One of the currently most-talked-about stories in the Middle East comes from Saudi Arabia. Recently, their government supported the sentence of 200 lashes for a 19 year old Shiite girl. She had been sitting in a car with a male friend last year when they were gang-raped by seven men. The Saudi Justice Ministry says that this girl deserved the 200 lashes and six months in prison because she was guilty of “illegal mingling”. In other words, she was being punished for sitting in a car with a man who was not part of her family. Something seems wrong here to me: the government is punishing this girl…when she was raped. How could sitting in a car with a guy be of any concern when you have a situation as terrible as this? I do not understand this phrase “illegal mingling”. It seems to him that if the Middle East had a bit more mingling in their country, between the sexes and the sects, they would be a much more peaceful area. All over this area, there is a current struggle between the Muslim sects and it centers on who can mingle with whom. In Iraq, the question is can the Iraqi Shiites and Sunnis mingle anymore, after all the blood that has been shed? If so, can this country be stable enough that we can get our troops out of there? In my opinion, this is really an issue that affects our country directly. “Mingling” seems like kind of a trivial verb, but on the contrary it is everything; it is the basis of all citizen relations in the Middle East. It never occurred to me that some more interaction could mean the end of war. One of the currently most-talked-about stories in the Middle East comes from Saudi Arabia. Recently, their government affirmed the sentence of 200 lashes for a 19 year old Shiite girl. She had been sitting in a car with a male friend last year when they were gang-raped by seven men. The Saudi Justice Ministry says that this girl deserved the 200 lashes and six months in prison because she was guilty of “illegal mingling”. In other words, she was being punished for sitting in a car with a man who was not part of her family. Something seems wrong here to me: the government is punishing this girl…when she was raped. How could sitting in a car with a guy be of any concern when you have a situation as terrible as this? I do not understand this phrase “illegal mingling”. It seems to him that if the Middle East had a bit more mingling in their country, between the sexes and the sects, they would be a much more peaceful area. All over this area, there is a current struggle between the Muslim sects and it centers on who can mingle with whom. In Iraq, the question is “Can Iraqi Shiites and Sunnis mingle anymore, after all the blood that has been spilled”. If so, can this country be stable enough that we can reduce our troops there? In my opinion, this is really an issue that affects our country directly. “Mingling” seems like kind of a trivial verb, but on the contrary it is everything; it is the basis of all citizen relations in the Middle East. It never occurred to me that some more interaction could mean the end of war.
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Haha. Remember how we read the same article? We are SO MADE FOR EACH OTHER SARAH HALLBAUER. (Sigh)
Well, on a more gov-appropriate note, I find it hard to believe that anything productive has come of the Iraq War. The author thinks US involvement has made moderates bolder, urging them to fight back rather than be taken advantage of. I do not think this is, by any means, a step in the right direction. Still, I find the attempt at devil's advocate refreshing. In my opinion, the problem seems unfixable. These tensions are simply part of their culture, part of their tradition; fighting will never conclude them, but simply enrage them. In the same way, standing back and doing nothing fails to solve the problem also. Why most foreign affairs be so hard to break down? I frankly think I no too little about Middle Eastern culture to really figure out a lasting solution.
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