DebateGate
General Category => 3DHS => Topic started by: Plane on October 27, 2012, 01:03:05 PM
-
http://www.racialicious.com/2012/10/08/your-women-are-oppressed-but-ours-are-awesome-how-nicholas-kristof-and-half-the-sky-use-women-against-each-other/ (http://www.racialicious.com/2012/10/08/your-women-are-oppressed-but-ours-are-awesome-how-nicholas-kristof-and-half-the-sky-use-women-against-each-other/)
Is "Half the Sky " enough for half the human race?
Do liberated women owe anything to the less liberated that live at a distance?
Just as we are sure that the women of the third world are mistreated, they in the tird world are sure that our women are getting raped a lot.
It is simplistic to consider our women as totally empowered and theirs as highly protected , also simplistic to consider our women as exposed to rape and theirs as highly exploited.
Culture is not easy , it has to fit tgether and work, rapid change in culture is painfull , even if the origional culture is painfll.
-
It is pretty clear to me that female circumcision is barbaric. The Muslim restrictions on women and their daily lives (like driving and requiring segregation in the workplace are not quite barbaric, but they are foolish from any economic or pragmatic viewpoint. Dowries and arranged marriages and marriages restricted to castes and subcastes are not something that I think Americans understand well enough to oppose formally. I see no problem with Indian or Muslim women (or men) opposing it.
What does any person owe to another person in a different culture? Do we have some obligation to encourage or support religious movements in China?
All people are limited in their powers by the laws, mores and customs of the countries are societies in which they live. Americans and Westerners have customs they would not violate (crossdressing, for one) but we do not even consider these as restrictions. To an Indian woman, a dowry is totally normal. There are probably a huge number of women in Saudi Arabia that have no desire to drive, and who would feel very uncomfortable to leave the house without a male relative escort.
-
Yes , it is the kind of thing that makes them want to fight .