å Tuesday, May 2nd, 2017

Due Monday, May 8th, by midnight. Word count: 300 words. Please make sure everything is in your own words. Absolutely no quotes should be used. If you paraphrase from the text, you must be sure to include the proper citation (either MLA or APA).

If you have missed one or more of our weekly writing assignments, you can make up one assignment this week for full credit.

Lila Abu-Lughod’s essay, “Do Muslim Women Really Need Saving?”, she talks about the discussion on human rights and humanitarianism in the 21st century and how it is somehow based on the constructing of Muslim women. The author further criticizes the constructions of veiled women and the mission of saving others. Lila Abu-Lughod explicitly questions the intentions and discussions portrayed by the media, by asking a Muslim about their culture, their religious beliefs, and treatment of women to explain such a historical tragedy like 9/11. But they should have been looking at the role the United States played in this, and the history of repression in such areas and regimes. The media outlets would focus on religious and cultural explanations, instead of the ones that would answer their questions, the political and historical explanations. Such answers and issues indeed can lead to an artificial divide in the world, like us versus Muslims, when we should be reaching for global interconnections. The part that bugged Lila Abu-Lughod the most was the role Muslim women, and Afghan women, in particular, played in these explanations. Many have said that the “War on Terrorism” is almost like an intervention to help save the women under the Taliban regime, using the symbol of females as a justification for declaring war. But historically, such tries and efforts ended in results that were not anticipated at all, results that were the opposite of what they were going for (784). The author pays attention to the Afghan women that the “War on Terrorism” apparently saved. It was believed that these women wore their burqas because they were forced to by the Taliban, and it confused many when these women still continued to wear their veils after being saved. Media and other figures should be able to understand that the Taliban were not the ones to create the veils, the burqas, and hijabs.  For women in the Muslim and Southwest Asia regime, their covering is a sign of their modesty and respect (785). The veil does not symbolize a woman’s unfreedom, in contrast to contemporary beliefs. Lila Abu-Lughod suggests to her readers that instead of focusing on a woman’s veil, we should instead put our attention on important issues regarding feminists and others (786).

In the essay, “Do Muslim Women Really Need Saving,” Abu-Lughod challenges the common stigmas attached to Muslim women. She says that despite being a cultural relativist society, westerns have been more gravitated to being ethnocentric. Westerners have this superiority complex according to Lughood. She furthers her explanation saying, for us to think that Muslim women need saving, it implies that they are victims of oppression and we must intervene to “save” them. The burqa worn by females is often viewed, by us, to be a symbol a oppression. Lughood says we ignorantly see the burqa and believe that the woman wearing it is being deprived of her human rights. Women that are seen wearing a burqa are misjudged and viewed as victims rather than humans for wearing a representation of their culture. We are reducing their culture by the standards of our own, and Lughood says this is injust of us. The burqa is a choice, not a symbol for oppression. Lughood claims that those from the west and middle east have clashing definitions of feminism. She emphasizes that westerns are pushing their ideas of what it means to be a feminist upon them and this also is wrongful of us. We continue to oppose our own beliefs, because we think they are the only accurate ones. We are consumed with the idea that we must save Muslim women of their oppression, before even realizing they might not want our saving. Lughood says we have to be more educated in their history to understand their culture today. In the end, the only oppressing thing really is the westerns misconception to believe that Muslim women are oppressed. The misrepresentation, in the western society, of their culture is  what is conflicting them. It is difficult for them to identify themselves if we are constantly pushing our perceptions upon them.

