Naheed Mustafa, a young Muslim who began to wear the hijab once she blossomed out of her teenage years, finds it difficult to apprehend the fact as to why society views her differently compared to other girls her age. Due to the mere fact that she wears a hijab, she gets a “whole gamut of strange looks, stares, and covert glances.” Because she lives in Canada, which adapts the Western culture, wearing a hijab is not very common. Because of this Naheed and many others like her, are often viewed as outcasts and treated differently. This takes a huge toll on one’s identity which can be either negative or positive. However, Naheed abides by her choices and wishes to make a positive change out of it.…
Judaism and Jewish culture have always been central to William Finn, writer of a trilogy of short works following Marvin, a homosexual character living in the Jewish community. Falsettoland itself forms the final part of the trilogy while In Trousers and March of the Falsettos are the first two installments respectively. Over the course of the musical, Finn hints at the audience the contrasting notion of Orthodox and Reform Judaism through the music and lyrics. Furthermore, Finn not only portrays the standing of Reform Judaism on homosexuality, but also nuances the social expectations of women under Jewish faith.…
Her story begins as a child, before the revolution. She grew up in a very liberal home. Both parents were very intellectual. Her mother was forced to marry, therefore could not attend college and her father was a deputy minister working under the popular government of Prime Mister Mohammad Mossadegh. She grew up in a special household where her parents did not treat her or her brother different. They met their attention, affection, and discipline equally. She was raised thinking this was a perfectly normal environment when in reality, in most Iranian households it was the male children that enjoyed an exalted status, female relatives spoiled them, and their rebellion was overlooked or praised. As children grew older the boys’ privileges expanded while the girls’ lessened so they remained “honorable and well-bred”.…
Political, economic and historical events created a lot of inequalities in society towards different races and classes of people, but the Jewish people faced a lot of discrimination. One of the main reasons Herzl wanted to create this Jewish state was because of the constant violence and attacks Jewish people were facing from mainstream European groups. Herzl describes how Jews constantly faced “attacks in parliaments, in assemblies, in the press, in the pulpit, in the street”, and explains how often many Jews “are put to death”. Jewish people suffered and lost their lives as a result of this violence and many governments in Europe also did very little to stop this abuse from being committed against hundreds of Jews. This is significant as…
A major contradiction in this story is that the young woman feels torn between two different ways of life. One being an obedient Muslim in Tehran Iran and the other taking place in her new American home in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. While staying in Iran, she is forced to wear hijab, the Islamic covering, and at times her misses being able to feel the wind blow threw her hair. Having to go back and forth between two life styles is a hard adjustment for her to make. AS a result, this causes her to question her views on Islam and to ask why women are so different from men.…
From merely the last two decades, women have begun to show out in society with their vast achievements and accomplishments. In the early days of the Iranian revolution, a young woman named Azar Nafisi started teaching at the University of Tehran. However, in 1981, Nafisi was expelled from the University of Tehran for refusing to wear an Islamic veil. Seven years later, however, she did indeed resume teaching but soon resigned in protest over the increasingly cruel punishments of the Iranian government toward women. She dreamed of working with students that carried a great passion for learning. In Reading Lolita in Tehran, Azar Nafisi and her seven students join together every Thursday morning at her home and discuss classic texts of Western literature that have to do with prominent figures. In the conditions Nafisi lived in , however, it was illegal for women to form small study groups that didn 't have to do with what the government wanted them to learn about. Nafisi, herself, knew the risks and how dangerous it would be to betray the laws of the Iranian government. At that time, women were forced to live by dreadful laws; laws that made women dress a certain way when being seen in public. They were only allowed to dress up in black robes and head scarves, only their face and hands being uncovered. With the conditions that Nafisi and her students lived under, it is more dangerous to withdraw into their dreams rather to resign themselves to a disturbing reality because of how restricted the laws were forced upon the citizens of Iran.…
A foundational part of being Jewish is to struggle. Throughout history, the Jewish people have struggled both physically - with the hardships that they had to face – and intellectually - with what is called a cognitive dissonance. In fact, one of the earliest struggles can be traced back to the prophet Jacob, who had to struggle with God himself. By writing this paper, I wish to explain why ‘to struggle’ is such a foundational part in the Jewish tradition through the story of ‘Jacob’s wrestling with God’ and two other examples which are the story of ‘King David and Bathsheba’ and ‘Abraham and Sarah’.…
