Crazy Night
Arif Mumtaz November 11, 2001
#50 Posted by Sadhna on November 21, 2001 11:42:40 am
In the one-woman show performed without sets, 27-year-old Sarah brings eight women from different parts of the world to life by changing her voice, height and accent, with a green scarf as her only prop. “I was too stunned to speak… Before this, I thought it was only women in India who have to bear the brunt of their husbands, boyfriends and governments. Now, I realise that women all over
the world face the same problems,” said an
overwhelmed 19-year-old.
JUST A GREEN SCARF TO BREACH BARRIERS OF BIAS
BY MADHUMITA BHATTACHARYYA Calcutta, Nov. 20: Inequality without barriers is the question Sarah Jones addresses in Women Can’t Wait! And on Tuesday morning, the New Yorker broke artistic barriers to take her message straight to “the people who matter”: Students. “An all-women’s college, yeah, even I went to one,” Sarah exclaimed, as she took centrestage in the packed auditorium of Loreto College. Sarah, who attended the “elite, all-women’s” Bryn Mawr college, in Pennsylvania, took no time to “connect” with her young audience. The 50-minute performance that had riveted the diverse audience at Gyan Manch on Monday evening seemed to have an even greater impact on the college students.
In the one-woman show performed without sets, 27-year-old Sarah brings eight women from different parts of the world to life by changing her voice, height and accent, with a green scarf as her only prop. “I was too stunned to speak… Before this, I thought it was only women in India who have to bear the brunt of their husbands, boyfriends and governments. Now, I realise that women all over the world face the same problems,” said an overwhelmed 19-year-old.
The response from the teachers, during an interactive session, was similar. “In times of war, it becomes evident that men are aware of differences that divide man, but it is women who are conscious of the similarity that binds them,” observed one.
The response of the students seemed to make it a mission accomplished for the poet-activist. But Sarah, the realist, insists that this is just the start. The message conveyed by the play, commissioned by Equality Now, an international human rights organisation, is one against state-sanctioned discrimination. But, while laws are “glaring symbolic problems”, Sarah admits that “change has to start at the level of socialisation of children”, teaching them to accept women and men as equals.
“Think of discrimination against women as discrimination against half the population,” challenges Sarah, addressing a wide range of issues, like rape exemption, honour-killing and female genital mutilation, across the globe, from India to Kenya and France.
Sarah, who is “just waiting for the day the show is retired”, believes each community must find its own method to promote equal rights. “I am not going to come in here and say that you have to teach the way they taught me back home, because that wasn’t perfect either.”
From laws against letting women work at night, to “female castration” practised in Africa, the actress who appeared in productions such as The Vagina Monologues chose a wide range of problems to show that “women all over the world are treated like second-class citizens”.
Sarah, who believes there is a “continuum of inequality” connecting women everywhere, said: “What does it mean to say that people are ‘more’ or ‘less’ equal in different countries? It’s just a matter of degrees. Even Hillary Clinton can’t drive in Saudi Arabia.”
Anti-feminist sentiment has not passed Sarah by, either. “Men have come up to me to ask me why we should have a women’s centre and not one for men… They should think about the situation of women before they talk about injustice perpetrated against them.” For her, resistance from patriarchy is no longer the issue. “We have to move beyond that, and say ‘Now what?’”
THE CITY
the world face the same problems,” said an
overwhelmed 19-year-old.
JUST A GREEN SCARF TO BREACH BARRIERS OF BIAS
BY MADHUMITA BHATTACHARYYA Calcutta, Nov. 20: Inequality without barriers is the question Sarah Jones addresses in Women Can’t Wait! And on Tuesday morning, the New Yorker broke artistic barriers to take her message straight to “the people who matter”: Students. “An all-women’s college, yeah, even I went to one,” Sarah exclaimed, as she took centrestage in the packed auditorium of Loreto College. Sarah, who attended the “elite, all-women’s” Bryn Mawr college, in Pennsylvania, took no time to “connect” with her young audience. The 50-minute performance that had riveted the diverse audience at Gyan Manch on Monday evening seemed to have an even greater impact on the college students.
In the one-woman show performed without sets, 27-year-old Sarah brings eight women from different parts of the world to life by changing her voice, height and accent, with a green scarf as her only prop. “I was too stunned to speak… Before this, I thought it was only women in India who have to bear the brunt of their husbands, boyfriends and governments. Now, I realise that women all over the world face the same problems,” said an overwhelmed 19-year-old.
The response from the teachers, during an interactive session, was similar. “In times of war, it becomes evident that men are aware of differences that divide man, but it is women who are conscious of the similarity that binds them,” observed one.
The response of the students seemed to make it a mission accomplished for the poet-activist. But Sarah, the realist, insists that this is just the start. The message conveyed by the play, commissioned by Equality Now, an international human rights organisation, is one against state-sanctioned discrimination. But, while laws are “glaring symbolic problems”, Sarah admits that “change has to start at the level of socialisation of children”, teaching them to accept women and men as equals.
“Think of discrimination against women as discrimination against half the population,” challenges Sarah, addressing a wide range of issues, like rape exemption, honour-killing and female genital mutilation, across the globe, from India to Kenya and France.
Sarah, who is “just waiting for the day the show is retired”, believes each community must find its own method to promote equal rights. “I am not going to come in here and say that you have to teach the way they taught me back home, because that wasn’t perfect either.”
From laws against letting women work at night, to “female castration” practised in Africa, the actress who appeared in productions such as The Vagina Monologues chose a wide range of problems to show that “women all over the world are treated like second-class citizens”.
Sarah, who believes there is a “continuum of inequality” connecting women everywhere, said: “What does it mean to say that people are ‘more’ or ‘less’ equal in different countries? It’s just a matter of degrees. Even Hillary Clinton can’t drive in Saudi Arabia.”
Anti-feminist sentiment has not passed Sarah by, either. “Men have come up to me to ask me why we should have a women’s centre and not one for men… They should think about the situation of women before they talk about injustice perpetrated against them.” For her, resistance from patriarchy is no longer the issue. “We have to move beyond that, and say ‘Now what?’”
