5 Years of My Life

In the assigned reading that we had from the memoir Five Years of My Life, there was a lot of detail of the abuse that was suffered by a young man who spent five years of his life under the suspicion on the American government that he was a terrorist. I believe three of those years he spent at the U.S. Naval Guantanamo camp where he was put through the most brutal abuse. Just from the small section of the memoir that we read for class, I was appalled of the harsh treatment that this young man was put through.

"I didn't recognize the man. He was hanging as I was from the
ceiling I couldn't tell whether he was dead or alive. His body
was mostly swollen and blue, although in some places it was pale and
white. I could see a lot of blood in his face, dark streams of it

I have read little bits and pieces about Guantanamo, but never researched on the tourture methods till now. I am disgusted about the brutality and it makes me sick hear about it. Many of these men are innocent and do not present any danger to our country. I understand detaining suspicious individuals, but I do not understand why there would be a need to torture them. It makes me sad that the US is in an economic downfall, yet we still continue to spend money on things like Guantanamo Bay. Even with Obamas's promise to shut it down, they just received more funding to upgrade the security there. Which makes you ask yourself why would they need to upgrade the security if the plan is to shut it down? Obviously the shut down of Guantanamo Bay is not going to happen anytime in the near future.

Waltz with Bashir

I thought the movie, Waltz with Bashir, was the best film that we have viewed so far. It had the most powerful message and was very interesting to watch. I enjoyed that it was a graphic film and not an actual documentary because I think it would have been way to hard to sit through it and watch if it was real. The last 2-3 minutes of the film was the most powerful part of the film, which made the rest of it seem real. I did not even know about this massacre until this film.

One powerful message of the film was the songs that were played in it. They all talked about the war almost as if they were making fun of it or they were turning killing into a lighter topic. This is because the film was anti-war and the songs were designed to show how pointless war actually is.

I loved the main character of the film, when he was younger he reminded me of a graphic version of Edward Norton(who is one of my favorite actors). How he did not remember what happened to him during the war and went and interviewed all of these people to figure out what was occuring in his nightmares. It seemed that everyone who he went and talked to had there own struggles with the war and recalling things that happened. This did not surprise me because that is common for someone suffering from PTSD. They block images from their brain because they do not wish to remember them happening. They commonly relive these tragic events through nightmares and hallucinations. This was demonstrated in the main character and also the character at the beginning who was having recurring thoughts about the 26 dogs that he shot during the massacre.

Overall I thought that this movie was one of the best movies I have seen in a long time and would not mind watching it again to get an even better understanding of the message that it was trying to portray.

Does my head look big in this?

The story Does My Head Look Big in This? is a young adult novel that takes place in Austrailia. The main character in the novel addresses many issues that we have talked about in class already. To wear the hijab or not to wear the hijab? After taking a long four days to think about whether or not to wear it she finally decides to wear it. The main character Amal seems to hold a high level of respect for her religion for being such a young age. She wants to follow it closely and respect it. After her crush tries to kiss her she pulls away and gets in a fight with him, which shows how strongly she believes in her faith, because most girls her age would be dying for a kiss from their crush.

I feel like her friends in the novel were particularly written that way just for the purpose of the novel. She has the one friend who is Asian and has to deal with racial issues. She has another who is constantly dieting and is very insecure about her weight. She also has another friend whose parents are strict and constantly pressuring her to do school work; they are always trying to find a suitor to set her up with. Each of these girls is very interesting, but it seems unlikely that they would be friends in a typical high school setting. However not all high schools are cliché like people think that they are.

I enjoyed reading this novel because it was very easy to read and predict. It told a story of a girl in high school struggling with her religion. I would recommend this story to young adults in high school, it gave a good message overall.

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.

