Blog assignment 3

This class has taught me a lot about not only what social justice is, but also how it is so differently perceived by every individual within every culture. One of the most intriguing or surprising things I have learned in this class is how different each person’s conception of social justice is, and that we often forget to consider this when trying to “help” others. Here in America, especially in progressive places like San Francisco and Denver, we are taught that we should have a right to do whatever we want, say whatever we want, and wear whatever we want. We think that this is what defines our freedom, which is what we tend to think of as happiness. Since we so value our freedom to dress however we want, for example, we believe that we should fight for Muslim women to have the same right. By doing this, we assume that they want to expose themselves more, use clothes as a form of expression, and enjoy the type of relationship with clothing that Americans have. What we are forgetting to acknowledge is that they might not want this freedom. If we see from another perspective, we might realize that by staying covered, these women are likely less judged by their looks, and perhaps more for the things that really matter like personality. In fact, it seems unlikely that these women would have to deal with the catcalls that so many American women have to deal with. On a deeper level, we should also consider that most Muslim women likely believe that we are sinning by exposing and decorating our bodies, and thus they are the ones making the right choice and showing self-respect. Yet, we want to convince them to want what we want, and to fight for the rights that we consider an important part of social justice. To me, this is so interesting because something that we so value as social justice might actually be something that other cultures fear and look down upon. Clearly, our ideas about social justice depend on the culture that feeds our minds.