I do not feel like its my place to speak on behalf of Muslim women, and I wish to only support what they want for themselves, because they should be the only authority dictating their lives. "Do Muslim Women Really Need Saving?"clarified a couple of things for me. First, as a Western woman, I must realize that what I consider freedom, another woman from a different culture might disagree on. Secondly, Americans must educate themselves about different cultures before they begin judging. I think the Western world is so easily manipulated by the Media and the first things we tend to hear about a certain subject are too easily imprinted on us. American are not encouraged to do their own research and thus tend to believe the first things they hear on TV or see on the internet, particularly about cultures and peoples that seem so foreign. My favorite quote from "Do Muslim Women Really Need Saving?" is "Missionary work and colonial feminism belong in the past"(790). This put everything in perspective to me. My mother is from Honduras and thus I identify as a Latina. And for some reason when I hear a white person talk about doing missionary work in Latin America, especially in Honduras, my blood boils. In my head I'm screaming: we do not need your pity party of good-intentioned Christians. The people of Latin America (and the Middle East) are not going to be saved by the building of a church and by feeding a couple kids the time you are there. We'd be better off if the US had not backed the 2009 coup. Learn to mind your own business." Ironically white people have kept my people impoverished through colonialism and now neo-colonialism under the guise of capitalism. Which is interestingly the same case in the Middle East. You're Western ideals do not save anyone. Learn to respect other cultures and people and just do not interfere. The US would not have to be a "world police force" if it did not cause so much destruction in the first place.
I have to firmly agree with Abu-Lughod when she cites Al-Assal: "...Marriage is not a question of a diploma or a house. It is a form of understanding between you and the person you are marrying, that you actually love each other. Any other form of marriage I consider sinful and a betrayal...That is my opinion on love...What I want is for her to be able to set up a household herself. Then she won't have to sell her body to a man, under the guide of marriage". I find these words so comforting and moving. Feminism, to me at least, means that women around the world can dress how they like, marry who they want, go to university if they desire, pursue a career, or just stay at home and raise a family. A career woman is no better than a woman who decided to stay home and raise her family, but it must be the woman's decision, no man not even her husband should dictate her future. Nor a government. Nor a westerner.
I would like to hear how you guys feel about the veil? Is it something we should just let go of, is it really none of our business? Why do you think Americans are so obsessed with the veil and do you believe that the sexual connotations are true? Can a woman be a feminist and a house wife at the same time or do you consider it a waste of her intellect and potential?
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