Misunderstood, Misjudged, Mistreated

On September 11th, 2001 the lives of many changed around the world. A group of men attacked the United States in a way that we had never been attacked in. Many Americans took that action personally even though they knew absolutely no one that lost their lives that fateful morning. Flying two planes across the World Trade Center in one of the most popular cities not only in the country, but also in the world, and killing thousands of innocent people. What crossed through most of our minds was who could do such a hateful act? Who could possibly have enough hate and guts to come into our soil, and cause such havoc? Who? We all wanted answers, and when we finally got them, even more lives were changed. The lives of these people were changed in a way that we can only hope never happens to us. After the world learned that it was men from the Taliban group that were responsible for the attacks, many turned their sorrows into hate. Hate towards every Middle-Eastern person, hate towards every Muslim, hate towards every person that looked like they may resemble or fit into the category of being a Muslim. Suddenly those of a certain culture and religion were all meshed into one word to describe

Although many people here in the United States could not understand why women under Taliban control could live the way they did, they did not sympathize with any Muslim woman here in the United States. They did not feel sorry for them, rather many were attacked because they let themselves be ruled in such a manner, and because many felt that perhaps they agreed with what the Taliban was doing since they did not fight for their rights. Therefore, women who wore the hijab have been said to be targeted far more for the obvious reason. One Muslim high school girl that was interviewed for a National Geographic article reported that she was going on vacation, and while at an American airport, security saw her mother and sisters with the hijab, and they immediately pointed them out, specifically searched her family down intensively and not any of the other passengers (National Geographic.com). In an interview with Stodolsky a Muslim woman of Pakistani background pointed out that she did not cover, but she was quoted:

Since the attacks were said to be lead by Osama Bin Laden from Afghanistan many people became even more susceptible to judge an entire religion. They claimed that this was jihad or a “holy war”. Therefore the media and other citizens tied this “holy war” with all Muslims. That is were most of the hate came from, and even more questions arose about the Muslim religion, and weather it was a good religion or if it just was an outright bad thing to be. Like it was mentioned earlier, the treatment of women in Muslim societies has been questioned over and over again by many people. Following the attacks, more and more people from the United States were questioning Muslim women on why they would want to be controlled the way they are. Barbara Walters did an interview with a few Afghani women, and questioned them about their treatment. Many of them said they did not feel any less than a man (20/20 video). However, many people have speculated that these women were afraid to really speak what really lies inside their hearts. They may have feared for their lives had they been completely honest about the way of life for women in Afghanistan.

Over two years have passed since the United States was attacked in a manner many of us could never imagine. Many lives were changed after that morning, and many lives continue to change. It seems as though American’s are going through their daily routines as normal now. Only stories here and there about American soldiers in Afghani soil, or what the World Trade Center is going to become, remind us of what happened that ugly morning. Some people are still afraid when they see an airplane flying low. However, acts of discrimination towards Muslims seem to have died out a little bit. You do not here of such high incidence rates of discrimination as we did following the September 11th attacks. Most Muslims are free to go back to their normal routines. An occasional more in depth airport search may still exist though because of what they believe in.

Some topics in this essay:
Barbara Walters, Islam It's, Trade Center, Transit Authority, Muslim It’s, Arab He’s, Stodolsky Muslim, National Geographic, Muslim Suddenly, Laden Afghanistan, muslim religion, september 11th, middle-eastern decent, women taliban, muslim women, lives changed, hate towards, afraid speak, muslim woman, treatment women, women taliban rule, interviewed national geographic, women afraid speak, world trade center, women middle-eastern decent,