DISTURBING!!!

I found an extremely disturbing video while writing my paper of a man beating a woman. The worst part about it is no one around this is helping the women.

Guest speakers

I really enjoyed the guest speakers on tuesday. It is always more interesting to hear about a culture from someone who has actually experienced it rather than a fiction book about the culture. The thing that intrigued me the most was about the head scarf. One of them was wearing one and the other was not. This interested me because it shows that they both have different ideas about the idea behind the head scarf. With the same basic meaning of the head scarf meaning modesty and respect.. they clearly both had different ideas of wether to wear it or not. This just exemplified how diverse the culture actually is and how many choices the woman actually are given. I found a website talking more about headscarfs and found this stat which shocked me.. 270,000 of 677,000 students expelled from post secondary institutions were "victims of the ban". "The ban" is that woman in secondary institutions are not allowed to wear head scarves. This AMAZED me.. intelligent woman trying to get an education being expelled because of an article of clothing that they are wearing. I just feel as though the head scarf almost is only worn because of respect and rebellion. It is very common when one is told not to do something , they turn around and do it even more. I get this image from the head scarf. The woman are told not to, so they turn around and prove that they still can. I really enjoyed that Gulnar kept repeating that her husband does not make her do anything such as work, go to school or wear the head scarf. She emphasized that it was her choice and that her husband was not one of those men whom controlled their wifes life.

Professor Mustafa Mirzeler

What an interesting man! He is very knowledgable, which surpised me because of what he told us was his home town and the little his town had. It is extremely respectable that a man from such a poor background can accomplish so much in his lifetime. He must have worked very hard to get where he is now. It was extremely interesting how much he knew about honour killings. He himself actually being chosen to kill his own sister. I cannot not imagine being as young as he was and being given the command to kill my sister. However, it seemed as if he was going to do it because of the predicament his father was in. Which constitutes the honor he has for his father and it proves many family member truely have no choice but to kill a loved one to redistinguish ones honor. This just seems crazy to me.. but its someones religion and culture. A side note on what he mentioned was he does not know his actual birthdate because they do not have birth ceritificates. Therefor this proves even more once someone is killed it is really easy for them to go forgotten because of their lack of birth certificate. There are many people that many do not even know are alive. I researched Professor Mirzeler and found that he is a very established man! His story was featured in a book written by Elizabeth Warnock Fernea called Remembering Childhood in the Middle East. While reading his story of his childhood in the Middle East, which is much more indepth than what he told us in class, he tells the readers that his father was called Blind Memed since he was cross-eyed. Which may be why he likes the book Memed my hawk so much! haha From the little reading I did through his childhood memories in the book he was featured in, he really had a large amount of respect and love for his father. His father was a very important man and was looked up to by all sorts of people.

Paradise Now: Suicide bombing

This movie was eye opening and sad at the same time. It was eye opening because it truely gave us the entire side to a suicide bombers life. This man was leading a normal life. Working to make money, taking care of his family, and meeting girls. Until one day he is "chosen" to carry out a suicide bombing mission. Are they chosen at birth? Is there a waiting list for who becomes a suicide bomber? Are they actually given a choice? This would be the last thing I wanted to do.. why would anyone else carry out something like this?? It was also a sad story because it gives memories of 9/11 which was carried out by two suicide bombers. I have read about suicide bombing and have been informed (plus the movie showed me) that suicide bombing is for ones religion and pride for themselves and their country or city. Some more information I discovered came from an article about What makes a suicide bomber tick. Which tells us that 64% are between the ages 18-23!!! Such a young group to be suicide bombing.. do they even know what they are fighting for? Majority probably don't even know the true reason behind the war. They are simply told by their fathers that suicide bombing is an honor to their country. In that same Article, a father talks about his son who was a suicide bomber at the age of 22. He tells the reporter that he is proud of his son and he hopes all the boys in his country would do the same. How can a father want their child to be a suicide bomber?! Another thing that sparked my interested/disgust was a video titled 14 year old suicide bomber. This is unbeleivable to me.. at 14 all I cared about was friends, make up and homework. I cannot imagine being asked to be a suicide bomber... these kids can't know the meaning behind why they are doing such horrible things. It must simply be because of their fathers telling them how honorable suicide bombing is. This disgusts me! In the end, a man asks the boy why he has done it and he tells him because of the people then when he is asked again he tells him because of paradise. I will never understand Suicide bombing as long as I am alive.

Honour Killings in Turkey

Learning about these honour killings was something TRUELY new to me! I had NO idea this kind of thing was actually happening. the most disturbing part of it to me was that i was only for women. Saying only women can screw up and dishonor a family?? Even when a girl is raped, it somehow becomes her fault.. like she asked for it, and the man who did it to her gets off free as if he did nothing wrong. That disgusts me!!! The system just seems so crooked to me! I found a story about a turkish woman who wanted to divorce her husband so she went to her parents house but he parents told her "a married woman can only leave her husband in a coffin." She then "killed herself" later on. It was declared a suicide however many people of the city believe it was an honor killing. Another story resembling the same thing. A 17 year old was actually told to kill herself through a text message from her uncle saying, "you have blackened our name, kill yourself and clean our shame or we will kill you first"this all happened because she liked a boy from school she had met. Atleast they are trying to do something about it.. In cities and towns with the hightest suicide ratings officials are working with advocacy groups to help endangered woman and girls. There are many turkish woman organizations that are there to help woman and girls before these killings have to happen. Woman just need to be educated to the point they realize the only choice is not to kill themself, they can get out of this. I was just disgusted by this movie and the extra research i did. It really makes me thankful that I do not live in Turkey..