The majority of people are ignorant of other cultures, and this is not a defect, as they are mainly concerned with knowing their symbols, scholars, and leaders and being proud of their history.

Therefore, there is no reason to be surprised that an American does not know, for example, the location of Kuwait, or the name of the capital of Egypt, as this is not the concern of other peoples.

What is surprising is the continued weakness of our curricula, their focus on religious matters only, and their almost complete neglect of human heritage and its pivotal role in our current civilization.

The curricula, for several reasons, are devoid of mentioning the biographies of well-known figures such as Einstein, Plato, Isaac Newton, Voltaire, and great women like Mary Curie, the physicist and the only one to win two Nobel Prizes in two different fields; Rosalinda Franklin, the biophysicist who played the greatest role in understanding the structure of DNA; Florence Nightingale, the pioneer of modern nursing and Amelia Earhart, the writer and aviation pioneer, and many others.

It is also noted that there is no street, or even an alley, named after any Kuwaiti or Arab woman. What is the reason, and there are streets named after “terrorists” and nobodies, the virtue of some of whom is that they are dead?

Our curricula are also almost devoid of the biographies of the distinguished scholars of “Dar al-Islam,” to whom Western civilization owes a great deal, and yet we ignored them, after it was rumored, truly or falsely, that the majority of them were killed or tortured for their negative positions on religious extremism.

So why did we stop giving the names of Ibn Rushd, Ibn Arabi, Ibn Sina, Al-Farabi, Ibn al-Haytham, Ibn al-Muqaffa and others to scientific edifices, hospitals, and even a school or university laboratory?

Why are our countries content with refusing to give these people the importance and honor they deserve, while developed countries place their statues in front of university buildings and laboratories, give their names to medical and scientific squares and buildings, and have taught their sciences in their universities, for centuries!

We also stand almost alone in our “humiliating” treatment of women, and it is not surprising that this treatment is linked to our intellectual, industrial and commercial backwardness, and before that, our educational and moral backwardness.

Whoever believes that morality is linked to the reproductive organs is ignorant, as morality is deeper and more complex than that, and it is impossible to know the number of girls and women who died simply because of a slander related to bad morals.

This has happened throughout our history, and it is still happening, and the laws are unable to impose just punishment on the perpetrators. Be kind to them, and they often emerge from prisons free, with crowns of “honor” crowning their heads!

It is absolutely impossible, and without any exceptions, for a nation to exist that views women as if they are the devil, treats them in a humiliating manner, and views them as a tool of temptation that must be banned. In this regard, the Iraqi visual artist Afifa Laibi says, in an article dating back years ago:

‘What was appropriate for a woman in ancient times is not appropriate for a woman in this era. I do not consider myself deficient in reason, nor am I shameful, nor impure like a black dog. I am your mother, your sister, and your daughter.

‘So how can you accept describing me with these ugly qualities? I am not less important than a man, I am not impure, I am not insensitive. I do not accept to cover my face as if I am ashamed of it, I am not a crooked rib, I am not an animal or a sign of bad luck.

‘I do not know why I fast, pray, perform Hajj, and perform all acts of worship, and when I die and my husband is dissatisfied with me, I enter Hell. I do not know why curses descend upon me if I pluck a hair from my eyebrow, or wear a wig?

‘Why don’t angels enter my house if I reveal my hair ? Why, with all this contempt for women, the belittlement of their humanity, and the preference for men over them, and considering them more competent, wiser, and higher in rank than them, and he is their guardian and responsible for them, yet when they sin, they receive the same punishment as men or more?’

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By Ahmad alsarraf