The Arab Woman
The Arab woman, is there really a clear cut, precisely defined profile of what characterizes a woman of Arabia? Barren sand dunes, nomadic tribes of cloaked men, wearing turbans, mounted on camels, wielding swords, and their weak woman folk to whom they dictate. This is a classic Hollywood image of the Arab’s of the Middle East. The helpless female who is subjected to the will of her militant husband or aggressive father is nothing new to the average person of the present time, where being dutiful and being tyrannized can easily have the same definition in Hollywood and American media. However inaccurate this may be for the entire of the Arab world, it is the societal norm to classify woman as the victim of their male macho society. On the contrary, there is no ‘one size fits all’ description for women coming from the many countries that make up the diverse region of the Middle East. In each country, in each region, in every city, town or village, each woman has her own story, personality, heart and mind; quite opposite from what American media would have one believe. In such as the women of the novels, A Balcony Over Fakihani, Pillars of Salt, and A Woman of Five Seasons, their roles as women, wives, mothers, and daughters portray something other than the Hollywood’s forever destined victim of the males figures in their lives.
The classic portrayal of the Arab woman more times than not is her servitude to an overbearing husband who beats her, having to remain in the home, never be educated and whose soul function is to serve as the maid and or child bearer. The character Umm Saad in Fadia Faqir’s Pillars of Salt is the standard for this perception. Umm Saad after one year of schooling in Trans Jordan is den...
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...nd harem girls all disappeared? The image of the ignorant and suffering woman cast down by her husband suddenly is not the only representation of an Arab woman. She speaks out, she goes to school, debates, works and is an equal in the marriage to her husband. The Hollywood and American media ‘cookie cutter’ description woman of Arabia is not the standard now. She cannot be categorized in one specific group, character or role. The criterion epitomized by the media to the people is being refuted by these readings. It can now be said when it comes to the topic Arab woman, that you cannot believe everything you see on TV.
End Notes
Works Cited
Atrash, Layla. Woman of Five Seasons. New York: Interlink Publishing, 2002
Badr, Liyana. A Balcony over the Fakihani. New York: Interlink Books, 1993.
Faqir, Fadia. Pillars of Salt. New York: Interlink Books, 1997
Both el Saadawi and Al-Shaykh both show how perception and expression are both affected within the confines of politics, social opportunities, and male privilege depicted in their stories. Whether the reader is a follower of the feminist movement or not, it is very clear and easy to see that these women are not being treated with the respect that any human being deserves. The misogynistic stranglehold on society, especially in this part of the world, is excessive and avoidable in today’s world but it is very likely that the traditional, conservative ways of the past will continue to control and inhibit women from being able to be fully treated as equals for many years to come, perhaps even after this generation has
Helen Keller was born on June 27, 1880, in Tuscumbia, which is a town in Northern Alabama. Helen was part of a rich family. She was faced with a childhood illness, which made her blind and deaf, but she was able to communicate with others with many rudimentary signs. Helen was a mischief maker around the age of seven, and caused many tantrums, like she would knock or throw things around, lock her mom in a room. This would be frustrating for her parents, so they hired a private tutor/governess(a girl/woman employed to teach and train children in private household), named Anne Sullivan. Anne was visually impaired, and a recent graduate for Perkins Institute for the Blind in Boston. Anne became a teacher, friend, and companion to Hel...
In the book, Women in the Middle East, a Saudi Arabian proverb states, "A girl possesses nothing but a veil and a tomb" (Harik and Marston 83). The key words, "veil" and "tomb" lend evidence to the fact that many Middle Eastern women lack identity symbolized by the “veil” and lack the right of ownership except for their veil and the tomb. This statement further enforces the notion that many women in the Middle East are expected to serve and tolerate the oppression of the men in their lives throughout their lives on this earth. Moreover, it confirms that many of these women do not get the opportunity to obtain education, join the work force, and even participate in the political affairs of the country. This arrangement further helps the Middle Eastern men to view women as their properties, servants, or even as slaves. Ultimately, there are three main reasons why Middle Eastern men engage in the act of oppressing their women.
“Helen Keller was dead. But her spirit lives on. As she said so many times, ‘The best and most beautiful things in the world can not be seen or even touched. They must be felt with the heart.’”(Davidson 91). Keller’s spirit is never dead and will encourage and influence generation after generation. She spent her childhood enjoying and learning the world and showed her great love and passion to the world. She dedicated most of her life to helping people who had the affliction. Her speeches, her actions and her books all reveal her good personality that even though she was blind and deaf; she could feel the world and show her courage, altruism and love to the world. What she encountered is much more painful than other people, but her life was more meaningful than anyone else not only because her capability to read, write and speak without sight and hearing, but more importantly, her optimistic attitudes toward the her miserable fate that she never gave up trying, never afraid of difficulties and always thought about
The Women of the Middle East have played substantial roles for their corresponding countries since the advent of colonialism in the region. Middle Eastern women have worked in all types of fields including medicine, education, agriculture, government, private sector, and even defense. They have kept roofs over their family’s heads while their husbands were away in wars, or even in foreign countries to work in jobs that they could not find in their own countries. The roles of women in the countries of Yemen and Oman are no exception, but while they still find ways to contribute to their country, they care constantly stereotyped, discriminated, and ridiculed by men who are known and unknown to them. This paper will discuss the individual contributions of the women living in Yemen and Oman, and will discuss in further state laws and cultural norms that are affecting the women living in these countries today.
