How to NOT categorize women

Well, there has to be a reason that Revelations says so few will be saved.  But to lay the blame of wickedness on women is wrong. 

You would love to demonize every western woman.  But, guess what....that single mother didn't get there on her own.  There was a man involved...very involved.  Why didn't he step up?  Why is she single? 

You point out divorce rates.  Where is the cliche?  The man who leaves his wife of 15 years for a younger woman.  Not the woman running out on the man. 

The guys in at my college had a competition on how many freshman girls they could get.  Most of the girls are relative innocents, yet its the guys who are actively hunting them.

In India, they are having serious problems with the youth wanting to date and avoid arranged marriages.  But, more than that, they are having problems with men marrying women and then killing them when their families fail to pay the dowry.  Or after the dowry is paid, leaving never to be seen again.  Women are forced into abortions of female fetuses and there is really no way for them to escape abusive husbands. 

YET, they flipped a gasket when Richard Gere kissed a friend on the cheek.  Now, may I ask where their priorities are?  There is a society that supposedly focuses on chasity and morality, yet huge abuses are happening.

Its not western women that are evil.  I get the impression that you have a huge problem with women to begin with.  I often wonder what it is about women that scares men.  Paradise is at a Mother's feet.  Yet, the idea that a woman can be strong and intelligent absolutely scares men. 

In the end, it was women who were the greatest support to Muhammed (pbuh).  Khadijah, Fatima, Aisha...  It was a woman who was the first martyr.  Many of the hadiths begin with women approaching the Prophet and asking questions.  How could they have done this if they were locked away?????

You seem to lack a basic respect for women.  Its not the woman, its the environment.  Who created the environment?????  Women have only had the right to vote in this country for 88 years. 

Slavery, oppression, war... taxes, interest, poor being paid little...

Its not the 3ft piece of cloth on a woman's head that makes her pure.  Its not the length of a man's beard or his kufi that makes him pious.  Its whats in a persons heart. 

The women are forced to deal with the mess, and often the only way they can.  How many of us know grandmothers who are raising the children of their sons and daughters.  How many women have husbands behind bars?  How many women find themselves without support after their husband leaves? 

What happens to the widows of war?  If you are in an environment that forbids absolutely the mixing of sexes then what happens when the husband dies?  The woman has to beg for charity or become a burden to her aging parents... or worse her child must work before they are grown.

I don't think the answer is forcing women into Abayas and forbidding all kinds of contact.  I think men need to learn to control themselves and not be such pigs.

Angela I agree with your definition on stereotypes, and yes most foreigners assume that America is about "John Wayne" movies and glamor when its more than that. Although your definition of stereotypes is quite correct I believe stereotypes stem from not just what people perceive from media but from her say from others of the same group based on experiences. Now as far as the black reverts are concerned I don't think I made any references of that in this thread although I did make the example of the gentleman I spoke with who assumed I listend to rap.

I used that example because it was a similar remark a few threads made by Crasss. It was to show how dumb assumptions are especially when you classify one group in one box according to your experiences. I find categories of any kind (even religious) unfair and inaccurate. This is why I don't [for the purpose of maintaining the belief that God is beyond my own senses] do not assign attributes to God save what is accorded by religious tradition.

Angela because you asked the question about the black reverts I will answer it and I ask for forgiveness for slightly derailing the thread. I'm glad you asked because I want people to know what I think. Aside from black being the "black sheep" in Islam and other religions I find blacks globally to be the most disadvantaged [notice as I said before my opinion is biased so obviously others will disagree]. The reason I say this is because there has been no other ethnic group historically recorded to ever have been taken advantaged  for their physiology [because they took the best and strongest slaves in West Africa] and use that to take advantage of them. No other group has ever lost a culture, language, tradition, like Africans.

In the United States one can make the argument for Native Americans and that would be a good argument, however Native Americans regardless of tribe, have a culture, have a language and have a tradition so few members know. Black Americans don't. They talk about Jews being massacred when over 400 MILLION [as some estimates put it] blacks were enslaved. Languages of tribes were lost and replaced with colonial tradition so for some of us we call this the "Black Holocaust." As far as the world is concerned, being black not just simply being dark skinned but being black is looked at in a negative way. Blacks historically have even been coerced to hate their own skin tone during slavery. Even in the world Black Africans were not seen highly in other cultures and in their religions. Speaking of religion this reason was used to justify taking blacks into captivity. I've even read that Arab Muslims, when travelling in the North African region did a similar thing. Some Moors didn't willingly adopt Islam and fought against the travelling Arab Muslim army of course you won't hear that.

Now when we come to religion why do think black reverts get worse treatment? For the same reason why I think Blacks historically have been mistreated.