Jan 5, 2012

Me an Infidel?




I wish that I would have read the book Infidel back when it first came out.  It is a very enlightening book and I have missed out by not reading it until now.  As someone who is raised in the West with all of our freedoms, it is hard to imagine how life would be in the East for me as a woman. I cringed as I read about Ayaan Hirsi Ali’s recollection of her genital mutilation.  I could hear the snap of the scissors as they cut the flesh in my mind.  As an American, I feel that we don't educate ourselves like the rest of the world when it comes to other cultures and religions.  If I would have been pro-active, I would have studied more about Islam before my marriage.  But that is neither here nor there. I am learning now. When I borrowed the book from the library, the back was broken on the book, which made it not so easy to read and I was ready to take it back without reading it. By chance I opened the book and my eyes went to a paragraph. This is what I read, "A Muslim girl does not make her own decisions or seek control. She is trained to be docile. If you are a Muslim girl, you disappear, until there is almost no you inside you..." As I read, I told myself that I needed to read this book and have not regretted it.   

4 comments:

  1. I think that you are right to read various opinions, experiences and ideas. However, as a Muslim woman, married to a Muslim man, with many Muslim and non-Muslim family and friends, I would just like to point out that Ms. Ali only speaks for herself. She does not speak for me, my experiences or of any of the things I have seen, heard or experienced in my vast knowledge of other Muslim countries and cultures, of the Quran, or of any of the people I have ever met.

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  2. I agree with you and the same could be said for my situation.

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  3. A lot of what she describes in this book has very little to do with religion and more to do with the culture she was raised in. Sadly (as is the case around the world with religion and culture) the two things get mixed together and it's hard as an outsider to know where one ends and one begins.

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