THE CITY
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#49 Posted by Fatimah on November 21, 2001 11:42:40 am
Oppressed in Arabia...Status of women unveiled!
``NOT WITHSTANDING HER CONDITION, whether as a peasant in Algeria, a doctor in Cairo, or a secretary in Beirut, a student in Baghdad, a worker in Syria, or veiled in a Harem in Saudi Arabia, the Arab woman shares with her sisters a common fate: a life of renunciation, of captivity, during which she will have to atone for her sin of having been born a woman in a hyper-male society where the ever-present feminine remains synonymous with shame and threat. To begin with, her birth is already perceived as an occasion for mourning rather than for festivities. She is received in an atmosphere of barely suppressed disappointment. They hoped for a boy. Her coming will bring opprobrium on her mother, a shock to her father: `Men beget men,` we always say in our culture; `She has given birth to a girl, he has produced a boy,` they proclaim, totally ignorant of the laws of reproduction. What happens on the day when the baby girl leaves her mother`s womb is only a foretaste. It is the beginning of a life to be endured as a `blameful condition` which will be continuously punctuated by steady and heavy repression and intolerance towards the social and economic changes deriving from our `modern times`. A repression which may on the one hand end up in a death sentence, when the honor of the males is discredited by the non-virginity of their daughter, or, on the other hand, more often, a kind of life sentence in jail-behind a dark veil, behind the thick walls of the family house where the men act as jailers.`` These were the words that I once read in a book, `Women in the Middle East` whose excerpts can be found at: The Arab Woman-A captive being.
Washington Post adds in it`s issue of December 8-2000–– `` Five Saudi women sat in a coffee shop chatting animatedly about their lives over cafe lattes and sandwiches. Suddenly, they heard a commotion outside. Fearing that the `mutawwa`, religious police, had come to throw them in jail for being in public without a male relative, they hastily grabbed their long black scarves and covered their hair and faces as they cast wary looks around them. The `mutawwa` did not show up, but the women decided to leave. Their outing had been spoiled. Ten years after a group of women defied a ban on driving and drove around the capital for 15 minutes, women in Saudi Arabia are still prohibited by law to drive their own cars.`` - AP
``The problem with other people is that they have a certain way of life, and they think if you don`t live like them, there`s something wrong with you,`` said Bassma, head of the culture and heritage committee at Al-Nahda Women`s Charitable Society in Saudi Arabia. ``These self-styled liberators of women have this arrogant attitude and goes around imagining to their own fancy as to what will be the condition of women in Saudia and other Muslim countries if nobody is watching or putting pressure on them to be more civilized, and show some kindness?``
``Why should a Saudi Muslim woman, dress the way an American or European woman does?`` asked the 40-year-old Bassma, who, like all Saudi women, wears a long black abaya and head scarf in public. Basma said she is not inconvenienced by laws that prohibit her from driving. ``If I can have someone drive me around, why should I say no?`` she said. ``In Paris, you have to be a princess to afford a driver. Here, every woman is a princess because she has one, and for those who cannot afford one, can always ask their relatives to drive them around, after all, not every woman gets a license in western countries either. For us in Saudia, women problems are LESS compared to some hypocrite nations acting as torch bearers to the eastern world. They themselves are home to 40 million prostitutes with 10% carrying AIDS virus & almost 4 million of them suffering from full blown AIDS. For most of the women in Saudia, problem is whether to have blue carpet in the home or green & buy BMW or BENZ. Is this what the western countries prefer to call a suffering compared to children being sold for 50¢ to $5 on the streets or worse, 50 million getting killed while still in fetal stage for unwelcome sex in most of the South East Asian countries?``
Her arguments sounds convincing to me. It was recently shown in BBC program ASSIGNMENT titled: `Let her die`, the reporter Emily Buchanan revealed that almost 3000 abortions take place daily in India, when parents find out that the fetus is that of a female child. These alarming statistics goes to depict that we have more than a million female infanticide cases taking place in India alone. The Telegraph of London reported a conservative estimate of 250,000 child abusers in UK of which already 110,000 have been convicted. Scotland Yard admitted to these figures which goes on to depict that almost a quarter of a million Britons - more that one in every 200 adults, is a paedophile and most often the victims of these unnatural desires of perverts are female kids/children. With such statistics, every kid`s parent living in the U.K. would be frightened to death to leave their wards alone, almost anywhere. The upholders of Muslim women rights in the west or elsewhere, might advocate that whatever minimum tolerance exists in Islamic countries or Muslim minds, is due to the indirect fear and pressure from the countries of the west and other progressive people of the world. It`s surprising that they always seem to neglect to mention that over 50% of university graduate students in Saudia are women which is far higher than in our India or most western nations. A Saudi woman has also just been appointed head of a UN agency - but such facts are of no interest to these writers. If nations like India and the rest of the third world (in fact the elite`s in third world countries) want to follow the ways of the west and become morally and spiritually bankrupt let them - the Muslim countries should not follow them down the path to hell. Moreover, I wonder, why these people seem to care so much about Muslim women suffering in the hands of their illiterate/intolerant husbands or society. No one ever seems to care about Muslim men or try to uplift their social status in terms of financial or educational help?
The reason I decided to write this article because, living in an Arabian country and looking around my surroundings, the passages mentioned above came out to be as a work of fiction, and far from the truth. I haven`t had a chance to visit Saudi Arabia till now, but looking around the society in Arab Emirates, I see a totally different view of the women in this region. Of few, I will write below and they are only a few amongst the thousands of Arab women you will come across in your daily life while you visit any office or establishments in the UAE.
