From: minhaszt@ucbeh.san.uc.edu
Newsgroups: soc.culture.iranian
Subject: Re: Women in Iran
Date: 8 Nov 92 18:01:22 EST
Distribution: world
Organization: Univ. of Cincinnati

In article <1992Nov7.040957.20138@wuecl.wustl.edu>, seyyed@wuee1.wustl.edu (Seyyed Mahdavian) writes:
> In article <1992Nov6.192738.6666@athena.mit.edu> lking@athena.mit.edu (Loren King) writes:
> 
>>                                                its the women 
>>who are threatened by their brothers and fathers back at home 
>>for being "too educated."

now this is one of the biggest fairy tales i have ever heard. never mind what i
think about the gov'ts. of muslim those countries. but i know that the above
statment is false. man there is an expression from those countries you refer
to, educate a man and you educate an individual, educate a woman and you
educate an entire house.
  
> 
> I don't know what you mean by "educated". In our view, not having "hejab" has
> nothing to do with education. In fact we believe that a properly educated woman
> will have her "hejab" exactly as Islamic rules have mentioned. Now I don't see
> why we should accept YOUR definition of "education".
> 
>>                           Women who have to fly from their
>>country just to explore the wonders of intellectual life.

man that has nothing to do with culture or islam. if the standard of education
was high in those countries there would not be as much of a need for them to
come over here. the poor standard of education is a problem in itself, but it
has nothing to do (directly) with islam.

> 
> They fly to explore the wonder of western life :-) You may wonder if I tell
> you that in Iran, western culture is considered a "backward" culture. The only
> thing good about the west, is its technology and science, and we are following
> that. But we certainly are not going to follow the philosophy and lifestyle of
> the west.

western people have a cultural arrogance that they are proud of. and anyone who
does not think th same way that they do is backward. for some reason i think
mr. king is speaking through his cone shaped hood.

> 
>>What about them?  Is Iran such a static kingdom that they'll 
>>never be able to broaden their minds and express themselves 
>>within the nation of their birth, within the country they love, 
>>soley because they are women?
> 
> They certainly can do so. We have lots of women among our students and 
> professors. We even have, I guess, nine members of parliament who are
> women.

which is much more than what is present in the united states, however that can
be shoved under the rug. right, mr. king?

> 
>>What about it, Seyyed?  If its not my business, is it
>>theirs?  Or don't they count?  Are they not "real Muslims"?
> 
> Anyone who denies that "hejab" is an inseperable part of Islam, is not a real
> Moslem. To get Islam rules, you should refer to Islamic scholars, not to those
> who hate Islam, or hate to have hejab.
> 
>>Cultures are about sharing, including and embracing new
>>ideas.  I hope that your exclusionist view of Iran is
>>a minority position maintained by extremists.  
> 
> We have tried to learn your science and technology. I hope that you also try
> to understand our philosophy and culture. I am sorry, but there is no way we
> can, or should compromise Islam.

i agree and disagree with seyyed here on this point. there is no way we should
compromise islam. however, the term your science, i am sorry. it is not their
science seyyed; it is our science, seyyed, and i am beginning to feel more 
and more strongly that the area of science and technology should be treated as 
personal property for muslims, not to say that science is not open for
everyone, but we have a religious mandate to pursue excellence in knowledge and
by doing so we are fulfilling a religious duty. we do not seperate our science 
from our religion, in fact science is a subset of our religion. no other
religion has that. 

> 
>>Loren King
>>MIT
> 
> Seyyed.


--== not the fingernail man ==--

zafar