Naheed Mustafa and Sheila Watt-Cloutier Essay

537 Words3 Pages
Most people’s personalities and values are a product of influence. After reading the experiences of Naheed Mustafa and Sheila Watt-Cloutier this is evident. The two women have been influenced by factors such as; their culture, the way others view them, how others can directly influence them, and other factors like religion. Culture can be a person’s most shaping aspect of their life. For most people, culture is their identity. Naheed Mustafa, a Canadian born and raised Muslim, describes her reasoning to start wearing a hijab because of her Muslim culture. Young Muslim individuals are taught the only thing that makes one person better than another is his or her character. Sex, beauty, wealth, and privilege have no grounds in any judgement of equality. Sheila Watt-Cloutier, an Inuit global warming activist, has been driven to her passion for conserving her environment because of her culture’s connection to the land. The Inuit culture is strongly based around the hunt, a rite of passage that teaches young people essential life lessons. Watt-Cloutier can see this cultural tradition is at risk and she preaches her cultures values on the world stage to protect it. Both women are passionate about their cultures, believe in them, and are willing to be strong to protect and exercise them. People with alternate cultures, other than the most popular for a given region are always viewed differently. Mustafa writes that she is seen as a Muslim radical or a fundamentalist, she is seen as an immigrant although she is a Canadian born and raised citizen. She writes, “Strangers speak to me in a loud, slow English and often appear to be playing charades.”, her fellow countrymen and women see her as an immigrant because of her alternate culture. Watt-Cloutier is an activist for her Inuit people, and is fighting hard for them. Depending on what side of the argument you sit on,

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