"We hear over and over again that Islam has failed, that it is in crisis. The claims always involve comparing Islam to something else, though to what is often unclear. If 'failed' just means 'hasn't kept up with the West', Islam has indeed failed. So has every other culture, except to the extent it has Westernized. And if a culture fails whenever it falls behind the economic or technological front runners, Italian culture has failed in relation to Japanese or American culture............................"
Wednesday, November 30, 2005
Has Islam Failed? Not By Western Standards..
Monday, November 28, 2005
Sunday, November 27, 2005
Can Fulla save Muslim girls from Barbie?
I wonder how much influence dolls have on kids? I remember I used to play with action figures a bit back in the day. G.I. Joe, Luke Skywalker and all ( yeah a lot of these were my brothers younger days in Canada ) which I re-used since I could only get cheap plastic"jumaa Bazaar" toys in Pakistan. LOL!
Anyways here is an interesting piece about dolls and Muslim girls . I am not sure what to think of it since obviously I do not have much experience with dolls from my youth. Hence I would like some comments!
"Currently, little girls from Iraq to Morocco are crazy for Fulla, a
creation of Syria's NewBoy Design Studio. A Barbie in a black hijab, with a
smaller bust, and far more modest clothing, Fulla was created out of concern
that Barbie would corrupt traditional values, turning Muslim girls into
high-heeled wonders with vacant smiles. And while sloe-eyed, darkhaired Fulla
does have a vacant smile, she also has abayas (traditional Muslim overdress),
head scarves, a prayer mat, and outdoor (modest) versus indoor (anything where
her plastic flesh shows) fashion.
...................................................................................
Barbie, Fulla, and American Girls are dolls, not role models or political symbols. I loved my Barbie dolls. But I never thought I had to be like them any more than I thought I had to look like Raggedy Ann. Surely girls are not so tractable, or
unable to ask questions, as some appear to think. It's hard to believe a doll
could have a more profound impact on a girl than her family. If parents in Syria
would prefer their daughter not dress scantily, they will set the example. If
parents in North America wish self-confidence for their daughter, they can help
her find the way, rather than enlisting her dolls.If only girls were so
governable by plastic playthings. We could create an "Invests-Well Barbie."
Better still, we could branch out, and get those people at NewBoy to create a
"Discourages-Her-Son-From-Strapping-Dynamite-to-His-
Body-and-Walking-Into-a-Crowded-Market Fulla." Unfortunately, influencing young minds isn't such child's play."
I did some more research on the topic and did find differing views:
Barbie dolls were pervasive in the experiences of both the young adolescent girls and boys surveyed. While girls generally reported imaginative play with Barbie dolls, boys tended to report destructive play and the disfiguring of Barbie dolls. The girls' reported experiences support the notion that play with Barbie dolls entails enacting adult social scripts, and perhaps shaping girls' developing self-concept through the internalize of stereotyped feminine scripts (Kline, 1993; Koste, 1995).
The girls in these studies reported that during late childhood and early adolescence, imaginative play with Barbie dolls became less appealing, and many reported disfiguring and damaging the dolls. Destructive play has been posited as a means of expressing anger and fantasy deemed inappropriate for public expression (Turkel, 1998). The disfigured Barbie doll may represent girls' views about their developing feminine self. Just as the girls leave behind and ignore their Barbie dolls for other play activities (or outright disfigure the dolls), so too may they forsake or damage their own feminine identity. The devaluation of Barbie dolls may symbolize girls' loss of voice and self, or their "silencing" (Freedman, 1986; Taylor, Gilligan, & Sullivan, 1995; Turkel, 1998).
and some more research:
"Toys do not embody violence or sexism or occult meanings. People must assign toys their meanings." Barbie is whoever we make her out to be. Barbie grabs a hold of our imaginations and lets us go wild."
Friday, November 25, 2005
People and Puzzles
Some people are hard to understand. It's hard to crack them open and even if you do, there are so many pieces it's hard to put the puzzle together. " By a good friend
The Guesthouse
End of the term..A time when things get rough for us undergrads....Reading this poem is always refreshing in such circumstances:
The Guesthouse
Mevlânâ Jelal-uddin Rumi
This being human is a guesthouse
every morning a new arrival.
A joy, a depression, a meanness,
some momentary awareness comes
as an unexpected visitor.
Welcome and entertain them all!
Even if they're a crowd of sorrows,
who violently sweep your house
empty of its furniture,
Still, treat each guest honorably.
He may be clearing you out
for some new delight.
The dark thought, the shame, the malice,
meet them at the door laughing,
and invite them in.
Be grateful for whoever comes,
because each has been sent
as a guide from beyond.
Wednesday, November 23, 2005
Me and the Mosque
I watched this documentry on Vision TV today ( There will be a repeat tomorrow night at 11 PM). The doucmentry featureed mainstream Muslim Scholars like Sh. Abdullah Adhami among others.
The focus of the documentry was on the exclusion of women from the mosque ( Barriers, No Women Board mmembers , etc.). I liked it because I think it is important that we have critisism of our Cultural Practices ( which are confused with Religon in many cases) from within the mainstream cicrles of Islam rathar than the fringes ( read Progressives). Our lack of self critisim makes it easy for progressives to catograize "us" as one group. I am also sure that some Muslims will be not happy that issues like these are being externalized. However I feel that by making such doucmentries you are not giving Islam a bad name , you are actually drawing the lines between Islam and Cultural Practices. Anyways I hope you all watch it!!
“I pray in a room where there is a one-way mirror so the men cannot see me. I'm told [women] are a distraction.”
Like millions of Muslim women around the world, journalist and filmmaker Zarqa Nawaz cherishes Islam's emphasis on social justice and spiritual equality between the sexes. So it came as a terrible blow when her Regina, Sask. mosque forced women to pray in a separate room, away from the men.