Talk Islam

koonj

  • 08:46:42 pm on June 22, 2008 | # | |
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    What is the Harvard gym controversy about? I argue that it’s about patriarchy not purdah.

     

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Comments

  • razib 9:46 pm on June 22, 2008 | #

    the pragmatic point is obvious, and there are natural and undeniable differences between being a man in the world and a woman in the world. that being said, i think many people are extremely wary of the standards of subjective discomfort, which are contingent upon a host of personal norms (derived from family, culture, peers, etc.). seems like an argument for more thorough single-sex education.

  • cx 2:16 pm on June 23, 2008 | #

    Outrageous:

    you are telling the same the this man told:

    Sheik Hilali, Australia’s Mufti since 1989, was quoted as saying: “If you take out uncovered meat and place it outside on the street, or in the garden or in the park, or in the back yard without a cover, and the cats come and eat it… whose fault is it, the cats or the uncovered meat? The uncovered meat is the problem.”

    He added: “If she was in her room, in her home, in her hijab [Islamic headscarf], no problem would have occurred.”

    And, really believe that going to a gym with men makes a woman more likely to be raped?

    Have never you been with your friend, male and female, to the beech?

    Incredible that a woman qho consider herself progressive could think like that.

  • koonj 6:57 pm on June 24, 2008 | #

    Unfortunately this issue has been discussed so often that most readers are reading their most/least favorite ideas into my article. I would again direct readers to the article. It is not an argument for sex segregation, nor a recommendation for purdah. The article says exactly what it says: that women seek protection from the male gaze because of the reality - again, may I say, the REALITY - of male violence in the world TODAY. The article does not say that a woman at the gym is going to be raped over the treadmill. It says that such incidents as the Harvard gym (non)”issue” are based in “a patriarchal world, where men are generally not at risk of physical danger from women” but women are. It is merely a statement and an analysis and very little advocacy of the kind that readers expect.

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