...Women in the Middle East 1. Introduction 2. Before Islam 3. After Islam 4. Marriage 5. Education 6. Modern Day -Examples from different Arab countries -Arab Spring 7. What’s next? 8. Citations 1. Introduction Over the course of history, women in the Middle East, not so much different than around the world, haven’t been attaining all their full rights and haven’t been quite satisfied with the status of gender equality that the world continues to lack. The Middle East has its more than enough share with this ever-continuing phenomenon. The situation changes with every passing day, as it is affected by our effervescently changing political and social status. Religion has played an enormous role in the matter, as did politics, economy, and social standards. Women’s rights have increased and decreased soon before it was satisfactory enough. This continues and will continue to happen until women find themselves satisfied in our men-driven society. In order for one to judge the current and possible future status, we must understand the past and how women’s rights evolved to become where it is right now. 2. Before Islam Women before the dawn of Islam had practically no legal status in opposition to the traditional and standard tribal laws. Their own fathers sold them to their husbands or legal guardians; they had no choice in the matter and could be left at anytime according to the spouse’s will. They had no private property or...
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...If you were a women in the Middle East, would you rebel against the injustices against you? Would you believe the lies of your husbands? Would you use Allah as an excuse? Currently in the Middle East, the abuse against women is growing and growing more by the minute. They’re being forced to marry men that they don’t like, forced to have sex at a young age, sold like they’re somebody’s property and being physically tortured by their husbands. There are a lot of different actions and reactions regarding the situation about women in the Middle East. Some supported, some chose to speak up, and others chose to oppose against women’s rights. There were also some restrictions against the women. In document 2, we see a picture of men wearing burqas...
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...Mistreatment of women in the middle east By Xavia Simpson In the middle east women had zero rights and are being treated unfairly by their family and their husbands if they are married. For example if you had ever heard about the one and only malala yousafzai, who was shot in the face for going to school and advocating for women's rights , when the taliban came to stop women from going to school because “Education went from being a right to being a crime”. (document #6) states malala. Men in the M.E believe that women don’t need to get an education.They believe that women are meant to live at home so they can cook , clean and take care of the kids and that they are the ones that are suppose to work and have an education but don't think that every woman in the M.E thinks this way most of the women believe that they are suppose to be housewives and take care of there family. Women are meant to be as equal to men they weren't meant to be lower than men because i believe men and women are equal and they can do anything the other sex can do. The worst...
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...Women of the United States vs. Women of Egypt: Rough Draft Marina P. Youssef Elements of University Composition and Communication I October 10, 2012 Professor Hope Umansky University of Phoenix Women of Egypt vs. Women of the United States The similarities between the women of Egypt and the women of the United States (U.S.) are almost non-existent but for the fact that they equally want freedom and women’s rights. The differences are almost tenfold greater. Although there are many differences between the women of Egypt and the women of the U.S., the most outstanding distinctions are in their manner of dress, their role in society, and in their treatment by men. One of the common distinctions in women living in the United States and women living in Egypt is in their styles of clothing. Most Muslim women in Egypt veil themselves, covering everything from their head down to their toes, sometimes even wearing gloves to cover their hands and heavy veils over the eyes. By law, the Christian women and “modern Muslim” women are required to dress modestly, whether it be summer or winter. They wear long, loose skirts or pants, and shirts with sleeves no shorter than a few inches above the elbows. It is a daily struggle for these women, risking being harassed or molested in the streets. The veiled women in particular have victoriously won the freedom of painting the nails on their exposed fingers, and wearing open-toe shoes or sandals. Conversely, women of the United...
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...Julien Hardy Sexual Discrimination in the Middle East. Sexual or gender discrimination is the way people judge or treat differently by their gender. Sexual discriminations are still a big issue in the Middle East today. Because of changes in society, people want to have their own rights and freedom in their life. Most of the women in the Middle East have been protest in order to get their rights and freedom back. Unequal power leads to the cause of gender discrimination. For this reason, the consequences of sexual discrimination in the Middle East are inequalities, Women’s rights violated, and sexual violence. One of the effects of Middle East’s sexual discrimination is an inequality. Inequality is like a condition which does not have an equal status. It is still a big issue today that women and men are not equal. Because of their religion, they are very strict among genders. Women need to be very silent, appropriate, or even neat (Moussly, 2011). Therefore, when they are hanging out with their friends, of course, girlfriends, they are not allow to talk about guys, party, or marriage life. They consider it to be inappropriate or disrespectful to themselves and even to their husband. Furthermore, when they want to greet or to say hello to their friends or other people, they cannot yell and say hello. They need to just walk with their eyes focused and silently toward that person (Equal Rights Advocates, 1974). In the Middle East, women also are forbidden to drive. Oppositely...