Lubna Al Qasimi speaks in her capacity as a woman who has
broken new grounds, as Managing Director of Tejari.com and as head of the UAE`s e-government team. ``Several people have at conferences accused the region of having kept its women behind the veil literally and metaphorically, but my position contradicts the prevailing norm`` and she is quick to defend her nation by stating that things are changing. On being queried if this generalization of women of the region hurts her? she quips, ``Why should I be angry with them for their ignorance? I need to correct their knowledge and correcting it by showing them that what I am is the way to do it. To go into an argument and say they are wrong, I don`t think I win. Let them admire you for what you represent and what you deliver and then it`s a different story.``
Upon receiving the VISA Arabian Business.com 2000, award for the best entrepreneur of the year, Lubna said, ``I am a role model for women. I am out there as a woman who achieved so much in life. People respect us (women) highly seeing us what we represent for our country For them, it is a phenomenal representation of our country. All they know is that ours is a very tight culture very conservative society. But when we go out there, we become ambassadors for ourselves in here.`` When asked to comment upon how she tackles male prejudices? Her reply was, ``Women in senior positions have always had to deal with the egos of male colleagues. Gender conflict has always been perceived as a universal global problem. I have to pay extra attention to demonstrate to them where I come from …that I am not there to fight their egos. I am there to create a future for them and let them carry on their path and forget about me. It`s not their fault. It`s the way they have been raised. I would have been extremely narrow-minded if I was out there to correct them. Then it`s my ego. You can`t blame them for it. I know where their distrust comes from. It is lack of knowledge. They don`t know. You have to give them the time to trust you. You have to deliver before you demand their acceptance. ``You have to have the patience. You have to have the discipline.``
Surayya Al Aridh, a Saudi woman columnist once wrote: ``There are still some of those in this world, who maintain that female employment is a luxury and that it creates unnecessary complications. The women themselves are, however, disproving these people everyday.``
That is definitely the case here in the Emirates, where local Arab women make up 11.4 per cent of the workforce. The percentage is higher only in Bahrain, where they have a relatively strong education. Naheeda Abdulla, a UAE national, is a shining example of what true success is. As a remedial management unit manager for a leading bank in Sharjah, Naheeda is an extremely confident and independent woman. She has seven years of banking experience, and though she works in an industry that is predominantly male, she has managed to hold her own and excel. Set to receive her MBA in Finance and Banking Law, she says, ``Social science affirms that a woman`s place in society marks the level of civilization.`` She says that she loves taking risks and likes challenges which boost her self-confidence. What advice would she give to young woman who are pursuing degrees and careers?
``I would tell them to decide for themselves what is important in their lives and in their careers. You must work hard. We have to try for our children. Come up with new ideas, be innovative and continue doing research while you are in university. And continue to study. Go for higher challenges and obtain an advanced degree if you can.``
Lubna Al Sayegh, 24, works as Accounts Manager in Union National Bank. She mentions of her family members who have always reposed a lot of confidence in her, which in turn boosted her self esteem and made her be confident at the workplace. Currently, she is doing her executive MBA with AUS. On being asked as to how she feels about being stereotyped as a `head covering, backward Arab woman`, she replies, ``To me, if you want to be a person of a global nature, you have to know it`s cultures first … you have to know it`s people, you have to know where they come from and then you understand technology and everything else. At the end of the day, it is people. I am a person who loves culture and I travel extensively … and to me, that is one of the assets as an individual I have.``
In the framework of Islam, Woman is primarily considered as a Home maker and not a housewife because she is not married to a house. She can also work and is entitled to get equal pay if she does the same job as that of a male. There is no text in the Qur’an or the Sunnah which makes it unlawful for women to work or to do any lawful job or profession. If she is married she should take the permission of her husband. She cannot take up jobs which are based on exhibiting her beauty and body, such as modeling, dancing, acting in films, taking part in beauty pageants etc. (Not to mention, we can find a lot of Muslim girls in these *so called * professions these days and pretty proud at that)
Many jobs which are forbidden for women are also forbidden for men, for example serving liquor, working in gambling dens, dealing in corruption and dishonest businesses, etc. A true Islamic Society should have some women as professionals such as women physicians (doctors), women nurses, women teachers, etc. Women have no financial obligations in Islam. It is the duty of the man in the family to look after the financial aspects of the family. Therefore under normal conditions a woman need not work and is not required to earn her livelihood or that of her family. However in certain genuine cases due to financial crisis in the family where both ends do not meet, she has the option to work with the permission of her father or husband or any other elder of the family. Even in such conditions no one can force her to work and if she takes up a job it is by exercising her own free will. The best example we can quote is that of Prophet Muhammad’s (Pbuh) wife, Bibi Khadija (R) who was a very successful businesswoman. She transacted through her husband Prophet Muhammad (Pbuh). Hence, it becomes incumbent upon every Muslim, boy or a girl, to acquire knowledge through education. The first guidance given to the mankind in the Qur’an was ``Iqra`` i.e. to read, recite or proclaim. Surah Iqra and Surah Alaq Chapter 96, Verse 1-5. ``Read! Recite! Proclaim! in the name of thy Lord and cherisher who created - created the human, out of a congealed clot of blood . Read and thy Lord is Most Bountiful. He who taught (the use of) the Pen- taught man that which he knew not (96 : 1-5). The first instruction in the Qur’an was, not to pray or fast or to give charity, but to read. This instruction was to both male and female. Islam gives a great deal of importance to education. Even according to Prophet Muhammad (Pbuh) ``It is obligatory for every Muslim, male or female, to acquire knowledge (Al-Bayhaqi).
