Week 11 Readings

Tuesday Reading:
The first reading began by explaining how within Persian Books it was believed to have been written by male authority because it explained how within the household men would be considered “managers” they would be in control of how their children were educated, what their wife could and could not do, including whether or not she would be able to be the caretaker of their children.The article explains, “He was one the who named him, chose a wet nurse, and was responsible for his physical and mental development”. When I read that, it was hard to process because the mother who just gave birth to her child is automatically stripped off sharing vital moments with their child due to the man being able to decide. I don’t understand how the child will ever be able to feel connected to his mother if she is put in question of raising the child. It’s explained how a “good” wife would be considered quiet and obedient basically for the man’s orders. Which is really sad because I don’t understand how someone could write about a women in this form. How does someone get to tell the rest of their readers how inferior a woman should be within their homes and society.

The rest of the reading continues to explain how if women always remain inferior within their families that it will create an unequal ad unhealthy unbalance for the upbringing of the children and society in general. How many times when women wrote powerful text about why they should be equal within the relationship that their texts were changed to benefit the man. What was specifically explained was that if women were able to receive an education, intellectual and cultural knowledge that they would be able to stand up to their husband as well as be able to take care of her own family instead of giving the man the power to control his house. All in all, the point of this texts were to benefit the children of the family. At the end, it is explained how due to the influence of those texts by the end of that century women were finally able to educate the girls within the family. Which is not the full intention of the text but it was an advancement.

Thursday Reading:
“An honor crime is commonly defined as the murder of a woman by members of her family who do not approve of her sexual behavior” (1). When I first read that, I wasn’t really sure how to process it. And as I kept on reading it reminded me of the first article and women inferiority within their relationships and society. How women’s self is not valued and it is always the man’s choice how their choices get defined and judged. It is basically explained how for western feminists honor crimes becomes problematic because it is simply a tradition that they cannot break and other people outside of their culture cannot seem to understand that. That was really shocking to me too because I don’t understand how anyone is expected to understand a killing.
The article continues to give various examples of how and why one should be able to understand these crimes. The one that stood out to me the most was the first example of how if a woman is caught within an illicit relationship and if a man were to kill her. It can be justified due to the fact that it could have been uncontrollable grief and therefore his sentence of first-degree murder can be reduced by 2/3. Because of the preservation of the family and the way it affects them is why the women’s killing is viewed “understandable”. Then it goes further on to explain as to when couples divorce it is important for a woman to not sleep around because if not she is not liable or prepared to take full custody of their children. Overall the article was summed up that no one truly knows when the line for a woman becomes blurred to justify her killing. But that the similar issues always arise whether it is legal or religiously, etc. The problem with other westerners arise when they confuse traditions and institutions. The only solution as it is mentioned is to read between the lines of the institutional discourses and work for the change. Because if not, everything will continue and nothing will ever change.