Racism, anti-Semitism, and Nationalism are the three key factors that were used to make Jews “the other” throughout history. To start with, Jews have always lived in areas ruled by other groups, and they were always there when people needed to place the blame on someone for hard times. Then in the 1800s, the thought that Jews were not only a part of a religion but a different race intrigued people all over Europe. Next William Marr introduced anti-Semitism, and that word found a home all over Europe. Lastly, nationalism was introduced by Napoleon Bonaparte when he set out to conquer neighboring countries. Napoleon and his army unknowingly unleashed a force called nationalism. In Europe, nationalism was defined as a nation of people who share the same traditions and the same history. Since Jews always migrated to places of different people who don’t share the same traditions or history that they do, nationalism automatically made them “the other”.…
The first time I know about Jewish was from the history class. At that time, my Chinese teacher told me that Jewish were persecuted by Nazis during the Second World War, and the reason is because the ruler of Nazi-Hitler hated Jewish. From the video and books, there are many pictures about how Nazi persecuted Jewish such as the Auschwitz Concentration Camp. However, there always is a mystery puzzled me, why were Jewish persecuted by Nazi? From the videos which are talking about the Second World War, they are only saying that Jewish are innocent. Nevertheless, there is an old Chinese saying goes, ’ A person’s poor situation can always attribute to his own fault.’ From my opinion, this sentence is also effective on Jewish. There must be some…
Throughout the time separating the two World Wars, the United States provided its Jewish residents a unique chance to succeed and prosper. Jenna Weissman Joselit has examined the degree to which an innovative bunch of progressive and inspired modern Orthodox Jews ventured to take advantage of the opportunities this country offered. She discusses the way Orthodox Judaism came to be in the U.S., and the way it changed the image of those most often associated with Orthodoxy. However, this was by no means solely a physical and external change. The transformation of Orthodox Judaism effectively altered the customary Jewish lifestyle.…
The graphic novel Persepolis depicts the Iranian revolution from a child’s point-view through the eyes of the author Marjane Satrapi. Satrapi describes her experiences and actions while being raised during and after the Iranian revolution. The Iranian revolution was based strongly on the Islam faith and the establishment of an “Islamic Republic” (Crossroads and Cultures, 1008). After the year 1980 when the revolution had been resolved, women and girls were required to wear veils and were discriminated against as less privileged by men. They had to attend different schools then the boys and were seen as lower class citizens. Marji saw these changes as wrong and she thought that she could help to change these wrongdoings in her society. As Marji grew older she thought that becoming a prophet would benefit her in helping to solve women’s social issues and reestablish women as important and equal members of society. While following Marji through this novel it will be shown that she resists these negative aspects of the revolution and she fights and battles against the government’s attempted control over the faith and organizations of Iran.…
The novel often talks about the setting, time and theme in Egyptian culture through stories of various characters. The culture describes in the novel restricts the readers’ views on each character on the account of the limitations of their knowledge about Arab belief and culture. Religion is a huge component of Egyptian life and Radwan Hussainy is a good example. The alley’s community often turns to him for counseling and everyone respects him because he is a man of morals and uses religion as a centrality. Religion is a big part of Radwan Hussainy’s life; he still believes in God, despite losing his children and the hardship he endured. Moreover, he blames himself for what happened to Zaita, Dr. Booshy (go to jail) and Hamida who prostitutes herself, because in his mind, he believes that he is responsible for what happened in the community. This idea suggests that he really respects his culture and religion which is shown through, “Radwan Hussainy’s opinion drew objections based on both the literal texts and the scholastic interpretations of Islam (272).” All in all, some of the main plot of this Arab novel limits some impacts on an audience in other culture due to the specific concepts of its culture.…
The objective of this research paper is to bring awareness among the Muslim population of the world concerning the wrong concepts regarding hijab. In this paper I will discuss the pressure being put by the western countries on the women wearing hijab across the globe. I would try to discuss the significance of hijab to a Muslim women and how theses controversies are a threat to their righteous beliefs. The research is important to bring awareness among the Muslims. They should present a united front against the banning of hijab in certain European countries like France, Germany, and Belgium. Therefore a research on this topic is particularly necessary to the Muslim community.…
The characters involved in the story were Miss Mijares that described as a woman at her thirties that was never been in loved and is also a virgin. The other character was a man with good body structure and also one of her…
It is about a child named Violet. The story starts in “Media’s res”. It’s a cold Christmas and like a good religious Christian family, Violet and her family go to church. Though Violet is mute she’s still very observant and in the church she notices a picture of a woman in a blue dress. Without knowing that the woman on the painting is Marie (the mother of Jesus) Violet begins to admire this woman. Of course she can’t ask her parents about the picture because of her muteness.…