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...Another approach to studying the oppression of Muslim women that the U.S. portrayed in the media to fuel the War on Terror is that the U.S. portrayed Islam as backwards and an uncivilized culture because of women’s oppression. Evelyn Alsultany’s analysis of news broadcast stations like CNN, NBC, and CBS after the 9/11 attacks examined that these news stations portrayed women’s veiled oppression, female genital mutilation, and honour killings as the nature of Islam’s backwardness and oppressiveness. Many media stations like CNN have viewed the invasion of Afghanistan as bringing light to the darkness of oppressed women and when they rid the towns of Taliban, women were depicted as in high heels and free women. The depiction of Muslim women as...
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...umbrella term used for the various dance forms which includes isolation of different parts of the body. It is characterized by its intricate hip, hand and chest movements, though it incorporates many techniques, from many different parts of the Middle East; Egypt, Lebanon, Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Iran, Iraq, and Morocco to name a few. Each country has its own style. Many experts say belly dancing is the oldest form of dance, having roots in all ancient cultures from the orient to India to the mid-East. Probably the greatest misconception about belly dancing is that it is intended to entertain men. Throughout history, this ritualized expression has usually been performed by women for other women, generally during fertility rites or parties preparing a young woman for marriage. In most cases, the presence of men is not permitted. The term 'belly dance' is said to come from the French 'danse du ventre' - dance of the stomach - a phrase coined at the turn of the century after the introduction of Raqs Sharqi (pronounced Roks Sharkee) at the Chicago Exposition or World Fair in 1893. The promoter of the Egyptian music and dance group at the Exposition became concerned because nobody was interested in seeing the dancing show (prejudice against middle eastern people). It occurred to the promoter to rename the performers Bellydancing. The name of the dancer’s who was dancing was Little Egypt. Thus renamed, the dance created a controversy that became a media sensation. Lines gathered around...
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...CHAPTER 1: A GENERAL VIEW ABOUT THE MIDDLE-EAST 1. General Overview of Middle East The Middle East is a region that encompasses Western Asia and North Africa. It is often used as a synonym for Near East, in opposition to Far East. The corresponding adjective is Middle-Eastern and the derived noun is Middle-Easterner. ▪ Traditional definition of the Middle East: Egypt, Syria, Israel, Lebanon, Jordan, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar, Turkey, Cyprus, UAE, Oman, Yemen. ▪ Population: estimated 2010 about 350 million. ▪ Situated between Asia, Europe and Africa. Throughout its history, the Middle East has been a major centre of world affairs. ▪ The Middle East generally has an arid and hot climate. ▪ In modern times the Middle East remains a strategically, economically, politically, culturally and religiously sensitive region. The Middle East expected economic growth rate is at about 4.1% for 2010 and 5.1% in 2011. [pic] 2. Religions The Middle East is very diverse when it’s come to religions, many of which is originated there. Islam is the largest religion. Besides, Judaism and Christianity are also important there. There are still many branches in each religion. 1.3 Languages Three top languages based on numbers of speaker: ▪ Arabic: Arabic is the most widely spoken language in the Middle East, the influence of Arabic has been most important in Islam countries such as: Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Lebanon, Kuwait...
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...Christians Brygge 3 1219 København K Denmark www.kvinfo.dk KVINFO is the Danish Centre for Information on Gender, Equality and Ethnicity. Since 2006 and with funds from the Danish Ministry of Foreign Affairs, KVINFO has established partnerships with more than 70 partners in the Middle East, North Africa and Denmark with the aim of strengthening gender equality and women’s rights. PROGRAMME WOMEN IN A CHANGING MIDDLE EAST AND NORTH AFRICA – FACING CHALLENGES AND SEIZING OPPORTUNITIES APRIL 16TH 2012 THE ROYAL LIBRARY, QUEENS HALL COPENHAGEN, DENMARK 09.15-09.45 09.45-10.00 10.00-10.15 10.15-10.35 REGISTRATION AND COFFEE Welcome speech by Director of KVINFO, Ms. Elisabeth Møller Jensen Opening speech by Danish Minister of Foreign Affairs, Mr. Villy Søvndal Special address by Nobel Peace Prize Laureate, Ms. Tawakkul Karman AFTERNOON SESSION 13.45-15.00 “Seizing Change – Who are the promoters of change and how will they drive the agenda for equality and inclusion in the MENA region” Examples of and experiences from successful promotion of equality and women’s rights across the region. Panel of Experts: • Ms. Fatima Sidiqi, Professor of Linguistics and Gender Studies and President of the National Union of Women’s Organizations, Morocco • Ms. Jamila Garmouma, Member of the presidium of the Fédération de la Ligue Démocratique des Droits des Femmes (FLDDF), Morocco • Ms. Nadia Shamroukh, General Manager of the Jordanian Women’s Union, Jordan Ms. Tanya Habjouqa, Photographer...
