Jessiel Gerena
WST 3015
Nina Perez
April 5th 2010
Baghdad Burning: US invasion of feminism.
Baghdad Burning is a blog about an young iraqi women who blogs about the war in Iraq. Her blog is a political and educational personal narrative of the war in Iraq.I believe that she writes to educate the readers about the realities of Islamic society treatment of women, the political is her critque of the war and militarization of iraq and she tells the story through her eyes. The author decribes what life was like before and after the United States invaded Iraq. She has several blogposts that talk about several subjects, including the normality of the noise of armed conflict, the impact of security for women during war times, a description of her life , economic impact of war and the radicalization of Islam and the treatment of women.
We as a militarized country fail to recognize the effects war on the culture and the effects of the destructment of the land. In Baghdad Burning she describes the negative effects of war and a personal way of showing the realities of war. In her entry Sammarra Burning she describes how “It’s like a nightmare within a nightmare”. The piling of bodies and constant firiing of weapons has made war a commonality and the norm.
In writing this blog Riverbend educates the general public about myths that Islam towards women and how some use Islamic law and misinterpet it . In her blog discussed in class she explains how some clerics radicalize islam and use it to explain their opression towards women. uses of Muslim radicals that take Sharia and use that to justify their oppression on women. Sharia is Islamic law,whether from the Quran or quotes from the Prophet “. The problem is when clerics take a personal interpretation of islamic law . They use this for their hidden agenda and start issuing decrees such as “pleasure marriage’ which is a temporary marriage for the sole purpose of sex. This marriage forces women to marry a man and the man pays for his pleasure marriage and is easily annulled when done. Using Sharia , Men have taken the rights and justifying it by religious means.
Riverbend uses this blog to explain the opression of women by islam cleric. This blog contradicts the myths that we have that constructed as a western society that islamic is repressive to women. Riverbend uses her blog as an account on this subject in these blogs more then other she uses others account to show how liberal and acceptiing islam is . She accounts her personal success and shows how Iraq once was a propserous nation for women.
Works cited
Riverbend. "Sharia Law." Weblog post. Baghdadburning.blogspot.com. Web.
