Ignorance is bliss ..and eternal
Saturday, I played taxi and took my mini me to her best friends birthday party. While awaiting the arrival of the birthday boys, I was sitting next to another mom who's child was also attending the party. A Muslim woman, around my age strides by. She is quite lovely; beautiful eyes, a dark hued Hijab on her head. The woman sitting besides me shakes her head and leans in to whisper to me. This is what she says;
"Thats such a shame that 'they' do that to 'those' women. Those poor women forced to wear that veil. How degrading for them. I'm angry at our government for not sending troops to Iraq to 'save' them" They deserve to be educated and free and not have to wear that on their head"
I stared at her for a second, then looked at my surroundings, then stared back at her. It was not the place, nor the time for an honest reply to her astoundingly ignorant commentary. I stayed silent. This is what I really wanted to say
I wanted to tell her that the Muslim woman was likely staring back at her, feeling such sorrow that she is slave to her Jimmy Shoo designer shoes and impeccibly coiffed hair. She feels pity that her Western 'sister' spends her life on a diet, constantly berating her thighs and ass, injecting poisons in her flesh to make it look unnaturally younger. Invasive operations that jam foreign materials in her chest for the 'perfect' breasts. Staring with desperate envy at models and movie stars, desperately wanting to be that iconic size 2. She is prisoner of her own body and soul.
I wanted to tell her that Muslim women are amoung the highest educated in the world.
Baghdad University hosts some on the finest female Doctors,Lawyers and Engineers
paid for by the Government.
I wanted to tell her that there is nothing degrading about giving yourself to God. and really understanding that women were placed on this earth for a much higher purpose than enticing men with our tight t-shirts and whore red lipstick. Its western women that are degraded. Every time you see a woman who looks like she escaped Sobibor death camp, weak and sickly looking being glorified in a magazine, thats degradation. Degradation is how Western Law affects Women and children. Rob a bank with a weapon and you get life in prison, Rape a woman or molest a child, get
10 years or none at all if you can prove she was asking for it via her slutty clothes and sexual demeanor, which coincidently a fashion magazine last week told her was a 'must have".
What I really wanted to tell her was sometimes It's I who is envious of the Muslim woman who wears the Hijab. I'm also ashamed. Ashamed that I have been brainwashed by the Western ideaology of beauty. I'm ashamed that I believe some of my power is enhanced by my physical beauty and if I wore a Hijab, I'd simply blend in. I might even be insignificant.
I have degraded myself.
To the Muslim woman at the birthday party; I honor you. I honor you because you have the self respect, the courage and the strength to be exactly who you are and not be reliant on the affimation of others. It is us that are oppressed, not you.
"Thats such a shame that 'they' do that to 'those' women. Those poor women forced to wear that veil. How degrading for them. I'm angry at our government for not sending troops to Iraq to 'save' them" They deserve to be educated and free and not have to wear that on their head"
I stared at her for a second, then looked at my surroundings, then stared back at her. It was not the place, nor the time for an honest reply to her astoundingly ignorant commentary. I stayed silent. This is what I really wanted to say
I wanted to tell her that the Muslim woman was likely staring back at her, feeling such sorrow that she is slave to her Jimmy Shoo designer shoes and impeccibly coiffed hair. She feels pity that her Western 'sister' spends her life on a diet, constantly berating her thighs and ass, injecting poisons in her flesh to make it look unnaturally younger. Invasive operations that jam foreign materials in her chest for the 'perfect' breasts. Staring with desperate envy at models and movie stars, desperately wanting to be that iconic size 2. She is prisoner of her own body and soul.
I wanted to tell her that Muslim women are amoung the highest educated in the world.
Baghdad University hosts some on the finest female Doctors,Lawyers and Engineers
paid for by the Government.
I wanted to tell her that there is nothing degrading about giving yourself to God. and really understanding that women were placed on this earth for a much higher purpose than enticing men with our tight t-shirts and whore red lipstick. Its western women that are degraded. Every time you see a woman who looks like she escaped Sobibor death camp, weak and sickly looking being glorified in a magazine, thats degradation. Degradation is how Western Law affects Women and children. Rob a bank with a weapon and you get life in prison, Rape a woman or molest a child, get
10 years or none at all if you can prove she was asking for it via her slutty clothes and sexual demeanor, which coincidently a fashion magazine last week told her was a 'must have".
What I really wanted to tell her was sometimes It's I who is envious of the Muslim woman who wears the Hijab. I'm also ashamed. Ashamed that I have been brainwashed by the Western ideaology of beauty. I'm ashamed that I believe some of my power is enhanced by my physical beauty and if I wore a Hijab, I'd simply blend in. I might even be insignificant.
I have degraded myself.
To the Muslim woman at the birthday party; I honor you. I honor you because you have the self respect, the courage and the strength to be exactly who you are and not be reliant on the affimation of others. It is us that are oppressed, not you.
posted by Sandi at 8:04 AM
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