Comments | muse: all i thought i knew

muse

all i thought i knew

Oct 12, 2009 22:29

The more that I see it in this city of mine, this city of smudged windows and crumpled paper dreams, the more I feel it. If Philadelphia has taught me anything it's that everything solid I thought I knew of myself before is completely malleable. I've onion-layers that I haven't even come close to peeling; I view the world behind the translucent ( Read more... )

black veils, women

Comments 8

ophelia_nw October 13 2009, 02:51:49 UTC

When I was 19, I had a few (male) friends that were studying abroad from the middle east.

I asked one of them once why the women were covered up. He told me it was out of respect for the women. So that men didn't look at them and have thoughts about the women that they shouldn't have.

Then I asked why the men didn't just put a little more effort into self-control. He didn't have a response to that.

We talked about other things, too...like why a woman isn't allowed to drive. He said women "didn't have to" drive. That out of respect, someone (man) would take them where they needed to go.

Crappy idea of respect, if you ask me.

i October 13 2009, 03:09:13 UTC

it's said that people don't actually make logical decisions, they use logic to justify emotional ones.

ps, hi jewel! the desert misses you.

coyotegoth October 13 2009, 03:44:37 UTC

Hoka-hey, Julio; good to see you.

summercamp October 13 2009, 04:01:13 UTC

Interesting - I never knew Philly had much of a Muslim population...

nutmeg October 13 2009, 11:25:39 UTC

I will agree with Jewel on this for sure. The heavily veiled (and in the really startling cases) completely covered women I see around here seem to be mainly of african descent, of what little one can see (or based on the children that are with them).

I will find myself breezing through a day and then suddenly it is like giant black holes are floating around you. It's as if their garments are not just covering them but trying to make them not exist at all.

I try not to let it disturb me, but it is difficult.

muse October 19 2009, 01:40:24 UTC

I guess I'm still figuring it out. I'm examining what it is in me that reacts that way. It bothers me, for certain, because I never thought I would react this way. As I said to my friend Paul, maybe I'm associating the veil itself with the behaviour of the women I am seeing, rather than questioning the behaviour of the women. It's pretty confusing not to be in the kumbaya bubble of Arcosanti where people with other beliefs (mostly) peacefully co-existed. It is good for me to learn this.

her_whispers October 14 2009, 16:39:05 UTC

i am curious. will you ever leave this now-city of yours? it seems as though it brings you down so much on so many levels.

muse October 16 2009, 00:01:48 UTC

Of course. Being here was being with my partner. He's finishing law school. Once he's done, we're out of here. I've never hated a city, but I hate Philadelphia. There, I said it. Shaun's mother says, "But you're used to Arizona and Chicago! They're nice there!" Yes, they are. I shouldn't live in a city where people aren't nice, where little old men with canes don't get helped on the bus and a gang of girls can jump a businesswoman on the subway just because. When I got in my accident, people honked at me as I tried to get back on the road. It said everything I'd been feeling. I've never had this kind of vitriol before. It will be good to leave here.