August 29, 2006

“They teach poor women how to humble themselves in front of their husbands... but they’re teaching upper-class women how to influence politics."

The NYT has a front-page article about women's prayer groups in Syria.
The girls at the madrasa say that by plunging more deeply into their faith, they learn to understand their rights within Islam....

“People mistake tradition for religion,” [16-year-old tutor Enas al-Kaldi] said. “Men are always saying, ‘Women can’t do that because of religion,’ when in fact it is only tradition. It’s important for us to study so that we will know the difference.”

6 comments:

The Drill SGT said...

Interesting.

Who is paying for all of this?

It seems to be focused on Sunni's who are the politcal minority, but demographic amjority in Syria.

I thought this section was strange:

At those meetings, participants say, they are tutored further in the faith and are even taught how to influence some of their well-connected fathers and husbands to accept a greater presence of Islam in public life.

A long term plan for a Sunni revolution. Saudi money?

altoids1306 said...

The liberal capacity for cognitive dissonace is astounding. "Islamic fundamentalism will bring equality for women!"

Simon said...

See Phillis Chesler's The Death of Feminism: what's next in the struggle for women's freedom for an excellent summary of the overt misogyny of arab/muslim culture. Bring a strong stomach.

Eli Blake said...

Meanwhile, here in America progress against this kind of thing was made today. A vehicle carrying Warren Jeffs was pulled over near Las Vegas and Jeffs is in custody.

Revenant said...

A vehicle carrying Warren Jeffs was pulled over near Las Vegas and Jeffs is in custody.

The really important question, though, is how that will effect the next season of "Big Love".

Simon said...

Finally: a result that Eli and I could both share a gleeful high five over. ;)