Hi everyone
Please can you post this week's diaries as comments to this message.
You are now coming close to the end of the project, so please keep up the good work, make sure you attend these last sessions and use them as an opportunity to share yourr HONEST thoughts, and ask hard questions, don't be afraid!! Read back over your diaries and your reflections, is there anything you wanted to ask before but were afraid to, you could ask now! You also need to start thinking about your final reflective paper. For this I'd like you to follow the guidelines provided by SOliya for submissions of publications to Common Ground News as it is a fantastic opportunity for you to have work published!! Here is what they say:
Here are some thoughts for what you can include in this article. Please note that the content is entirely up to you, these are just some suggestions to help guide you.
1. Reflections on the dialogue sessions and the topics they covered, what have you learned? Were there any common misunderstandings or stereotypes that became apparent in your exchange? What did you find surprising? What was challenging? Etc.
2. Reflections on the process you had began on the Joint Project (if you had already made some initial contact with your partner- what you had planned to work on and why, and what you learned from any communication you did have with your partner)
3. Reflections on any exchanges you have had with other students on the blog, or just reactions to reading the blog posts on our website
4. Reflections on the experience of doing the Video Project, and what you have learned from that
5. How do you understand the differences and/ or similarities in opinion between you and other students? Why do you think that you see things differently (or similarly?)
6. How have personal experiences – if any – affected your opinions? How has writing this paper affected your thinking about the West – Arab and Muslim relationship? How will it affect the way you talk about this issue with other people?
7. Your own experience in Soliya overall, how it affected you and if you think that can help facilitate a better understanding of the others' thoughts and views and how that can create a more global and tolerant community
8. We also recommend – if applicable – to focus on a particular issue or theme that was particularly important to you, or that was recurring in your exchanges with students in your session or via the blogs, as a way of understanding how you were affected by this experience and what you learned from it.
Please note that the questions above are only some of the aspects you should consider as you write your reflection, and are not intended to limit your reflection process. There are also guidelines for formatting and length of the article which I will give to you at the meeting on Tuesday.
Francesca
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This week's session was very engaging for me, because the topic of the discussion, namely the role of women in both Western and Muslim societies, really interests me a lot, as I'm a woman and a "learner of other cultures". At the beginning of the session we were asked to look for some news articles online which deal with this topic: just by chance, I already had one which I brought from home..On a magazine I started reading at the hairdresser last week, I found an article on arranged marriage in Jordan: the journalist claimed that many girls in that country still have no power to choose their future husband, as their marriage is instead decided by their family. As one girl in my Soliya group comes from Jordan, I asked her if that's true and what she thinks about it. Tasneem, nice and sweet as usual, tried to explain us that this practice does exist in her country, but that it's also true that girls can more and more often choose their future husbands by themselves (e.g. by getting to know him at university). Of course, if they want to get married they'll still have to have their family's approval, that's out of question! Thinking of Italy, I must admit things are different: the family's approval is indeed very important, but women are always (as far as I know) free to choose who they want to marry. Arranged marriage in Italy is considered a thing of the past, and that's way its idea still sounds awkward to me, and I must admit I have difficulties in understanding it. The issue was so engaging that I was very happy to continue the discussion with Tasneem where we were asked to explore the topic in small groups of two: Tasneem told me that women in Jordan have now more and more freedom to do things which, 30-40 years ago, were just for men. Almost all girls, for example, can go to university, get a degree and then find a job. Of course, the problem is then that powerful positions in business, politics and education are almost always in the hands of men! Well..I said to Tasneem that we do have similar problems in Italy: even if women have the chance to study and make a carreer, their place and actual role in society is still undervalued..So, in a way we do share the same problems and anxieties, although from different backgrounds. In our chat I also asked Tasneem about the veil, which she always wears during the sessions. Tasneem was quite concerned that in Europe any woman wearing a veil may be considered a terrorist. I told her that, to me, the veil does not make any difference, and that many Italians think the same (with exceptions though, mainly influenced by intolerance). Tasneem patiently explained that, for her, the veil is a symbol of faith and respect towards Allah, but there are also many girls (her sister, for instance) who don't wear it at all. Although there may be (and there definitely are) some conservative families which impose the veil to the daugthers, for the majority of girls the scarf represents a personal choice. I completely agreed with Tasneem, and I believe that any true and sincere religious or cultural choice must be respected. The conversation later touched other issues such as women's freedom to wear whatever they want to (what about the bikini?) or to have sexual relationships before marriage. Although very delicate issues, my friend and I had a sincere and open discussion, and so I got to know that if you wear a bikini in Jordan everybody will look at you extremely badly, and the same will happen with miniskirts. In Italy these trends are generally not considered scandalous...although, to be honest, I know some conservative families which wouldn't like their daughter to be dressed that way, too, and in many cases religion or traditions play a role for that, even in Italy.. This again shows that generalizations are often misleading, because differences do exist within every culture indeed and that, in the end, two apparently very distant countries share some elements in the way people think of and react to cultural and social issues.
