Persian Students in the UK: Lifestyle: Religion or Tradition?

Lifestyle: Religion or Tradition?

Nazanin

Masoud Behnoud recently wrote an article about the book "Inside the Kingdom" (original French "Le Voile Dechire") written by Carmen Ben Laden, a Persian-Swiss woman who married someone from the Ben Laden family back in the 70's, then escaped and divorced trying to save her children from the hellish lifestyle in Saudi Arabia, the motherland of Islam!

Carmen's story shows the extreme contrasts in the life style of people in the vast region of the world which is usually labelled the Moslem world: from Morocco to Indonesia. The life style, ideology and social norms and habits of these people are so different that an external observer would hardly be able to put all these countries in one general category called the "Moslem" world. Let's face it, India alone has more Moslems than the whole population of Iran. Indonesia has the biggest population of Moslems in the world. How much similarity do you see in the life style of an Iranian and an Indonesian? Very little. It is less that the similarity between a Christian Armenian and a Moslem Iranian. You're getting my point?

Throughout the world especially in developing countries, it is the local traditions that rule. Religion is one of the factors influencing tradition, but it is not the only one and is heavily overshadowed by other social, historical, and geopolitical factors. It is clearly shown in the story of Carmen's life.

Categorising today's world only based on religion and then generalising it to every aspect of life (social, politics, etc.) is loose and ambiguous. Surprisingly this model of categorisation is only used for Islam, nobody talks about the "Christian World" or the "Buddhist World" when dealing with social and political issues.

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Comments

Unity:

What you are saying is very true, however, Muslims and Jews are abusing religion so much that people throughout the world have become significantly skeptic about these two religions.

(at July 29, 2004 08:47 PM)

Mehdi Yahyaei:

i have not read this book i applied to buy it and hopefully i will have it next week .it seems to be an interesting book which is talking about one of the imperative controversial issues . have you read this book completely ?

(at July 29, 2004 08:54 PM)

Nazanin:

Mehdi, I just got the book from the University Library today and started reading it. What I wrote in the post was the idea that popped up in my mind when I read Behnoud's article. By the way if you really want to buy the book checkout for "Carmen Bin Laden" in www.amazon.co.uk and you will find the link to the book. However if your university library stocks it or if you find it on a major public library in your city, then you will most probably be able to get it as a long loan and read it for free.

(at July 29, 2004 09:34 PM)

Nazanin:

Unity, I guess you are right about the source of the sceptisism problem, however, I would amend your comment in this way: "moslem and jewish governments have abused..."

(at July 29, 2004 09:36 PM)

Nazanin:

One more note for Unity: My suggested amendment to your comment has two parts: First was to add the word "government", and second was to change the word "jew" to "jewish". Using the word "jew" alone has a negative meaning, which is nonrespectful and definitely something that we don't want to imply.

(at July 29, 2004 09:52 PM)

To me governments have abused more than people have. In other words, it depends if you believe that governments and people are two separate groups of people.

The only difference between Jew and Jewish is that Jew is a noun and Jewish is an adjectif. If you have any doubts please refer to a dictionary.

(at July 30, 2004 01:13 AM)

sara:

it was wonderful for me, i remember a sentence
from my professor, we need synthesis not just our basics!

(at July 30, 2004 08:33 PM)

soma:

Lifestyle: Religion or Tradition?

Comments

(at July 29, 2004 08:47 PM)

(at July 29, 2004 08:54 PM)

(at July 29, 2004 09:34 PM)

(at July 29, 2004 09:36 PM)

(at July 29, 2004 09:52 PM)

(at July 30, 2004 01:13 AM)

(at July 30, 2004 08:33 PM)

(at September 29, 2004 11:36 PM)

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