Read Also: Women in Afghanistan - Facts and Fictions
``NOT WITHSTANDING HER CONDITION, whether as a peasant in Algeria, a doctor in Cairo, or a secretary in Beirut, a student in Baghdad, a worker in Syria, or veiled in a Harem in Saudi Arabia, the Arab woman shares with her sisters a common fate: a life of renunciation, of captivity, during which she will have to atone for her sin of having been born a woman in a hyper-male society where the ever-present feminine remains synonymous with shame and threat. To begin with, her birth is already perceived as an occasion for mourning rather than for festivities. She is received in an atmosphere of barely suppressed disappointment. They hoped for a boy. Her coming will bring opprobrium on her mother, a shock to her father: `Men beget men,` we always say in our culture; `She has given birth to a girl, he has produced a boy,` they proclaim, totally ignorant of the laws of reproduction. What happens on the day when the baby girl leaves her mother`s womb is only a foretaste. It is the beginning of a life to be endured as a `blameful condition` which will be continuously punctuated by steady and heavy repression and intolerance towards the social and economic changes deriving from our `modern times`. A repression which may on the one hand end up in a death sentence, when the honor of the males is discredited by the non-virginity of their daughter, or, on the other hand, more often, a kind of life sentence in jail-behind a dark veil, behind the thick walls of the family house where the men act as jailers.`` These were the words that I once read in a book, `Women in the Middle East` whose excerpts can be found at: The Arab Woman-A captive being.
Washington Post adds in it`s issue of December 8-2000–– `` Five Saudi women sat in a coffee shop chatting animatedly about their lives over cafe lattes and sandwiches. Suddenly, they heard a commotion outside. Fearing that the `mutawwa`, religious police, had come to throw them in jail for being in public without a male relative, they hastily grabbed their long black scarves and covered their hair and faces as they cast wary looks around them. The `mutawwa` did not show up, but the women decided to leave. Their outing had been spoiled. Ten years after a group of women defied a ban on driving and drove around the capital for 15 minutes, women in Saudi Arabia are still prohibited by law to drive their own cars.`` - AP
``The problem with other people is that they have a certain way of life, and they think if you don`t live like them, there`s something wrong with you,`` said Bassma, head of the culture and heritage committee at Al-Nahda Women`s Charitable Society in Saudi Arabia. ``These self-styled liberators of women have this arrogant attitude and goes around imagining to their own fancy as to what will be the condition of women in Saudia and other Muslim countries if nobody is watching or putting pressure on them to be more civilized, and show some kindness?``
``Why should a Saudi Muslim woman, dress the way an American or European woman does?`` asked the 40-year-old Bassma, who, like all Saudi women, wears a long black abaya and head scarf in public. Basma said she is not inconvenienced by laws that prohibit her from driving. ``If I can have someone drive me around, why should I say no?`` she said. ``In Paris, you have to be a princess to afford a driver. Here, every woman is a princess because she has one, and for those who cannot afford one, can always ask their relatives to drive them around, after all, not every woman gets a license in western countries either. For us in Saudia, women problems are LESS compared to some hypocrite nations acting as torch bearers to the eastern world. They themselves are home to 40 million prostitutes with 10% carrying AIDS virus & almost 4 million of them suffering from full blown AIDS. For most of the women in Saudia, problem is whether to have blue carpet in the home or green & buy BMW or BENZ. Is this what the western countries prefer to call a suffering compared to children being sold for 50¢ to $5 on the streets or worse, 50 million getting killed while still in fetal stage for unwelcome sex in most of the South East Asian countries?``
Her arguments sounds convincing to me. It was recently shown in BBC program ASSIGNMENT titled: `Let her die`, the reporter Emily Buchanan revealed that almost 3000 abortions take place daily in India, when parents find out that the fetus is that of a female child. These alarming statistics goes to depict that we have more than a million female infanticide cases taking place in India alone. The Telegraph of London reported a conservative estimate of 250,000 child abusers in UK of which already 110,000 have been convicted. Scotland Yard admitted to these figures which goes on to depict that almost a quarter of a million Britons - more that one in every 200 adults, is a paedophile and most often the victims of these unnatural desires of perverts are female kids/children. With such statistics, every kid`s parent living in the U.K. would be frightened to death to leave their wards alone, almost anywhere. The upholders of Muslim women rights in the west or elsewhere, might advocate that whatever minimum tolerance exists in Islamic countries or Muslim minds, is due to the indirect fear and pressure from the countries of the west and other progressive people of the world. It`s surprising that they always seem to neglect to mention that over 50% of university graduate students in Saudia are women which is far higher than in our India or most western nations. A Saudi woman has also just been appointed head of a UN agency - but such facts are of no interest to these writers. If nations like India and the rest of the third world (in fact the elite`s in third world countries) want to follow the ways of the west and become morally and spiritually bankrupt let them - the Muslim countries should not follow them down the path to hell. Moreover, I wonder, why these people seem to care so much about Muslim women suffering in the hands of their illiterate/intolerant husbands or society. No one ever seems to care about Muslim men or try to uplift their social status in terms of financial or educational help?
The reason I decided to write this article because, living in an Arabian country and looking around my surroundings, the passages mentioned above came out to be as a work of fiction, and far from the truth. I haven`t had a chance to visit Saudi Arabia till now, but looking around the society in Arab Emirates, I see a totally different view of the women in this region. Of few, I will write below and they are only a few amongst the thousands of Arab women you will come across in your daily life while you visit any office or establishments in the UAE.
