stay at home mom with an abusive husband. As Halima Abdullah puts it in “And Ain’t I a Muslima?” we are a “trend towards suggesting that most Muslimas are shrouded in some mysterious, untold past” (Abdullah, 217). Muslim women are actually the complete opposite, although there are sadly some women in the position, many Muslima’s are actually empowered within their communities. I interviewed Tabarak Abdelhabib, a Sudanese Muslim woman who is currently a sophomore at ASU.