Hermenuetics

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God created us, male and female, as physical, spiritual and intellectual beings. Girls and women desire (and are capable of) learning just as boys and men are. Education expands choices and opportunities, and as a result, yes, sometimes that leads to people making bad choices. Western culture certainly glamourizes damaging images of both femininity (emphasis on physical appearance and sexuality) and masculinity (emphasis on earning power and superficial measures of success). But the appropriate response to that is to model, nurture and support healthier images, not cut girls off from education and perpetuate a discriminatory system that values girls and women solely for their physical capabilities (the ability to bear children and keep house), ignoring their intellectual gifts. Jesus invited women into his inner circle, giving them opportunities for leadership that their culture denied them. I think it's pretty clear what he would think of little girls being poisoned and having acid thrown in their faces because they want to learn.

Posted By: Ellen | April 30, 2010 8:36 AM

Does education "corrupt" children? Well, it depends on what they are being taught. Men, also, can be corrupted by what they are taught; after all, someone is "teaching" and "educating" those acid-throwers that this is acceptable to do to little girls. And I totally agree with Ellen: Jesus would never find that acceptable!

If these young women are being taught to embrace the negative aspects of the West's definition of masculinity/feminity, then that is negative; if however, they are being taught to embrace the more positive qualities, then that is good. The same goes for our children here in the West.

I find it intriguing that Khan believes West's emphasis on female education works to "destroy their culture."
Is it destroying their traditional culture?
Is this a good or bad thing?
Should one people (ie, the Western world) impose their cultural values (such as education for men and women) upon a different people group (such as the Pashtun)?
If so, to what extent?
How does trying to change another culture glorify God?
(Hope that made sense. I don't want it to sound like I am against these girls being educated; I fully support that. These are just some things I thought of after reading Khan's comments.)

Posted By: Laura K. Droege | April 30, 2010 11:20 AM

Children do become corrupted through education. Western education does corrupt children - it teaches evolution is true and that fornication and homosexuality is normal behavior. Education is never neutral in what it teaches about morality and God. To think that an education system can be neutral in these areas is absurd.

Is throwing acid on faces of female school children wrong - yes it is sin.

Posted By: Linda | April 30, 2010 2:35 PM

If education corrupts then why do they let their boys become educated? It's simply a double standard, that's all.

Posted By: Nadine | April 30, 2010 3:26 PM

The quote by Bahir Kahn, the anti-Taliban Pashtun, speaks volumes regarding their view of independent women in the West --- if the only images they have of women are those depicted in movies, television, videos, etc... it is easy to understand their concern. Media depicts a poor image of what women might do with themselves when given the choice. How sad that we don't have stronger images of successful, educated, spiritual, moral women in the media. Certainly their methods (and even motives) to prevent girls from getting an education are horrific. It is important to consider that their are multiple perspectives at work here and to consider how we can do our part in providing stronger images of women in the media.

Posted By: Bobbi | May 1, 2010 6:54 AM

American Slave Owners usually refused to teach their slaves even the basic skills of reading and writing, understanding that learning - reading, writing, and thinking skills - made people more difficult to control. When women learn to read and write, do math, and understand they are more than "God's plan for producing families and cooking dinners", that they have a God given right to happiness and choices beyond the control of either Men or Religion, they can learn what Jesus meant when he said "the truth (God) shall set you free." The Taliban, like some Christians (and ancient Jews also), believe women are property to be controlled. Jesus came to set women free, and to give them the Value God intended. All women are entitled to basic education. Learning to read and write, learning to think, learning one has value and has choices.... no one should take that away from anyone, ever.

Posted By: Sandy Beaches | May 1, 2010 7:45 PM

Can someone explain to me this male need to use and abuse women? It exists in every, single society, and is manifested in Christians who twist Bible verses to restrict and control women. Why? What is the deal? Western style influences have nothing to do with it.

Posted By: A. | May 4, 2010 11:57 PM

Hey, I don't want my daughter becoming like those women in music videos either... but the rest of his quote is ridiculous. A woman is a human being, not simply a member of a culture who MUST take her place in that culture's chosen spot for her.

I believe my domain is my home, even though I work outside of it.... it's still my home. There is absolutely nothing wrong with choosing education and a home life.

Posted By: Heather Cook | May 10, 2010 8:04 AM

Sharia Degradation of Women
By Eileen F. Toplansky
The unremitting degradation of women in most of the Mideast, Africa, and other parts of Asia where Islamic law plays a huge role is horrifying and appalling. Islamic law endorses slavery, demands executions for apostasy, and condones the repression of women.

