Arranged

The film arranged was about two women in America that were of different ethnicities that are teachers in an elementary school. It shows the struggles that the two women go through being from eastern countries living in America.

I thought the movie did a good job of showing the relationships between the two different women that were living in America under the rules of their families. How both of them had to go through arranged marriages, and their families were the ones to pick out their suitors. The one family was a lot more accepting of their friendship and allowed the two women to hang out and make school plans together. The other family was not accepting of them being friends and did not allow them to hang out together in the house. The mother mentioned to her daughter when she came over that it was not appropriate for her to be there and that she needed to ask her father for permission. She also stated that people would see her over their and would talk gossip about it.

One part of the film that I found interesting was how they portrayed Americans. For example the showed the role of the American principle who believed in all of the stereotypes and seemed completely ignorant and uneducated about any other culture. Another was when the two teachers were talking and the American boy asked why they were talking to each other, and if they wanted to kill one another. The most interesting part was when they were going around in a circle and the principle asked them to share one interesting/juicy thing about them. Both of the Eastern women talked about their culture as something that was interesting about them. The American woman mentioned how she went topless at the beach over the summer and felt liberated. The film seemed to show the struggles of eastern people in America, but at the same time sterotyped the Americans.

MSA Dinner

On Friday the 20th I dragged my roommate to the Muslim Student Association dinner. Both of us did not really know what to expect. The name of the dinner was called From Original Sin to the Color of Skin: Gender, Class, and Racial Equality in Islam. Upon arriving we were sent to check in. We were given name tags where we would writed our name in English and then one of the students from the association would write your name in arabic underneath it. We got there a few minutes early so we walked around and looked at the exhibits they had. There were a couple prayer areas and people were actually praying at them! It was very interesting I recognized what was happening because of our visit to the mosque, but my roommate seemed as if she had just discovered a completly different world. Next they sat us down at our table and we snacked on pita and hummus while we waited for the speaker to present, yum! After that one of the imans did a few recitings from the quran and after they were translated to english. Then the speaker came out and gave a very interesting lecture which was followed by a question and answer session. Unfortunately it was getting late and we had to leave early so we did not get to enjoy the dinner that smelled amazing. Overall I had a good time at the lecture and I felt like I understood what was being discussed because of the education I have recieved from this class!

Year of the Elephant/Women in Middle East

We finished the 'Women in the Middle East' with the book Year of the Elephant. We have discovered so much in this section about the struggles that women of the Middle East go through.

What I think is interesting is the comparison of how women in the Middle East are judged vs. how women in America are judged. In America unfortunately most women are judged based on their appearance and how they look. In the Middle East it seems like beauty is not the number one characteristic for judgement. Women are judged more based on their status with their family and community. For example the woman in Year of the Elephant was divorced and the community all judged her based upon that. The woman in the film 'Two Women' was seen as dishonoring the family after her cousin was injured, and she was judged off of that. Most women in America strive to have a decent appearance because they believe that they will be liked more by their communities and peers this way. Women in the Middle East strive to obey their families and act honorable in order for their community to accept them. However all the lead women we have watched and read about have been strong women that go against the norms of society.

I think that this section told us a lot about how women are expected to act in the Middle East, compared to what they actually want to be doing with their lives. Many of these women are strong and independent and just want what any citizen in the world wants, which is to have freedom and be treated respectfully.

Two Women

The film that we watched in class for the 'Women in Islam' group titled Two Women. This film told a powerful story of a woman who had a passion for getting an education. She started off going to college and then discovered that she had a stalker. The stalker complicated her life and put her in a situation which seemed as if she had dishonored the family. In order to regain her honor back into the family she had to marry someone. Her family and one of her male suitors arranged for her to get married to him. She did not want to marry him she wanted to continue on with her education and not be distracted. However her family felt so strongly about her marrying him in order to salvage the family honor that she was forced to. Her husband bribed her into marrying him by promising her she could go back to school. After the marriage things were very different she was not allowed to go to school or do simple everyday things like use the telephone to call her friends. The rest of the movie carried on to show how painful and hard her life was as an Islamic woman that was being manipulated by her over controlling husband. I thought this film was very good, but also very sad. It showed how woman in the Middle East sometimes in marriages are just seen as objects or property of the male. They have no choice or say in the marriage or in who they marry. Islamic customs of marriage are definately different then American customs. I also took into consideration that this film was made a few years back and marriage customs and the treatment of women have changed slightly since then. I know that today women in the Middle East have more rights then they used to.

Women's Rights in the Middle East

Women In Islam

For the Women in Islam group we had two guest speakers. The first one was Gulnar Husain. She gave a very interesting power point presentation about women today in the Middle East. What I thought was interesting was how she introduced the class to all of these quotes from the Quran that specified that women should be treated equally to men. However, just because the Quran states it many islamic men do not treat women with equality. She made a good point in saying that today women are treated much better then they used to be and even mentioned some examples of women in power and other notable muslim women. Gulnar also talked a little bit about the 'Hijab' or the head covering that some Middle Eastern women choose to wear. She explained that the Hijab was a symbol of modesty, morality and respect. Even though she chooses to wear it she thinks that it should be an option for women to wear it if they want. For example when her daughter wanted to wear one she did not think it was the proper time for her to start wearing one. Upon researching the Hijab, I found that it is not required in many places anymore that women wear them. It is actually an option for women to choose to wear them if they want to or not. Many times when the women is being pressured to wear the Hijab it is by other women or non-governmental enforcers. Today with Middle Eastern countries becoming more westernized some countries are encouraging women to take off their head scarves. However, some women see the head scarf as part of their religion and tradition, but by refusing to take them off the government is viewing the hijab as a symbol of resistance. It is interesting because we just learned that in certain countries such as Turkey the government strongly encourages women not to wear the hijab and states that it is illegal for women in government positions or women attending college to wear the Hijab. However today in places in the Middle East such as Gaza women and told to wear the Hijab or any place that is under the influence of the socio-political organization of 'Hamas'.

