Islam

Before reading the article by Hirschkind and Mahmood I did not know how heavily involved the United States was in Afghanistan and how the environment they created helped the Taliban rise to power. By writing this article I think Hirschkind and Mahmood are trying to state that the West should not oversimplify and make assumptions, and how these assumptions have consequences on the Islamic faith. The article states that the Taliban policies “did not substantially affect the lives of the vast majority of rural women” as well as some women felt safer from being raped. They state that Feminist Majority in the West left these ambiguities out of their campaigns. By leaving out this information it can alter what actually was happening at that time. I wonder if the Feminist Majority were to include this information in their campaigns would they have been as successful.
            They also argue that assumptions and oversimplification of Islam had a negative effect on Non-Western culture. Anything that is not part of Western culture was seen as a threat. The West is very concerned with secularizing political issues and anything else in the public sphere which leads to complications for Muslims living in Western societies, for example the article states that headscarves were banned in French public life in 1994. Is all this Western influence really necessary?

There is no doubt that women were oppressed during the Taliban rule in Afghanistan and in other times however I believe that Hirschkind and Mahmood are trying to stress that nothing should be taken at face value and that assuming information leads to a misrepresentation of what is actually going on.