The debasement of women plays a critical role among Palestinian women, where little girls live under a death threat of honor killing. The male sexual abuse of female children is quite pervasive. It traumatizes and shames women into obedience and renders them incapable of resistance or rebellion. This degradation of women is not restricted merely to the Palestinian community, whose lives have been repeatedly squandered by their terrorist leaders. In Iran, for instance, the Islamic government does not recognize women as fully human. In 1992, over 100,000 women were arrested in Tehran for "improper veiling" and "moral corruption." Scores of pregnant women were flogged in public on the same charge. Women appearing in public without traditional veiling are sentenced to up to 74 lashes. As I write this, there is a worldwide protest concerning the injustice being meted out to Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani. Unfortunately, she will probably be flogged to death.

Books highlight the terror that permeates daily life for women. Reading Lolita in Tehran describes the endless tales of frustration, humiliation, and sorrow of female college students. The women endure daily indignities by the militia who patrol the streets to ensure that the women are wearing their veils. The patrols demand that the women students walk in public with men who are their brothers, husbands, or fathers. Sporting jewelry and wearing nail polish are punishable crimes. If a woman uses a bus, the seating is segregated. Female students are penalized for running up the stairs if they are late for a class. The age of marriage has been lowered from eighteen years to nine years of age. Stoning is a punishment for adultery and prostitution. Women found guilty of any infraction are forced to wash toilets, fined, jailed, and flogged. Humiliation is the source of the Islamic fundamentalist power.

Not only confined to Iran, such abuse is common elsewhere as well. In March 2002, a Nigerian woman, who had a small baby, was convicted of adultery and sentenced to death by stoning. In Pakistan, an average of two women every day die from "honor killings." In the book entitled Princess by Jean P. Sasson, a father drowns his own daughter because she has met with foreign-born men.

This is not an isolated situation. It is emblematic of a world where girls are sold into marriage to men five times their age and brutally murdered for the slightest transgression. In Afghanistan, women are beginning to wear the burqa again because they fear the resurgence of the Taliban. When the Taliban reigned supreme, music was forbidden and the female voice banned. To walk in shoes that clicked would elicit the Taliban's wrath. Young female children attending school have acid thrown in their faces. Where do such turpitude, cruelty, and vile behavior come from?

Either a strong-willed woman will resist with all her might and possibly die trying -- or those who are broken become physically and mentally impaired shells of a human being. And, in a horrifying perversion, the constant brainwashing so common in totalitarian regimes molds women to become partners in their own demise and in the destruction of their own offspring. After all, Palestinian women are pleased to offer up their own children as suicide bombers -- have these mothers been so unalterably changed that even the fundamental maternal instinct of protecting one's young has become brutally extinguished? Is this why women hold down small girls about to undergo the atavistic ritual of female genital mutilation?

And where are the voices of Western feminists so eager to burn bras, but hardly a word about burning burqas? What more evidence is needed to rise up to aid those sisters around the world who are desperately in need of genuine activism? Hatred, humiliation, suppression, coercion, and discrimination of women make up the fabric of so many societies in the world. The misery and abject conditions of these women are shocking.

As rabbi, teacher, and activist, the late Abraham Joshua Heschel wrote in "The Meaning of This Hour" about the horrors of the 20th century. He was adamant when he wrote that there can be no neutrality. Either we are ministers of the sacred or slaves of evil. Let the blasphemy of our time not become an eternal scandal. Let future generations not loathe us for having failed to preserve what prophets and saints, martyrs and scholars have created in thousands of years. The apostles of force have shown that they are great in evil. Let us reveal that we can be as great in goodness.

It is particularly noteworthy that the Jewish New Year is upon us. Also known as Yom Harat Olam, or the "Day of the Birth of the World," it is meant to usher in a new beginning for all people, not just Jews. It is a universal holiday and commemorates when G-d made man and woman and completed the physical creation of the world. The process of creation, however, is never over. Each generation is given a choice to make a difference.

Moderate Muslims, like moderate Christians and moderate Jews, need to acknowledge the horror of sharia law, address this autocratic, mind-numbing enslavement of women, and never retreat. While Muslim worship is protected under the First Amendment, Islamic sharia law should never be protected or condoned. Only then will the liberating phraseology of the First Commandment be enacted and slavery broken down, brick by brick by brick.

Eileen can be reached at middlemarch18@gmail.com.

Page Printed from: http://www.americanthinker.com/2010/09/sharia_degradation_of_women.html at September 13, 2010 - 09:12:57 PM CDT

Posted By: Jerry Pollard | September 16, 2010 9:47 AM

I expect it was the Taliban that did this. And yes, it would be an all girls' school, since there are definite prohibitions about males and females being together.

Posted By: schools for troubled teenagers | April 15, 2011 3:23 AM

It is one of the most considerable issues for Afghan girls or boys. Irrespective of the reason behind it, these activities make students frightened to go to school. Lets hope the best and create a healthy environment for students to attend their schools usually.

Posted By: troubled girls | May 13, 2011 4:57 AM