In his sixth meditation in the Meditations of First Philosophy, Descartes argues that mind and body are distinct and that the mind is distinct from the body in a way that it can exist without the body. I will discuss how Descartes argues that the mind and body are distinct, and I will argue as to why he might not be right because this better explains our intuition that sensations and feelings on the body have a direct effect on the sensations and feelings on the mind.
Helen Keller is well known for her being blind and deaf as well as being able to talk
The portrayal of the Arab woman has always been through several different perceptions. Some believe that these women are weak, dependant and victims of a hyper patriarchal tradition and culture. They live their lives as if caged from one man to another. First it is their father and brothers and then their husbands and sons. It is true that Arab women do live within patriarchal traditions and cultures but the same can be said for majority of the women around the globe. A much more accurate perception can come only through the realization that what popular Western concepts conceive as women liberation and independence does not necessarily apply to every women around the world. One must understand the culture, religion and traditions and history of a people to know what their ideas regarding concepts such as liberation and independence are. In the west for example women were allowed to vote relatively recently compared to Muslim women who were allowed to vote over fourteen hundred years ago, the same could be said for owning businesses and property and the right to a career. One of the most popular beliefs in the Western world today regarding oppression is that women in Arabia are sexually controlled by their men. This has been brought about especially by the concept of the Hijab as being one of the channels to control women’s sexuality and freedom. It can be argued that in various cases this is true but one cannot commit such a grave injustice and put all Arab women under one umbrella and stamp them as sexually oppressed. The fact is that the Middle East is a region where many states, cultures and identities exist.
One of the ways in which Descartes attempts to prove that the mind is distinct from the body is through his claim that the mind occupies no physical space and is an entity with which people think, while the body is a physical entity and cannot serve as a mechanism for thought. [1]
You will realize the nationalists’ dream. You will learn foreign languages, have a passport, devour books, and speak like a religious authority. At the very least, you will certainly be better off than your mother.” Reading this masterpiece we can easily see the Middle East women’s dreams for education and freedom, things that we the women from the West taking as granted.
Rene Descartes was a French philosopher, mathematician, and a writer. He was born on March 31, 1596 in the Town La Haye in the south of France. His father was Joachim Descartes was a lawyer, lived in Chatellerault and was away at Parliament of Brittany in Rennes. When he was a year old his mother Jeanne Brochard died. He spent his first childhood years with his grandmother Jeanne SainBrochard and his two older brother and sister.
...ter pump where she learned her first word, is the first statue of a disabled person to be kept and displayed in the Capital Building (www.wikipedia.com). She showed that even with a disability, Keller made it that far, which is truly an inspiration to all.
Rene Descartes was a mathematician, philosopher, and physiologist during the early 1600’s. Descartes was born 1596 and died 1650, but is still known as father of modern philosophy. Descartes is probably the most studied philosopher today and certainly one of the most important to ever live. He held the first account systematic elaboration of human mind to body relationship. He supposed that science and mathematics can be used to find particular results. Descartes was a major contributor to philosophy world. He had many methods to philosophy, even broke it into three parts, and had dreams that revealed these theories to him.
Therefore whilst the body itself can be doubted the soul cannot, following this he states that the body and soul cannot be one and the same. They must in fact be separate and distinct entities. The inescapable conclusion Descartes comes to is that he possesses mind, his ‘thinking being’, as distinct from his body. He saw the mind and body as existing in two different states of being- the mental and the physical. The mind is’ non-spatial’, it experiences thought, feelings, desires and emotions. The body is located in time and space in a physical sense. This opposes the original statement as it suggests that the body and the soul are in fact separate entities. However Descartes ‘observation is criticised by Brian Davies who challenges this idea stating that just because he can consider himself to be sober does not in actual fact mean that he is, Descartes theory is limited somewhat ironically only by his own thoughts, and the fact that the human mind is far more complex and often times deceptive than we perceive it to be. Another key critic of Descartes dualist view is that of Gilbert Ryle who likened the dualist view to the , 'doctrine of the ghost in the machine ' and argued that it rested upon merely a, ' categorical mistake ' as the soul itself is not a separate entity from the body but only understandable in relation to the body. Ergo Descartes description of the souls residence, a ‘principal seat in the little gland which exists in the middle of the brain, from whence it radiates forth through all the remainder of the body ', conveys that whilst he considers the soul to be non-physical he gives it a physical location, which seems
The next 6 years of Helen’s life were spend in tantrums, darkness and all around loneliness. “I got used to the silence and darkness that surrounded me and forgot it had ever been different, until she came- my teacher” (Keller 1902 Pg. 8). She had many fits, and refused any instruction. Her family was very poor, and could afford very little. The “teacher” as Helen called her; was Anne Sullivan who had contracted trachoma as a child and was as well legally blind. Annie was said to have saved Helen. Within 6 months of teaching from Sullivan Keller quickly advanced. She became well known to reading and writing in Braille, as well as writing in a manual alphabet.