I was watching a documentary called girls of the Taliban yesterday, which was very interesting. In Afghanistan they have begun teaching children Islam in Madrassa's, which are religious schools that don't teach other subjects like math or science.
One girl there says that she learns that women are not allowed to have a job according to sharia. Women can't be ministers, kings, or work in a office.
Another girl says that women's rights and duties are clear in Islamic teaching and are misunderstood in the west. Then, she goes on to say that the husband is the boss and the women is the employee. Therefore, I don't think the west has a misunderstanding of Islam if this is what it teaches. This is exactly the kind of teaching that the west would object to.
In these schools the men teach the girls behind a curtain because there is a strict separation of male teachers and female students. However, one of the teachers of the school has taken one of the girls as his second wife nevertheless.
This makes sense to me because whether or not there is a veil separating the male teacher from the female students, this man still goes to work every day knowing that he is teaching young girls. Apparently, knowing this still motivated him to want to have one so he made took one of them for a second wife.
It just proves that you can't change that a woman is a woman is a woman even if you can't see the woman.
Then, while watching these girls, it just seemed so silly to me to think that covering up was somehow a way to prevent people from seeing how pretty they were because you can still see their eyes. They have beautiful eyes will no lines or wrinkles like beautiful young girls. How is anyone supposed to get me to believe that covering up entirely does not still leave the possibility that a man could see beautiful eyes and force himself to be able to see more. This is no way to prevent r*pe.
The other things I noticed that I didn't realize would bother me so much is the gloves. The gloves make me feel sad in a way I did not expect. Just what does one of these girls think when they are putting these on everyday?
Then, they showed class time where the teacher who had taken one of the student's for his second wife taught the girls that there are three things that deserve the death penalty in Islam. One is if you kill someone. One is if you commit adultery. The third person, "who must be killed is the non-believer. A Muslim in an Islamic country who denounces Islam. He should be given three days and his doubts should be discussed. But if he doesn’t repent after three days, the Islamic government must issue an order and he should be hanged."
I know most of the Muslims here disagree with this and the point is not whether or not it is or isn't part of Islam. The point is that it is part of the curriculum for these girls, which brings up the subject of choice in wearing the veil. If you are being told that you will be killed if you leave Islam, is there really a choice in wearing the veil? Is it really possible that all of these girls wake up every morning and say, "Yes, I want to wear this because it will protect my modesty," and that some percentage still wonders whether or not they will die if they don't.
Therefore, for every women in the west who wears the veil and tries to convince someone that it is there choice to do so and that they won't be risking death if they leave Islam, there is another women who does not have this choice. How do we support them in the west? How do we let them know that this is not something they have to fear?
For me, there will never be a day I will support the veil in my country because of things like this. I cannot ever support something coming into my country that is represented this way in other countries. There is no real way that I can see to separate the two theologies. Essentially, wearing the veil is being a member of these madrassa's that are teaching these girls these things in other countries. The only difference is that you wouldn't be allowed to teach things like this in the west and that is the way it should stay.
As a religious person myself, I believe in justice. Where there is injustice like this there should not be advocacy of things that perpetuate this theology in other cultures by adopting the same dress code. It shows support for things that we are only protected from because we are in the west. God forbid that would change.
Therefore, I still support a ban on the veil in west as a result of watching this video as a way of boycotting these toxic teachings and showing support for the women who presently object to them as will in Afghanistan.
I have to train my inner dog daily with my mind and spirit. I like surfing, I am sort of used to seeing women half dressed and have almost became oblivious to it for it is such a part of the scene.
