This paternalistic view is total failure on the part of Western culture, dehumanizing even those we claim to want to protect. A reminder that we need to listen first and prescribe remedies afterwards (or never).

This conversation brings to mind a review by my colleague Karina Daniela DaSilva of the film Mustang (incidentally the only female-directed narrative film nominated for an Oscar this year). Her review addresses this issue square on. She herself was a member of a very conservative and patriarchal culture growing up so she speaks from a place of experience. I’m just going to paste a quote here because she says it really well:

It was refreshing it was to see a story of female oppression that not only kept each character’s personality intact, but showed that even in the more male-oriented communities, women keep living. …it can be easy to adopt a broad mindset in which one forgets that even in the most conservative of cultures, women are not all painted with sadness and misery- they love, they laugh, they share secrets with each other. They are human.