Dun Dun Dun. When I returned back from my break, there was my roommates name written on my door. I was no longer alone. Well, sort of. I found some notes under my door (the Hall ladies like to hand deliver notices) saying that I have a room mate who picked up her key card at the beginning of break. Her bed was moved around, so I knew she had been here. But here it is, 10 days after she picked up her key card, and she still hasn't shown up! Judging by her name, I am assuming that she is local. I have heard that lots of local students who live in the dorms still spend much time at their parents' house, so maybe she decided to stay there a bit longer of something? I'm patiently awaiting her arrival, it will be nice to have company!
Class has been going well. Had an Optics test this morning and it wasn't that bad. It is a little odd though, these mathematical equations. Math has no "language", everyone writes the same equations the same way, or atleast that's what I thought. There are different ways to write the same equations, but there are the general accepted forms of the equations for certain college classes. However, my optics class uses different versions of the equations than what I have been learning for the past 4 years. I won't bore you with examples, but it wasn't what I expected. The questions are still super easy compared to what I feel like should be expected, but we'll see when the exam time comes.
Townsend comes this weekend!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Saturday, I had originally planned to join a small group of students who are going to see the Marina Barrage downtown, which is a reservoir that provides water to the citizens. There is an engineering professor who is leading the two hour tour. I think Townsend and I will still go, since we are nerdy and things like that are cool :)
I feel like there is nothing much more to write about today, but I think it is more that I'm just getting used to everything here that I notice little things less because I see them all the time. I can talk about somethings I learned in class though?
We just did a lecture on Women and Islam. Its a general stereotype, not just western, that Muslim women are "oppressed" by their religion, and we learned about how generally that isn't necessarily the case, even though there are always expections to the rule. There will always be sexists in the world. But what I thought was more interesting was us learning about harems. Brothel's, right? Nope. That's another bad western stereotype. It was quite funny, we were in class, and my teacher, being a Westerner, was trying to get the students to explain what they heard were stereotypes for harems. They answered bath houses, places for females only, and one even said they reminded her of the a kitchen b/c its another place where lots of women gather. The professor is giggling, nervous about saying "They're all prostitutes" To the class, but it eventually came out. Obviously out stereotype isn't shared around the world. But we got to learn when they really were, and how they weren't whore houses or prisons for women.
The first segregation of women started during the days of Muhammad. He had a wife, who was older and eventually died and then married another, Aisha, who is the more commonly known wife. Later in his life, Muhammad becomes a polygamist, which is allowed as long as the men can treat all his wives equally and provide for them all. These wives were all widowed women of husbands who died fighting for Muslims. If a women was a widow, she was an outcast in society at this time because she had no man's guidance, so he married them for protection and to raise their societal status. The veiling of women was actually a multi-cultural thing, practices in Greece, Christianity, North Africa, and the Middle East. It is unknown how its spreading got shared throughout the world, but it wasn't a "Muslim" thing for the oppression of women. Veiling started out as a status symbol, of age and respect. Muhammad's wives were segregated into a harem-like environment where no male was allowed to touch/see them, as they spoke to others through a physical barrier. This was because they were the Prophet's wives, so it was a status symbol that these "Mothers of Islam" were so special, nobody could see them.
This of course later was interpreted in a common sense of "my wife is super important, therefore no one should see her like Muhammad's wives". Unlike other common stereotypes, the kings, who had the large, vast harems, they were segregated from the population as well. It wasn't like people could see the King, but not the Queen (or actually Sultan during this time period). Nobody could see either. When the women wanted to shop, visit the doctor, etc. they allowed female doctors and vendors to enter the harem, so it actually gave a need for female entrepreneurs and doctors and educators. Other women from other harems could come visit as well.
The harems consisted of the Queen, her single or widowed relatives (sisters, aunts, etc), and their female slaves and the king's concubines. Also, the male heir to the throne was kept in the harem until the day that he was to take the throne. This was originally supposed to be for protection and for the mom to help raise her kid and for him not to be influenced by outside sources, even though this ended up making the women's influence on the Sultan's decisions more to her side than anyone elses
Another thing that was interesting was the concubines. A rich king had concubines from all over the world, but this was for a "look at all the kingdoms I've been too and lands I've seen" sort of reason. The Concubines' children were the heirs, not the queen's children. This was so when the child was growing up in the harem, he wouldn't be influenced by the aunts/grandmothers of his mom, as the concubines had no family in the area and the boy could make more of his own decisions instead of being convinced to think a certain way. Also, that's what they were there for, to bare children, not to be used for sex. It was a law that any child born to a man, that man was economically responsible for that child, even though he would stay with him mother. So kings didn't just go around using all the women, as then he would be broke with child support basically.It was a woman's choice of her birth control and pregnancy terminations, so they're held the upper hand in that situation. And the vast majority of the harem were relatives to the king, and (obviously) you don't sleep with your relatives.
When a women left her child bearing years, she became a patron of the arts and architecture. She would donate large amount of money to have a mosque or library built, etc. This was her showing the world, hey I'm here and I'm powerful ($$). She was done with her mothering role and could now be shown to the society as a classy lady.
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