Wait a second!
More handpicked essays just for you.
More handpicked essays just for you.
Brief essay women in islam
Brief essay women in islam
Brief essay women in islam
Don’t take our word for it - see why 10 million students trust us with their essay needs.
Recommended: Brief essay women in islam
Similar to Mernissi, Nawal El Saadawi also advocates for women’s rights and equality in Muslim communities. At the age of 82, Saadawi has been known as arguable one of Egypt’s most radical feminists. After working as a doctor in rural Egypt, Saadawi wrote several books that documented the lives of Muslim women during her time. Some of her famous books as Point Zero, about a prostitute who was sentenced to death for killing her rapist, and The Hidden Face of Eve, which recounted the female genital mutilation she experienced at the age of six. With an extensive literary works under her name (some of these includes ten non-fiction books, dozens of novel and short stories), Saadawi is seen to take on Islamic feminism with an anthropological perspective. She collects accounts and anecdotes of several Muslim women, analyzing the ways females are being oppressed and the results of such act, both psychically and psychologically. Her discussions of sexual abuse of young girls and genital mutilations opened the western world to the realities of experiences women have to endure in a predominantly Muslim society.
In her most famous work,
…show more content…
One issue of women’s rights that she is shameless to discussing internationally is the topic of female genital mutilation. As previously mentioned, Saadawi herself had undergone such practice at a young age at her mother’s persuasion before she even started menstruating. This act not only scarred her physically but also mentally. While her physical wounds had healed, the psychological trauma it caused to many girls lingers on and affects the way they think of themselves; an inner sense of shame and guilt would follow the young girls as they grew older. While many Muslim adults justifies this practice as something that the Prophet Muhammad had ordained as seen in many hadiths, the Quran itself seems to oppose such practice. In the Quran, it is
The first religion and its views on women that will be discussed in this essay is Islam. Islam is a religions founded in Saudi Arabia almost two thousand years ago, by the prophet Muhammad. In fact, Muhammad dedicated much attention towards women in the Koran, the holy book of Islam. However, even though much was dedicated to women in the Koran, it was not dedicated to them in the sense of equality. Women in Islamic culture were apparently much lower on the totem pole than men, "The men are made responsible for the women, since God endowed them with certain qualities, and made them the bread earners...If you experience opposition from the women, you shall first talk to them, then [you may use such negative incentives as] deserting them in bed, then you may beat them (129)." Excerpt...
It is a bible. The Koran gives examples of the ways a woman needs to act in society. A woman is supposed to be there for their husband’s. A husband can marry multiple woman and the woman may not be upset. A woman may have a dowry, but it is highly favored to give a portion of it to their husband’s. A woman is not allowed to provide testimony, because she cannot be trusted. The women in this document I feel are treated unequal to the male.
Gender discrimination and male superiority are most visible in Saudi Arabian culture because “inhabitants of the region where the Arabic language predominates are, despite their diversity, bound into a singular cultural unit with a particular gender system” (Tucker VII). If one group of Arabic individuals hold misogynistic views, or think that males are the superior gender, it is very likely that other Arabic individuals will as well. Individuals of the Arabic culture, regardless of their location, share a particularly conservative and traditional set of moral beliefs the same way Christians from America may share similar beliefs with Christians from Europe. One belief most Saudi’s have in common is their “conservative view toward women” (Al-Mannai, 82). Middle Eastern individuals know what behaviors to expect from each gender, and what each gender should and should not do.
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
One of the most famous contemporary ethnographic studies of women and gender within Islam is Erika Friedl’s Women of Deh Koh, in which her main concern seems to be providing he...
Schimmel, Annemarie. My Soul Is a Woman: The Feminine in Islam. New York: Continuum, 1997. Print.
Female’s oppression in the Islam religion and Islamic states is a valid concern. Violence between the sexes and strict decrees for cleanliness seem for Westerners to create an abnormally large schism between the sexes. Is such a perception true
8. Nawal El-Saadawi, "The Hidden Face of Eve, Women in the Arab World," translated and edited by Sherif Hettata, Zed Press, London, 1980, pg.33
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.
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.
The oppression of women in the Middle East and North Africa was commonplace, with women often beaten and deprived of fundamental rights. Entrapped by social constraints, there was little hope for opposition, as the patriarchal perspectives of society were enforced by everyone, even women themselves. One of the most prevalent ways was through the use of hypocrisy and double standards to cast an illusion of justice and equality, when in reality, women were disadvantaged in nearly every aspect. The hypocrisy of society is demonstrated in Nawal El Saadawi’s novel Woman at Point Zero, where women such as Firdaus are dominated by double standards. She finds both initial hope and consequent
Woman at Point Zero, written by Nawal El Saadawi, effectively rebels and defies the tyrannical administrative and male-controlled structures that are meant to oppress women in Egypt. This novel does this by telling of Firdaus’s bold life, the blatant dissatisfaction with the way her culture attempts to reduce the importance of women by objectifying them to nothing more than domestic servants, and the glorification of things that go against their customary values. Through her struggles, she becomes her own woman, and ultimately dying for her belief that she is inferior to no man in the process. This discontentment and glorification are made very evident throughout this novel as she disregards the cultural standards that Egyptian society expects her to uphold; and seem to be intertwined within Firdaus’s story on almost every single page.
Initially, Old Testament describes women as the corrupter of man. However, through interpreting the action of Jesus Christ, we see that he holds women in equal roles as men, to include mention of female apostles. The New Testament does not promote equality but does mention the acts of Jesus. Finally, the Qur'an places women in a subservient role allowing men to keep their under control, by any means. Interpretations of the Gods word under the disguise of organized religion are the product of the gender discrimination of the time and continue to paint women as lesser creatures in the eyes of God.
Nawal El Saadawi is an activist, a physician, a psychiatrist, and most importantly she is an Egyptian feminist writer. She has written many books about the women of Islam, all of them focusing on the mistreatment and abuse of women. God Die by the Nile is one of her works, originally published in 1985. Women in God who die by the Nile are victims to a patriarchal society and class system, that is controlled through religion, politics, and social customs. Saadawi dismantles the system by showing the crooked side where the women are raped and beaten for being women and men are put to death because they fail to support the ones in charge and the system itself.
If we want to maintain our self-esteem and honor then we should not keep away our female children from higher realization of our society and Islamic norms and values. (Editorial, 2012)