An argument for not sheltering your kids...
Yesterday our class spent the last hour and a half in the auditorium with all the other alef classes, watching an Israeli movie called (roughly) Canafai'im Shevurot - Broken Wings. There were parts of the movie that were a little explicit. Brief nudity, the implication of sex but nothing shown, and a naked boy and girl sitting side-by-side in an open window but not doing anything and no private parts shown.
A good portion of my class and the student body at large is Muslim, or at least raised in an Islamic-influenced culture. Many of them live in their own homes in the Arab neighborhoods and only come to the school so they can learn Hebrew, something you need to live for an extended period of time in Israel. They were not happy. Specifically, the girls were not happy. A few guys walked out, but every girl I knew was Muslim walked out, and I saw more than a few boys who didn't. It was the girls who were extremely distressed at what they'd unwittingly watched. One was even crying outside the doors.
To be fair to them, they should have been warned that the movie would have this content. The teachers weren't on the ball here, although the fact that if would be a problem probably didn't occur to anyone. Which got me thinking about how the movie could come as such a huge shock to them. Sure, I could see them being indignant at not being warned about content that's against their religion, but upset to the point of crying? Shocked? Christians at home would get mad if a movie with sexual content weren't properly rated, but they wouldn't run out of the theaters and/or cry. How can you live in a secular nation to college-age and not at least be somewhat inured to it? Haven't they ever seen so much as a random commercial or billboard that shows too much skin?
Frankly, I think plenty of the boys have. And Anna had a pretty solid explanation for why the girls haven't. They're raised in neighborhoods filled with people who share their beliefs, are literally surrounded by it at all times, and while maybe I shouldn't make a snap judgment like this, the girls probably don't often go far away from those neighborhoods. They take sheruts to school and back, not buses. These are Arab taxis which have curtains on the windows, which at first I figured were to create a nice little sun-shield and make the van cooler, but now I wonder if the fact that they completely block your view of the streets you're traveling on isn't another reason.
I can't really say for sure if it's a result of having been completely isolated from secular culture or of religious conviction, but I know which I'd guess.
Sort of relevant to that: I now know which classes I'll be taking.
Foreign Policy of Israel
History of Palestine and the Palestinians
Archaeology of Jerusalem
more Hebrew
and...The Political and Social Study of Women in Israel.
Coincidental, I guess. Maybe I'll get some answers. :)
A good portion of my class and the student body at large is Muslim, or at least raised in an Islamic-influenced culture. Many of them live in their own homes in the Arab neighborhoods and only come to the school so they can learn Hebrew, something you need to live for an extended period of time in Israel. They were not happy. Specifically, the girls were not happy. A few guys walked out, but every girl I knew was Muslim walked out, and I saw more than a few boys who didn't. It was the girls who were extremely distressed at what they'd unwittingly watched. One was even crying outside the doors.
To be fair to them, they should have been warned that the movie would have this content. The teachers weren't on the ball here, although the fact that if would be a problem probably didn't occur to anyone. Which got me thinking about how the movie could come as such a huge shock to them. Sure, I could see them being indignant at not being warned about content that's against their religion, but upset to the point of crying? Shocked? Christians at home would get mad if a movie with sexual content weren't properly rated, but they wouldn't run out of the theaters and/or cry. How can you live in a secular nation to college-age and not at least be somewhat inured to it? Haven't they ever seen so much as a random commercial or billboard that shows too much skin?
Frankly, I think plenty of the boys have. And Anna had a pretty solid explanation for why the girls haven't. They're raised in neighborhoods filled with people who share their beliefs, are literally surrounded by it at all times, and while maybe I shouldn't make a snap judgment like this, the girls probably don't often go far away from those neighborhoods. They take sheruts to school and back, not buses. These are Arab taxis which have curtains on the windows, which at first I figured were to create a nice little sun-shield and make the van cooler, but now I wonder if the fact that they completely block your view of the streets you're traveling on isn't another reason.
I can't really say for sure if it's a result of having been completely isolated from secular culture or of religious conviction, but I know which I'd guess.
Sort of relevant to that: I now know which classes I'll be taking.
Foreign Policy of Israel
History of Palestine and the Palestinians
Archaeology of Jerusalem
more Hebrew
and...The Political and Social Study of Women in Israel.
Coincidental, I guess. Maybe I'll get some answers. :)
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