Blog #5: Analytic Snapshot: Veil of Fears

Genre:  Persuasive

Purpose:  To bring to the attention of the reader the misconception that veils and other muslim traditions are of a suppressive nature and to persuade them that this is a way they preserve their family unit.

Central Message:  Americans wrongly view the traditions of the Afghan culture form their own "Westernized Perspective".  This has caused many false assumptions.  Americans should not be so involved in removing, what they view, wrong in others' cultures. without first exploring the "wrongness" of that item from the other's point of view.

World View and Assumptions:  Americans have good intentions and want to help give freedom to others but do not realize that their views of freedom may differ from the “others.”  He assumes that most Americans have developed these views from the media, whether directly or indirectly. 

Use of Tools and Evidence:  

--Page 229, paragraph two, line four: ‘Time magazine dubbed the Afghan burka “a body bag for the living”’-analogy.

--Page 229, paragraph three, line ten:  “Veiling is embraced by millions of Muslim men and women as one of the keys to their way of life.” -Symbol

--Page 230, paragraph two, line three: “The press has been obsessed with the relatively small number of modernized women in Afghan cities who were indeed viciously oppressed by the Taliban’t infamous policies.”-hyperbole (italics added).