BELLY DANCERS VS. BURQAS

 This was a very good experience for me. I took a lot from it. At first I definitely had no idea what to expect. I thought I was just going to be sitting in a room for two hours bored out of my mind. I was 100% wrong. From the minute the woman started talking I was intrigued. The first thing she made us do was sit down with a scrap piece of paper and she asked us "Muslim women are..." she told us not to think about it too hard and to write down the first thing that came to mind. I immediately thought "hardworking" "strong" "misunderstood" and "beautiful". It didn't really seem too hard to me. Muslim women I thought are just like every other women. Wrong. A lot of people whether they are male or female who are not Muslim view Muslim women differently. However, it may not be because that is their thoughts, it could be because of the things they have seen on t.v., in movies, or magazines.  As the slide show started the first picture we looked at was a picture of Jasmine from "Aladdin". One of my all time favorite Disney movies. Which made me even more excited. However, I never really looked at Disney the way we did in this lecture. When we had talked about the racist lyrics in the beginning of the movie, I really thought how could Disney do something like this and get away with it? When you are younger you obviously do not pick up on these things. Why are people so racist? If you listen to the lyrics of this song you can clearly hear it say "where they cut off your ear if they don't like your face, but hey it's home". Because Disney was told to change their lyrics not a lot of people have heard this. But after listening to this song people will start to think that Muslims do this. Not true. Muslims, and Muslim women are just like every other person.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YSxZXZ11yH8

Going back to Aladdin we talked about Jasmine's appearance. She has the features of a white girl rather than her own Muslim features. On the other hand the villian of the movie Jafar clearly has visible Muslim looking features. It's like they are trying to say it is not alright for Muslim women to be comfortable in their own skin. They need to be someone they are not. 

 

 When we talked about Muslim women being misunderstood we looked at another really interesting image. An image of a young Muslim girl staring into the camera. But when you look at the picture it is kind of hard to understand what kind of emotions this girl is really trying to portray. Is she scared? Is she angry? Is she startled? Nobody knows except for her. I think that is really how Muslim women must feel when they go out in public whether they are dressed in burquas or not. They shouldn't just be stared at or have pictures taken of them being published on a popular magazine with a story that is not even true. It would be nice if we as Americans could take some time out of our days to sit down with these women and ask how they really feel about being misunderstood. Maybe they even feel the same way about us.

I also want to talk about men's roles as Muslim's. Some people would say Muslim women are only wearing burqas because their husbands are making them cover up and that is not true in the slightest bit. They are wearing them because that's what makes them feel like them, what makes them feel confident and strong, and what is part of their culture. They are not doing it for their husbands or anyone else for that matter. It is their decision, just like it is our decision as Americans to wear whatever catches our eye. It is the same to them. How is it fair for us to automatically assume things? It's not. Like the saying "you can't judge a book by it's cover" you shouldn't judge a person by their clothes. Every women should stand up for what she likes. I am proud to say I agree with all of these Muslim women, and I am so glad I learned about this subject when I did because it makes me want to learn even more. 

I can now say "Muslim women are..." powerful, open minded, smart, amazing.. etc. I just want to keep learning more each and every single day. 

                                                                     

cited pages: 

http://disney.wikia.com/wiki/File:Jasmine-aladdin-23125960-324-650.jpg
http://www.rotoscopers.com/2013/09/17/jonathan-freeman-to-play-jafar-again/
http://imgarcade.com/1/muslim-girl-green-eyes/



related readings:

"The Silenced Dialogue"
"An Indian Father's Plea"
"A White Privilege"

I really think this lecture related to "The Silenced Dialogue" because Muslim women in this case are very "silenced". Instead of people giving them a chance to speak their minds they are basically "shunned" for who they are. Because of the things that have happened such as 9/11 people view Muslims as really bad people. Muslim women never get to express why they dress the way they do, people automatically assume its because men are telling them to dress that way because apparently Muslim men have more power. Not the case at all. Muslim women dress the way they want to because they like it. It shows they have higher power. Like in the Silenced Dialogue Muslim women are not able to speak up about their culture
Another related reading would be "An Indian Father's Plea". I think this is a really good one to relate this lecture too because in the reading the little boy going to school is looked down upon because he follows different beliefs and a different religion than the other students. The students think its really weird for the boy to know facts about his beliefs and the teacher refuses to learn about what he knows because they are all supposed to follow Christianity basically. Like the reading, a lot of Muslims are looked at differently whether they are a man or a woman because of what they believe in. What this society does not understand is that every single person is different. Not everyone has to have the same hair color, eye color, skin color, religion, ethnicity. EVERY PERSON IS DIFFERENT. A lot of people wont give Muslims a chance to have a discussion about their religion because it is considered "wrong". 
Finally, the last reading I would relate this lecture to is "A White Privilege". White people are always known .to have a privilege. The thing is racism is everywhere. No matter where you go. White people racist towards black people. Black people racist towards white people. Hispanics racist towards Asians and so on.. It will always be that way no matter where you go in life. It seems to be getting very out of hand. Like in the reading white people always seem so privileged. An example given at the lecture was if a white person was at an airport being checked by security they would automatically be let through because they are white. There you go that is one privilege right there. However if it was a Muslim person they would be getting the worst looks, they would be checked a million times by security and pulled aside. 
All in all I learned a lot from both the readings and this lecture and it has opened my eyes to a whole new world and now I realize how cruel this world can be.