Aunt Safiyya and The Monastery:

As i read the novel "Aunt Safiyya and The Monastery" I see the difference between how women are brought up compared to men. It baffles me how different men and women are brought up in this little village just outside of Luxor in Upper Egypt. Women in the village are brought up as women of servitude, they have a specific pattern on what they must do which is to follow their mothers orders to the T, and get married with the man approved by the parents. Women do not decide whom they want to marry and spend the rest of their lives with. In the village outside of Luxor women have a specific order of when she should wed, starting from the first born all the way to the youngest female in the family. Another thing that caught my eye was how the worth of a female in the village is solely based on how beautiful the female is. It seems that there is no indication of how smart or intellectually fulfilled the female is. It turns by spine on how the female are judged by their looks. I noticed the envy their is between the sisters toward Aunt Safiyya and how there is a love/hate relationship between these girls. There must be quite a psychological rift between all these girls. Think about it this way, you are part of this family described in the book, you have an older sister whom is more beautiful than you are your parents favor her in every way and form. How would you take it? Knowing that you will be second best for the rest of your life just because your sister is more beautiful.

So feeling undermined is a constant in many parts of this book. I feel strongly against how women are raised just because of the favoritism of parents over their children, even to the extent that parents control if they should or shouldnt go to a higher learning like college. I guess what im trying to say is that as an outsider looking in I do not agree with the favoritism of the parents toward the daughters or how these women are raised. But every culture is different and its all about ethics, and there is a term called Cultural Relativism which describes how one can not judge on a different culture just because their views are different.

Reel Bad Arabs: An Analysis on Arabs Depiction in Hollywood Films

As an avid movie lover I enjoy every kind of movie. From Hollywood to Bollywood, from Independent to huge studio movies. Hollywood movies are quite influential, they influence what we believe about many things including people, culture, race, etc.. The depiction I will focus on is Arabs and their depiction in films. The short film "Reel Bad Arabs" makes some outstanding point on how Hollywood films scrutinize and depict the Arab people and their culture. In the movie the author of "Reel Bad Arabs" Dr Jack Shaheen claims that Arabs are the most maligned group in Hollywood history. They are depicted as incompetent, one dimensional, and/or used as comic relief for movies. They are depicted as evil and vile people, who carry big swords, and love their belly dancers. They are also shown as people who defile and mistreat their women often enslaving their women. This is true for movies like: Sahara(1983), Jewel Of the Nile (1985), Protocol (1984), Never Say Never Again (1983) so on and so forth. And even in movies that have nothing to do with Arabs or the Middle East Hollywood chooses to put in scenes or "inject" random thoughts about Arabs usually in a very demining way. Most often slurs are used in these situations, again comedic relief for me film that quite frankly had nothing to do with Arabs or their culture. For example in Back to the Future (1985), at the beginning of the film Arabs randomly shoot and kill the protagonist of the film Dr. Brown who is played by Christopher Lloyd. These two Arabs come out of nowhere in a white van and use a machine gun to kill one of the protagonist no reason is given for this scene just a simple way for Hollywood to "fill in" a scene by using Arabs. Even the women are depicted as terrorist in movies like Never Say Never Again, and Death Before Dishonor. So in other words women (as depicted in films) are belly dancers or terrorist. Hollywood should be more responsible and aware of how influential they are not only around the United States but also around the world. Ignorance creates more ignorance, and Hollywood's ignorance is just creating more ignorant people who watch these films. The sad thing is if the movie sells studios don't really care what they are showing in their films and how they are dimining many cultures and stereotypes which include the Arabs...