Lubna Al Qasimi speaks in her capacity as a woman who has
broken new grounds, as Managing Director of Tejari.com and as head of the UAE`s e-government team. ``Several people have at conferences accused the region of having kept its women behind the veil literally and metaphorically, but my position contradicts the prevailing norm`` and she is quick to defend her nation by stating that things are changing. On being queried if this generalization of women of the region hurts her? she quips, ``Why should I be angry with them for their ignorance? I need to correct their knowledge and correcting it by showing them that what I am is the way to do it. To go into an argument and say they are wrong, I don`t think I win. Let them admire you for what you represent and what you deliver and then it`s a different story.``
Upon receiving the VISA Arabian Business.com 2000, award for the best entrepreneur of the year, Lubna said, ``I am a role model for women. I am out there as a woman who achieved so much in life. People respect us (women) highly seeing us what we represent for our country For them, it is a phenomenal representation of our country. All they know is that ours is a very tight culture very conservative society. But when we go out there, we become ambassadors for ourselves in here.`` When asked to comment upon how she tackles male prejudices? Her reply was, ``Women in senior positions have always had to deal with the egos of male colleagues. Gender conflict has always been perceived as a universal global problem. I have to pay extra attention to demonstrate to them where I come from …that I am not there to fight their egos. I am there to create a future for them and let them carry on their path and forget about me. It`s not their fault. It`s the way they have been raised. I would have been extremely narrow-minded if I was out there to correct them. Then it`s my ego. You can`t blame them for it. I know where their distrust comes from. It is lack of knowledge. They don`t know. You have to give them the time to trust you. You have to deliver before you demand their acceptance. ``You have to have the patience. You have to have the discipline.``
Surayya Al Aridh, a Saudi woman columnist once wrote: ``There are still some of those in this world, who maintain that female employment is a luxury and that it creates unnecessary complications. The women themselves are, however, disproving these people everyday.``
That is definitely the case here in the Emirates, where local Arab women make up 11.4 per cent of the workforce. The percentage is higher only in Bahrain, where they have a relatively strong education. Naheeda Abdulla, a UAE national, is a shining example of what true success is. As a remedial management unit manager for a leading bank in Sharjah, Naheeda is an extremely confident and independent woman. She has seven years of banking experience, and though she works in an industry that is predominantly male, she has managed to hold her own and excel. Set to receive her MBA in Finance and Banking Law, she says, ``Social science affirms that a woman`s place in society marks the level of civilization.`` She says that she loves taking risks and likes challenges which boost her self-confidence. What advice would she give to young woman who are pursuing degrees and careers?
``I would tell them to decide for themselves what is important in their lives and in their careers. You must work hard. We have to try for our children. Come up with new ideas, be innovative and continue doing research while you are in university. And continue to study. Go for higher challenges and obtain an advanced degree if you can.``
Lubna Al Sayegh, 24, works as Accounts Manager in Union National Bank. She mentions of her family members who have always reposed a lot of confidence in her, which in turn boosted her self esteem and made her be confident at the workplace. Currently, she is doing her executive MBA with AUS. On being asked as to how she feels about being stereotyped as a `head covering, backward Arab woman`, she replies, ``To me, if you want to be a person of a global nature, you have to know it`s cultures first … you have to know it`s people, you have to know where they come from and then you understand technology and everything else. At the end of the day, it is people. I am a person who loves culture and I travel extensively … and to me, that is one of the assets as an individual I have.``
In the framework of Islam, Woman is primarily considered as a Home maker and not a housewife because she is not married to a house. She can also work and is entitled to get equal pay if she does the same job as that of a male. There is no text in the Qur’an or the Sunnah which makes it unlawful for women to work or to do any lawful job or profession. If she is married she should take the permission of her husband. She cannot take up jobs which are based on exhibiting her beauty and body, such as modeling, dancing, acting in films, taking part in beauty pageants etc. (Not to mention, we can find a lot of Muslim girls in these *so called * professions these days and pretty proud at that)
Many jobs which are forbidden for women are also forbidden for men, for example serving liquor, working in gambling dens, dealing in corruption and dishonest businesses, etc. A true Islamic Society should have some women as professionals such as women physicians (doctors), women nurses, women teachers, etc. Women have no financial obligations in Islam. It is the duty of the man in the family to look after the financial aspects of the family. Therefore under normal conditions a woman need not work and is not required to earn her livelihood or that of her family. However in certain genuine cases due to financial crisis in the family where both ends do not meet, she has the option to work with the permission of her father or husband or any other elder of the family. Even in such conditions no one can force her to work and if she takes up a job it is by exercising her own free will. The best example we can quote is that of Prophet Muhammad’s (Pbuh) wife, Bibi Khadija (R) who was a very successful businesswoman. She transacted through her husband Prophet Muhammad (Pbuh). Hence, it becomes incumbent upon every Muslim, boy or a girl, to acquire knowledge through education. The first guidance given to the mankind in the Qur’an was ``Iqra`` i.e. to read, recite or proclaim. Surah Iqra and Surah Alaq Chapter 96, Verse 1-5. ``Read! Recite! Proclaim! in the name of thy Lord and cherisher who created - created the human, out of a congealed clot of blood . Read and thy Lord is Most Bountiful. He who taught (the use of) the Pen- taught man that which he knew not (96 : 1-5). The first instruction in the Qur’an was, not to pray or fast or to give charity, but to read. This instruction was to both male and female. Islam gives a great deal of importance to education. Even according to Prophet Muhammad (Pbuh) ``It is obligatory for every Muslim, male or female, to acquire knowledge (Al-Bayhaqi).
Read Also: Women in Afghanistan - Facts and Fictions
#48 Posted by rsaxena on November 21, 2001 11:42:40 am
Re: apparition
``why do most `kutter` religious men despise women?????``
probably same reason why `kutter` religious women despise men
``why do most `kutter` religious men despise women?????``
probably same reason why `kutter` religious women despise men
#47 Posted by apparition on November 20, 2001 8:14:07 pm
reply to AishaA/bijli/shah
if you could give me some insight ........and i am not jesting with you and asking you this very seriously.... why do most `kutter` religious men despise women?????
why do you despise women so much ????????
if you could give me some insight ........and i am not jesting with you and asking you this very seriously.... why do most `kutter` religious men despise women?????
why do you despise women so much ????????
#46 Posted by Fatimah on November 20, 2001 8:14:07 pm
Nov-17-01 22:57:9 EST Reply #: 46
Bhardwaj
November 18, 2001
IN THE MAGAZINE
What the Muslim World Is Watching
By FOUAD AJAMI
November 18, 2001
IN THE MAGAZINE
What the Muslim World Is Watching
By FOUAD AJAMI
In case anyone is not familiar with Foud Ajami ,he is notoriously anti-muslims.He may carry an Arabic name ,but as we have been yelling at Naipaul ,Bernard Lewis , Friedman & Emerson,some of the other poisonously anti muslim,by artfully inserting imagery of hatred towards muslims in there books & articles.Important part is these 4-5 authors are the main expert analyst ,adviser & source of information for Bush Administration & American media including the so called impartial PBS Charlie rose show & PRN(public radio network?) etc etc.
