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Letter: U.S. women lucky to have freedom
Issue date: 10/17/07 Section: Editorial/Opinion
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10/17/07 - To the Cigar,
American women today are so lucky in the freedom of choices we have to make compared to the things women in Middle Eastern countries have to undergo. In light of the recent visitor to Columbia University, one would think that things are starting to change in the Islamic world.
After hearing Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad express how much women are gaining through politics and the business world, it didn't sit well with me. In Iran today it is true that women are gaining more rights. I mean 25 percent of Iranian women make up the workplace, (as opposed to United State's 46 percent) and 54 percent of college enrollment. But still the women of Iran are forbidden to travel overseas without permission from husband or father.
Iran is probably the most liberated of all the Islamic/Muslim countries. In other countries like Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Pakistan, Egypt and Jordan, Arab fundamentalists resist almost every civil right that has been attempted to be implemented in their governments. Saudi Arabia is just now warming up to the idea of identification cards for women. In the past, women were on their father's and then husband's ID, and if neither of them were alive she would be on her closest male relative's ID. This gave her no identity without a male.
The hardest part to swallow of all the discrimination and hostile behavior towards women in these countries is the controversial topic of female genital mutilation and honor killings.
FGM has happened to about 140 million girls and women according to the World Health Organization. It is said that this act is not mandated as a religious practice, only permitted. Some scholars are questioning whether the Prophet Muhammed intended this act at all. Another way women are terribly mistreated in this culture are "honor killings" where a husband is not punished if he murders his wife after catching her taking part in any acts that are disloyal to the husband, mostly sexually immodest acts.
American women today are so lucky in the freedom of choices we have to make compared to the things women in Middle Eastern countries have to undergo. In light of the recent visitor to Columbia University, one would think that things are starting to change in the Islamic world.
After hearing Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad express how much women are gaining through politics and the business world, it didn't sit well with me. In Iran today it is true that women are gaining more rights. I mean 25 percent of Iranian women make up the workplace, (as opposed to United State's 46 percent) and 54 percent of college enrollment. But still the women of Iran are forbidden to travel overseas without permission from husband or father.
Iran is probably the most liberated of all the Islamic/Muslim countries. In other countries like Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Pakistan, Egypt and Jordan, Arab fundamentalists resist almost every civil right that has been attempted to be implemented in their governments. Saudi Arabia is just now warming up to the idea of identification cards for women. In the past, women were on their father's and then husband's ID, and if neither of them were alive she would be on her closest male relative's ID. This gave her no identity without a male.
The hardest part to swallow of all the discrimination and hostile behavior towards women in these countries is the controversial topic of female genital mutilation and honor killings.
FGM has happened to about 140 million girls and women according to the World Health Organization. It is said that this act is not mandated as a religious practice, only permitted. Some scholars are questioning whether the Prophet Muhammed intended this act at all. Another way women are terribly mistreated in this culture are "honor killings" where a husband is not punished if he murders his wife after catching her taking part in any acts that are disloyal to the husband, mostly sexually immodest acts.