White Christian nuns are accepted as practicing their freedom of religion when they wear conserative clothing and head scarves, but when a Muslim women does the same, she is considered to be dangerous or to be under the control of something oppressive. According to Lila Abu-Lughod, there was an invasive questioning of all Muslim women after the September 11th attacks in 2001. Many white Americans were questioning the beliefs and intents of women of Muslim faith. As Abu-Lughod pointed out, this would be considered unacceptable if the question was posed to a Christian or Jewish woman. Referring back to the title, these White Americans believe that Muslim women are under an oppressive grip. They believe that they have no choices or freedom in their faith, and that Muslim women who wear burqas and hijabs are being controlled by men, when in reality, it is the women’s choice. White Americans have continuously blamed Muslims for the September 11th attacks, and to this day that blaming has not stopped. Women who shame Muslim women for practicing their faith and wearing hijabs and burqas do not truly understand what the religion of Islam represents; these women are not being oppressed or controlled by anyone, they are practicing their religious freedom just like Christian or Jewish women. Relating back to the title of the article, “Do Muslim Women Really Need Saving?”, these white women feel as if they need to liberate Muslim women from their own religion, when in fact, they are already free to decide to practice whatever faith they wish. White Americans refuse to understand the true teachings of the religion of Islam, because of racist ideologies. They believe that their religion is superior because they are supposedly more free, when in fact women in both Christian and Islam religions have the ability to decide how they wish to express their religious freedom.

In Lila-Abu Lughod’s essay, “Do Muslim Women Really Need Saving?”, Lughod discusses this idea that Muslim women need to be ‘saved’. Without truly understanding the culture of Afghanistan women, individuals simply target them with biased, stereotypical characteristics. A focus on their standpoints in society, whether it may be political, social, or economic, are not necessarily supported but are judged by many, making it a relevant topic for discussion. Lughod argues the misconception of these women and the fact that the government is to blame, as they are denied of their citizenship rights. The work aims to discuss the issues of Muslim women, such as being forced to wear a veil, or the burqa, which covers the whole body and face. The burqa became views as a ‘liberating invention’, as the women who wore them were given the ability to leave segregated living conditions. The wearing of the burqa, however, carries with it this idea of sanctity and respectability. In the eyes of others, especially in Western thought, the idea of veiling is seen as a ‘lack of agency’ in women. However, it is just the opposite, as veiling is a voluntary act. Women can choose if they wish to wear it and they can also choose who they wish to wear it in front of.

Two points that Lughod highlights in this piece is that, first of all, it is important to stop categorizing veiling as an example of a woman’s “unfreedom”. Each individual is raised in a different social and historical background that shapes their values and understanding of the world around them. Secondly, it is imperative to not limit a Muslim woman’s ability, attitude, or situation down to a single article of clothing. It is important to steer away from this Western ideal on what is deemed as wrong or right. Instead, we must focus on serious issues and actual feminist concerns that go deeper than the simple concept of veiling.

In her article, “Do Muslim Women Really Need Saving? Anthropological Reflections on Cultural Relativism and Its Others”, Lila Abu-Lughod explores the different interpretations in which western civilizations have often misconstrued the Muslim women by. Western views have numerously portrayed Muslim women as oppressed due to their political agenda in regions such as the middle east and Afghanistan. Lila even quotes important female figures such as Laura Bush Cherie Blair to show how they’ve contributed to the misunderstanding of Muslim women by associating terrorism with their oppression. Lila also makes a very good point when she questions how the Taliban, an organization originally funded by the CIA to fight Soviet Union forces, has suddenly become a face of terrorism in the region. I think this point leads us on to her next one when she begins to talk about the real oppressive factors such as poverty, education, and malnutrition that hurt the people the most, yet are still overlooked by the west. moreover, Lila points to how the west construct and see problems within Muslim cultures that are not of significance. For example, many westerns often misconstrue the hijab and burqa as a symbol of oppression rather than a cultural tradition that women accept and allow in their lives. Even after being “liberated” many women still choose to wear the burqa as a representation of their modesty. Reflecting on my own experiences here in the US, I find this point to be very true. People in the US often see other cultures as “wrong” or “oppressive” due to the misinterpretation and lack of knowledge that they possess when it comes to other Cultures or religions. From this problem stems other problems and wrong views that people hold regarding muslim women “needing help” as Abu-Lughod describes in her article. In the end of her piece, Lila describes Laura Bush’s remarks about American troops “saving” and “liberating” afghan women as ineffective because it is just like trying to fix a “problem” that we don’t even understand. Instead, Abu-Lughod proposes that we should make the world a better place by showing coalition and alliance with people who face unjust living conditions instead of salvation.