#45 Posted by semipreciousme on November 19, 2001 1:19:34 am
scout
“preciousyou #44,
it`s a shame isn`t it? with all the wonderful women like us roaming the planet, you`d think God would have been kinder to us. :)”
…i’d tell you to say that again, too….except it looks like shah & co. are having fits….
“preciousyou #44,
it`s a shame isn`t it? with all the wonderful women like us roaming the planet, you`d think God would have been kinder to us. :)”
…i’d tell you to say that again, too….except it looks like shah & co. are having fits….
#44 Posted by Bhardwaj on November 17, 2001 10:57:09 pm
November 18, 2001
IN THE MAGAZINE
What the Muslim World Is Watching
By FOUAD AJAMI
l Jazeera is not subtle television. Recently, during a lull in its nonstop coverage of the raids on Kabul and the street battles of Bethlehem, the Arabic-language satellite news station showed an odd but telling episode of its documentary program ``Biography and Secrets.`` The show`s subject was Ernesto (Che) Guevara. Presenting Che as a romantic, doomed hero, the documentary recounted the Marxist rebel`s last stand in the remote mountains of Bolivia, lingering mournfully over the details of his capture and execution. Even Che`s corpse received a lot of airtime; Al Jazeera loves grisly footage and is never shy about presenting graphic imagery.
The episode`s subject matter was, of course, allegorical. Before bin Laden, there was Guevara. Before Afghanistan, there was Bolivia. As for the show`s focus on C.I.A. operatives chasing Guevara into the mountains, this, too, was clearly meant to evoke the contemporary hunt for Osama, the Islamic rebel.
Al Jazeera, which claims a global audience of 35 million Arabic-speaking viewers, may not officially be the Osama bin Laden Channel -- but he is clearly its star, as I learned during an extended viewing of the station`s programming in October. The channel`s graphics assign him a lead role: there is bin Laden seated on a mat, his submachine gun on his lap; there is bin Laden on horseback in Afghanistan, the brave knight of the Arab world. A huge, glamorous poster of bin Laden`s silhouette hangs in the background of the main studio set at Al Jazeera`s headquarters in Doha, the capital city of Qatar.
On Al Jazeera (which means ``the Peninsula``), the Hollywoodization of news is indulged with an abandon that would make the Fox News Channel blush. The channel`s promos are particularly shameless. One clip juxtaposes a scowling George Bush with a poised, almost dreamy bin Laden; between them is an image of the World Trade Center engulfed in flames. Another promo opens with a glittering shot of the Dome of the Rock. What follows is a feverish montage: a crowd of Israeli settlers dance with unfurled flags; an Israeli soldier fires his rifle; a group of Palestinians display Israeli bullet shells; a Palestinian woman wails; a wounded Arab child lies on a bed. In the climactic image, Palestinian boys carry a banner decrying the shame of the Arab world`s silence.
Al Jazeera`s reporters are similarly adept at riling up the viewer. A fiercely opinionated group, most are either pan-Arabists -- nationalists of a leftist bent committed to the idea of a single nation across the many frontiers of the Arab world -- or Islamists who draw their inspiration from the primacy of the Muslim faith in political life. Since their primary allegiance is to fellow Muslims, not Muslim states, Al Jazeera`s reporters and editors have no qualms about challenging the wisdom of today`s Arab rulers. Indeed, Al Jazeera has been rebuked by the governments of Libya and Tunisia for giving opposition leaders from those countries significant air time. Kuwait and Saudi Arabia, for their part, have complained about Al Jazeera`s extensive reporting on the misery of Iraqis living under sanctions. But the five-year-old station has refused to be reined in. The channel openly scorns the sycophantic tone of the state-run Arab media and the quiescence of the mainstream Arab press, both of which play down controversy and dissent.
Compared with other Arab media outlets, Al Jazeera may be more independent -- but it is also more inflammatory. For the dark side of the pan-Arab worldview is an aggressive mix of anti-Americanism and anti-Zionism, and these hostilities drive the station`s coverage, whether it is reporting on the upheaval in the West Bank or on the American raids on Kandahar. Although Al Jazeera has sometimes been hailed in the West for being an autonomous Arabic news outlet, it would be a mistake to call it a fair or responsible one. Day in and day out, Al Jazeera deliberately fans the flames of Muslim outrage.
Consider how Al Jazeera covered the second intifada, which erupted in September 2000. The story was a godsend for the station; masked Palestinian boys aiming slingshots and stones at Israeli soldiers made for constantly compelling television. The station`s coverage of the crisis barely feigned neutrality. The men and women who reported from Israel and Gaza kept careful count of the ``martyrs.`` The channel`s policy was firm: Palestinians who fell to Israeli gunfire were martyrs; Israelis killed by Palestinians were Israelis killed by Palestinians. Al Jazeera`s reporters exalted the ``children of the stones,`` giving them the same amount of coverage that MSNBC gave to Monica Lewinsky. The station played and replayed the heart-rending footage of 12-year-old Muhammed al-Durra, who was shot in Gaza and died in his father`s arms. The images` ceaseless repetition signaled the arrival of a new, sensational breed of Arab journalism. Even some Palestinians questioned the opportunistic way Al Jazeera handled the tragic incident. But the channel savored the publicity and the controversy all the same.
Since Sept. 11, I discovered, Al Jazeera has become only more incendiary. The channel`s seething dispatches from the ``streets of Kabul`` or the ``streets of Baghdad`` emphasize anti-American feeling. The channel`s numerous call-in shows welcome viewers to express opinions that in the United States would be considered hate speech. And, of course, there is the matter of Al Jazeera`s ``exclusive`` bin Laden videotapes. On Oct. 7, Al Jazeera broadcast a chilling message from bin Laden that Al Qaeda had delivered to its Kabul bureau. Dressed in a camouflage jacket over a traditional thoub, bin Laden spoke in ornate Arabic, claiming that the terror attacks of Sept. 11 should be applauded by Muslims. It was a riveting performance -- one that was repeated on Nov. 3, when another bin Laden speech aired in full on the station. And just over a week ago, Al Jazeera broadcast a third Al Qaeda tape, this one showcasing the military skills of four young men who were said to be bin Laden`s own sons.
