Hot and sticky, on an early September afternoon, I was sitting idly in traffic waiting for the light on Pensacola and Jefferson to turn green. With the music blaring, windows down, and a line of sweat slowly trickling down the back of my neck, my eyes were drawn to a group of people chatting in a run-down parking lot to my right. Behind them lay an old building into which the people were slowly making their way. It wasn't the building that held my attention it was the women in front of it. They were too fully dressed for the sweltering September afternoon, wearing long sleeved dresses and most with scarves covering their heads. All I could see of their bodies was the skin of their faces and hands. As the light turned green, I slowly inched forward hardly able to tear my eyes away from the women. I couldn't help but be intrigued as to why they would be dressed in such a manner at this time of year. As I rolled forward, my car came to a stop in front of a small sign, written first in green Arabic lettering and then in English: Al-Ansar Mosque: The Islamic Center of Tallahassee.
Later in the week about the same time of day, I returned once again to the mosque, curious about the small building and hoping to grab another glimpse of the women. Stealthily, I spied from my car in a parking lot across the street from the mosque.
While I waited, I again noticed how small the building seemed from my vantage point. So small, in fact, that I couldn't help but wonder how any more then twenty or thirty people could fit within its walls. The paint was a dirty eggshell color, with what looked like rust or dirt streaked in various spots along the walls. Some of the green shutters, surrounded by and Arabic-like design, were broken, and one of them was hanging haphazardly from its hinges. A window was smashed and there was an illegible scrawl of graffiti on the left side of the building. Not only was the building small and run down, but the parking lot was as well.
There were only a few spaces, enough to hold about ten compact cars, and small rocks and a few potholes were scattered across the lot. It looked as if it was in need of a new repaving.
Fatemeh Fakhraie’s essay “Scarfing it Down,” explains how Muslim women suffer because of what they wear. Fakhraie blogs about Muslim women in her website she explains; “Seeing ourselves portrayed in the media in ways that are one-dimensional and misleading." Several people judge Muslim's by their appearance because they assume they're a bad person. The author of this essay wants the reader to know that Muslim women wearing a hijab are not a threat to the world.
The spiritual development of a community is a component absent in western formulations of modernity. For Deeb’s interlocutors the process of spiritual modernity is manifested in public piety and “authenticated Islam.” Deeb argues that women are essential participants in the construction of piety and “authenticated Islam” within the enchanted modern. Forms of public piety and social participation, including veiling, community service, and hosting Ashura majlis are necessary components in shaping this enchanted modern. Deeb further examines women’s roles in shifting away from a perceived religious backwardness towards a modern society throughout the second part of her book. Her discussion of the Ashura festival commemorating the martyrdom of Imam Husayn illustrates the shift from a traditional (taqlidi) form of religious worship to “authenticated Islam.” Deeb discusses how latam- self-flagellation- is considered backwards and according to pious Shi’i women the authenticated practice involves learning the lessons from Ashura and applying them to everyday life. The differences in traditional verses authenticated Islamic practices of Ashura reflect the increased participation and roles of women in the commemoration, and in the process of developing public piety and “authenticated
“Culture belongs to the imagination; to judge it rationally is to misunderstand its function” (Wilson 79). In “The Butterfly Mosque” by G. Willow Wilson, she acknowledges culture and explains why cultures can differ so greatly. She emphasizes why its highly inconclusive to try to find a meaning behind ones culture. As a young American Muslim women she is faced with cross cultural ironies as she tries to find her identity and where she fits in. Her conversion to Islam brings into light her internalized prejudice and the different perspectives of Westerners towards the Middle East and vice versa. In her memoir, she depicts both positive and negative aspects of both cultures and, her struggle to find a common ground between the two.
The Minister’s Black Veil by Nathaniel Hawthorne is a short story about a Reverend who begins to wear a mysterious black veil, causing much confusion, chatter and fear amongst the congregation of his church and the townspeople. The components and elements of Hawthorne’s story are both developed and altered by his powerful saturation of symbolism.
During his life, Nathaniel Hawthorne wrote many stories that delved into the psychology and the reality of what it is to be a human being. Although considered a most private person, which even Hawthorne himself once said that he wanted to keep, "the inmost Me behind its veil" (Norton 369), his writings are so vivid in both characterization and details that there is no doubt that he was a very perceptive and smart man. Examples of his insight-fullness appear within stories such as The Scarlet Letter, Young Goodman Brown, The Haunted Mind, and The Minister's Black Veil. One of his short stories, The Minister's Black Veil, uses symbolism and people's actions to reveal human nature.
The corruption of hidden sin and guilt is exemplified by the late Gilbert Parker who once said, “In all secrets there is a kind of guilt… Secrecy means evasion, and evasion means a problem to the mortal mind.” Nathaniel Hawthorne, one of America’s major authors, often wrote about the harsh realities of human existence such as sin, redemption, and morality. In “Minister’s Black Veil,” the main character, Reverend Hooper, wears a veil over his face during his sermons. Though his sermons are very powerful, a feeling of fear and mystery is evoked in the congregation and often in everyday life due to the strange veil that he refuses to remove. On his deathbed, miraculously, Hooper still has enough strength to resist his veil being lifted; his eyes forever covered, he dies with the veil. Hawthorne uses symbols of the black veil to portray hidden sin, guilt, and peculiar shame attaching to sin in Puritan beliefs.
