Replies to '06/16 A Daughter in Danger?'

Good thing you mentioned the movie “Not Without My Daughter” because I was going to mention that film, asking if Katherine had ever seen it.  Doesn’t she know that once she marries Abdullah, she has to give up all her rights?  Quoted from the “Not Without My Daughter” page on Wikipedia:

“After many years of marriage to an Iranian doctor named Moody (Alfred Molina), Betty (Sally Field) is convinced by him to visit his family in Tehran for the first time. Although she has a lot of trepidation about traveling to the Middle East, her fear of violence is overcome by sympathy for her husband, who misses his family. After Moody swears on the Koran that everything will be fine, Betty agrees to go. The happy couple set out with their young daughter, Mahtob, on a planned two week family vacation.

“Immediately upon arrival, Betty is forced to wear the traditional black veil, and is nearly arrested for inadvertently exposing some of her hair. Contrary to everything Betty had previously been led to believe, her husband's family turn out to be fanatically devout and conservative Muslims, who are very unhappy with the prospect of an American in-law. Towards the end of their scheduled holiday, her husband reveals that he has been fired from his job in the United States and that he has decided the family will stay in Iran. Suddenly, she sees a completely different side of him. When she objects to staying, he beats her and takes her credit cards, money and identification. She soon realizes that she and her daughter had became prisoners in her sister-in-law's home. She manages to call her own mother in the U.S. who provides her with an Embassy contact, before her husband cuts off her access to the telephone.

“Betty sneaks out of the house and gets to the Swiss Embassy, where she learns that under Iranian law women have no rights concerning the children; her daughter is considered an Iranian citizen and cannot be taken out of the country without Moody's signed permission. Her husband becomes increasingly violent with her and she is watched around the clock by his unsympathetic relatives. Realizing that she will never have an opportunity to escape unless she plays the part of a devout Muslim wife, she finally reinitiates sexual relations with her husband and expresses an interest in converting to Islam. Eventually, her husband loosens his tight reign on her a bit, moving the family into his brother's home. Her traumatized daughter is enrolled in a Muslim school, where Betty is allowed to accompany her. In a class about Islam, Betty meets another American woman who is also being held hostage in the country. The woman ends up being horribly beaten by her husband for trying to mail a letter for Betty.”

I fear that this will be Katherine’s fate indefinitely if she goes through with an actual wedding.  To those posters who are indicting racism against Muslims, I’ll have you know that this kind of thing is still happening with women in the Muslim/Middle Eastern culture.  Women are expected to not only submit to, but also worship their men, and cannot even go outside without a man accompanying them.  If you even talk about women’s rights there, you will be punished severely.  This is unlikely to change in the near future.  Even in Canada, this same thing is true with East Indians, beating their wives for disobedience, as I was told years ago while visiting British Columbia.

Now, about this meeting Abdullah on MySpace, first off you cannot hold the Internet and MySpace responsible for what happened to Katherine.  People have used this website for other purposes besides causing mischief and soliciting for sex.  One of my newly-made Internet friends has a MySpace page entirely devoted to the C.O.P.S. cartoon (though said friend is 34 years old.)  Yes, Katie is eighteen, but she obviously has the maturity of a 13-year-old, as evidenced by her actions.  Where was the computer when Katie was conversing with this man?  I hope it wasn’t in her bedroom, as studies and family repeatedly stress against this.  Always keep it in the family room, where parents can keep a strict eye on your Internet activities.  If Shawn has followed this, then she should’ve been home with her daughter more often where she can keep close watch on her, monitoring her MySpace activity, and explaining to her, as both parent and friend (because a concerned friend would do this also) about “stranger danger” and just accepting new friends on her page without checking to see if they are legitimate.

I wouldn’t have recommended taking away the computer entirely, (though I agree with the “no cell phone” deal) but I would’ve restricted access strictly for homework purposes (i.e.: research reports through Wikipedia, History reports and English projects on Word or WordPerfect.  As we are in the middle of a war, I agree that Katie must be forcibly removed from the Middle East before anything happens to her.  I just hope that she won’t behave like Alex from last week’s show when and if they do.