Essay About Oppression Of Women And Muslim Countries

Are Islamic Ideals Slowing Modernization?
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Are Islamic Ideals Slowing Modernization ?
In this essay I will be using MLA as a writing style, this essay will prove
that many Islamic ideals and Extremism are stopping modernization and also promoting
hatred between western and Muslim countries. This fact will be proven using these
supporting points, Firstly the oppression of women in Muslim countries all over the
world holds back a significant population of women who may have great things to
contribute to many aspects of knowledge around the world. Furthermore, Muslims who
interpret the Quran in a very extremist fashion and seek to convert the entire world or
kill those standing in their way bring a kind of hatred that impedes social relations
between western countries and Muslim countries and contributes to the false stereotypes
that all Muslims are terrorists.
To begin with, women in most Muslim countries are treated with little respect
and oppressed because they are believed as being half as important men, therefore their
opinions and ideas are usually disregarded and most of the time never heard. Women
have been persecuted in all corners of the world throughout time but over the past
century have made great strides to be seen as equal to men in most countries around the
world. In Islam however the image of women is far worse than a lot of the ways in which
women were oppressed in other religions or facets of life, they are not supposed to be
seen in public without a man at their side and they must always have their faces covered,
furthermore they have no rights to vote. In Islam women are seen as second class citizens
that have nothing to offer and are treated as so, growing up in a secular society I may not
understand all aspects of their religion but it seems inhumane to do this to women. I
believe that everyone is equal and should have the same chances as everyone else, in
many cases this isnt true but to a much closer respect than the chances Muslim women
are given. However it would seem that many women in Muslim countries accept their
roles in society and very few try to break down the gender roles out of fear and the fact
that they dont agree with the western values out of their blind following of the teachings
of extremist factions that make western values look barbaric and wrong. In Indonesia
where there are some 200 million Muslims, women are treated much more fairly and
still seek to get more recognition in society while still rejecting that they are feminists
because they dont want to be associated with western values (Adamson, Clarissa P.5). I
Find it hard to accept that even though there are some Muslim women who agree with
western values for its womens rights, that the vast majority of Muslim women dont
agree with western ways. I believe this to be because in the Muslim countries their
religion is seen to be extremely important and followed without question even if it slows
down technological advances as well as a more logical way of thinking than blind faith.
In the west we have strayed from religion in the quest for knowledge and advancement,
and those who retain their faith do so without trying to stop modernization and practice
their beliefs alongside secularism. Even though women may find their roles in society to
be unfair they follow their religion above all. Seeing as there are more than 1 billion
Muslims in the world that means that there are a significant number of women in the
world who dont have many rights and therefore cant voice their opinions and
contribute their ideas to the world. There could be a vast population of very intelligent
women out there that could be bettering the world but instead they cant even try or they
will be persecuted by their peers and even their government for voicing opinions they
arent “supposed” to have or express.
Finally, extremism is a very big problem concerning modernization because these
groups