Gold Dust

I thought that the novel gold dust portrayed a heartfelt story of a young man and his camel. The one thing that I enjoyed about the novel was that instead of there being one moral to the story there were a bunch of morals and lessons that the novel displayed. I also thought Gold Dust was pretty easy to read because it shared many similarities with the novel that we have read previously Aunt Safiyya. I understood what it was talking about when it discussed the evil eye and how it followed those who were envied of their beauty.
The part about the novel that I had trouble with was the resentment it presented towards women. It pretty much said that all of life’s problems could pretty much be traced back to the women in their lives. For the piebald it was the beautiful white camel that caused him to become plagued with a disease. For Ukhayyad it was marrying a beautiful poet who he was forbidden to that caused him to lose everything in his life. It was like it showed women as the reason for pain in all men’s lives, from the moment they leave the womb till the moment they die almost each struggle could be traced back to a woman in their life.

“He could not escape the contempt he felt toward the woman, toward himself, toward children, toward the world. From the moment they emerge from their mother’s bellies, humans never truly enjoy a single moment in peace. As soon as they put one calamity behind them, they great the next…”

Ukhayyad’s only true bond he had in the story was with his camel. All of the struggles that he went through were pretty much all related to his pet. He demonstrated a loyalty to his animal and the camel did the same to him in return.

The Power of Childrens Novels

On thursday we had an interesting discussion on the two pieces of childrens literature that was assigned to us to read. The first piece was titled, The Day of Ahmed’s Secret, this piece seemed to be a heart felt childrens novel that showed the pride a young boy took in his day of work. It took you through different scenes of Egypt with it's illustrations. We debated as to weather or not the illustrator was presenting Cairo to look like "arab land", I do believe that some of the images may have been a little skewed from what Egypt today is actually like. However, I think that the author was just trying their best to present Egypt historically and currently. Egypt does have cars and newer cities, but at the same time it still has maintained some of it's historical aspects with camels and street markets which today can be filled with many different types of people. Most of them probably "arab land" like, but also more moderized arab people. So I do not believe that this novel was trying to send out a hidden message to children about sterotypes in Egypt.
The second piece of literature was titled Sami and the Time of Troubles. This childrens story talked about a young boy and his experiences during a time of war. This was almost hard for me to believe that it was a childrens book. The pictures displayed the depression that the boy and his family were going through. The hardships of living in a town that was being bombed and having to wake up with no house and no city because it has all be burned away. The one thing that I think the novel is trying to express to kids is that it is okay to have your own opinion. When the children were protesting in the street they were displaying their opinion of the war. If a child were to read this it may encourage them to speak out more abou their feelings towards global issues and encourage them to form an opinion of their own. I kind of almost think that this was ment to be written for adults. We found so many debatable topics in the novel among a college level class. I think that this would be a great novel to talk about in the book because it discusses a topic that can be debated between all ages.

Trip to the Islamic Center

I really enjoyed the trip that we took last thursday to the Islamic Center. I learned a lot about the history of mosques and also about the islamic religion in general. I liked how the mosque was set up and that there were seperate prayer areas for men and women. They definately take prayer very personally and seriously. Our class was lucky to be able to become more educated on mosques from such an intelligent individual. I was amazed by his accomplishments and his dedication to the religion.
The people who visit the mosque seem to be a tight knit community.
Our leader kept refering to Ramadan and about how their community provides meals during the religious holiday for everyone at the mosque. During Ramadan men that participate Iʿtikāf which requires them to remain in the mosque for ten days while they worship and learn more about Islam. All muslims are supposed to offer five prayers per day. While many people visit the mosque multiple times per week to perform in prayer, the prayers can be performed anywhere. However friday mid-day prayer is considered manditory.
I would recommend to anyone who is curious about the islamic center to visit it. They seem to be very kind and welcoming to teach anyone that is willing to learn.

