Fun.
It means different things to different folks.
But how about Muslim women, particularly those who wear the headscarf -- what does fun mean to them?
About a month ago, I threw out the following question to practicing Muslims in America: "What do you like to do for fun?" And, here's what I heard -- well, actually, read via email -- in response from the women (in their own words):
- Sahar (32, NY): I love to get pedicures, go on sushi dates with my best friend and love to bake cakes!!
- Hala (32, NJ): I have a passion for cooking, and love to try new foods. I love good music -- definitely have a soft spot for stuff from the '80s and '90s. I love traveling, although it's difficult now that I have three small children, and I love reading (memoirs and mystery/suspense type novels mostly). I also find writing a great expressive outlet and very relaxing, and so ... I have a blog :).
- Hafeza (30, N.J.): I'm a cardiologist and my husband and I spend our spare time taking the kids to Philly for restaurants, shopping in New Jersey or going to New York for a Yankees game.
- Hebatallah (28, Wash.): Spending family time in the park, reading novels; volunteering to help the environment as much as possible; and enjoying a good laugh :)
- Mona (32, N.J.): I like to travel, get together with old friends (doesn't happen as much as I'd like) and catch up with each other, get massages and other spa treatments regularly for relaxation and mental wellness during "me" time, read, keep a drawing tablet and paint if I find the chance. I also love to sled with my children in the snow and will attempt teaching them to ski this year. I love to write stories, poems and songs for fun, and share and sing them with my kiddos.
- Jabeen (27, N.J.): I enjoy simple pleasures like watching a good movie, cooking at home, or taking a picnic. Being very social, I'm always ready for a dinner out with my friends, sightseeing or even just hanging out and talking or playing video games together.
- Sana (29, N.J.): In my free time I love watching movies inspired by the writings of Jane Austen with both my sisters. From Emma to Pride and Prejudice and so on I love being able to sit back on our mom's cozy couch with a few snacks and watch Austen weave her magic. The sarcasm, humor, time period, costumes and love stories are so enchanting that you can't help but be drawn in.
- Shenaz (24, Calif.): I have my own blog, and like to write my weird/funny/original, not always Islamic reflections on it :) I also like to write snail mail to my friends. I also like running! and i like reading poetry :)
- Naila (30, Pa.): I love to travel around the world and see different countries and their cultures. My family also goes on camping trips almost every summer. I am into many forms of art such as interior design, photography and painting. And can't forget reading novels and watching movies (especially period dramas).
- Nazia (31, Mass.): I like to spend time with family and friends as much as I can participating in activities ranging from shopping and dinner out to hiking and kayaking. I also enjoy having people over, cooking dinner or ordering pizza, and watching a movie or playing board games. Personally, I also enjoy working out, practicing yoga, and getting monthly facials and the occasional massage.
I guess girls do just want to have fun (headscarf notwithstanding).
Feminist standpoint theory suggests that, although powerful discourses attempt to define women on the “margins” of society, women's cultural positions provide them with heightened understandings of the contradictions between their experiences and the ways the dominant group defines them. Thus, while many Americans believe hijab—also called a “veil” or “headscarf”—functions to oppress women, veiled women probably possess alternative understandings.
And yes they are both theories (definition of theory: A supposition intended to explain something. I'm pretty sure altoplano's opinion is trying to explain something, namely why women wear hijab. And in case supposition is too ambiguous, let's define that word. Supposition: an uncertain belief. Sounds a lot like an opinion. That is, an opinion that intends to explain something is a theory. Or I suppose some just use their own definitions of words.
"Feminist standpoint theory suggests that, although powerful discourses attempt to define women on the “margins” of society, women's cultural positions provide them with heightened understandings of the contradictions between their experiences and the ways the dominant group defines them. Thus, while many Americans believe hijab—also called a “veil” or “headscarf”—functions to oppress women, veiled women probably possess alternative understandings. In this study, 13 veiled American Muslim women share their experiences, and under the lens of standpoint theory, the participants’ definition of hijab emerges. Specifically, the women inscribe hijab with meanings shaped by their unique cultural standpoints. Hijab functions to define Muslim identity, perform a behavior check, resist sexual objectification, afford more respect, preserve intimate relationships, and provide freedom."
Interesting, this psychological researcher states, "Thus, while many Americans believe hijab—also called a “veil” or “headscarf”—functions to oppress women, veiled women probably possess alternative understandings."
and
"Hijab functions to define Muslim identity, perform a behavior check, resist sexual objectification, afford more respect, preserve intimate relationships, and provide freedom."
