The culture of women of the Islam religion is changing. As the old ways of the religion are tested by modern times, the roles between men and women are also altered.

Zeina Zaatori, an anthropology graduate student, said she is not very religious, but more spiritual. She does not follow the rules of behavior and conduct in the Muslim religion.

Zaatori said she thinks problems arise for women who don’t know their rights or how to stand up for them in an Islamic culture.

Being a woman and Islamic can be very frustrating, she said, because Islamic men and women are traditional and religious, and interaction between men and women can be difficult.

“But I didn’t grow up in this way in my culture,” Zaatori said.

Zaatori said her parents are open-minded, and that they did not pressure Zaatori and her sister and brother to be Muslims.

She grew up in Lebanon where there is a large population of Muslims and Christians and a minority of Jews.

“My mom and dad are not religious at all. The rest of my family is religious,” she said.

Abraham Nasser, president of the ISU Muslim Student Association, said he thinks that Islam respects women well and that in order to be Muslim, one must follow the five pillars.

They are: there is only one god, Allah, and Mohammed is his prophet; to fast the month of Ramadan; to pray five times a day; to make a pilgrimage to Mecca once in a lifetime; and to pay a fixed sum of money based on the person’s income.

Nasser said the the rules in Islam, such as women must cover their entire body except their hands and their eyes, are meant to respect and protect women.

“If a man looks at a woman and sees a beautiful body, it is better for the woman to wear the clothing,” Nasser said.

When she was younger, Zaatori said, she always fasted for the month of Ramadan (which is usually during January and February) even though her parents did not fast. She said her parents explained to her that they did not fast because they both had health conditions and could not fast.

“They felt that we needed to choose our own way,” Zaatori said. She said she does not fast anymore.

Her mother knows the Koran from cover to cover and her grandfather was a religious scholar. Her parents are knowledgeable of the religion. But they chose not to be very religious “even though they were not intimate believers in details, they were believers in the spirituality of religion,” she said.

“Because religion is a way of life, especially Islam, it is very hard to separate the two and many people think that you cannot,” Zaatori said.

Though, Zaatori said, the media does not often portray Islam as being a religion that treats its women kindly, she thinks there is not any other religion that does as much justice to women as Islam.

Women are allowed to inherit money and land, but only half as much as the men inherit because brothers are supposed to take care of their sisters. That does not always happen, she said, because there is not any way to enforce the idea. It must be a decision made on the conscious of the man.

Zaatori said there is a great discrepancy between theory and practice, as with many religions. “Many, many people are ignorant of what rights women have,” she said.

Sometimes women do not have any avenues because women are not allowed to marry outside of the Islamic faith and remain a Muslim. Men are allowed to. It is hard for women to be independent because of the way the culture treats women, she said.

It is easier and safer to conform, she added.

But Zaatori said she does not blame men “because it is women’s fault as much as men’s.”

Nasser said it is not hard for him and his family to practice the Muslim faith while living in America, where people are sensitive about being equal and being politically correct.

“It is not hard to follow Islam. It is no problem for me or my wife … For myself, if you believe in something, you want to live for this thing,” Nasser said.

Zaatori said that when she was home, she did not consider herself a Muslim, but since she is here, she looks at things differently.

She said her ideas about Islam are only one perspective and are not reflective of what many Muslims think.

Zaatori hopes to be a professor when she returns to Lebanon. Zaatori also hopes the Koran will soon be reinterpreted to accommodate women.