File under: No Shit, Sherlock
2 Comments Published by Tom Gara on Monday, July 21 at Monday, July 21, 2008.
CAIRO (Reuters) - Nearly two-thirds of Egyptian men admit to having sexually harassed women in the most populous Arab country, and a majority say women themselves are to blame for their maltreatment, a survey showed Thursday.The survey also said a majority cited a lack of awareness or religious values as the reason behind the widespread harassment.The forms of harassment reported by Egyptian men, whose country attracts millions of foreign tourists each year, include touching or ogling women, shouting sexually explicit remarks, and exposing their genitals to women. "Sexual harassment has become an overwhelming and very real problem experienced by all women in Egyptian society, often on a daily basis," said the report by the Egyptian Center for Women's Rights.
I blame the common belief that the responsibility for preventing sexual harassment lies with women, who must ensure not to "tempt" men through their dress and behaviour. And I think that belief comes largely from religious values.
And yes, I know that these are not pure religious values, that they have been misunderstood, misinterpreted etc. But ideas should be assessed based on their actual impact in the real world, rather than according to the ideals of their most enlightened believers.
And in that sense, the practical implication of headscarves is pretty clear. Once the majority of women are wearing them, the minority that don't become the "sluts". And then once everyone is wearing them, the self-devouring begins - the ones who have bright colours, tighter fitting pants, defined features, the ones who go out in public without a man, the ones who stay out after dark....
the ones who are in a car with a man other than their husband or relative... and on and on.
Great post dude. I fully agree with you.
You bring up an interesting point:
"Ideas should be assessed based on their actual impact in the real world, rather than according to the ideals of their most enlightened believers."
I agree with this statement. Though it brings to mind many examples of religion being manipulated in a fundamentalist/extemist way.
How would you account for that in the context of your above statement?
Roi,
I'd say it fits pretty clearly into what I'm saying - all ideas , including religious ones, need to be judged based not just on their ideals but also on the actions of their extremist/fundamentalist followers.
Islam has its mysoginists, Judaism has its settlers, Christianity its creationists etc etc.
What all have in common is a belief that the truth been revealed by the creator of the universe - which is a concept obviously open to manipulation and misinterpretation. The craziness is an inevitable byproduct of the idea.