The last decade has brought two blatant changes to American civilizations in particular and Western civilizations in general. The first is a greater concern about Islam and Muslims, and the second is a much highly visibility of Muslims within those civilizations. Numerous people may have imagined that there weren’t many Muslims living in their communities until recently, but now, one can see visibly Muslim persons often in their veils or robes, walking the streets, shopping in the cities, and going to the schools (Saeed, 2007). There is no doubt that the increased visibility of Muslims has been a matter of some interest (allen,2010). The French have banned people wearing markers of Muslim religion, such as the hijab and niqab, in public, and many Americans have protested against mosques and other expressions of the religion. In addition, numerous Westerners have a stereotyped image of Muslim visibility, for instance, assuming that all Muslim females wear the same style and color, of garb (Ameli & Merali, 2004) Many Westerners associate the visibility of Muslims with non-Western and anti-Western culture and beliefs, including the oppression of women, and therefore hold a very negative attitude and view toward it and them (Briggs, Fieschi, & Lownsbrough, 2006).
Sexual exploitation exploits women and provides a vehicle for racism in a “first world” country like America, where victimization rates are disproportionately higher with “third world” women (O'Connor & Healy, 2007). Goodson is an anti-trafficking activist, is director of international programs for Shared Hope International which is an organization who works with victims of sex trafficking. From her experience, many victims are poor and are sexually abused children and young adults who are swayed by the promises of a better life. Once they reach the United States, the victims are psychologically and physically abused. In the United States, victims of international sex trafficking come primarily from South and Southeast Asia, Eastern Europe, Latin America, and Africa through states such as Florida, California and New York (Goodson, 2006). The U.S. Department of State estimates that about 600,000 to 800,000 people, mostly women and children, are trafficked across national borders annually. Furthermore, it is estimated that 17,500 to 20,000 victims are trafficked into the U.S. annually, with Florida receiving a high percentage of those victims. Although the people who enter the United States are often not legally permitted to enter the United States, Lagon asserts that it is important to note the difference between human
suspect this place as being a successful propriety. The lot is ragged and broken with no
Sex trafficking is a sex act by force where money is involved. Buying or selling someone for sexual acts. Examples are strip clubs, porn, and prostitution. Sex trafficking is todays slavery. Many of those involved in sex trafficking were minors when they first got involved and have been involved for many
In this recent New York Times’ article, Katrin Behold highlights the motives and complex minds of three young Muslim girls from Bethnal Green, East London. These girls embark on a perilous journey to Syria seeking morality outside of their accustomed religion. Young women of the Muslim religion are beginning to succumb to the direction of Isis, this is due impart to extreme restrictions that are being imposed on them by their community. This leads them to question their faith and religion of belonging in their culture. Rules forced upon them by their strict religious custom leaves them feeling helpless and ignoble in their culture. Double standards and tight restrictions tend to focus more on women than
She makes the case that Western feminists have radically misinterpreted the veil. For many Muslim women, the veil acts as a divide between the public and private. The veil may actually liberate women from “the intrusive, commodifying, basely sexualizing Western gaze”. The veil frees women from the oppressive hyper-sexualization of found in Western culture. Reducing the veil to a symbol of oppression disregards the possibility of female agency outside a Western feminist paradigm. The veil has the potential to liberate women in the public space. Projecting our Western notions of sexuality and gender roles denies the possibility of different forms of sexual
Burns, Thomas J. "Islam." Religion and Society. OU Campus' Dale Hall, Norman. 14 Apr. 2014. Lecture.
In the book Lord of the Flies by William Golding, a group of young boys from England are evacuated out of their country due to a war. The plane is then shot down and results into a plane crash on a deserted island. The boys are left all alone with no adults, no supplies, and no one to come and rescue them. They are all on their own and have to establish a new “society”. The boys have to choose someone to govern them and that person ends up being Ralph, who had an internal struggle between what is right and wrong closer to the end of the novel. The boys turn into savages, killing each other, and showing their evil inside each of them. According to, William Golding man is inherently evil, evil is in all of us, but it is oppressed by society, and comes out when there is not anything to hold us back, civilization is what holds back evil from coming out, or it is what triggers evil inside of man.
Offering the unique ability to visually and audibly convey a story, films remain a cornerstone in modern society. Combined with a viewer’s desire to escape the everyday parameters of life, and the excitement of enthralling themselves deep into another world, many people enjoy what films stand to offer. With the rising popularity of films across the world, the amount of film makers increases every day. Many technological innovations mark the advancement of film making, but the essential process remains the same. Pre-production accounts for everything taken place before any shooting occurs, followed by the actual production of the film, post-production will then consist of piecing the film together, and finally the film must reach an audience. Each step of this process contributes to the final product, and does so in a unique right. The process of film making will now start chronologically, stemming from the idea of the story, producing that story into a film, editing that footage together, and finally delivering that story to its viewers.