25-12-2021, 03:59 PM
The bacha posh girls who are nominated as boys temporarily
P 152 Marriage is a core component of the patriarchal system.
According to Gerda Lerner’s research on ancient societies, a woman could achieve at least some status, & with that, better treatment & privileges, through preserving her only capital – her virginity - & eventually offering it to just one man. That idea evolved into the marriage contract, where a woman vowed to remain sexually exclusive to one man, with the expectation that it would bring him heirs to preserve a line of land & capital. Any woman suspected of not being a virgin posed the risk of carrying someone else’s child, which disqualified her as a potential bride.
No group can be truly suppressed until its members are trained & convinced to suppress one another. To hold the system of patriarchy in place, a woman could always further [rove herself a chaste & proper person by shaming those who fell short of the mark, Lerner explained.
In other words, by calling out other women as suspected whores, as women commonly do to this day.
P 178…According to the way in which American philosopher & gender theorist Judith Butler has described it, Shukria’s gender – both the male & the female – was experienced as a social construct, where repetition of certain acts formed her identity on each side. According to Butler, just as little children learn to speak language by repeating the\same words & actions over & over, gender behaviours are learned. A person’s sex is determined at birth, but gender is not. It is trained & adopted through performance.
P 303 Countries that want to develop their economies & standards of living cannot afford to shut out one half of their population. Conservatives & extremists in any society are extremely aware of this fact. Those who control life, & the bodies of women, control the money & hold the power. Women who are kept indoors, whether because of references to religion, culture or honour, cannot make money & will not hold any power. Women who are married off & locked up, raped by older husbands in order to produce male heirs, will never rule a country or explore its natural resources. Or go to war, for that matter. Women who never receive an education are not likely to demand their rightful inheritance.
Women who do not have a say over their own bodies’ reproduction will never be able to challenge men on economic power. Those who hold the power to create life control the universe.
The underground girls of Kabul; the hidden lives of Afghan girls disguised as boys.
Jenny Nordberg
“If Middle east leaders got their act together & stopped fuelling a senseless sectarian conflict – always in the name of a religion whose true character is apparently impossible to agree upon – the next generation in that region would have a chance of growing up learning about history, medicine, & mathematics instead of running from bullets & bombs, fleeing their towns & living in refugee camps or on the street.”
“The world is not facing a clash of civilizations or cultures, but a clash between those who want to build bridges & those who would rather see the world in polarities, who are working hard to spread hatred & divide us.”
“These days, people expect a reporter to take sides. But that’s not my job. It is difficult to stand in the middle, but I believe losing the ability to listen is far more destructive.”
“If I’ve learned anything; it’s this: a mother’s screams over the body of her murdered child sound the same no matter if she is black, brown or white; Muslim, Jewish or Christian; Shia or Sunni.
We will all be buried in the same ground.”
Souad Mekhennet, I was told to come alone, my journey behind the lines of jihad.
P 152 Marriage is a core component of the patriarchal system.
According to Gerda Lerner’s research on ancient societies, a woman could achieve at least some status, & with that, better treatment & privileges, through preserving her only capital – her virginity - & eventually offering it to just one man. That idea evolved into the marriage contract, where a woman vowed to remain sexually exclusive to one man, with the expectation that it would bring him heirs to preserve a line of land & capital. Any woman suspected of not being a virgin posed the risk of carrying someone else’s child, which disqualified her as a potential bride.
No group can be truly suppressed until its members are trained & convinced to suppress one another. To hold the system of patriarchy in place, a woman could always further [rove herself a chaste & proper person by shaming those who fell short of the mark, Lerner explained.
In other words, by calling out other women as suspected whores, as women commonly do to this day.
P 178…According to the way in which American philosopher & gender theorist Judith Butler has described it, Shukria’s gender – both the male & the female – was experienced as a social construct, where repetition of certain acts formed her identity on each side. According to Butler, just as little children learn to speak language by repeating the\same words & actions over & over, gender behaviours are learned. A person’s sex is determined at birth, but gender is not. It is trained & adopted through performance.
P 303 Countries that want to develop their economies & standards of living cannot afford to shut out one half of their population. Conservatives & extremists in any society are extremely aware of this fact. Those who control life, & the bodies of women, control the money & hold the power. Women who are kept indoors, whether because of references to religion, culture or honour, cannot make money & will not hold any power. Women who are married off & locked up, raped by older husbands in order to produce male heirs, will never rule a country or explore its natural resources. Or go to war, for that matter. Women who never receive an education are not likely to demand their rightful inheritance.
Women who do not have a say over their own bodies’ reproduction will never be able to challenge men on economic power. Those who hold the power to create life control the universe.
The underground girls of Kabul; the hidden lives of Afghan girls disguised as boys.
Jenny Nordberg
“If Middle east leaders got their act together & stopped fuelling a senseless sectarian conflict – always in the name of a religion whose true character is apparently impossible to agree upon – the next generation in that region would have a chance of growing up learning about history, medicine, & mathematics instead of running from bullets & bombs, fleeing their towns & living in refugee camps or on the street.”
“The world is not facing a clash of civilizations or cultures, but a clash between those who want to build bridges & those who would rather see the world in polarities, who are working hard to spread hatred & divide us.”
“These days, people expect a reporter to take sides. But that’s not my job. It is difficult to stand in the middle, but I believe losing the ability to listen is far more destructive.”
“If I’ve learned anything; it’s this: a mother’s screams over the body of her murdered child sound the same no matter if she is black, brown or white; Muslim, Jewish or Christian; Shia or Sunni.
We will all be buried in the same ground.”
Souad Mekhennet, I was told to come alone, my journey behind the lines of jihad.
in order to be old & wise, you must first be young & stupid. (I'm still working on that.)