ssalaam walaikum,
I promised Kayleigh I would think a wee bit. On a hot thread the issue of gender specific roles came up. Are gender specific roles sometimes oppressive.
Now, folks..this is not a fatawa driven thread. I am posting in the lounge.
This is one of those looking in/looking out issues. What may seem oppressive looking in is not oppressive from the inside. The grass is always greener on the other side.
We, the sisters of the west have been raised to be one on one with men. Anything you can do I can do better. We have been competing with men. The battlefield is money. Equal opportunity is money. My credit score does not reflect my gender. It is my income and income potential. In essence, I am an x amount of dollars. Thereby, the field of experiences I have available to me are driven by my actual and predicted potential as compared to my age, educational background, health and sex. I am not oppressed as long as I remain within the box assigned to me. I am able to go up and down and around my box of attributes.
When we look at our non-western counterparts it blows our minds. The sisters are very accepting of circumstances. They may whine more than we do but they do not have the chip on the shoulder. They do not see themselves as oppressed. The demeanor is less threatening to men. These sisters are not the in your face girls.
Are they oppressed. No, not really if we narrowly define oppression in the materialistic sense. I see a trend. I see many brothers who marry girls who revert to Islam. They are the sweetest girls. They do not marry the tough cookie.
As usual I am open to comments.
I promised Kayleigh I would think a wee bit. On a hot thread the issue of gender specific roles came up. Are gender specific roles sometimes oppressive.
Now, folks..this is not a fatawa driven thread. I am posting in the lounge.
This is one of those looking in/looking out issues. What may seem oppressive looking in is not oppressive from the inside. The grass is always greener on the other side.
We, the sisters of the west have been raised to be one on one with men. Anything you can do I can do better. We have been competing with men. The battlefield is money. Equal opportunity is money. My credit score does not reflect my gender. It is my income and income potential. In essence, I am an x amount of dollars. Thereby, the field of experiences I have available to me are driven by my actual and predicted potential as compared to my age, educational background, health and sex. I am not oppressed as long as I remain within the box assigned to me. I am able to go up and down and around my box of attributes.
When we look at our non-western counterparts it blows our minds. The sisters are very accepting of circumstances. They may whine more than we do but they do not have the chip on the shoulder. They do not see themselves as oppressed. The demeanor is less threatening to men. These sisters are not the in your face girls.
Are they oppressed. No, not really if we narrowly define oppression in the materialistic sense. I see a trend. I see many brothers who marry girls who revert to Islam. They are the sweetest girls. They do not marry the tough cookie.
As usual I am open to comments.