Honor Killings in Turkey

Today we watched the documentary called Women on the Front Line in class. It was about the honor killings in Turkey and had a lot of unsettling information about these killings that I never knew. Going into the film, I assumed honor killings were where family members feel a certain member of their family as disgraced them. In order to restore that honor that person must be killed. This film showed me that many of these executions of primarily women are prearranged and done by a male family member. The film did not specifically define what a person would have to do to result in an honor killing, but in our class discussion we talked about rape being one of the main reasons. The woman, the victim is blamed for the rape and honor must be restored by killing her. How horrible is that? She suffers through an unimaginable act then is punished for it. I thought it was interesting how, while the film did not condone honor killings, they portrayed the murderers in a victimized light. It was said that there is a significant amount of social pressure that if the men assigned to kill their family members do not follow though, other men may kill them. One of the limited statistics in the film said that while currently the rate of honor killings has fallen; the amount of suspicious suicides has drastically risen. Families are beginning to try to disguise honor killings as suicides or play them off a murders because the punishment is greatly lessened for murders. One would spend life behind bars for an honor killing, while he would only get 7 years behind bars for murder or nothing for suicide. One of the women being interviewed said that laws alone cannot stop the honor killings, cultural codes must change first. I could not believe that these families are trying to disguise honor killings as suicides. To me, it seems like it defeats the purpose. Whatever the person has done they have publicly shamed their family. To now publicly commit an honor killing would not should everyone that the honor has been restored. I just could never kill any member of my family for any reason at all, no matter what they did.

Paradise Now

One of the very first things I noticed about watching Paradise Now was the military presence and when there was sound of gunfire how everyone ducked, but still went on with their business as if nothing happened. I was also surprised as the ease with which the characters discussed suicide. For Americans, it is still such an abstract idea even though it happens everyday. It's a taboo subject, but within the film suicide can be discussed without even flinching because it is considered "God's will". I found a general similarity between the novel Gold Dust and this film, which was once women get involved everything becomes complicated again. I was surprised by the irony of when they were taping the reasons for their suicide missions, that the camera breaks and he must be filmed again. It gives him a second chance to think about his decision. The phrasing used in this film was interesting as well. The fact that the decision itself was "God's will" and they are martyrs for a cause, not chosen by chance. Everything has purpose and I think this is how Khaled and Said are convinced that suicide is necessary. I can't imagine the feeling one would have, having a live explosive strapped to themselves. The terror going through their minds. I was shocked when Jamal said, "when the first one carries out the operation, don't watch him do it." I couldn't believe that this was said given the seriousness of the issue at hand.

Two Short Stories

I think the two short stories were an interesting choice in comparison to Gold Dust. I personally liked the Lawsuit better. I think it is a little more relateable except for the fact the father has more than one wife. But despite this, I took the new wife to be someone like a younger stepmother. A situation where the original mother is still involved, but the new mother is causing a significant amount of drama within the family. I thought it was interesting to see how she brought the lawsuit upon her "own family." I don't blame the family for being concerned about finances. I figured if the father didn't use a bank, his family would be more concerned for where it was being kept and who was taking money out of it....This whole situation really reminded me of step family within our own county and how it's portrayed in the media.

Gold Dust

I thought the novel Gold Dust was an interesting book. The main character, Ukhayyad, seemed like he was a very awkward man. In the beginning, he has all of these tremendous dreams of what he will do with his camel, but they come crashing down around him while he is trying to prove what a wonderful animal he has. The same thing happens when Ukhayyad has dreams of flirting with women, but then his camel ruins the moment because of a fight the camel has with another over a female. Ukhayyad has an undying love for his camel and it shows, not only in the way he treats his camel, but in his other relationships where he has put the camel above anyone or anything else. I was reading Ashley's blog about this novel and I totally agree. It does remind me of how friends of mine are with their own horses. A few girls I know would do anything for their animals, spend enormous amounts of money so these animals are happy. Its a difficult thing for me to understand because I have never felt that kind of love for an animal. But maybe in the same ways it's similar to a relationship with a human. To find an animal you make a connection with, that does not judge and accepts you for who you are. Maybe if one can find it in a person, they can find it in an animal as well. However, I think for Ukhayyad, his love for the camel has become so huge it does not allow him to make any connections with humans, especially women. "He despised women because, now, he looked at things with his eyes rather than his heart; and as his feelings melted into cool reason, Ayur's magic began to dissipate." I always think there is an issue when something becomes so important to a person they began to lose out on important and necessary human connections. I hope that Ukhayyad realizes what is happening because of his love for this camel.

The Day of Ahmed's Secret and Sami and the Time of the Troubles

These two stories were kids books where the setting was in the Middle East. Of the two the first one, The Day of Ahmed's Secret, was my favorite. I really liked how the story built up to him learning how to write his name. In class we discussed how other people were disappointed that this was the big secret. We also discussed how many people could not believe how Ahmed seemed older yet he was just learning how to write his name. I really liked this book because for a kids' book it really shows how excited a little boy or girl can get about something so simple such as writing one's name. If I were a little kid and didn't really have any formal education I would probably be that excited as well. I would want to build my parents up by telling them all day that I had a big secret. I think every little kid knows how that feels to have a secret and the relief it is to finally share it. I enjoyed this book because I think American children could relate to the same excitement of learning to write. In class we discussed the comparison between The Day of Ahmend's Secret and Sami and the Times of the Troubles. The second book was significantly darker compared to the first one. There was a lot more intense subject matter and even the colors of the pictures were significantly darker. I think the second one would be better for a slightly older group of readers compared to the first book. But overall I really enjoyed reading these books; it was interesting to see an American's take on Middle Eastern children's literature.