The problem of Al Jazeera`s role in the current crisis is one that the White House has been trying to solve. Indeed, the Bush administration has lately been expressing its desire to win the ``war of ideas,`` to capture the Muslim world`s intellectual sympathy and make it see the war against bin Laden as a just cause. There has been talk of showing American-government-sponsored commercials on Al Jazeera. And top American officials have begun appearing on the station`s talk shows. But my viewing suggests that it won`t be easy to dampen the fiery tone of Al Jazeera. The enmity runs too deep.
IN THE MAGAZINE
What the Muslim World Is Watching
By FOUAD AJAMI
l Jazeera is not subtle television. Recently, during a lull in its nonstop coverage of the raids on Kabul and the street battles of Bethlehem, the Arabic-language satellite news station showed an odd but telling episode of its documentary program ``Biography and Secrets.`` The show`s subject was Ernesto (Che) Guevara. Presenting Che as a romantic, doomed hero, the documentary recounted the Marxist rebel`s last stand in the remote mountains of Bolivia, lingering mournfully over the details of his capture and execution. Even Che`s corpse received a lot of airtime; Al Jazeera loves grisly footage and is never shy about presenting graphic imagery.
The episode`s subject matter was, of course, allegorical. Before bin Laden, there was Guevara. Before Afghanistan, there was Bolivia. As for the show`s focus on C.I.A. operatives chasing Guevara into the mountains, this, too, was clearly meant to evoke the contemporary hunt for Osama, the Islamic rebel.
Al Jazeera, which claims a global audience of 35 million Arabic-speaking viewers, may not officially be the Osama bin Laden Channel -- but he is clearly its star, as I learned during an extended viewing of the station`s programming in October. The channel`s graphics assign him a lead role: there is bin Laden seated on a mat, his submachine gun on his lap; there is bin Laden on horseback in Afghanistan, the brave knight of the Arab world. A huge, glamorous poster of bin Laden`s silhouette hangs in the background of the main studio set at Al Jazeera`s headquarters in Doha, the capital city of Qatar.
On Al Jazeera (which means ``the Peninsula``), the Hollywoodization of news is indulged with an abandon that would make the Fox News Channel blush. The channel`s promos are particularly shameless. One clip juxtaposes a scowling George Bush with a poised, almost dreamy bin Laden; between them is an image of the World Trade Center engulfed in flames. Another promo opens with a glittering shot of the Dome of the Rock. What follows is a feverish montage: a crowd of Israeli settlers dance with unfurled flags; an Israeli soldier fires his rifle; a group of Palestinians display Israeli bullet shells; a Palestinian woman wails; a wounded Arab child lies on a bed. In the climactic image, Palestinian boys carry a banner decrying the shame of the Arab world`s silence.
Al Jazeera`s reporters are similarly adept at riling up the viewer. A fiercely opinionated group, most are either pan-Arabists -- nationalists of a leftist bent committed to the idea of a single nation across the many frontiers of the Arab world -- or Islamists who draw their inspiration from the primacy of the Muslim faith in political life. Since their primary allegiance is to fellow Muslims, not Muslim states, Al Jazeera`s reporters and editors have no qualms about challenging the wisdom of today`s Arab rulers. Indeed, Al Jazeera has been rebuked by the governments of Libya and Tunisia for giving opposition leaders from those countries significant air time. Kuwait and Saudi Arabia, for their part, have complained about Al Jazeera`s extensive reporting on the misery of Iraqis living under sanctions. But the five-year-old station has refused to be reined in. The channel openly scorns the sycophantic tone of the state-run Arab media and the quiescence of the mainstream Arab press, both of which play down controversy and dissent.
Compared with other Arab media outlets, Al Jazeera may be more independent -- but it is also more inflammatory. For the dark side of the pan-Arab worldview is an aggressive mix of anti-Americanism and anti-Zionism, and these hostilities drive the station`s coverage, whether it is reporting on the upheaval in the West Bank or on the American raids on Kandahar. Although Al Jazeera has sometimes been hailed in the West for being an autonomous Arabic news outlet, it would be a mistake to call it a fair or responsible one. Day in and day out, Al Jazeera deliberately fans the flames of Muslim outrage.
Consider how Al Jazeera covered the second intifada, which erupted in September 2000. The story was a godsend for the station; masked Palestinian boys aiming slingshots and stones at Israeli soldiers made for constantly compelling television. The station`s coverage of the crisis barely feigned neutrality. The men and women who reported from Israel and Gaza kept careful count of the ``martyrs.`` The channel`s policy was firm: Palestinians who fell to Israeli gunfire were martyrs; Israelis killed by Palestinians were Israelis killed by Palestinians. Al Jazeera`s reporters exalted the ``children of the stones,`` giving them the same amount of coverage that MSNBC gave to Monica Lewinsky. The station played and replayed the heart-rending footage of 12-year-old Muhammed al-Durra, who was shot in Gaza and died in his father`s arms. The images` ceaseless repetition signaled the arrival of a new, sensational breed of Arab journalism. Even some Palestinians questioned the opportunistic way Al Jazeera handled the tragic incident. But the channel savored the publicity and the controversy all the same.
