Article: In the driver’s seat
Summary: Manal al-Sharif a female from Saudi Arabia recalled her childhood. When she was young, she was taught that “women are the seductive fruit to men”, in Saudi extremists women are “awra”, which means a sinful thing. During that time, women cannot be called by name, no sports activities allowed, no driving, what’s more, they even did not have photo on their ID card, except for the passport. Manal al-Sharif felt things should not worked in this way after she got an access to internet. She began to realize how small the box she was living in the past was. She was confused about which side was right because she was deeply affected by the extremism she was taught in her past 20 year’s life. One day, after work she couldn’t find a ride home and was almost got kidnapped. Then she decide to start a campaign calling on women to come out and drive in Saudi Arabia. She was arrested for nine days but many people was inspired by her. Although the social openness for women is still not much, but Manal al-Sharif believes that if keeping try hard, eventually flowers will open.
Reflection: Now, I feel it is lucky to live in Taiwan. Although we also learned traditional Confucius’s theory like South Korea, Japan, and China. But in comparison, female in Taiwan have more right than those countries. For example, though highly developed in South Korea and Japan, female in these countries still in a inferior place. There is still a very obvious patriarchy society. Many foreigners admire Taiwanese male for their tenderness and willingness on doing house chore with wife. Beside, most people in China, especially males still believe that women should listen to them, it is women’s duty to cook, do the chore. Taiwan is only a small country but I am really glad and proud to live here, because everybody was treated the same no matter what gender you are.
Vocabulary
- 1. hajj (n.)麥加朝聖
- 2. jihad (n.)伊斯蘭聖戰
- 3. phobia (n.)恐懼症
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