A Guest Speaker

On Tuesday, the first presentation group brought in Dr. Mustafa Mughazy to speak with the class about growing up in Egypt and give his opinions on the book, "War in the Land of Egypt."

I found what Dr. Mughazy was saying was so interesting. When he was talking about how much studying he did while in grade school, I couldn't believe it was up to 12 hours! He said it was because education is free over there, so in order to be successful one must be competitive. He said students would skip school just to stay home and study because they would learn more that way. I couldn't believe that students start increasing the amount of study time beginning in middle school. He also talked about how the grades that students get are determined by a final exam in the last year of school. A culmination of 15 subjects are covered in this exam and determines whether the student goes on to higher education, trade school, or no further education. To have that much pressure on an exam that determines one's life forever is incredible. Dr. Mughazy also said that in order to get into medical school, one must get between 98-99% on their exam in order to attend. If someone gets 97.9%, 0.1% of a point, they are not allowed into medical school and are limited to dental or another health profession.

In Egypt, the government offers free education at all levels which is different than in the United States where K-12 is free, but post high school one must pay tuition. So here, basically however much one can pay is the type of education one gets. I did a little bit of research on the educational system in Egypt. "In 1966, illiteracy in Egypt was estimated at more than 70%; in 1995, it was 48.6% (males, 36.4%; females, 61.2%). For the year 2000, projected adult illiteracy rates stand at 44.7% (males, 33.4%; females, 56.3%)." From this article I found out there is a total of 13 universities in Egypt. I really found all this information on the educational system very interesting, mainly because of my own interest in becoming a teacher.

Kalamazoo Islamic Center

On Thursday the class went to the Kalamazoo Islamic Center right next to Western's campus. We stayed for nearly two hours, and in that time I learned so much and had so many misconceptions and stereotypes broken down. I was so impressed by the Imam. He looked like he was only a few years older than us, but had such a wealth of information to offer. I think because he was so close to our age, he was able to relate his culture to something which for many is base knowledge in our own culture-Christianity. He made a lot of connections to Christianity and stressed the religious tolerance his religion has for others. In both Christianity and Islam, the religion asks the follower to do just that, be a follower and submit him/herself to God. Its just that between the two religions, the means to get there are different. I really liked how the Imam presented it almost like a history lesson, in that it wasn't pushy like how some Christian denominations can be. I found it really interesting the sense of community this religion has. It is a strong push for all followers to pray together in groups or in the mosque on Fridays to strengthen that bond. By encouraging followers to gather together there is a strong sense of community and family. I noticed how similar that was to our own class. I feel, that by having Dr. Webb have us spend 45 minutes the first day learning each others names and 5 minutes everyday after created a sense of community in our classroom. I've never had that with any other college class in the last three years. But I feel like I can make better connections with my peers because I know all of their names and feel "safe" sharing opinions during discussion. Overall, going to a mosque would have been something I never would have done if not for this class. I think this was definitely a cultural experience that I really enjoyed and think everyone should go at least once.

Relationship Between Homosexuality in America and in the Middle East

Today we watched a Middle Eastern documentary in class called, "The Road to Love." We were asked to compare or contrast to our own personal views or the current views in the United States. This film was out of my realm of likes for even me and I occasional venture into foreign or specialty films. I was very impressed, given the content of this film, that Andrew felt confident bringing this film into our class. But I also think it shows how confident he is in our class that we could handle the subject matter with maturity and be insightful. I think in many ways this film parallels the views in the U.S. about homosexuality, but at the same time there are some differences. Last Friday I went to see the film "Milk." "Milk" takes a look at homosexuality in the U.S. in the 1970's and follows the adult life of Harvey Milk, the first openly gay man elected to public office. I noticed between the documentary, "Milk," and current societal views, one of the parallels was how there are places that are very accepting of the gay community. In the documentary, it was Morocco. In "Milk" and currently, San Fransisco is seen as the best example of an accepting community. "Milk" also showed how difficult it can be to come out, people telling you constantly that you're evil, that they want to fix you. Harvey explains how several of his lovers have committed or attempted to commit suicide. In the documentary, one of the interviewee's similarly talked about his identity issues and how his parents did not take his coming out well at all. One of the things that's different between the documentary and the United States was the view that society can accept homosexual interaction on the part of the "active" man during sex. Middle Eastern culture seemed to accept them as "real" men. The "passive" man is ridiculed and not accepted. In our culture, I don't think that generally people make the distinction. I do hear of the more macho men justifying it in the same way here, but I don't think ordinarily there is a distinction. I think this film was definitely an interesting perspective and topic to bring up in discussion. It also opened us up to foreign films which many people do not normally or even occasionally watch which was a good cultural experience.

9 Parts of Desire

Tonight I went to see the play "9 Parts of Desire" put on by the University Theater. 90 minutes of five women telling nine different perspectives of Iraqi women living both in Iraq and in the United States. It was such an intense play, the actors were so impressive in their ability to recreate emotions these women must have felt. I really enjoyed the girl who lived in America explaining how she felt trying to get a hold of her family in Iraq during the bombings. It was incredible the raw emotion that came out when her family actually got through after 9/11. I also really liked the perspective of the painter and the play itself had some great quotes. I think this class has taught me to have a different outlook on the Middle East, but this play really solidified things, for me at least. It's one thing to listen to documentaries analyze films or actions, but to actually hear a real woman's perspective gave me a better understanding of what life is like and how the U.S. is viewed over there. Tonight I am going to to pick out passages from the book that I was reading earlier. I decided to keep the book because I think some of these stories might fit in well with the information we got from watching the play. The accounts are short and I think they might supplement the other stories well.