Hi Flo; I can see that you are taking a class on Muslim...
Linda says...
Hi Flo;
I can see that you are taking a class on Muslim culture.
However, you teacher seems to have been unclear about certain things.
Let me first state that I greatly dissapprove of most Muslim traditions.
However, let us not confuse those traditions and how they happen.
Female circumcision, as Flo stated is truly just female mutilation.
Although what Flo fails to realized is that FC is not a tradition that is imposed or maintained by men. It is primarily imposed and maintained by the family's women.
The process is imposed on daughters by the senior women in the family because they believe that it makes the girls more marriageable.
Most men in these cultures have never witness a female circumcision, and until recently, real knowledge of the pain endured by these girls was kept from them. It is only with the new push to eradicate the process that most people, including these men, are becoming aware of the issues involved.
However, the women in these countries knew all along.
Flo, these issues are not as simple as you put them. For years the Chinese had a tradition called footbinding.
This is when young girls feet were broken and than binded for years in order to keep their feet dainty.
The process was excruciating and led to all sorts of maladies and deformities.
As with the Muslim women, the Chinese women were really the ones perpetuating and enforcing the tradition.
Let's be clear, it is not that the men are guiltless, but that's another hard to explain cultural aspect.
Flo, your teacher sound seriously anti Muslim and unable to properly teach how cultural beliefs and traditions evolve in societies.
The topic is: AFRICAN AFFAIRS AND AFRICAN PEOPLE
This is a reply to Msg 4830
Posted by Linda on November 21 2007 at 6:52 PM