Since Sept. 11, I discovered, Al Jazeera has become only more incendiary. The channel`s seething dispatches from the ``streets of Kabul`` or the ``streets of Baghdad`` emphasize anti-American feeling. The channel`s numerous call-in shows welcome viewers to express opinions that in the United States would be considered hate speech. And, of course, there is the matter of Al Jazeera`s ``exclusive`` bin Laden videotapes. On Oct. 7, Al Jazeera broadcast a chilling message from bin Laden that Al Qaeda had delivered to its Kabul bureau. Dressed in a camouflage jacket over a traditional thoub, bin Laden spoke in ornate Arabic, claiming that the terror attacks of Sept. 11 should be applauded by Muslims. It was a riveting performance -- one that was repeated on Nov. 3, when another bin Laden speech aired in full on the station. And just over a week ago, Al Jazeera broadcast a third Al Qaeda tape, this one showcasing the military skills of four young men who were said to be bin Laden`s own sons.
The problem of Al Jazeera`s role in the current crisis is one that the White House has been trying to solve. Indeed, the Bush administration has lately been expressing its desire to win the ``war of ideas,`` to capture the Muslim world`s intellectual sympathy and make it see the war against bin Laden as a just cause. There has been talk of showing American-government-sponsored commercials on Al Jazeera. And top American officials have begun appearing on the station`s talk shows. But my viewing suggests that it won`t be easy to dampen the fiery tone of Al Jazeera. The enmity runs too deep.
#43 Posted by scout on November 17, 2001 4:30:42 am
preciousyou #44,
it`s a shame isn`t it? with all the wonderful women like us roaming the planet, you`d think God would have been kinder to us. :)
it`s a shame isn`t it? with all the wonderful women like us roaming the planet, you`d think God would have been kinder to us. :)
#42 Posted by semipreciousme on November 17, 2001 12:58:09 am
scout
“Apparition #37, ``We just have to be a little patient and soon we will see a smiling.... distracted .......drooling scout(at least for a while)``
i don`t think so budz. there just aren`t many drool/smile/distraction-worthy guys out there.”
…..you can say that again…..and again….:)
“Apparition #37, ``We just have to be a little patient and soon we will see a smiling.... distracted .......drooling scout(at least for a while)``
i don`t think so budz. there just aren`t many drool/smile/distraction-worthy guys out there.”
…..you can say that again…..and again….:)
#40 Posted by Fatimah on November 17, 2001 12:58:09 am
SO YOU DONT CELEBRATE THANKS GIVING B/C YOU ARE NOT DESCENDENTS OF PILGRIMS,YOU NEVER DISPLACED NATIVE INDIANS INITIALLY HOW ABOUT JUST MAKING IT A DAY TO THANK FOR ALL THE FORTUNE YOU SAY NO THANK YOU FOR WHOLE YEAR
Be Thankful for What You Have!!
Should you find something on your dinner plate that doesn`t appeal to you, don`t complain. There are people who don`t have anything on their plate.
Should you find yourself stuck in traffic, don`t despair. There are people in this world for whom driving is an unheard of privilege.
Should you have a bad day at work, think of the man who has been out of work for years.
Should you despair over a relationship gone bad, think of the person who has never known what it`s like to love and be loved in return.
Should you grieve the passing of another weekend, think of the woman in dire straits, working twelve hours a day, seven days a week to feed her children.
Should your car break down, leaving you miles away from assistance, think of the paraplegic who would love the opportunity to take that walk.
Should you notice a new gray hair in the mirror, think of the cancer patient in chemo who wishes she had hair to examine.
Should you find yourself at a loss and pondering what is life all about, asking what is my purpose? Be thankful. There are those who didn`t live long enough to get the opportunity.
Should you find yourself the victim of other people`s bitterness, ignorance, smallness or insecurities, remember, things could be worse. You could be them!
Should you decide to send this to a friend, you might brighten someone`s day!
#39 Posted by ZafarA on November 16, 2001 7:08:58 am
Reply Scout # 40
Apparition #37, ``We just have to be a little patient and soon we will see a smiling.... distracted .......drooling scout(at least for a while)``
Scoutji: ``i don`t think so budz. there just aren`t many drool/smile/distraction-worthy guys out there.``
This is your final warning.
Apparition #37, ``We just have to be a little patient and soon we will see a smiling.... distracted .......drooling scout(at least for a while)``
Scoutji: ``i don`t think so budz. there just aren`t many drool/smile/distraction-worthy guys out there.``
This is your final warning.
#38 Posted by scout on November 15, 2001 11:54:38 pm
Apparition #37, ``We just have to be a little patient and soon we will see a smiling.... distracted .......drooling scout(at least for a while)``
i don`t think so budz. there just aren`t many drool/smile/distraction-worthy guys out there.
i don`t think so budz. there just aren`t many drool/smile/distraction-worthy guys out there.
#37 Posted by scout on November 15, 2001 11:54:38 pm
Zafar #35,
Don`t entice me with that lovely South Indian food you mentioned. And keep Mr. Cupidappa to yourself, thank you very much. I don`t need such lovey dovey nonsense in my life.
No, I didn`t go to that flamenco/kathak thing Samina mentioned. :( My father came to visit.
Is ``Vengo`` good?
Don`t entice me with that lovely South Indian food you mentioned. And keep Mr. Cupidappa to yourself, thank you very much. I don`t need such lovey dovey nonsense in my life.
No, I didn`t go to that flamenco/kathak thing Samina mentioned. :( My father came to visit.
Is ``Vengo`` good?
#36 Posted by apparition on November 15, 2001 11:30:40 am
re Zafar # 35
Don`t worry there is still hope for her .......... after all she does enjoy reading stuff about love and does believe in loving some people.
We just have to be a little patient and soon we will see a smiling.... distracted .......drooling scout(at least for a while)
Don`t worry there is still hope for her .......... after all she does enjoy reading stuff about love and does believe in loving some people.
We just have to be a little patient and soon we will see a smiling.... distracted .......drooling scout(at least for a while)
#35 Posted by aicha on November 15, 2001 11:30:40 am
Aamir - guilty as charged - for ``gooblifying`` everything !!
Zafar al Talib - Minister for Education?? ME?? something tells me you are now ``goobly da`fying`` things here !! unpardonable !
aicha
Zafar al Talib - Minister for Education?? ME?? something tells me you are now ``goobly da`fying`` things here !! unpardonable !
aicha
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