I'm getting ready to send an email to our favorite HP blogger... I hope to see all of this data in an article
"The important point is that young women who wear hijab and jilbab interpret (Koranic) passages as requiring covering, and act accordingly (518). Additionally, many young Muslim women find covering a comfort in mixed-sex settings. The following quote is illustrative: I lived in a co-ed dorm and it was really the first time I had to deal with unwanted attention from guys. I guess that was the first time I really understood why it was necessary to wear a scarf, because as soon as I did, all the idiots
left me alone (518). Others use hijab to rebel against their parents (519). In any case, they find that young women took up the hijab voluntarily. Alternatively, they found that sometimes women gave up wearing hijab because of pressure from friends, family, schoolmates, or coworkers (519); a generation gap also exists, as young adult women react strongly, and negatively, to younger women's choice to wear hijab (520)."
Let's repeat cause not all of us read well: "In any case, they find that young women took up the hijab voluntarily." I wonder how they came up to this conclusion without exploring whether coercion was a motivation... oh wait they did. Oh my, more quotes. Please get your excuses warmed up.
An opinion is merely a belief or judgment about something. An informed opinion can be based on credible sources and relevant data.
Anybody can hold an opinion about anything, regardless of what you say is on- or off-limits. It sounds like you're attempting to redefine words to suit your own agenda.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/11/17/all-american-muslim-hijab-episode_n_1100378.html
The need to pull quotes from random people rather than real data is a nice touch. You asked for data, I supplied far more than you (since you have no published, peer review data at all) and it contradicts your theory in Western muslims. Of course, I forgot, you only pay attention to data when it supports your view, correct? When you have no data and the only data out there by PhD researchers contradict your view, then you don't believe it.
When you want to quote statistics on FGM and honor killings, then you believe it without question. I didn't say your FGM data was suspect, I took it for face value and countered that Muslims committing those acts were violating their religion and acting ignorantly and causing harm and provided data that FGM is not based in Islamic theology. But I guess you take a different approach: data that supports your views are obviously correct, and data that contradict you are wrong.
Curious, when did you get your tea party, anti-intellectual, I prefer my opinions to any ideas from researchers member card? Hope it has a large credit line, you've used it up.
By the way, what is your obsession with PhDs? Perhaps a frustrated aspiration? No worry, though, you still have your law career to fall back on. In any case, I guess you're not much for democracy.
As for data, I'm always interested in seeing relevant data to help me form my opinion. However, I'm not interested in the irrelevant data you push in your desperate attempt to prove your point.
And by the way, I'm about as far from the Tea Party as you could get. In fact, I consider myself a liberal, just not a misguided one. On that note where did you acquire your earnest moral and cultural relativism?
Yes men are sexual beings and they tend to dehumanize women when they see them in skimpy clothe!
"Sexy women in bikinis really do inspire some men to see them as objects, according to a new study of male behavior."
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2009/02/090216-bikinis-women-men-objects.html
Islam appears effectively dealing with these type of social issues in a very positive way!
All from the published article: U.S. Muslim Women and Body Image: Links Among Objectification
Theory Constructs and the Hijab by Tolaymat and Moradi. In the journal of counseling psychology. That would be ACADEMIC data. Interesting, your circular theory wasn't discussed but there's a few more interesting points about the positive aspects of hijab the authors noted that I'll be posting. I hope you have a rebuttal against academic findings by PhD psychology researchers (and they aren't bright enough to discover your theory will be considered "weak").
"Surprisingly limited data speak to the potential link between the hijab and body image variables. Two recent studies address this gap. First, in a sample of Australian Muslim women, modesty of dress was found to correlate negatively, whereas media consumption and tendency toward physical appearance comparison were found to correlate positively with body image and eating problems; these links were observed above and beyond level of religiosity, and level of religiosity was not associated uniquely with the criterion variables (Mussap,2009). In another study, a series of group comparisons involving U.S. Muslim and non-Muslim women—categorized into groups by age (younger and older), type of dress (Western or nonWestern), and veiling (with veil or no veil)—were conducted to examine differences on body image criterion variables (Dunkel, Davidson, & Qurashi, 2010). The pattern of findings across multiple comparisons suggested that relative to Western dressers, non-Western dressers reported lower drive for thinness, appearance pressures, and internalization of dominant cultural standards of beauty. This pattern was more consistent among younger women than among older women, and the pattern was
unchanged when body mass index (BMI) was controlled. Taken together, these two studies suggest that in Western countries, Muslim women’s Islamic or non-Western dress is associated with lower body image problems, and this link is independent of religiosity and BMI. It is important to note that these studies investigate the hijab from the perspectives of women who are likely to have greater volition in wearing the hijab."
I'm planning to send the results to our favorite HP blogger as well, I hope she will write an article about it. How interesting and illuminating research is.
