Culture Clash

Watching a documentary on Afghan women the other night got me to thinking how the devout Muslim cultures were the complete opposite end of the spectrum from our culture. I saw a woman the other day at a water park dressed head to toe in black swimming with her children. Her husband, on the other hand, was dressed in a normal bathing suit. It wasn't the outfit on her that bothered me as much as her lack of a smile. Not once in playing with her children did she smile. When she came close to my chair I told her her that her baby was beautiful and she said 'thank you." But still, no smile.

Before we liberated Afghanistan, the devout Muslim woman not only had to wear a burka like a dark curtain over her life, but could not listen to music, dance, sing, be educated, or choose her husband. Can we even imagine that here? No wonder they don't smile.

On the documentary the camera man convinces one woman to drop the part of her outfit that hides her face. With her husband permission, she does. But still, no smile.

And here we are in the U.S. where it is hard to distinguish the dress of a typical teenager from a call girl. Where porn has become mainstream. Where women are sexually exploited on commercials, movies, and TV on a daily basis. Where there are 4000 abortions a day.

Such an extreme difference. Both are wrong.

Where can we find the middle? Where we can have a culture with music and dance and love, but not sexually exploit women? Where we can raise our daughters in a culture where they don't feel they have to give blowjobs on a schoolbus to be popular? Or dress sexually to get boy's attention?

It is so sad to me that one culture hides a woman's life and the other exploits it.