Freedom Draft 2

Amina Rahman

Eng 1121D E115

Prof S. Schmerler

3/5/19

Draft #2 Freedom

We all wonder, what does freedom really mean? America in itself is constantly changing: sometimes it seems as if religion can get some people into trouble, which makes people feel as if they do not have a voice or a say in what they may or may not believe in. We need things to change because this society seems as if it is being caught up with the old generation’s way of thinking: this has us all separated, it seems. Now, let us take women for example, I feel like not enough of us have certain rights to be truly free. This needs to drastically change for the future. We need more opportunities and more freedom in our everyday life. Let us make a change, because the future will still involve women and there is no way around it. Women exist in this world and play a vital role. Take a pause and think, how would this world be if women ceased to exist? For me, that is something my mind cannot even fathom.

In Bangladesh, women do not have certain rights. We are held accountable for a lot of things, when in reality, we don’t deserve the blame for them. We’re expected, for example, to listen to men and forced to cover up our heads, because the men in this society believes as if it’s okay for them to make all rules. They think it’s okay for them to decide what’s good or bad for women. Ridiculous, right? Also they won’t allow women to wear short dresses and we must be covered from head to toe. In a Muslim family women are treated as property.

Additionally, the ignorance that many women possess regarding their rights are feared of repercussion from a male dominated and highly chauvinistic society, which keeps us from speaking out for ourselves, or try to at least. For example, a female who walks out of the house to go the Bazar (shopping) to pick up something. Males will be so quick to judge and question why is she leaving the house without a hijab (covering head piece).  So his mind is quick to rape her if she isn’t wearing one. This is sick, and we need to come to a resolution, because if we leave at a certain time, women in Bangladesh are targeted, threatened or harassed.

Another example, living under men’s rule is annoying and they think we should live a double standard life. Double standard means a rule or principle which is unfairly applied in different ways to different people or groups, especially when applied between women and men.  I’m sure nobody wants to settle for that. At the end of the day we don’t want to be treated as second class citizens or property. We should be treated as equal.

In the Malcolm X reading, we see that he went through a hardship. He was locked up for burglary. Malcolm X, one of the most influential Black leaders of the twentieth century, found his life during his jail time. He got letters when he was locked up. From the day he got locked up he began on his journey to become a better reader, by studying the dictionary and learning words everyday and for a better vocabulary. This was his way of writing letters. Reading, writing, and understanding was his goal to improve. Education was important to him. During his time, slavery and separation was still present.  Black people didn’t have the opportunity to get an education. Malcolm wanted a change. He taught himself to be educated. At the end of the day, his life changed for better. He eventually dedicated his life to Islam, and to Mecca, which is one of the five pillars of Islam. He was chastised for changing his name from a caucasian man’s last name to X. When Malcom made his pilgrimage he changed his name to el-Hajj Malik el-Shabazz. I see this as a great example for the evolution of oppressed women in some religious belief systems.

Overall, Bangladeshi women don’t have authority as much as men do. I can compare this to myself, a Bangladeshi woman, and Malcolm X , who lived in the Islam world. Malcolm X got locked up and he was still able to build his life to become a better person. Whereas even women suffer from discrimination in Bangladesh from the way clothing is worn to the way they’re being treated. Freedom is defined differently in people’s life, but, freedom, however, should be defined equally for both men and women.