The Road to Love

I thought that the film that we watched on Tuesday The Road to Love was very interesting. It was shot from a very different point of view then normal documentaries. It was strange to me that it started off like a documentary and then turned into a memoir of Kamir’s life. It showed that there are similarities in emotions between Americans and Middle Eastern homosexuals. The part that was very similar was that the men who are ‘passive’ in homosexual relationships are seen as week where the men who are more ‘active’ in homosexual relationships are still accepted in society. The different part about the film was how they talked about in the past in certain societies it was okay for men of power in their forties to marry younger boys for a period of time. I have never heard of something like that occurring an interesting fact to learn.
This film could create a lot of skepticism among people. Especially those who have different beliefs could be very intimidated by this film. I thought it was a very interesting choice to show to the class however, it would not be an appropriate choice to show to children that are of middle school and high school age.
The film had an interesting technique of filming. I liked that while he was interviewing certain men he would have the camera on them catching their reactions to the questions he was asking, but at the same time he would have a camera on him that would catch his reaction to their answers. The part that I enjoyed most about the film was that you got to see a young man transform. I think that the film would open many eyes of people who are insecure with their status as an individual, and possibly even give them the courage to discover who they really are.

Blood and Oil

Oil is one of the most important resources that Americans use today. We have been struggling ever since World War II to recover from all of the oil that we consumed, but has our attempt to recover more oil due to the war caused a war of it’s own? The film blood and oil explained how the war in Iraq could be because of Americas attempt to control oil supplies. One interesting point that was made was that America always wants to take part in everything. That we do not trust other nations to do things and we always want to do it our way. We have so many government ran facilities and military bases in other countries because we always have to be involved. However if other countries wanted to be involved in America, they are seen as a threat. One thing about the film that interested me was that when they discussed the writings and quotes they found from Osama Bin Laden. How a lot of his materials showed that his anger towards America was caused by oil. If America was not so oil greedy, would September 11th ever happen? If America had not put these leaders in power because of our struggle for oil, would the world be at peace? I would like to hope that in the future we continue to research methods for alternative oil uses and stop trying to regain all of the oil that we lost. By creating our own resources and saving oil by using greener methods we would be able to leave these Middle Eastern countries alone and save a lot of conflict from happening.

Honor Killing in Turkey

What I really wanted my blog to focus on this week is the topic of honor killing in Turkey. Honor killing is a topic that I was not aware about until recently. Any woman in the Turkish family that has brought dishonor to the family is to be exiled by the males of the family. I was amazed by some of the stories that I read on this topic. Many of them made me feel sick to my stomach. The brutality of the men towards these women is shocking. Honor is so important to the Turkish family that they are willing to commit such awful crimes in order to keep their honor.

One gruesome story that I read was about a young thirteen year old girl, who was rumored to talk to boys on the street and run away from home. The father decided one time that when she tried to run away that he was going to do something about it. He beat the girl with a kitchen knife and axe until she was dead. He then demanded his other daughter to clean up the mess and when his sons got home he instructed to them to remove the corpse and dispose of it.

Another even more shocking article that I read was about a young girl who had been kidnapped and raped. When she returned to the family the father did not want her to be his daughter anymore because of something that she could not even control. The father proceeded to strangled her with a wire explaining that the girl being raped and kidnapped brought dishonor to the family.

Statistics say that over 200 women and young girls are killed every year in turkey due to dishonor. Although the men who commit these crimes are usually punished by law, the law is not nearly strict enough as it should be. For the brutal killings these men give they should be serving the death penalty. Unfortunately many of them are getting off with the minimum sentence.

Turkey!

So far from what I have read about turkery, I have found many similarities between Turkish families and Egyptian families. Women in Turkey have similar roles as the women in Egypt. They are ment to be the one does all the household duties, and does not leave very far from the home. The men are trained to be the educated workers. It is said that women that are more educated in turkey are less fertile and usually only end up producing one child. Because of this women are encouraged to not seek out education and to stay at home and raise the children.

I found a very interesting website called turkish odyssey. It shares with people many interesting facts on women and feminism in Turkey as wel as other general information. Another part about this site that caught my eye was that it was completely dedicated to turkey and even has a link that shows images of turkey. I found the image up top of what looks like a marina in turkey with a beautiful landscape behind.

