Women in the Middle-Eastern Culture

803 Words2 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Women's inequal treatment in middle east

Middle-Eastern Women
The Middle-Eastern culture is very different from that of the United States. Particularly, the way women are treated. Women in the US have as much freedom as they would like; whereas the women in the Middle-East have very little. In the Middle-East women are severely restricted in every aspect of their lives. They are not allowed to drive a car or go in public without the presence of a male family member, they have to be covered from their heads to their ankles in the presence of men, and they have very little choice, in who they marry.
Once a girl has her first menstrual cycle she is not considered a child anymore and is required to cover her face in the presents of men outside of her family. There are many types of veiling used in the Middle-East. Depending on the religious beliefs of the woman’s family or the laws of the country that she resides in, will determine what type of covering or veiling a woman will wear. Whether it is a hijab (also called a shaylah or a tarhah) that is a scarf like fabric that covers the hair and neck, warn with whatever modest outfit she chooses; or a nigab (also known as a burqa) that covers every part of the woman, which can also include the eyes. With the burqa she is allowed to wear anything she would like. Many woman wear western style clothing underneath their burqas. Veiling is said to be form protection from gender interaction and is also a showing of modesty for women.
Although there are no laws on the books against women driving a car in the Middle-East, it is banned and women cannot get a driver’s license. In recent years women have pushed issue by having protests and getting behind the wheel. One such protest was on October 26, 2013; about thirty-five brave women...

... middle of paper ...

...nd the Veil in Saudi Arabia. 2004 Sasson
Corperation
Sasson, J. (2001). Princess Sultana’s Daughters
Sasson, J. () Princess Sultana’s Circle
Jamjoom, M. and Smith-Spark, L (2013). Saudi Arabia women defy authorities over female driving ban. CNN Retrieved on 11/16/2013 http://www.cnn.com/2013/10/26/world/meast/saudi-arabia-women-drivers/ (2011) Saudi Arabia: Towards Understanding an Arranged Marriage. American Bedu. Retrieved on 11/17/13 http://americanbedu.com/2011/09/25/saudi-arabia-towards-understanding-an-arranged-marriage/
Lindholm, C. (2013). Power, Law and Blood: Sources of Patriarchy in the Middle East.
Al Omran, A (2011) 'A Historical Moment': The Saudi Women Challenging A Government By
Driving. NPR. Retrieved on 11/20/13. http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/2011/06/19/137271964/a-historical-moment-the-saudi-women-challenging-a-government-by-driving

Show More
Related

  • The Barriers Islamic Women Face as Explained in The Worl'd's Religions by Huston Smith

    1500 Words  | 3 Pages

    The World’s Religions by Huston Smith is a novel based on the different religions found around the world. The main area of focus within this book was to expand the knowledge of different cultures and their religions. The chapters that were specified to focus on include Islam, Judaism, Christianity and the Primal Religions. Go into detail about each religion. Smith goes into great detail about each religion, concentrating on the teachings and essential elements of each religion, important people that helped form the religion, and traditions. He specifically discusses how these three religions are very similar rather then how different they are, with the main studies on Moses, Jesus, and Mohammad. Finally he discusses the Primal Religions – meaning the traditions that are passed down through oral communication.

    Read More

  • Women's Rights In The Middle East Dbq Analysis

    1107 Words  | 3 Pages

    Women’s rights in the Middle East are being restricted, therefore there are many different reactions. Some people were in favor of women having equal rights while there are some who are against women to have the same rights. Since before times, many countries in the Middle East have been taking women for granted and minimized their rights by telling them they can't do something or selling them as if they were prized. When women were treated as prizes it was a practice in Afghanistan called Ba’ad that used women as the compensation, for example a story of a girl named Sakina. She was a consolation prize so that her brother could marry a woman and the Jirga system told her she had to marry a 80 year old guy when she was like 18. This tells me

    Read More

  • Driver of Our Own Destiny

    718 Words  | 2 Pages

    Compared to other injustices faced by Saudi women the right to get behind the wheel may seem trivial, but to someone expected to stay at home and remain subservient the sudden freedom to come and go as they wish is incredibly empowering. It means more women being seen in public. It means more women getting jobs and building a career of their own. It means more women going about their daily lives independent and unchaperoned. Nothing adds weight to calls for equality than the roar of an engine.

