Guest Speakers

Gulnar’s visit to our class was very informative. It was amazing to see how much see knew about the Quran and women’s roles in it. One part of Gulnar’s presentation that really stuck out in my mind was when she took the words “Rahman” and “Raheem” and related them to the word “womb”. It put in perspective how the Islamic culture cannot be anti female. Pre-Islamic social culture did include the mistreating of women and women faced intense discrimination, but however now women are viewed as equal. Now women have many right’s including educational rights, economic rights, marital rights, social rights and political rights. Gulnar also gave examples of the notable Muslim women in the Middle East. I never realized that the Hijab (head scarf) that are worn my women in the Middle East is never mentioned in the Quran, therefore it is not necessarily a part of their religion but more a part of their culture. The concept of the Hijab is really interesting to me. To Gulnar, it represented modesty, morality, and respect. I was really interested in the story about her daughter just up and wearing the Hijab one day. It shows the importance of the Higab to other people. When Dr. Webb’s other guest came in, it was really cool to see the other side of some things. She had a different perspective about the Hijab and that was refreshing. Both women stressed how times have changed and with time, so have their home lands. Both women were very proud in their culture and it was a nice to see their perspectives.