Last Blog


I enjoyed the section about Ending British Rule because it provided me a little background of Mahatma Gandhi life as a child.  I was shocked to see that he was married by the age of 13 and he was described as a shy and not very successful lawyer.  That surprised me because he ended being such a prominent figure.  I had no clue that he was born with the name Mohandas Gandhi.  Many ordinary people believed he had magical powers and, he was called the Great Soul (Mahatma).  It was interesting to read that he asserted the spiritual and mental equality of men and women however, “he regarded women as uniquely endowed with a capacity for virtue, self-sacrifice, and endurance and thus particularly well suited for nonviolent protests.  I found it interesting that Gandhi and his own chief lieutenant had different stances on modern industrialization.  I assumed that Gandhi would prefer someone who has the same beliefs as him, but it doesn’t surprise me that he would choose someone with differing opinions.
The other section I was interested in was the Experiments with Culture:  The Role of Islam in Turkey and Iran.  I was horrified to read that women in 1983 that were found with “bad hijab” were exposed to harassment, lashings, and sometimes imprisonment.   I couldn’t believe that sexual segregation was imposed in places such as schools, parks, beaches, and public transportation.  It sickened me to read that that legal age of marriage for girls was 13 years old and eventually raised to 15.  Although a child with parental consent could be married at the age of nine!  At that same time, women couldn’t file for divorce or go to school.  I was happy to see the picture of the woman walking and talking on her cell phone and, that by the twenty-first century 60% of university students were women. 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Chapter 16...

I feel like I’m learning about the American and French Revolutions for the first time.   The British decided to introduce additional taxes in North America without warning.   This introduction of new taxes led to the American Revolution because the British government was trying to extract more revenue by adding taxes that would help to tighten its control over the separate colonies.    It’s interesting that France joined North America by being able to come together and fight against the British government.   The North America Revolution took place between 1775-1787 with the Declaration of Independence in 1776 that resulted in a military victory in 1781 which then created the Federal Constitution in 1787 which brought together 13 previously separated colonies into a new nation.   I was happy to read that slavery was gradually being abolished in the Northern states, although it shouldn’t have taken that long.   I cannot fathom why the southern states c...
Read more

Missed BLOG

The diseases that were transmitted during the growth of the silk, sand, and sea roads were incredibly deadly with the Black Death accounting for the deaths of half the population of Europe.   It was interesting to read that some Europeans gained an advantage because of the diseases in transit.   The text mentioned that, the exposure the Europeans had to the diseases over time caused them to develop some degree of immunity to Eurasian diseases.   When the Europeans confronted the Native Peoples societies which had no exposure to domesticated animals and diseases, they didn’t have any kind of immunity that the Europeans had.   The Native peoples had little to no defense against the diseases, so their societies quick died out in horrendous numbers.   I really enjoyed the picture on page 309 because it is so incredible to see a path that was made so long ago!   I enjoyed the zooming in section of the text that talks about the Japanese poet and loved named...
Read more

The Crisis Within

The Taiping Uprising is also known as the Taiping Civil War or, the Taiping Revolution which was caused by the culmination of China’s internal crisis (1850-1864).   The leader of the Taiping rebels asserted that he (Hong Xiuquan) was the younger brother of Jesus who was sent to purify “the world of demons and to establish a ‘heavenly kingdom of great peace.’”   The Taiping rebels followed a unique form of Christian ideology while Confucianism, Daoism, and Buddhism were rejected.   The Taiping rebels wanted prostitution and opium smoking to be terminated along with the abolition of private property and, a redistribution of land.   Meanwhile, Hong Xiuquan’s cousin, Hong Rengan had generated plans that would transform China into an industrial nation.   Some of his plans included, health insurance for all, newspapers, railroads, and widespread public education.   It’s interesting to see how Rengan was pushing for health insurance for all (so long ago) and, it...
Read more