Are Pakistani Muslims Trapped In A Life Of Drudgery?

[dave50]

There are large pockets of these people in the town where I live and from the outside they never seem to enjoy themselves. The women spend all their lives cooking, cleaning, washing and shopping at their local shops, never going anywhere else. The young men are supposedly not allowed to drink, have sex before marriage, go on dates and have to wait until they are found a bride by their elders. They never seem to go on holiday, have weekends away. All they ever do is hang around where they live day after day. Of course then they see us doing all these things and having a really good time, especially the younger ones. Are they being suppressed by their religion? Is it a case of, because of their own boring lives, they want us to live in the same religious straight jacket? What are people's thoughts?

[dave50]

Maybe I have got the wrong impression then, perhaps it only applies to the older married women or some are more westernised than others.

[Khandro]

In her books, the Somali woman writer Ayaan Hirsi Ali, who escaped from Islam and had collaborated with the Dutch film maker Theo Van Gogh before he was brutally murdered:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ayaan_Hirsi_Ali

says that the reason why Muslims, particularly the women, are so down, is not because of the drudgery of work, (many women bear that burden and remain cheerful) it's because the religion drums into them from birth that every single action they make is being observed and noted by Allah and there is no escape from this relentless scrutiny.

[tamborine]

Most p women work on s'mkt tills & men are taxi drivers/postmen or waiters & work for their own kind. As they get wealthier, their kids are educated in public/elite schools & uni to be in top professions.

Education is ALL important for their kids with discipline to concentrate,

[naomi24]

//it's because the religion drums into them from birth that every single action they make is being observed and noted by Allah and there is no escape from this relentless scrutiny. //

They're not alone. I know Christians who are convinced God spies on them 24 hours a day.

[Khandro]

n.// I know Christians who are convinced God spies on them 24 hours a day.//

This is true, but at least the Catholics have the confessional, and the abilty to repent, to pay penance and start again. No such thing exists in Islam, there is no escape.
The men of course, by the use of various forms of hypocrisy and skullduggery, find ways around their actions.

[ummmm]

I hated confession. You'd have to lie to the priest when you didn't have anything to confess :-)

[naomi24]

Khandro, //No such thing exists in Islam, there is no escape. //

Not true.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Repentance_in_Islam

[Svejk]

I did that, ummmm. (can't believe you had to do it often. ;o))

[Khandro]

naomi; Interesting!