Women are your equals

I was blog hopping as I so often do and when I came to Zelda's house I paused and thought just how good I have it because I am from the United States, more so because I am a woman in the USA.

Growing up my daddy use to tease my mom and tell her things like "and I expect you to walk 3 steps behind me and to the left." as a child I never understood that saying, but as I got older and started paying attention to how the world worked I got it. My mother being the strong, independent woman that she is would have never walked behind my father. She is his equal and he has never really tried to oppress her or my sister or me in anyway. Daddy always told us we could be anything we wanted to be. So it is always a little shocking to see things like the film Submission. As an American woman I sometimes forget that there are places that still view women as the lesser sex. If you have 11 minutes watch this film it is very tastefully done, but the shock doesn't end there it goes much deeper.

The man who made the film, Theo Van Gogh, was brutally murdered because he choose to speak out against the unequal treatment of women in the Muslim faith. I again as an American can't understand being murdered for speaking out against something I don't believe in. It is just unreal to me that someone died for making this film, and killed by religious fanatics.

I have read a lot of the Quran and a lot of the Bible, and it is utterly frightening how much the 2 books have in common if you sit down and read them not as religious text to follow, but as books of history. I have yet to find in either book where it says "Beat your wives into submission, and make them obey you." Yet both the Islamic culture and the Christen culture has been guilty of doing just that. Men throughout history have always tried to control women through religion. Most women in the Christen faith have broken the bonds and read the Bible and said "Wait that doesn't mean that at all." and that is really what the movie is saying "wait a minute the Quran doesn't say it is ok to beat me and oppress me." The film threatens the life style of some Islamic men to be in control, it defies their rights, the ones they gave themselves, not the ones the Quran gave them. These men do not like the fact that this film might make some women stand up and oppose them. It might band women together and give them strength in their God to help them over come the wrath of evil men. That is the very reason Van Gogh lost his life, because he opposed the cruel treatment of women and tried to empower them.

Two very opposing articles on the treatment of women and the Quran. It's all in the interpretation isn't it!

The Quran and Women

Quran on women