27 March 2005
Response to joining an emailing list
Response to emailing list
Yahoo Groups seemed like the easiest place for me to join an emailing list. By joining a community who shared the same interest of fine art, I thought I would be inspired to participate in discussions and share artwork via links or actual picture postings.
Alas the title “visual art” seems to be a misnomer because the sub-group under this heading called “Gr8Passion,” does not share much artwork at all. It seems this is more a site for sharing religious prayers (in languages other than English – namely Arabic and possibly Pakistani), and affirmations of friendship. These declarations of friendship were a little uplifting at first but the more junk that filled my mailbox, the less sincere I felt about these strangers telling me how valuable my friendship was to them. I was even offended by their Muslim postings telling me that because I am a woman that I had no rights to wear make up around in public and that I am not permitted to meet with men who I am not “allowed” to mix with:
>25. Woman who wears thin garment (see-through garment) or who arouses passion in men, or meet men they are not allowed to mix or move about openly while heavily made up or who live without pardah, will never enter jannat. In fact they will not even smell the
fragrance of jannat.
To this I sent a reply email both to the author and also a posting to the group:
Dear Salman Ali
I have the right to move about as freely as I like - whether heavily made up or not. I can see any man I chose to because we are all human beings and I am not going to sit at home because you tell me too. I think by posting this archaic text you are demonstrating how discriminating you are. You treat women as if they are animals that will only respond after the man has given orders.
Do you not understand that the rest of the world has come to accept EQUALITY for all human beings. Why do you send out these messages of repression and condemnation????
You really need to get with the program!
Kim
It is no real surprise that in this heavily moderated, male dominated site, that my posting never got published.
I have experimented with this emailing list and find that it is too time consuming to filter all the junk from the quality. Perhaps another site would prove more rewarding, but for the time being, I will stick to the community forums where freedom of speech holds true.
Yahoo Groups seemed like the easiest place for me to join an emailing list. By joining a community who shared the same interest of fine art, I thought I would be inspired to participate in discussions and share artwork via links or actual picture postings.
Alas the title “visual art” seems to be a misnomer because the sub-group under this heading called “Gr8Passion,” does not share much artwork at all. It seems this is more a site for sharing religious prayers (in languages other than English – namely Arabic and possibly Pakistani), and affirmations of friendship. These declarations of friendship were a little uplifting at first but the more junk that filled my mailbox, the less sincere I felt about these strangers telling me how valuable my friendship was to them. I was even offended by their Muslim postings telling me that because I am a woman that I had no rights to wear make up around in public and that I am not permitted to meet with men who I am not “allowed” to mix with:
>25. Woman who wears thin garment (see-through garment) or who arouses passion in men, or meet men they are not allowed to mix or move about openly while heavily made up or who live without pardah, will never enter jannat. In fact they will not even smell the
fragrance of jannat.
To this I sent a reply email both to the author and also a posting to the group:
Dear Salman Ali
I have the right to move about as freely as I like - whether heavily made up or not. I can see any man I chose to because we are all human beings and I am not going to sit at home because you tell me too. I think by posting this archaic text you are demonstrating how discriminating you are. You treat women as if they are animals that will only respond after the man has given orders.
Do you not understand that the rest of the world has come to accept EQUALITY for all human beings. Why do you send out these messages of repression and condemnation????
You really need to get with the program!
Kim
It is no real surprise that in this heavily moderated, male dominated site, that my posting never got published.
I have experimented with this emailing list and find that it is too time consuming to filter all the junk from the quality. Perhaps another site would prove more rewarding, but for the time being, I will stick to the community forums where freedom of speech holds true.