What you are really saying is that you consider women who don't wear an identity-concealing garment to be morally suspect, not because of their actions, but merely because they are women.
To you, wearing the hijab is obviously repressive. To me, wearing anything is potentially repressive or liberating depending on the beliefs and intentions of the person wearing it and whether they are being coerced. This article is not attempting to discuss that issue at all.
Your arguments related to that issue are not only unconvincing (any dress code in any environment is in large part arbitrary, yet we don't all walk around naked, and even in the USA men are allowed to be topless but women are generally not). Further, you comments are generally belligerent and disrespectful in attitude towards people you apparently feel are being oppressed. This is akin to a Democratic politician calling poor people who vote for republicans ignorant as though that will convince them to vote for him/her.
If questioning and criticism makes you uncomfortable, though, then perhaps a public forum is not the place for you.
And your last comment about it never truly being a choice... so please explain to me what is truly a choice? What is philosophically speaking, an act of free will? I assume you weren't raised literally by wolves, so you have been inculcated with some societal values and mores, have they not influenced your decisions (positive or negative, even contrarians and skeptics are influenced by the prevailing views which they wish to contradict)? Even when you stray from what your parents or elders taught you or what peers or colleagues may believe, have you not been previously exposed to actions and experiences and literature that influenced you? How do you know that you have any free will at all? Is only the most randomly committed act without forethought an act of free will? The brightest PhDs in philosophy can't convincingly settle this issue, but feel free (pun intended) to try your hand.
Why do we sell products by exploiting/objectifying women's bodies? Why do women have far more eating disorders/body image disorders? Is it the portrayal of women and their bodies in our society? How many women's strip clubs exist? Are these liberating? Lap dances? Prostitution? Where do you draw the line? It's natural for primates and other animals to engage in sexual activities in the open, so should we seek to allow this in our society? Of course, might makes right is also the "natural" law and there is no medical care for animals in the wild, so should we shoot all the doctors to allow natural selection to be unperturbed?
Before you go thinking that what you are doing is natural and free, how much have you already been affected subconsciously by the society you live in and the marketing that surrounds you?
Finally, we don't exactly place strippers/nudists/exhibitionists on a pedestal. So your notion of less clothes being more free and natural and better is logically speaking, false in this country. The important thing is, as many have posted, that people choose what is best for themselves. Isn't that the point of democracy?
Of course, I can't fathom how your head doesn't explode from the cognitive dissonance of being a human rights attorney and Muslim simultaneously.
"Fact #1: 17.6 % of women in the United States have survived a completed or attempted rape. Of these, 21.6% were younger than age 12 when they were first raped, and 32.4% were between the ages of 12 and 17.
Fact #2: 64% of women who reported being raped, physically assaulted, and/or stalked since age 18 were victimized by a current or former husband, cohabiting partner, boyfriend, or date.
Fact #3: Only about half of domestic violence incidents are reported to police. African-American women are more likely than others to report their victimization to police."
Fact #5: In the National Violence Against Women Survey, approximately 25% of women and 8% of men said they were raped and/or physically assaulted by a current or former spouse, cohabiting partner, or date in their lifetimes. The survey estimates that more than 300,000 intimate partner rapes occur each year against women 18 and older.
http://www.feminist.com/antiviolence/facts.html
Did you know that in the Olympics, men don't compete against women, because men hold an advantage over women? The strongest man in the world is stronger than the strongest woman in the world. The fastest man in the world is faster than the fastest woman in the world. The tallest man in the world is taller than the tallest woman in the world. There are physiological differences between men and women. Islam deals with these differences. Whether you believe that men and women were created or whether you believe they evolved, the fact remains the same that there is a biological difference between the two. It would be foolish to assume that they are identical. They are equal, but different. In Islam, men and women get the same punishments and the same rewards. However, there are different rules that apply to both.
You state about Muslim women and men: "They are equal, but different". Saudi Arabian women are not allowed to drive a car because of the religious police. Is that because men and women are different? Women are physically weaker and thus should not drive a car even though millions and millions of women around the world do drive cars. There is no doubt that civilization is dominated by men but slowly women are obtaining more equality except in Muslim countries. I don't know if you are a Muslim or not but you definitely show that you are scared of women gaining equal rights because it challenges your masculinity or lack of it..
How has it effected you in anyway? Here is the thing, it hasn't, sometimes we can disagree about the what recipes makes the best beef stew or what movie out there is worth seeing. But when it comes to articles like Engy has written, the whole point is to learn, understand and become more educated human beings, whether its learning about Judaism or Christianity.
Here you go:
http://helpguide.org/mental/anger_management_control_tips_techniques.htm