Exploration Six

In "Shrouded in Contradiction", the writer's conflicted about whether or not she should wear the hijab garment. In one aspect, the garment is a symbol of oppression for women and is a barrier to freedom Instead of being able to show their face and wear what they want, they have to cover up while men do not. On the other hand, as the government employee stated, is that the hijab is for Islamic purposes, and by not wearing it, it would defy Islamic law. She shares this conflict because while religion is apart of her life, she also wants to have certain freedoms that Islam prohibits. One example from my life of this is, although not as dramatic, my job. While my job allows me to make money now, which I love, it takes away time I could be using towards school. At times I like being able to make money, just as she liked having certain freedoms, but at other times I want to be able to study more and work towards the future, just as Islam helps her work towards a better future.

In the Dalai Lama's speech, my favorite passage was his opening statement. In speech, you have to have a powerful attention grabber or else the rest of your speech is useless, and the Dalai Lama does this very well. He talks about peace and how the word has no value to those in suffering because it does not remove the pain. Peace is only viable when human rights are present. He goes on to use the example that a clean environment, "...mean little in the face of war, especially nuclear war..." (643). This is significant to me because almost everyday you hear the word "peace" thrown around, yet to people surrounded by war the word is useless. Before using the word it is important to take a step back and look at things from a different perspective.

I decided to do some research on the Dalai Lama. The Dalai Lama is the leader, religious and political, of Tibet. He is believed to be a re birthed man from a long line of Buddhists and is chosen at birth soon after the previous Dalai Lama dies. Currently there have been 14 Dalai Lama's, the most recent born in 1935. The Dalai Lama's job is to advocate world peace, and as shown in his speech, he has advocated for peace and freedom for his own country of Tibet.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dalai_Lama