Monday, 4 May 2009

Women and Islam

Even in the darkest days of Christian attitudes to women, possibly with the exception of the slave owning regimes, I don't think an article could be written that paints a bleaker picture than that portrayed by Yasmin Alibhal-Brown in today's Independent.
Posted by David at 09:55
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1 comments:

PamBG said...

I think that this is quite a thoughtful piece.

However, the reality (as well as the article) is a LOT more complicated than 'The religion of Islam can only be read as a religion that oppresses women.'

Why do I say this? Because I hear it quite often around here from people - in my churches and in the neighbourhood - who want to maintain the fiction that Islam is a dangerous religion that is bent on hatred.

It's certainly more accurate to say that 'Cultural influences that predated Islam were oppressive to women and these presuppositions of a largely conservative culture are now read into Islam and the religion is used by some to oppress women.'

But the fact is that any religion can be used this way. Christianity was used in this manner. And there are a lot of neo-conservative Christian voices around the world today that are preaching female inferiority even if not 'oppression'. (All dressed up in the smoke and mirrors message of 'Men and women are equal, but men get to lead women and tell them what to do.')

Since I believe I live in a cultural context where people seem to WANT to tell stories about how bad Islam is and how bad Muslim people are, I want to be careful to tell the truth. Even if the truth is a more complicated than the easy messages of 'oppression'.

Wednesday, 06 May, 2009

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