Traditions and Unwritten Rules Overpowering Enforcement Of Laws

Traditions are often view as a cultural beauty in which. This is true of most nations. Traditions help us remember the past with clarity and love. There are many kinds of traditions; Family traditions, Holiday Traditions, and even religious traditions. But in Iran not all traditions are positive. The question i pose to you is... Can a tradition or traditions over power rules and law enforcement? It seems that in Iran this is true, specially for women rights. It seems that traditions in Iran over power women rights. Women in Iran are dealing with specific challenges. Iran is going through a hard transition (specially during this war) from tradition to modernity and from lawlessness to legalism. We know that in the Middle East religion is a hot commodity and widely respected, religion is as sacred to the Middle East as Sunday football for some. Religion has always played a role in the condition of Iran and been inextricable from its social norms. Women's legal inequality originates not only from shortcomings in rules and regulations, but also from unwritten rules originating in social customs and traditions that often make the enforcement of laws difficult or virtually impossible.

We can all relate on how hard it is to shake off a tradition or even an unwritten rule. But in Iran traditions should atleast be modified for not only the protection of women but also to establish a social order and equality between males and females of Iran.The basic true of all this is that women in Iran do not have to education to promote and fight for what is correct and ethical which can be said about most Middle Eastern countries. Iranians (and the Middle East) must understand and learn that all individuals must be protected and promoted regardless of culture, language, race, nationality,TRADITIONS, religion but most importantly GENDER! Human rights should be a universal practice and should be taught in every part of this beautiful place we call Earth..... The great english poet, essayist, and politician Joseph Addison once wrote:
"Tradition is an important help to history, but its statements should be carefully scrutinized before we rely on them. "

Unethical Treatment of women in Iraq..

One of the hottest topics in the Middle East, besides the war is the unethical treatment of women. Women rights are being taken away more and more everyday. Let me drop some background history of women rights before Saddam took power. In 1948, Iraq became one of the first Middle Eastern countries to have a women judge. Also in 1968 the Ba'ath party took control of Iraq their main goal was to achieve economic growth in achieving this goal it meant that women were allowed in the work place/force. The government even passed labor and employment job for women in Iraq to protect women rights in the work place. As a result women in Iraq became more independent socially, and financially. Ofcourse women in the work place meant better education for these women which is why the government (at the time) pushed for education in Iraq. Both women and men had to have atleast a primary education (reading, basic education) which in turn would diminish the illiteracy in Iraq. Even though all of these rights given to women was all part of politics, this was the Ba'ath way to achieve their goal which was to remain in power. Though they did help women tremendously. Women were even allowed to run for office something that even in the United States took time to achieve.

Here comes the dawn of the 90's for women in Iraq. Nobody hates the 90's more than women in Iraq. The Gulf War pretty much reversed every right women had achieved and gained in the past. To keep "order" the Iraqi government began their run at amateur magic. What was Iraqi stronghold when it came to their magic act??? Making people disappear. Wives, daughters, and many other female relatives began "disappearing" not because these women opposed the government (which probably some of these women did), but because husbands, fathers, the men in the family opposed it. Which makes perfect sense in a culture where men are so dominant in terms of power one must fear the male society more than the female society in terms of an uprising against the government. So how can the government hurt most these males? By taking away what it seems they would cherish more, not their own lives, but the lives of the women they loved. The government would take these women away and rape, torture, beat, and/or murder these Iraqi women. Saddam took women rights away from them all to achieve his goal of more and more power (like every other dictator). But while i compose this i wander to myself does WAR create opportunity and chances for government to take away rights away from the people they are sworn to protect? Seems like WAR is the perfect excuse for government to take control of their people.

In December 30, 2006 Saddam Hussein was executed by hanging if i am not mistaken this would give women all their rights back!!! Nope, not really. Because of the WAR in Iraq the Iraqi government has become extremely unstable. This mean that the government has no desire or time to try to give atleast some of women rights back, it just won't happen during such a climactic war. I am not saying this is the right thing to do, but maybe just maybe can ending the war in the Middle East atleast in Iraq give back women some of their basic rights? Lets keep our fingers crossed and hope that in the future when this WAR is over women not only in Iraq but all over the Middle East can get and achieve all their rights back.........