Week 8

Maybe I didn't read Monday's readings deeply enough, but honestly I didn't find the argument of the Najmabadi selection very convicting. For most of what we have read so far, I feel like I have learned something or gained some insight into a valuable new point of view. For the vatan writing, I didn't feel this way. The arguments made in the other things we have read felt important to me. This one didn't. I don't understand why it matters that the homeland is conceptualized as a woman. It's interesting, but I really don't see the significance. I am not convinced that there is a link between the trope of vatan as mother and women's rights. All during this reading I was asking myself "so what?" Maybe I should read it again but as of right now I really don't see the point of this reading.

I think the objective of the second reading is really interesting. Studying the relationship between Islam and the state is an insightful project. I think maybe this is what the first reading unsuccessfully attempted to do. This piece is more effective. I like that it distinguishes the variances in how nationalism is carried out in different countries. Islam plays itself out different in different areas so it makes sense that the relationship between Islam and the nation would also work itself out in different ways.