Letter: U.S. women lucky to have freedom

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Posted: 10/17/07

10/17/07 - To the Cigar,

American women today are so lucky in the freedom of choices we have to make compared to the things women in Middle Eastern countries have to undergo. In light of the recent visitor to Columbia University, one would think that things are starting to change in the Islamic world.

After hearing Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad express how much women are gaining through politics and the business world, it didn't sit well with me. In Iran today it is true that women are gaining more rights. I mean 25 percent of Iranian women make up the workplace, (as opposed to United State's 46 percent) and 54 percent of college enrollment. But still the women of Iran are forbidden to travel overseas without permission from husband or father.

Iran is probably the most liberated of all the Islamic/Muslim countries. In other countries like Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Pakistan, Egypt and Jordan, Arab fundamentalists resist almost every civil right that has been attempted to be implemented in their governments. Saudi Arabia is just now warming up to the idea of identification cards for women. In the past, women were on their father's and then husband's ID, and if neither of them were alive she would be on her closest male relative's ID. This gave her no identity without a male.

The hardest part to swallow of all the discrimination and hostile behavior towards women in these countries is the controversial topic of female genital mutilation and honor killings.

FGM has happened to about 140 million girls and women according to the World Health Organization. It is said that this act is not mandated as a religious practice, only permitted. Some scholars are questioning whether the Prophet Muhammed intended this act at all. Another way women are terribly mistreated in this culture are "honor killings" where a husband is not punished if he murders his wife after catching her taking part in any acts that are disloyal to the husband, mostly sexually immodest acts.

The importance of sharing this information is vital for us as Americans to know in order to help other countries in the future and give the women a sense of hope that there is a better life for them (not just women in the Middle East but in Africa as well where the same practices are taking place), and also not take for granted the freedoms we are given in this country.

We all know the sexism we face as women here in the United States within the workplace, college and every other aspect of our normal life. Keep up the fight because we can compare ourselves to other countries and say we are lucky, but then we would be selling ourselves short. Get what you deserve and in the mean time use your freedoms to help because that is what it should be about.

Supporting these women through your spreading of the knowledge and supporting their rights to freedom may be indirect but will make a difference. Take time during the week of Oct. 22-26 to learn more about the current women issues.

"Women's Rights and Political Islam," a lecture by URI Professor Donna Hughes at 7 p.m. in Memorial Union Room Atrium 2 on Oct. 22, will be a place to learn more about what you have read above.

Megan Duffield