    Read More

  • Why and How Women Are Oppressed in Saudi Arabia

    2088 Words  | 5 Pages

    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.

    Read More

  • Women in the Middle East and Greece

    3945 Words  | 8 Pages

    Historically, women were long considered naturally weaker than men, squeamish, and unable to perform work requiring muscular or intellectual development. In most pre industrial societies, for example, domestic chores were relegated to women, leaving heavier labor such as hunting and plowing to men. Women generally have had fewer legal rights and career opportunities than men as well. Wifehood and motherhood were regarded as women's most significant professions. In the twentieth century, however, women in most nations won the right to vote and increased their educational and job opportunities. Perhaps most important, they fought for and to a large degree accomplished a reevaluation of traditional views of their role in society.

    Read More

  • Women's Rights Dbq Essay

    1339 Words  | 3 Pages

    People who see women as “second-class” or as an “object”, when they fail to realize that the reason that people continue to be on this world is because of a woman. Document #4 is a picture of the former president of Iran, Ruhollah Moosavi Khomeini, saying that he is looking to take Iran back 1400 years to the time of Rasool’ Allah, who is the Islamic god. During those times women were treated even worse than now. Document #3 is an article titled “Behind the Veil”, which speaks of Muslim women who have a religious commitment and their reasonings to why they wear veils. Many years ago the Shah tried to westernise the Middle East. People who don't really like change, like to be independent, or have specific beliefs felt as if their Islamic identities were being threatened. Some women had stopped wearing burqas, which lead to oppression, while on the other hand, some women had been subject to prejudice for wearing them. Women’s rights have never been favored in the middle east. In the Middle East there is a justice system called, Jirga, which is an assembly of leaders, who are all male, that make decisions by consensus and according to the teachings of Islam. This justice system is never in favor of women, and they see women as objects to trade. The Jirga believes that women can't go out without a male figure, can’t really be educated, don't have a voice, or that women are an equivalent to men. Document #8 speaks of women specifically in Saudi Arabia not being able to drive. It quotes “The vast majority of women do not drive in [Saudi Arabia] and there remains much opposition to female drivers.” A 25 year old Saudi Arabian man said “I think women driving is the key to a lot of things”. Basically saying that women shouldn't be allowed to drive because women in the Middle East will be thinking that they can go or do whatever they want. Then he proceeded to compare women driving, to how women

    Read More

  • Persepolis: Changing Western Perceptions of Muslim Women

    1752 Words  | 4 Pages

    Marjane Satrapi’s graphic novel, Persepolis, makes important strides toward altering how Western audiences perceive Iranian women. Satrapi endeavors to display the intersection of the lives of some Westerners with her life as an Iranian, who spent some time in the West. Satrapi, dissatisfied with representations she saw of Iranian women in France, decided to challenge them. In her words, “From the time I came to France in 1994, I was always telling stories about life in Iran to my friends. We’d see pieces about Iran on television, but they didn’t represent my experience at all. I had to keep saying, ‘No, it’s not like that there.’ I’ve been justifying why it isn’t negative to be an Iranian for almost twenty years. How strange when it isn’t something I did or chose to be?” (Satrapi, “Why I Wrote Persepolis” 10). In acknowledging both Eastern and Western feminism, Satrapi’s novel humanizes the female Iranian perspective in a way that can easily digested by Western audiences.

    Read More

  • Women in the Middle East

    2311 Words  | 5 Pages

    Middle Eastern women need to stand up for their rights and get educated to reverse the notion that they are servants and properties of their men. Furthermore, they need to rise up to their potentials and prove beyond doubt that they are equal to men. This practice would lead the path for future generations to follow and protect the inalienable rights of women. Finally, these women need to break the cycle of oppression by addressing these deeply rooted beliefs, gaining the tools to fight back, and joining forces to make lifelong changes.

