11-25-2015, 05:14 PM
(11-25-2015, 12:04 PM)BmorePat87 Wrote: When my friend's mom was single, she still wore a hijab anytime she was out of the house for cultural reasons. No man forced her to. Is that oppression?
Are American men who make all of the decisions in their household and have complete financial control "radical Americans"?
What about subservient Asian women? Are their husbands radicals?
I guess I'm asking: what is oppression? Is it cultural things like women not speaking in certain situations (which isn't unique to Muslims) or wearing certain clothes or is it more restrictive things?
The whole situation where we have folks in this country, and other western nations, that try to force people to give up their cultural identities for the sake of assimilation makes me think of the story of Eleazer found in the Books of Maccabees. How under the rule of Antiochus IV, the Greeks tried to force the Israelites to give up their cultural identity to become all one people.
Whether through conquering or through immigration, trying to force people to give up a part of their cultural identity is wrong. Plenty of women in Islam cover themselves by choice as a sign of faith. They do find it empowering to not have men be able to see all of them. Reading these sorts of opinions from Arab feminists has been very interesting. Anyway, those that try to force that assimilation, that shedding of cultural identity, have plenty in common with the biblical villains against the Maccabees. Just an interesting thing to remember coming up on the festival commemorating the end of that oppression.
