Women in Islam: Through Western Eyes
To look at the cultural aspects of this health issue, many things need to be considered. Everything from behavior of the people. dominant religious status, values, and paradigms involved in the area affected. Essentially, the paradigms of the culture must be considered in order to understand the driving forces behind the decision making process of the people. In Afghanistan the most dominant factor in the country's status is the religion of Islam. Lisa Killinger shares her story of embracing Islam and how she choose the Muslim culture. (Kilinger, 2011)
In the culture of daily living, one of the most important parts of Afghani culture is honor. This comes in the form of maintaining honor, or if dishonored, one is almost always expected to avenge the honor. Not following the cultural practice can bring dishonor. The daily cultural practices tend to lead to the objectification of women. In Afghanistan, women and men will never shake hands let alone speak directly to one another. If a man speaks to a woman in public, that generally means that he is dishonoring her. Men are not even supposed to ask about a woman, and men and woman that are not married are to never be in the same room alone. Eye contact is also avoided between men and women. Woman are told to keep their eyes pointed downward when in public to maintain reputation. Even between men eye contact is only acceptable if it is not prolonged. Marriages are often arranged in advance by families, and it can be considered dishonorable and often illegal to break the arrangements. It is common for a man to have many wives, often being under the age of 16 (the legal age of marriage). The husbands either take "ownership" of wives in one household, or simply abandon wives, leaving the wife alone to take care of the children themselves.
Depiction of Women in Islam
Image from http://www.deborahaddington.com
Islam is the world’s second largest religion, with 21% of all people practicing this faith. Islam teaches that one can only find peace in life by submitting to Allah (Almighty God) in heart, soul, and deed. The Quran is the holy guide to Islam.Major aspects of the Islamic religion include testimony of faith, prayer, fasting, almsgiving and pilgrimage.
"Covering" is a religious duty. Women can only have their faces and hands showing in public. Men must not expose anything from navel to knee. This is a show of “modesty” by women (pbs.org). This means trying to cover any body feature that may let the female stand out.
Despite being a heavily Islamic influenced culture, many of the feminine references and figures in Islamic and sufi culture have often been overlooked. Much of the feminine content originally interweaved into Islamic culture was changed and altered to make a depict a more masculine-dominated projection of Islamic history. For example, many of the depictions of mother nature and the woman body being a symbol for the essence of purity were changed to seem inferior to Allah. These misinterpretations, however, have been starting to become revealed to its original context in more recent times.(Galian, 2013)
"Covering" is a religious duty. Women can only have their faces and hands showing in public. Men must not expose anything from navel to knee. This is a show of “modesty” by women (pbs.org). This means trying to cover any body feature that may let the female stand out.
Despite being a heavily Islamic influenced culture, many of the feminine references and figures in Islamic and sufi culture have often been overlooked. Much of the feminine content originally interweaved into Islamic culture was changed and altered to make a depict a more masculine-dominated projection of Islamic history. For example, many of the depictions of mother nature and the woman body being a symbol for the essence of purity were changed to seem inferior to Allah. These misinterpretations, however, have been starting to become revealed to its original context in more recent times.(Galian, 2013)