Article The Gender Identity Movement: A Western Take on Male Supremacist Religious Zealotry
Article The Gender Identity Movement: A Western Take on Male Supremacist Religious Zealotry
https://nassimsahar.substack.com/p/the-gender-identity-movement-a-western
This is an essay I recently wrote, it's quite a long read. The title is the gist basically.
Quote:I moved to Switzerland only a year after full voting rights were extended to all Swiss women. In school, we were shown surveys with people who were still not on board. Why was my attention not driven to this as the barometer of women’s progress? Growing up with a conservative Middle Eastern father, I was undoubtedly more limited in some ways than my peers, but it is not black and white. For example, intellectually and career-wise, the Swiss put more limitations on girls, with a strong attachment to traditional norms that dictated that we were not suited to go into STEM or aim for leadership roles. Yet when Westerners drew comparisons between themselves and Iranians, the hijab eclipsed all else.
Quote:Furthermore, sexism manifests in different ways throughout regions and cultures. I’ve traveled widely as an interpreter, speaking and sharing rooms with women from mostly poor rural backgrounds from every corner of the world. I’ve carefully translated stories about what women and girls face as females in a patriarchal world, from Nicaragua to Uganda. The notion that the Muslim world is homogenous and that in every respect, it is “the worst” that this world has for women is simply wrong.
Quote:[...] [My aunt] grew up in Iran as the eldest of eight siblings and emigrated to the US at the age of 18. She strove to build a life that was radically different from what she had seen of the lives of women growing up. Always independent, she’s never been married and is now 80, very fit, and lives in San Francisco. She recently encountered a man in the locker room as she was coming out of the shower at the San Francisco Presidio YMCA. When she complained to the YMCA staff, they were condescending and dismissive. My aunt told me: “When you are from Iran, it feels like whenever you want to do something, it needs to be ratified by the men. Then when you come here, even though you know that there is sexism, it feels theoretical. You still feel like you are free to make your life and do what you want to do. When this happened at the YMCA, I felt for the first time that we are just as limited here, that we only ever have what the men deign to give us, and we’re supposed to just take it and say thank you. We are truly 2nd class citizens.”
Thank you for writing and sharing this, your insights and lived experiences are fascinating.
Quote:I moved to Switzerland only a year after full voting rights were extended to all Swiss women. In school, we were shown surveys with people who were still not on board. Why was my attention not driven to this as the barometer of women’s progress? Growing up with a conservative Middle Eastern father, I was undoubtedly more limited in some ways than my peers, but it is not black and white. For example, intellectually and career-wise, the Swiss put more limitations on girls, with a strong attachment to traditional norms that dictated that we were not suited to go into STEM or aim for leadership roles. Yet when Westerners drew comparisons between themselves and Iranians, the hijab eclipsed all else.
Quote:Furthermore, sexism manifests in different ways throughout regions and cultures. I’ve traveled widely as an interpreter, speaking and sharing rooms with women from mostly poor rural backgrounds from every corner of the world. I’ve carefully translated stories about what women and girls face as females in a patriarchal world, from Nicaragua to Uganda. The notion that the Muslim world is homogenous and that in every respect, it is “the worst” that this world has for women is simply wrong.
Quote:[...] [My aunt] grew up in Iran as the eldest of eight siblings and emigrated to the US at the age of 18. She strove to build a life that was radically different from what she had seen of the lives of women growing up. Always independent, she’s never been married and is now 80, very fit, and lives in San Francisco. She recently encountered a man in the locker room as she was coming out of the shower at the San Francisco Presidio YMCA. When she complained to the YMCA staff, they were condescending and dismissive. My aunt told me: “When you are from Iran, it feels like whenever you want to do something, it needs to be ratified by the men. Then when you come here, even though you know that there is sexism, it feels theoretical. You still feel like you are free to make your life and do what you want to do. When this happened at the YMCA, I felt for the first time that we are just as limited here, that we only ever have what the men deign to give us, and we’re supposed to just take it and say thank you. We are truly 2nd class citizens.”
