Oppression of Muslim women worldwide has been falsely portrayed in Western countries, two female Weinberg faculty told about 50 people Thursday at the Block Museum of Art.

Media attention since Sept. 11 has magnified attention on Afghan women, Nasrin Qader said. Despite their representation as oppressed victims, she said these women are much stronger than Americans are told.

“Afghan women have a history of rebellion and resistance before being liberated by U.S. soldiers,” said Qader, a visiting professor in the French and Italian department.

Qader said that after signing an armistice with Britain in 1919, for instance, Afghanistan established a government that promoted education for both sexes, imposed monogamy and set age requirements for marriage. Subsequent governments limited professions that women could work in but also set rules for protecting them and introduced a literacy campaign, she added.

Though the Taliban had more recently placed restrictions on Afghan women, their situation is not as bad as it has been portrayed by the media, Qader said.

“I see a representation of Afghan women in the West in conjunction with heart-wrenching stories,” she said. “These images don’t offer depth. Women in Afghanistan have become a fetish for our image society.”

They also used historical evidence and personal experience to conclude that Muslim women have more rights than is commonly believed in the United States. For example, Fariba Zarinebaf-Shahr, who was born and raised in Iran, said half of the university students in Iran and Turkey are women.

But such rights do not extend to all Muslim countries, said Zarinebaf-Shahr. In many places women are allowed very few political rights and polygamy is legal, she said.

“Women have historically enjoyed the right to initiate divorce and legal proceedings,” said Zarinebaf-Shahr, a history lecturer. “To what degree they could put it into practice … depends (on the country).”

The event was sponsored by the gender studies department in conjunction with Block Museum’s exhibit of photographs by Fazal Sheikh.

Zarinebaf-Shahr and Qader also discussed the practice of veiling women, which in some countries, such as Saudi Arabia and Iran, remains mandatory.

While Western activist groups promote unveiling women, Qader said people should think more about the ritual’s necessity.

Qader, who is from Afghanistan, said even when there was no legal requirement, many women still use the veil as a form of protection and security.

“We need to understand why they continue to wear it,” she said.

Likewise, many educated women in Iran wore veils as a form of protest against a secular, westernized government, Zarinebaf-Shahr said.

Zarinebaf-Shahr said women in the Muslim world fight for equality when they can. When women remain passive in places like Afghanistan and Iran, it is because the government would take action against them if they did otherwise.

“Women are taking an active role in issues that affect their lives and are refusing to take a secondary role,” she said. “Women cannot leave it to others – they have to organize and mobilize.”

Mobilization will lead to more culturally sensitive movements for women’s rights, she said.

“The initiative has to come from within the countries,” she said. “We cannot impose western models – they have to come up with their own answers.”

Many audience members said they appreciated the alternative angle the presentation provided.

“This was the first time that someone talked about Afghanistan without the sensationalism,” said Lilian Beck, an Education senior. “It was good to see something different from the dominant perspective.”

Weinberg senior Katy Quissell said she appreciated the panel’s discussion of the complex conditions of Muslim women.

“American feminism tends to pigeonhole third-world women and victimize them without recognizing the complexities of their situations and how cultural traditions challenge American notions of equality,” she said.