For Rousseau, man is born free and everywhere he is in chains. Do you Essay

For Rousseau, man is born free and everywhere he is in chains. Do you agree with this assessment Discuss with reference to - Essay Example The first man who accustomed himself as an owner of a land had first brought the idea of tyranny and oppression in society. Prior to the idea, that society had succumbed to ownership; there have been less crime and hardship, and sorrow was out of sight. However, when man succeeded in the act of ownership with it began the invisible chain attached to every human being born. Furthermore, man emerged when he was first to think of himself, provide for his own needs, and was ignorant of his ability to own properties and be above with others. Nonetheless, the time came that he felt the difficulty to do things all by himself and do against the natural circumstances. The differing tides of the time, the changes of the environmental conditions, and other natural and unexpected circumstances had brought man to a point where he considered these as no longer natural. It became a significant source of hardship for him. In order to survive the hindrances, man needed to learn to be above other spec ies. He needed to eat; therefore, he hunted down other species, which had brought him to think that he is above them. This superiority brought man to boast and take pride of himself. As a result, the solitary man had evolved into seeing his likeness to other human beings. His ability to incorporate himself with others and his ability to be part of the lives of others came to being naturally, and at first, language was not needed in order to interact. Jean Jacques Rousseau added that, in line with man’s ability to interact and be above other species, he was able to evolve into a person who has learned the usage of tools. These primitive tools brought man to build huts. In these huts were families, considered as the smallest part of a society, which begun to hold property on where their huts stood. The families, which composed of a man and a woman, lived under one roof and were able to bear children. After the establishment of the first society, man became more convenient on hi s way of living. However, his needs accumulated and losing these needs and not sufficiently having these needs made him unhappy. Moreover, language emerged during the time when man experienced natural catastrophes. This had caused man to be able to communicate in order to combat and surpass these instances. Furthermore, in the emergence of language, man became more civilized and eventually formed nations. Along with this, the love within families heightened in the light of ideas and preferences of the nations. Negative ideologies also came about which also brought walls between the differences of the different group of people. People were grouped in accordance to the songs they were singing and to the steps they were dancing. A wall between people was established by identifying one as different from the others. This then caused inequality, and vices became real in the realm of societies. This had brought man to believe that, by nature, he is unjust, disrespectful and that politics m ust emerge to be able to maintain peace and order. However, this has been wrongly inferred because man, at its natural state is gentle. Moreover, the earliest society depicted happiness among its people; however, progress eventually brought inequality. Freedom was felt by every individual; however, the inevitable chains of slavery and captivity were brought to existence

Choose a character from The Dressmaker of Khair Khana and explain how Essay

Choose a character from The Dressmaker of Khair Khana and explain how the character faces oppression and overcomes it to become - Essay Example The punishment meted out for going against these rules was unthinkable. Such women, who faltered, were arrested, stoned or beaten to death in public. Kamila Siddiqi, an average Afghan woman, confronts life with great hope and determination as she sets out to carve out a successful business in order to support her family, and in doing so, she successfully overcomes brutal oppression at the hands of the Talibans. ‘The Dressmaker of Khair Khana’ by Gayle Lemmon, gives us a bird’s eye view of Afghanistan that is quite different from what we know of it so far. According to archaeological evidence, Alexander the Great had defeated the Achaemenian Dynasty between 330 – 327 B.C. during the Pre-Islamic Period and, thus, ushered in an era of Greek culture. However, by 637 B.C. the Arab Muslims started conquering the tribes in Afghanistan in a long drawn out process and introduced them to the Islam religion. By the 10th century, the Arab Abbasid Dynasty and the Samani ds, who were the successors of the aforementioned dynasty in Central Asia, were torn down. Therefore, the Ghaznavid Dynasty, which was the offshoot of the Samanids, was established and became the first major Islamic dynasty to rule Afghanistan. Once again, Genghis Khan who was the leader of the Mongol forces, defeated them in Central Asia in 1220, and left Afghanistan fragmented, till Timur succeeded and took over the country during the 1380’s. The Mongol Empire that was already there was further expanded by Timur during his rule (Nations Online Project, n.p.). Till the early 16th century, the descendants of Timur ruled Afghanistan. In 1919, after the signing of the Treaty of Rawalpindi, that brought to a close the Third Anglo- Afghan War, Afghanistan got its independence and became an independent country. However, the Guerrilla Wars that occurred between 1979 and 1989, killed thousands of people, devastated the land and left about 5 to 6 million homeless. Once again in 1992, a Civil War broke out because the government could not settle their differences with the Mujahideen and this further served to drag down the economy and make it even worse. This resulted in a struggle between the various armed groups and finally, one of the Islamic fundamentalist groups, the Taliban emerged victorious and took control of the country in 1996 and it was the Taliban that gave permission to the Al Qaeda, an Arab terrorist Organization to make use of Afghanistan as their base. The Taliban made use of an extremist interpretation of Islam to suppress and control the country and hence terrorist activities were rampant. The Taliban ruled with an iron fist and the people were not free to do as they wished. Especially for women, the depth of female deprivation and torture knew no bounds because the Talibans treated women even worse than animals. Their rules put endless restriction on women and the foremost of them was the ban on women working outside the house. Women were als o not allowed to carry out outside the home activities without a male chaperon. They were not allowed education in any school or university and were forced to wear a burqa that covered them from head to toe. They were banned from dealing with male shopkeepers and were not to be treated by male doctors. Women were not allowed to use cosmetics or paint their nails. Women found going against the Taliban rules, were stoned, whipped and beaten in public. Sometimes they were shot in public at point blank range. In such a dangerous