The Arab World and the West

Hola,

 

Another busy Monday has come and gone. In my Arab World and the West class we discussed the economic situation of the Arab world and how poor and mistreated many of its people are. We also watched many videos about this. We watched one video of a very popular Arab television show, basically an Arab news station, that encouraged men to beat their wives because the Koran instructs them to do so. Furthermore, because of these instructions and the assumption that women are disobedient and spiteful, if a women is beaten, it is assumed that she, in ALL cases, did something to deserve it. This is only a small piece of what we watched but it blew my mind. We also watched a video of another news show where two men were debating the mistreatment of Arabs by their authoritarian governments, specifically Saddam Hussein.  At one point in the video, the man supporting Hussein said something to the effect of "this man did kill my brother, my uncle, etc. but the way he died makes him a great man, he was a great man."  It just blew my mind that such attitudes do actually exist and the are not just casual attitudes or slight feelings but passionate beliefs, passionate beliefs that wife beating is morally acceptable and someone who killed your own family members is a great man. I felt so ignorant because I could not conceive someone that any person, furthermore a huge group of people, could think this way.  Although not all of Arabs that think this way are bad people (and not all Arabs necessarily think this way), they nonetheless adamantly believe these things. What is scarier is that they are brought up knowing only these ways and having no reason not to believe this is the correct way to live. What if I was brought up that way? Would I accept these beliefs to be correct and moral as well? It´s is very scary. Just youtube any of the topics I have just discussed and you will find a plethora of videos with mind-boggling speeches, debates, and views very different from your own. I´m interested to learn more about the Arab world but I would be lying if I said I´m not bit terrified of what I am going to find.

 

Well that´s my rant of the day.

 

Hasta!

 

Ashley