RispondiEliminaThe same thing (see above please!) could be said about sex: Tasneem told me that sexual relationships before marriage are completely forbidden, as is living together before getting married. The reason for this attitude lies in religion, although honour also plays a key role. I had the impression that my friend in Jordan would never do such a thing like going out of ther parents' home, even though she would be old enough (in an European perspective) to do it: I said "in an European perspective", but who says that our perspective is the right one? If my friend in Jordan feels she's happy with that, as she told me, why should any European blame her? Understanding and accepting other people's ways of living and of seeing things: that may be a way to live with more tolerance and respect. We may not agree with all we're told about a culture, but at least we could try to understand it.
RispondiEliminaHello everybody,
RispondiEliminaThe last session started talking about “independent life” and “move out from parents’ home”; we said that now it is more and more common for young people to move out, and the causes of this trend are both social (“it is embarrassing to live with parents too late in age”) and economic (to have an independent life, for example working & studying at the University at the same time); it was interesting to note that for some Islamic guys there are also “religious” causes, pointing out the great importance of the family in their lives.
Then, we restarted the “pair activity”, althought many guys missed and the only pair that was present was “me & Muhammad”; so, when the other guys talked about their pair activities in the main room with the facilitators, me & Muhammad moved in a private room to restart the discussion that we started in week 3.
Although the topic was about “women’s right”, we started talking about our video projects and Muhammad asked me some questions about my video.
Then, we talked about the previous discussion in the main room (about the “independent life”) to clarify our positions; thus, I introduced the pair topic, because I asked a question to Muhammad like the role of the religion in a choice of independent life.
I explained that the previous evening I watched a Ken Loach’s film named “Ae Fond Kiss” that presented a Pakistani family who lives in Glasgow & the problems of the children of this family to have an independent life (Casim falls in love with a catholic girl, Tahara want to move to Edimburgh’s University). I asked to Muhammad why there are these situations, why Tahara’s father that didn’t want that his daughter could study in another city; he answered that for a Muslim is very important to live with his family and this is very difficult to understand for a Western person, besides the opposite situation is difficult to understand for an Eastern person. I liked this discussion because we talked about this problems with a lot of respect of the other one opinion.
This discussion was very interesting but the time flied and Amany recalled us to the main room to discuss with the other guys…
Returning to the main room, we showed to the other guys our pair activity and we concluded said that “having different backgrounds does not mean necessarily that there is no cooperation”. All the guys agreed with this opinion, adding that “if differences are very big you could have no cooperation”.
The last part of the session we talked about “our future” and our “possibilities of work” and all of us noted that it is very difficult to find a work that is inherent with our studies. Moreover I added that now it is more difficult because of this international economic crisis, because the unemployment is now a global problem. Safaa’s opinion (a Palestinian girl) was very interesting, because she said that for Palestinians the situation is more difficult because Israel controls a lot of their economy; but the last part of his speech was very worryingly: when Muhammad asked to her if it is possible to reach a compromise with Israel, Safaa said that “the only solution is fighting against Israel until the end”. Nobody commented about this opinion.
Finally, Amany showed us the topics for the next week & the instructions for the reflecting paper.
As usual, this session was very interesting, expecially about the “pair activity” that showed a mutual respect for the other one opinion. Although the ending part of the session was very worryingly, I try to respect (but not to agree) the Safaa’s opinion, because I think that Palestinian are suffering a tremendous situation. Nevertheless, “fighting until the end” is not a solution. The final solution MUST BE a compromise.
