Sam Harris

I just finished reading an article in Freethought Today called Moroccan Feminine Wiles by Sarah Braasch. A young attorney goes to Morocco to learn about their culture. After getting over the cultural shock of men trying to grope her and abduct her (she refused to wear the headscarf) and thought her easy pickings, she began to befriend them to learn about what they thought. She told them she was betrothed to a Muslim man (not true) so they would not try to steal another man’s property.

Sometimes these men are married off to their first cousins in France (a country much more prosperous). They believe this was OK because it was always the cousin from their mother’s side of the family. They believed that women did not pass on their traits.

They also talked about being eager to live in Western society while stating they’d like to go to Afghanistan, Pakistan, or Iraq to fight jihad with their brothers. Family ties of having to take care of their mothers or sisters prevented them from doing that.

The women seemed complacent in their second class citizenship, but in reality they are slowly progressing toward equality. Very slowly. Most women (unless they are from influential families) have low paying jobs and are not allowed to advance in society. The older generation seems locked in a time warp. Younger women move about more freely, but still wear scarves out in public to avoid being cast as whores. Brassch said the men are not “for their tenets or dogma except to impose sexual slavery of millions…of women living in predominantly Muslim countries.”

read whole article for more.

I read this article about a month ago when that issue came out (and the article had not yet been made available online). I’m glad you posted it here, Rab - thanks.

rab - 11 November 2008 05:54 AM

I just finished reading an article in Freethought Today called Moroccan Feminine Wiles by Sarah Braasch. A young attorney goes to Morocco to learn about their culture. After getting over the cultural shock of men trying to grope her and abduct her (she refused to wear the headscarf) and thought her easy pickings, she began to befriend them to learn about what they thought. She told them she was betrothed to a Muslim man (not true) so they would not try to steal another man’s property.

Sometimes these men are married off to their first cousins in France (a country much more prosperous). They believe this was OK because it was always the cousin from their mother’s side of the family. They believed that women did not pass on their traits.

They also talked about being eager to live in Western society while stating they’d like to go to Afghanistan, Pakistan, or Iraq to fight jihad with their brothers. Family ties of having to take care of their mothers or sisters prevented them from doing that.

The women seemed complacent in their second class citizenship, but in reality they are slowly progressing toward equality. Very slowly. Most women (unless they are from influential families) have low paying jobs and are not allowed to advance in society. The older generation seems locked in a time warp. Younger women move about more freely, but still wear scarves out in public to avoid being cast as whores. Brassch said the men are not “for their tenets or dogma except to impose sexual slavery of millions…of women living in predominantly Muslim countries.”

read whole article for more.

It’s so ironic :  women from far and away, hundreds of countries,across the shing seas to many harbors,wear whatever they chose , go almost naked on the beaches from California to Florida, to the French Riviera,or Mexico etc. They wear sundresses and shorts, they walk down the red carpet at the Accademy awards in California with gowns and dresses that almost show everything from thier neck to thier waists, pose almost nude on the magazine covers ETC. , and the world doesn’t twitch or experiace undue sexual arousal . That is the world- the modern world. It’s hard to believe that there are still places and people on this Earth who are so crazy they would reject all of this modern attitude about women’s freedom , and existing liberal lifestyles of this present time in civilized ;society of mankind. There are exceptions , it’s true . We should understand that religion is the root of the ,comparitively speaking, warped and backward lifestyle such as we see in Islam . Women suffer more than anyone else. If you want the straight dope on unjust governance and living a life of unfair restriction , and abuse - ask a woman.

Victomized people- stuck in the mud of religion