    Read More

  • The Study of Women across Cultures

    1020 Words  | 3 Pages

    In our study of women across cultures, and women empowerment it is imperative to include not just heterosexual women but lesbian and bisexual women as well, due to the fact that it integrates a sense of multiculturalism that inputs and values multiple perspectives of women experiences. In the fight for women’s equality heterosexual feminists have often overlooked lesbian and bisexual women, because of the negative connotations that have emerged, that deem all feminists lesbians, and haters of men. This is also frequent due to the fact that homophobia and heterosexism are often used to combat feminism, causing heterosexual women to resent the association of lesbians with feminists. In the specific context of the United States, lesbian feminism has created a foundation for women who like other women, to take a powerful stand and contend against patriarchal traditions. From the workplace, to marketplace, lesbians and bisexual women face daily discrimination and unacceptance, due to the incomprehensibility of people to understand and tolerate their specific way of life. In the paper I plan to discuss, the origins of lesbian movements in the United States. Secondly, talk about the oppositions towards lesbians and feminists to live non-heterosexual lives, due to factors such as compulsory heterosexuality, and heteropatriarchy. Third, I will entail the consequences of society’s perversion towards lesbian and bisexual women, forcing them to hide, known a lesbian and bisexual invisibility. Lastly I will touch upon the responses lesbians in America have disclosed as a means to normalize lesbianism and reduce its negative stereotypes, as well as mention grass root organizations that have been created to fight against the inequality present i...

    Read More

  • Women of the Middle East

    771 Words  | 2 Pages

    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.

    Read More

  • Theme Of Women In The Lady Of Shalott

    1021 Words  | 3 Pages

    Often women in these countries are forced to wear a burqa or hijab. These traditional coverings are supposed to keep these women safe. Just like the lady of Shalott’s tower kept the lady safe yet secluded; so secluded that no one “hath seen her wave her hand [,] or at the casement see her stand” (Tennyson, 23-25). In A Thousand Splendid Suns, Rasheed often told both his wives to always keep themselves covered in burqas because he did not want other men to leer at what was his property. In that society, women are told to cover themselves from head to toe. This is due to the fact that their beauty is a distraction to men and might make them take the wrong “action.” This is not right, society should not make women think that they are a distraction or force them to wear something they do not want to wear. Society should consider if these women dress respectively then that should be

    Read More

  • Women in Muslim Society

    2561 Words  | 6 Pages

    The role of woman, her position and status in society, and her nature have been issues of debate and discussion informed by religion, tradition and culture, misogyny, feminism and - many times - downright ignorance and bigotry.

    Read More

  • Feminism in the Late 20th and 21st Century in Western Europe and North America Compared to Feminism in Middle Eastern Countries

    1405 Words  | 3 Pages

    My thesis will be based on Feminism in the late 20th and 21st century in Western Europe, North America and compared to Feminism in middle eastern countries. I want to focus my thesis on why feminism is still necessary and how feminist art makes a difference in either culture I have been researching sexuality and politics, the use of the Word 'feminazi' as a way of degrading the feminist movement, and terms like "modern-day feminist", degrading, negative and harmful words used against women that are deemed socially acceptable in todays society, the female form and how women are played against each other in the media, stereotypes accosiated with feminism such as it being an anti men movement rather than an equal rights movement. I want to research radical feminism and question how it affects the feminist movement, why feminist art is relevant in western and middle eastern culture from the late 20th century to the present and the sexist views that still exist about women.

    Read More

  • Should Women Drive in Saudi Arabia?

    742 Words  | 2 Pages

    As most people know, Saudi Arabia is one of the most if not the most conservative country in the world, and the only country that prevents women from the right of driving. However, things are about to change as a group of activists launched a campaign called "October 26 driving". Basically, this campaign encourages all women to just get in the car and drive on October 26th. This campaign has started a huge debate whether women should drive in Saudi Arabia or not.

    Read More

  • The Status of Women in Islam

    2801 Words  | 6 Pages

    In today’s globalized world, women’s studies is emerging as a fast growing discipline which is not restricted any more to the academia but is significantly capturing the attention of the civil society. The way civil society responded to “Nirbhaya” gang-rape case of December, 2012 in Delhi; the way people came on the streets in protest against this horrific and barbarous crime committed against a 23 year old woman; this people’s movement has undoubtedly engineered the emergence of a new consciousness among us about the need for a realization of women’s honour and dignity in the society. There have been serious debates on the issue of whether more stringent laws (in the line of Shari’a law) be implemented in our Indian society so that such heinous crimes against women can be prevented. However, the aforesaid incident is only one among many hundred other such crimes happening everyday in almost every corner of the globe. Many such incidents of crime are either suppressed or do not come to limelight. The following analysis is a humble attempt to deal with the status of women (especially in Islam) in a globalized world.

    Read More

More about Women in the Middle-Eastern Culture

Open Document