See you next time,
Emanuele
The strange question of this seventh session of soliya was about our favorite fruit or vegetable. As usual was our facilitator Aline who asked it. I find original to start speaking about funny things, the ambience we created is very familiar and everyone is more free and extroverted. After that everyone gave his own feedback about the life stories activity of the previous week and then we started speaking about a new subject. Sumyia wanted to discuss about materialism, consumerism and the role of money respect of religion or moral values; why the West give less importance at the emotions. They also made the relation between money and modernity. As someone from the West I must answered and thanks to a recent book I have done for an exam I could explain the difference between modernity and modernization, just to focus better the subject. I said that the modernity is related to the separation of the religion from the politics thanks to the values of Illuminism. On the other hand the modernization is related to the technological military and scientific development and to the research.
RispondiEliminaAt this point our facilitator Aline asked us about last declaration of France president Sarkozy. No one had heard the news so she gave us five minutes to read an article about this theme. It was the main theme of the “veil” in West world. This is normally a strong argument, in the case of my group the four girls from East wear all the veil, so I immediately felt it was an hot theme. In this case I was the only one from West and above all the only man, so my role was very important. All the girls didn’t agree with the position of French president to ban the veil from public place. My position was the same but I said that as I am atheist it’s not a problem for me to see religion symbol, but I also think that the main position of catholic people is very different.
The theme of veil is strong related to the role of women in the two societies and this was the central point of our discussion. I am very curious and so I asked very directly why they wear the veil, their own reasons. The main answer was because they feel more protected and also because their religion give them this order. Honestly on this subject ours positions were very different and I heard all the explications but finally I didn’t understand the way of thinking of the four girls. The religion, the society, the culture are so different that was impossible for me to understand their perception of the role of women and also of the relationship between women and men. I think they have the perception of the woman as the sexual object of men, so they have to protect themselves with the veil. They also have the perception of the man as someone who choose her woman and bring her with him as some material. Unfortunately the session ended and must stop the discussion, but we received the compliments of our two co-facilitators!! Good work group!! See you next week.
giacomo
Hello everybody,
RispondiEliminaThis week, our session was very interesting: through our confrontation we managed to understand how difficult is the situation between Palestinian and Israelian.I have become aware of the amount of efforts that has to be done in order to change the actual state of hatred between the two people...and how sad is that!
Well, the discussion went on talking about our Palestinians peer’s project and how the reality that they are living did affected their work. Indeed, we did saw how they excluded the Israelian side of the story and how they refused to include them into their project...it was normal since they are in a state of war but the situation turned up into difficulty when Welmoed (a girl from our group) couldn’t understand how our Palestinian peer defended his right to HATE Israelian explaining that the Israeli state is more at fault then the Palestinians. the Palestinians lands has been taken and illegally by what is now Israel and that Israelian owe a lot to the Palestinians and have to recognize the Palestinians suffering that is primarily caused by the terrible actions of the Israeli state.
But for our Western peer, the problem was also the continuous attacks by Palestinians armed groups that make also Palestinians as guilty as their neighbors...and so on...
The discussion became very hot and each group was attacking the other...words were falling like bombs and we were just like fighting! Whose fault was that? Whose politics was wrong? Whose war was right?
I was standing there, listening to both of my peers and feeling sorry about all these accuses. I realized how Palestinians were hateful for being displaced by the influx of Jews, how inside they felt that there is no chance for peace, how they considered that no discussions will be made and that the only way to get out of that conflict is to keep up this war or to separate the two states...because peace has no more chance in that part of the world!
I really felt bad about that, that's why i had to told them that we maybe have to stop giving the fault to each other, we maybe have to stop searching who is more guilty than the other and try to build instead of destroying...There is never a war without the involving of two sides and for making peace, they have to be in two for that...so if you, young people of Palestine, refuse to give peace a chance, who else would do that for you? if you refuse to put hatred apart and work all together because it's your right to live peacefully all together, who will do it for you? if you stop being optimistic and don't realize that bloodshed should be avoided for the sake of both peoples, what future would that be? All this would be a step to end this conflict which seems will last for another 2000 years and longer if this hate between the peoples continues.