Originally posted by StarKat:
You know, with the three sisters story, it sounds like there was plenty of bad judgment to go around. The women shouldn't have done what they did, the man shouldn't have done what he did and the eldest sister should definitely have done what she did. None of the four sound blameless to me.
Tara
Well, if you say so...
Kidding aside, I think all four of them did something they shouldn't have, but consider the consequences of the young man's actions. Even if he had married one sister, the other two would have been 'dishonored' for the rest of their lives, living as outcasts in a society with too strict rules regarding premarital sex. (I'm not advocating free love or anything like that, mind you.)
Also, I think it's a bad idea to say the whole mysogynist problem is a purely muslimic one. Sure, there are a lot of women suffering in muslimic countries, but then, there is an increasing number of young Muslimas who are self-assured, who wear their veil (or whatever) with pride and who actually attend college. I've also had the pleasure of getting to know a fellow student who was just like that, and I was pretty amazed to realize that her ideas of an ideal relationship were much more modern than my own. (Yeah, I'm a little old-fashioned when it comes to relationships.)
