I just watched this film and read the debate here on QL. As I read the discussion above, I noticed very quickly that the two points of view being argued are basically western vs. middle eastern. I come from arguably the most liberalized city (It's not called Sin City for nothing.) in the most liberalized country in the world. We are also a very egalitarian society in the US. We do not have a caste system in our society. Our views on women's rights and gender and racial equality are very different from much of the rest of the world.
In the film, and now that I live here in Qatar, I have observed, that Arab culture and Islam are not necessarily the same thing. Remember, the reason given for the princess’s execution was that she disgraced the family (a cultural issue), not because she disobeyed the teachings of the Quran (a religious issue). We Americans have not been taught the difference. We have been taught that “Muslim” and “Arab” are interchangeable terms, they are not.
I thought the two most powerful lines in the film and its commentary were; a) that in order to survive, Arabs need to learn to be schizophrenic, and b) that if you ask 12 people to describe an event, you get 12 truths.
I found it interesting that in the last segment where the woman from the US Council of Foreign Relations stated that in the 25 years since the film was made, reforms had taken place in KSA where the rights of women were increased, and the restrictions on the movements were relaxed and if you ask around, some people say things are better, some people say things are just as bad as they always were. Somewhere in-between lies the truth.
In the last 25 years or so, I have observed from news reports and discussions with people who have been there, that the plight of women in KSA and the Middle East in general, has become increasingly relaxed. Whether this is good or bad appears to be a cultural debate. Change is difficult, for everyone. And as the world becomes a smaller place due to advances in technology, cultural change has accelerated. This is why people find the need to grasp tightly to their traditions. And things are only going to get faster and more stressful as time goes by. I pray we can learn to live without killing each other.
I just watched this film and read the debate here on QL. As I read the discussion above, I noticed very quickly that the two points of view being argued are basically western vs. middle eastern. I come from arguably the most liberalized city (It's not called Sin City for nothing.) in the most liberalized country in the world. We are also a very egalitarian society in the US. We do not have a caste system in our society. Our views on women's rights and gender and racial equality are very different from much of the rest of the world.
In the film, and now that I live here in Qatar, I have observed, that Arab culture and Islam are not necessarily the same thing. Remember, the reason given for the princess’s execution was that she disgraced the family (a cultural issue), not because she disobeyed the teachings of the Quran (a religious issue). We Americans have not been taught the difference. We have been taught that “Muslim” and “Arab” are interchangeable terms, they are not.
I thought the two most powerful lines in the film and its commentary were; a) that in order to survive, Arabs need to learn to be schizophrenic, and b) that if you ask 12 people to describe an event, you get 12 truths.
I found it interesting that in the last segment where the woman from the US Council of Foreign Relations stated that in the 25 years since the film was made, reforms had taken place in KSA where the rights of women were increased, and the restrictions on the movements were relaxed and if you ask around, some people say things are better, some people say things are just as bad as they always were. Somewhere in-between lies the truth.
In the last 25 years or so, I have observed from news reports and discussions with people who have been there, that the plight of women in KSA and the Middle East in general, has become increasingly relaxed. Whether this is good or bad appears to be a cultural debate. Change is difficult, for everyone. And as the world becomes a smaller place due to advances in technology, cultural change has accelerated. This is why people find the need to grasp tightly to their traditions. And things are only going to get faster and more stressful as time goes by. I pray we can learn to live without killing each other.