Chappals and Gym Shorts

The essay Chappals and Gym Shorts used many different useful techniques in order for the reader, myself, to become centered on her life rather than the life I live. In her description on the visit of her father I was able to see how her culture functions. How Muslim women were to be married off to a Muslim boy. The history on her previous marriage proposals also helped in understanding the importance of marriage to Muslims. I also really was able to connect with her during the explanation of her argument with her parents over the sports attire. She made the description so easy to connect with because she didn’t harp on the idea that she was arguing for the shake of being a Muslim and going against her culture. She made it as though she was arguing as any other adolescent would. With that connect I feel that most would be able to really connect as I did.

A section of the essay that I found harder to connect with but still did thanks to the author, was about being a feminist Muslim women. I can connect with the idea of being a women and fighting for women’s rights, but it was hard at first to understand the struggle she faced as a feminist Muslim. Like she said “the feminist agenda in her community is centered on ending violence against women, fighting for queer rights and maintaining women’s reproductive choices.” This idea is hard to handle at first but then later into the essay the author breaks it down to a better way for readers to understand. And that was what I understood and connected with. She did so in explaining more about herself and what she has done and where she has been. Also her examples of the issues she’s faced made it clearer to understand what she was fighting for, why and how she developed such a strong feminist idea as a Muslim women.