Memed My Hawk

I apologize for being so far behind on my blog! I had two exams last week, but still want to share my thoughts.

I thought Memed My Hawk written by Yashar Kemal, was a very intriguing and adventurous story. I would disagree when people in class thought of it to be a 'boy' novel because I enjoyed reading it as well, but I also like reading novels that have a lot of action in them and are exciting to read. Although it was a bit longer of a book I thought it did a good job of keeping the readers attention. There were not many parts that were slow and boring. Memed is talked about in many different review as being the Turkish 'Robinhood' and I would have to agree. Although he was a bandit he was seen as a hero by many. Memed and his mother were treated poorly during his whole childhood. In the novel Memed seeks justice and avengance upon the Agha, who has done many things that has made Memeds life more difficult. This novel is full of action, yet also has a softer romantic side to it when it talks about his relationship with his love Hatche. Which is why I think the novel would appeal to both males and females that are looking to read a good story.

Also I found the movie online... I have yet to watch it so I am not sure if it shares the same story as the novel.

Sleeping in the Forest

I wanted to write a blog about the short stories that were assigned to the class that we did not get a chance to discuss in class. I think that these short stories probably were very thought provoking to most of you and probably even confusing. I probably should have introduced a little more background about these stories before you I had everyone read them. The stories are a little bit difficult to read on their own. There were 22 stories that were put together in sleeping in the forest and I picked the ones that interested me most for the class. Many of the stories in the novel ended unhappily, many critics think that reflects upon the author who put the stories together who died roughly around the age of 50 from alcoholism. The stories brought realistic accounts of everyday turkish people and put them in a fictional light, the author gave them a dream like feel. The stories in this book were very surreal and sought out true everyday issues that turkish people were facing. The stories were seen to have taken place after the fall of the Ottoman Empire from 1930-1940. It took me a couple times reading them to even begin to understand the concept that the storying was trying to portray. In the preface of the book it says:

"Sait Faik portrayed the predicaments, maladjustments, and disillusionments of
the man in the street, frequently himslef, living on the fringes of society."

World for Sale - I interpreted this to be the story of a turkish man who was struggling from the death of his wife and the illness of his son. He was facing hard times and did not have a lot of money so he had the tendency to gamble and steal. After his wife and child had passed and he had enough money to support himself, he no longer needed to steal to get by with life. However due to being caught up in the gambling and stealing he could not stop himself from continuing. When caught and asked why he was stealing all he said is that he was going to buy the world with the money. This story demonstrated the life of a young man who was greedy and never fully satisfied with what he had.

Such a Story- When I first read this story I compared it to being a dillusional 'alice in wonderland' type story except for this was definately not wonderland. It presents a young man who is wandering the streets of towns in turkey that runs into different kinds of people who all have many differnt problems. I interpreted every situation he ran into to reflect upon his life. First he runs into someone who is facing alcohol issues. Next one that is experiencing homelessness. The next man was with a woman who was cheating on her husband. Finally after he gets home and is able to tell all of these stories to the one person he wanted to confide in the whole story he is to exhausted to and wanders off to somewhere else.

Barba Antimos - Tells a story about an artist who was very skillful and built gorgeous architecture. His artwork told a story and reflected the pain he went through in his life. It compares his art to classical works. His works represent the old beauty of turkey and looks down upon modern architecture that has recently taken away from the beauty of turkey. His artwork tells such a story that being in its presence you can feel it.

Turkey Documentaries

I have previously written a blog on honor killings in turkey that contained some very interesting articles. Since then I have started reading a book titled "Burned Alive" it is a story of a girl who was meant to be killed by one of her brothers because she fell in love with someone and was seen as dishonoring the family. Her brother tried to kill her with by setting her on fire, but she miraculously survived! This is her story the hardships she faced as being a female in the Middle East. She describes how she was beaten up constantly and held to a very different standard from the males of her family. This is a true story however the story is written on an anonymous source to protect her from the males of her family to this day. If any of you were interested in the documentary on honor killings we watched in class or by the discussion professor Mirzeler led on honor killings I would suggest this book to you. It is a sad story, but is very empowering.

We got into quite the discussion last thursday about the issue of women wearing head scarves in Turkey. I would have to disagree with the people in the class who agreed with the fact women should not wear the head scarf. Just because Turkish women were given equal rights and are not being forced to wear the head scarf, they should still have the option if they want to. Isn't that what equality means? that they have the freedom to dress as they please? I understand that the government views the head scarf as a weakness for women and want to empower them by letting them take it off, but some women view this as a part of their culture are tradition. The fact that an educated women got boo-ed out of parliment by the prime minister did not demonstrate equality at all. It was strange that she felt more comfortable living in America wearing her head scarf then in her own home land.

I thought these two documentaries were very powerful and showed two different sides of issues that are occuring in Turkey.