Day 2: Something I Feel Strongly About

Without a doubt, nothing makes me cry out with raw passion at the knowledge that women, for as long as mankind has existed, been subjugated by the dominant male in the Middle East.

Muslim women in Asia might not realize how lucky they have been to be born in a country where gender equality is respected and fought for. In the Middle East, particularly incredibly religious and fundamentalist regions, women have little, or almost no rights to speak of. Although Islam means "submission and obedient to the will of God", religious clerical men of Islam in the Middle East, particularly in Saudi Arabia, stick to the traditional interpretations of the Koran and subsequently impose sever restrictions on the lives of their female counterparts, such as the requirement of complete or of purdah, the practice of keeping women in complete isolation from men so as to preserve their chastity.

In general, Muslin women in the Middle East are seen as nothing more then a tool for sexual gratification, bearing and rearing children and looking after the household. Girls as young as 12 are married off to men 5 times their age, and are not permitted a say in who they wish to marry, or when they wish to marry. The legal age for a girl to be married is shockingly young, and this law is exploited by pedophiles who marry young girls, rape them for sexual gratification and abandon afterward. Several members of the Sunni sect of Islam in the Middle East practice mutah marriage - temporary marriage, where the marriage contract between a man and a women lasts from 1 hour to 99 years. In most cases, marriages last a very short period of time, in which a man has sexual relations with his terrified virgin bride, divorce them and subsequently seek other girls to satisfy his sexual hunger. Men who subscribe to this marriage do so if he feels he is unable to fully commit himself to a marriage and can freely divorce the woman when he wants to. The fate of the young brides are unknown. Having lost their virginity, they are no longer marriageable and are left to care for their families til they welcome death with open arms.

Traditional families may keep their women in purdah and prohibit them from receiving a proper education while male children are sent to the best schools in Europe and America.

Women are not allowed to seek a divorce from their husbands. The law does not recognize the voices of women, while men can freely divorce their wives and take on multiple women as their partners.

The worth of a woman is measured by the presence of her hymen. If she's discovered to be a non-virgin, not only is she scorned, but her family loses their respect. On the other hand, men are free to engage in sexual relations before marriage but demand that their birds be as pure as the driven snow.

It is not against the law for men to publicly beat their women. If she retaliates, her husband may bring her to authorities and have her flogged or even put to death for disobeying her husband. Look to Aisha, an Afgan girl who recently was in Times magazine, who had her nose and ears cut off by her husband under the ruling of a Taliban judge. Her crime was to have run away from her husband's family because they had nearly beat her to death.

Women in Saudi Arabia are banned from driving. Although several women have bravely cast aside the fundamentalist beliefs and have incurred the wraths of the religious men by driving freely in public. Nevertheless, their bravery and disregard for absurd, hypercritical and twisted interpretations speak volumes about the extent to which women are now rising from a sea of black veils to make their voices be known about the social inequality in their country.

A male child is prized in the Middle East, but a female child brings tears, frowns and fears. The moment a female child is born to a family, the family immediately begins preparations to seek a suitable marriage for her. A male child is seen as the family protector and breadwinner of the family because he can pass on his family name. A woman is seen as a burden, a shame and a disappointment.

If a married couple divorces, custody of a child belongs to the father. Period.

Honor killings are prevalent in conservative and traditional families. If a women is suspected to be having an extra-marital affair, or have relations with a man that her family does not approve of, the males of the family take her life. Upon her death, the man responsible for killing her receives only a light treatment, even though there is nothing in the Koran that sanctions or permits honor killings.

I'm not saying that all men in all Middle Eastern countries subscribe to such degrading behaviors to their women. There are still honorable men among the corrupt who respect their women and fight for gender equality. However, the Middle East remain dominated by intensely religious and strict mullahs, or religious men, who adhere to the strictest, and sometimes twisted interpretations of their holy book, and subscribe to abhorrent attitudes towards women, especially in Saudi Arabia. Although the Saudi King has recently allowed for women to vote in the country's next elections, he has incurred the fury of many of the countries conservative leaders who believe that women should remain shackled to their men and deny them the right to contribute to the politics of a country, dismissing women as incompetent and far too emotional to handle the complexities of a country's affairs.

Neither am I saying that Islam is an undesirable religion. Islam is a religion of peace and submission, but it disheartens me greatly to see how some people employ religion as an excuse to account for obscene behavior. Every religion has its own faults and flaws. Sexism is just as obnoxious in Christinaity, particularly the earliest writings of the Proetestants which state that women are required to remain at home and be responsible only in matters of bearing and rearing children of men. Moreover, "If a woman grows weary and at last dies from childbearing, it matters not. Let her die from bearing, she is there to do it." "Woman in her greatest perfection was made to serve and obey man, not rule and command him."

Clearly the rights of men reign superior over that of their female counterparts, but its disquieting to learn that women in certain countries are able to exercise free speech to promote gender equality, while many women in the Middle East, Africa and India are unable to do so for they remained silenced by their cumbersome and throttling black veils, and can only continue living within the shadows of their hypocritical male relatives otherwise risk incurring their wraths.