Book of the Week: Rage Against the Veil: the Courageous Life and Death of an Islamic Dissident
Monday October 5, 2009
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What is it like to live as a woman in a strict Islamic society? What is it like to live in such a society when you are a well-educated, talented, politically active, and self-assured woman who knows what she wants in life? It's tough to imagine such a situation, but Parvin Darabi tells the story of one person: her sister. Unfortunately, her sister is unable to tell us herself because she committed suicide by burning herself to death in Tehran. What drove her to this act of desperation?
Book of the Week: Rage Against the Veil: the Courageous Life and Death of an Islamic Dissident
I remember when I was really little hearing about countries where the leadership was harsh or the laws were barbaric. And I remember thinking that the real problem wasn’t the harshness of the rule, but the fact people weren’t allowed to leave. It seemed to me then that if you were allowed to leave, then these horrible leaders could be as bad as they liked, but they couldn’t hurt anyone who didn’t agree that was a good place to live.
While I recognize that’s really naive–I mean, I was a small child–there is something to the thought that it’s one thing to be cruel to citizens, but it’s totally another to keep them captive. That’s what I find interesting–the concept that they _know_ you have to force people to stay, because who in their right mind would put up with that?
As an older person I now also realize, however, that just because you can indoctrinate people to grow up thinking it’s all right for you to abuse them, this isn’t really acceptable, either. Convincing your victims they deserve the abuse is part of what it is to be an abusive bully.
In the end, the whole thing is just sick–the desire to abuse, and the willingness to be abused, or the inability to escape it if you’re not willing. I’m not sure I’d have the stones to set myself ablaze to escape. I think my view–at least currently, without benefit of really living through something like this–is that where there’s life, there’s hope. And the world may change slowly sometimes–but it changes. I mean, whose to say that in 10 years time she might not have access to some means of escape? I don’t judge her choice. I only say that the loss of this woman and her talent is a shame. And I’m selfishly sorry for the world and wish she would have/could have hung in, in hopes of getting out.
Stories like this wrench my emotions.