I am very excited to continue on with my research into the beautiful country of turkey and cannot wait to share it with all of you. While browsing through videos on youtube looking for something on turkey I came across this short clip which displays many of the middle eastern stereotypes we disscussed the first week of class.

Egyptian Family and Social Status

I decided to research Egyptian families and their social statues. I came across a website that I believe summarized the community very well and shared a lot of comparisons with Aunt Safiyya and the Monastery.

The term family in the country of Egypt is seen to be very ambiguous even more so then any other Middle Eastern country. In Egypt the families almost always remain close especially in lower class families. Many times their children will marry cousins and they always keep the same housing within the family and pass it down to relatives. They always remain in the same part of town as well and do not like moving from city to city. The section of the city that they live in defines what class they are in. All of the higher class families live in one area and the lower class live in another. The division of class in society is distinctive. The women almost always move in with the male’s family although they still remain close with their own family. Family is how a citizen is identified in society. The members of the family rely on each other a lot because they do not have any other outside people that they are as close with. They see their family as their social network and personal support.

I appreciate learning about the relationships between family members in other countries because they are very different than ours here in America. Although most of us would love to say that we have close relatives and family members, an American family cannot even compare to an Egyptian family. It is said that many Egyptians are incredibly willing to take outsiders into their family. Even people such as their servants and housekeepers sometimes move in the house and are seen almost as another family member. This is not something that we see taking place in America very much.

Aunt Safiyya and the Monastery

I really enjoyed reading Aunt Safiyya and the Monastery because it is a very clever and well thought out book. The book starts off by introducing you to all the characters at a young age. One aspect of the book that I enjoyed the most was the descriptiveness of it. It describes to you a clear picture of all the characters so that when you continue to read more into the book you can read very deeply and imagine what it was actually like if you were in the story.

The character of the book that fascinated me the most was the character of Safiyya. She went through many transformations throughout the story. She started off as being a beautiful girl that everyone was afraid to envy. Then after she was married she turned into her husband’s slave when she would wait on him hand a foot. After the bey, her husband, dies Safiyya turns into a revenge seeking old woman. At the young age of twenty they describe Safiyya as having wrinkles and being addicted to smoking from the pipe.

Perhaps one of the most important characters of the book is the narrator. He is the heart and soul of the book. He witnesses everything from the beginning from his fascination with Safiyya all the way up to the death of his uncle Harbi. It seems as though this character was not able to live a life of his own because of Safiyya and Harbi. The book cleverly was written from his point of view because he shared both sides of the story, which created for an interesting conflict in the book. I would recommend this book to not only people who are interested in learning about Egyptian culture, but just for anyone who enjoys reading.

Reel Bad Arabs

The Film Reel Bad Arabs was very insightful and opened my mind to a topic that I previously did not know that much about. I did not realize how many Arab stereotypes were in films until I watched this film. It made me feel a lot like a hypocrite by watching it because I realized how close minded I was towards this topic. I would be extremely offended if Americans were portrayed in Arab films the way that some American films show Arabs.

In my opinion the film demonstrates how far Hollywood will go to make an income. All of these films plus the tragedy of September eleventh have turned Arabs into the enemy. Hollywood knows that by using the culture that is easiest to make fun of or is the most convincing as the villain they will make more money. What they don’t analyze is the stereotypes that they are presenting to young America. If women in America were portrayed in Arab films the way that we show Arab women, there would be feminist all over America that would be very irate.

Overall this film excited me about this class because it opened up my eyes to something that before I did not even notice. It made me very excited to do more research on the middle east and find out more about what is happening over there. It inspires me to become more educated on the topic so that I can pass my knowledge onto others. If more Americans were educated on the middle east I think that the country as a whole would have a different opinion on them and not jump to the conclusion that everyone is a terrorist or a villain.