At the beginning of this semester I came into this class with a very small amount of information on both Islam as a religion and Muslim people who practice it. Because I have been taking a feminism class alongside this one, I have been made so much more aware of the issue of the “white savior” and misunderstandings of practices in veiling. However, despite how intrigued I have been about veiling and polygamy, I have found myself incredibly interested in sabr and what that means for personal empowerment.
Over the course of the semester, I have made it a habit to write about all if not most of the readings assigned in class. I wanted to perfect my thoughts before sharing them. While I remain a perfectionist, I allow myself to misunderstand things and give myself the space to grow and reflect on those things. Very recently we were assigned the Mosque in Morgantown. After engaging in discussion with Professor Albert, I realized I did not pick up on the problematic aspects of the film. Something I could improve on is taking everything one step at a time. If I had watched this film and took all of it in without being so preoccupied with the response I was going to write, I may have picked up on the nuances of discussions going on in the film and the issues there were with it. I would like to rewrite that piece and may end up doing that for my expanded writing assignment. However, with my shortcomings in mind, I am very proud of the work and readings I have completed this semester and look forward to further engaging with the topics we covered in this class.
