15 February 2005 (Tuesday)
what she said
There's an interview in today's Metro (Boston edition) with Muslim comedian Shazia Mirza. She is asked, "What is the biggest thing you think non-Muslim women don't understand about being a Muslim woman?" From her response:
That actually Islam gives women lots of freedom....you know, we have a lot of rights. But I think that our religion gives us that, and I think that our culture takes it away.
Not just you, Shazia.
I think that all the level-headed, grounded Muslim women and all the level-headed, grounded Jewish women should get together and take over the world.
Just my two agurot.
In the months after September 11th especially I wondered when I passed Muslim women wearing a headscarf whether they saw any kinship between us. Both stared at by everyone else with suspicion or even hostility, in large part for dressing so outlandishly modestly. Or whether they looked at me and saw just another brazen heathen, showing my hairline and calves and all.
Anyway. Not exactly your point, but related in that I wonder sometimes if I'm misjudging the Islamic world's treatment of women the way I think people misjudge the Jewish world's. For instance, I don't feel degraded by covering my hair; maybe they don't feel degraded by covering their faces. It's harder for me to believe, though.
I really do have a point, which is: I agree. I think I've made pretty much the same argument to lance -- that whatever's objectionable about the rabbinic party line on "women's role in Judaism" so closely parallels what was wrong with the treatment of women in the whole world at the time, that I can assume it was an intrusion of those societal values on halacha rather than the other way round. (Hey, how's that for an inversion of the Orthodox anti-feminism position? :-) ) I can't prove it, but I sure hope it's true.
Shanna, you know, once you get me to start commenting there's no shutting me up.
Persephone, could you explain what you mean by "an inversion of the Orthodox anti-feminism position?" Everything you said works by me...at least, that's what I try to convince myself when I'm having issues with something anti-female in halacha. I just don't get that part. Probably it's just me being tired.
persephone - comment away! It makes me feel loved. Feel free to dig up old entries and comment on those, too. But keep going here, because I believe that Alisha asked you a question.
Alisha, I meant that Orthodox women agitating for change are usually the ones accused of being too influenced by secular culture.
Uh, but I wrote that when I was tired, too, so maybe that's not the inverse but the converse? Logic 101 was so long ago. Shanna, this is probably your territory more than mine.
Where statement is x --> y
the inverse is ~x --> ~y
the converse is y --> x
and the contrapositive is ~y --> ~x
The contrapositive always has the same logical truth value (T or F) as the original statement. However, this does not hold true for the inverse and the converse, though those two always have the same logical truth value as each other (because, and if you look carefully you will see this, they are each other's contrapositive).
I can't believe I remember that from ninth grade math. Also, it's really Julian's territory, not mine, but then again I used to do LSAT-like logic games for fun, so maybe it is my territory.
Nor can I believe you remember that from ninth-grade math, Shanna. I was thinking LSATs, too.
And thank you, Persephone. What you say makes perfect sense, regardless of what logical transformation it is; I just wasn't getting it on my own.
