Do you know how we often get those emails with power points attached about random things? I usually dont bother to open them, but some time ago i got one about arab women wearing burkas and how bad they are treated and how much they suffer etc. The powepoint reffered to women in Afghanistan in particular but i couldnt help not replying to that email, especially that i was living in an Arab country.
I did not agree with the sympathy for these women that the email was inviting to. My response at that time was that to these women it is normal to wear a burka and be covered all the time and they find nothing wrong with it; to them, wearing a burka is the same thing as it is to me wearing a skirt.
The email was talking about the fact that Afghan women have no rights at all and how they are forced into arranged marriages, raped by their own husbands etc .... Well, i wont go into that, because to be honest, it happens nowadays even in the Western world, but we do not want to accept it. Just turn the News Channel on and you will be surprised...
I am not here to say that it is right and we should accept what is happening to these women, but sympathy does not help at all.
I kept thinking about this very often since that email and i was wondering if i was right or not - if these women do feel pressured, or have hard feelings because they are wearing a burka...
But now, if you do not know anything else apart from that, how can you say you do not agree? If this is how you were raised and have nothing else to compare it with, how can you feel sorry for yourself, in bondage?
This takes me back to the comunism that me and my family endured in Romania; i know i was still young, but i remember some things. At that time you couldnt have more food than you were allowed to buy, you had only 2 hrs/ day of tv (and that was news and some Russian cartoons for children), you had to have at least 3 or 4 children and i could go on and on about it - my point is that people thought this was normal just because they did not know anything different than that!!!
I remember when my dad came back from Irak, in 1987 or 1988 and he brought us oranges. We DIDNT KNOW what those are because we had never seen oranges before!
So, how could i crave oranges if i didnt know what oranges are? I hope you get my point.
Anyway, i was watching National Geographic and this Arab woman (the first female photgrapher in the UAE) dressed in a burka said: "i do not mind wearing a burka; it represents who i am, an Arab woman, it shows my identity; i am proud to wear it!"...
And i hope this says it all!
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