Thoughts by Richard Bleil
Women just don’t appreciate everything that men do for them. Like the Iranian law requiring women to wear hijabs. Why can’t people understand that by requiring women to cover their head, hair and face that the women are safer from being victimized by men whose demons will be inspired by their attractiveness?
Recently, an Iranian basketball team released a team photograph where none of the women are wearing the required hijabs thereby risking legal consequences. Recently, the Iranian citizen Mahsa Amini, after violating the Iranian hijab laws by posting pictures of herself on social media without her hijab, was arrested for her own safety and died while in custody to keep her safe. This is proof positive that wearing a hijab is for women’s safety.
And I really hope that my readers all realize that I’m being sarcastic in the previous two paragraphs. And while we’re at it, I want to point out that this is not intended as an insult to Iran or to the Muslim faith. If women want to wear hijabs, then yes, they should be allowed to, but as a theocracy, Iran takes their own interpretation of the Qur’an. If you are Christian or Jewish, in fact, you are familiar with the Qur’an as it is very much based on the “Old Testament” (in Christianity). The problem with theocracies (as so many “Christians” want to establish here in America) is that extremists use it to advance their own interpretation and agenda. And, yes, it would happen in a Christian based theocracy as well. However, even this is not the point to this blog.
What strikes me about these stories from the Iranian culture is how similar it is with the culture here in America. Yes, you read that right; we are no different.
In modern American culture, there is a name for it called “slut shaming”, and I am happy that at least this term is meant to be derogatory towards the practice of always blaming women. Lately I’ve seen a few, very few, memes regarding how we still teach women to “protect themselves”, and yet we don’t often teach boys how to treat women and be protective of them. These few memes are overwhelmed with news stories about men getting out of serious legal consequences for crimes like rape. The story popping into mind immediately is that of Brock Turner. In Stanford University (a big name in academia) was sentenced to six months for raping an incapacitated woman because, according to the judge, an appropriate sentence would ruin his future.
That a harsh sentence would ruin this white student’s future came from a statement in court from his father, saying it was a “twenty-minute crime” (although I doubt that he honestly lasted that long) for a crime fueled by alcohol and lust. So often, fathers raise boys to be sexual predators even in modern America by encouraging conquests. My dad never said anything to me about sexuality (but did insult every young lady who did go out with me, rare though they be, by insisting that only “dogs” would date me). But I’ve known far more fathers of friends who would ask their boys questions like “did you bag her” after the date, rather than saying, “remember that her safety and well being is your responsibility”.
Ultimately, I’m not upset by the sentence handed down for Brock. I am, however, upset at a society that breeds sexual predators like him. I’m upset that women are forced to relive the events when defense attorneys try their best to prove that the victim “was asking for it”. I’m upset that women cannot dress how they wish out of fear of triggering men’s darkest sides while men are ignored or even encouraged when they do. Somehow, it’s always the fault of the women, a sentiment so deeply ingrained in our society that we don’t even notice when it happens anymore.
Maybe you’re proud to be living in a nation with no laws requiring women to cover up in hijabs, and yet in our schools we do require girls (not even full-grown women yet) to dress to cover anything that the men in the school might find provocative. There is no difference. Where were the other men in that bar while Brock was performing one of the worst acts on the victim that can be done to a young woman? Where were the men who saw her being “escorted” out of the bar too intoxicated to be able to defend herself? And where are the men who will read that previous sentence without blaming her for getting drunk in exactly the same manner that I’m sure several men did on that same night?
Bleil's Banter 