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...Gender and Social Change in the Middle East: The Islam and Women Phenomenon Written By: Amelia Ramraj Arguably the most heated, widely discussed and controversial topic in gender and social change with respect to a cultural context is the state of women in the Middle East and the role that religion plays as a primary source for further derived influences of politics, economics, legal and family affairs to the social situation as a whole. This social stratosphere of revolving and intricate subjects of change and progression represent a multitude of conflicting ideologies, theories and realities. The media serves as an informational anchor, particularly in its portrayal of social situations and change, primarily divided into Western and Eastern media. The broader subject at hand is gender and social change in the Middle East, but specifically, how women, as the primary subject of the gender discussion, and Islam, as the foremost engine to drive the social scene across the Middle Eastern peninsula co-exist to create an unprecedented dynamic in the Middle East. This research paper will attempt to progressively reveal and discuss related subjects in order to create a transitional framework for a relevant understanding of the gender and social dynamic of the Middle East. As an outline, this paper will begin by briefly discussing the global role of women from a gender and sexuality perspective. It will then analyze how such roles are portrayed and what movements exist in order...
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...power. Because they control the minds of the masses”. Since the attacks of 9/11, the nations in the Middle East, became the United States main target. This led to President George Bush’s declaration of War on Iraq. Up until present day, U.S troops are still stationed on these territories. Majority of Americans have never visited the Middle East, so we make assumptions based on the pictures shown. The media depicts the Middle East as war thorn nation because it fits our narrative, but in reality, obtaining an education is emphasized, numerous way to generate capitalism and spectacular seneries. This ideology reminds me of Plato’s Allegory. We are the prisoner who are not willing to...
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...There a horrible situation going on in the Middle East involving women’s rights. Women can not work or do anything without the permission of a man. Therefore people have been reacting in different ways, some people have protested through writing, others have protested through actions and some other have done nothing because they want to keep oppressing women. Some people protested actively to help women’s right. For example in document #2 you see males posing for the media wearing a burqa to show their solidarity to Afghan women. This suggests to me that not all the men in the Middle East are in favor of oppressing women; they want them to also have rights. Another document that shows people protesting is document #7, this document shows an iran soccer player (women) in a veil while playing a game. This is a way to protest because she's playing a sport and she's not supposed to be doing that. Doc #9 is also added to this list because in Dubai they're trying to educate women so that they could be part of the booming economy. This suggest that they recognize the intelligence of women could be really helpful to their world. Therefore these ways of protesting have been the top ways of actively fighting for a better Middle East....
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...Cross-Cultural Perspectives ETH 316 BP is a global organization that has a multinational presence in the world. A cultural issue that can impact this organization outside of the United States is gender. In the United States and several other countries that BP works in, gender is not an issue as culturally it is acceptable for men and women to be in business together, but in some countries, especially in the Middle East this is tricky cultural difficulty. This can be a serious issue because women should be able to be equals in a corporation, but at the same time, BP has to be able to not offend someone that they are trying to do business with because they are culturally uncomfortable with women in business. This is a delicate balancing act between ethics, social responsibility and cultural awareness for the company. Legally and ethically a woman should be able to perform all the same tasks as a male counterpart, but it may be in the best interests of the company to respect the cultural differences that can occur in doing business in other countries. There are several ethical perspectives at BP when it comes to dealing with culture and gender. Consequence ethics and principle-based ethics can both be at play in this situation. Consequence ethics in that there can be consequences from both making business partners uncomfortable and in choosing a man over a woman for business dealings because of cultural differences. Principle-based ethics looks at this situation...
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...Muslim women all over the world, women in the United States, women in the Middle East, in countries such as Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, all go through extreme hardships and abuse. This problem is much greater than reported, and it is a problem that needs to be surfaced. Right here in America, Muslim women are stuck in abusive relationships and cannot do anything about it. These women cannot act out against their Muslim extremist spouses who believe it is simply ok to mistreat and beat their spouses. These Muslim women can't act out or they face the threat of death and horrible abuse. Muslim women is Middle a Eastern countries are given very little rights and also face the same kind of abuse from Muslim extremist controlled governments. People don't...
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...from Turkish women depending on the city they live. Towards the east side of Turkey where education is considered low, women wake up serve breakfast, cook, clean the house and take care of children and husband, many times visit neighbors to have Turkish coffee. Turkish male in the East side, wakes up, pray, have breakfast, go to work come back for dinner to have with the family, watches TV and goes to sleep, or many times goes to social gatherings only for man to play cards. Turkish people in the east side of Turkey are very traditional and devoted to their Muslim rules. In Istanbul, which is the mayor city of turkey and many Turkish people are located and Turkish from east side move to, it is more relaxed and many...
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