Women's Rights Dbq Essay

Would you be able to live a life where no one notices your worth? Where you can't be who YOU want to be, because of a piece of cloth? Where you're treated as an object instead of a Woman. In the Middle East, Women have been mistreated and seen as minority for years. They have been killed, and have been victims of oppression simply for just being a woman. Since women's rights were being restricted in the Middle East, there were people who reacted in different ways. Some supported women fighting for their rights, and of course, others opposed to women's rights.

Some people, surprisingly men, do support women and their rights. Document #2 is a picture of “ Male Afghan women’s rights activist” posing, wearing what seems to be blankets over

their heads in replacement of a burqa, to show solidarity to Afghan women as it is International Women’s day in Kabul. That group of men supported women by showing respect to their religious beliefs, in which the burqa is an outer garment worn by women in some Islamic traditions to cover their bodies. Another way that some people had chosen to support women and their rights is advocating to give them an education. In document #9 it speaks of how “women are moving in increasing numbers into a wide range of professions”, meaning that there have been some women in Dubai who have been able to achieve in being firefighters, police officers, business leaders or doctors. On a less serious note, but still very relevant to the support of women's rights, is sports. Document #7 is an image of a middle aged Iran soccer player in a hijab kicking a soccer ball. It is showing that following a religion doesn't mean that doing other activities you like is a disrespect to it. This picture is very empowering to believers of women's rights to see that a woman can do something she likes, and still be able to follow their religious beliefs.
Document #1, #5 and #6 are all women speaking up for themselves, or giving a personal story of how it's like to live in the Middle East. Document #1 is a poem called Tell Me, Women of This Land, written by Nasima, a woman of the Afghan Women’s Writing Project. It is a very moving poem, she writes about how she thinks that her country is a Frozen Land and she sees cemeteries where feeling, humanity and civilization have been buried. She also talks about how she is a woman, forgotten in a political generation with political games, how she has been stoned and burned, how she was sold for a price to make buildings, cars and amusements. She said something that was really touching to me, it quotes “And I was stoned by ignorant and cruel minds, ones who stopped my maturity, did not allow me to go to school, and then stamped “puberty” on my forehead and forced me to marry an old man and have children, when I was only nine years old…”. Nasima is a very strong woman, she seems like she has been through a lot and was able to write such an empowering poem. Document #5 is a piece of an article called Life As A Woman Under Isis, written by Heather Saul. Something that really caught my attention in her article was when she said “Education should begin at the age of seven and continue no later than the age 15, according to the manifesto. Curriculum should focus largely on Islamic religious studies, Koranic Arabic and learning basic cooking, knitting and other skills, in order to prepare women for their role at the centre of the household.” Which relates to what Malala Yousafzai, a Nobel Lecture said upon winning the Nobel Peace Prize, “ I was just ten when more than 400 schools were destroyed. Women were flogged. People were killed. And our beautiful dreams turned into nightmares. Education went from being a right to being a crime. Girls were stopped from going to school.” This really shows that education in the Middle East isn't a priority, they see “education” as focusing on Islamic studies, learning how to cook, how to knit or how to take care of a child at an early age. Malala was shot in the head for speaking up for those women who didn't have the strength or were too scared to speak up. What Malala is doing is something that is very dangerous and life threatening, but she takes takes the risk to stand up for something she really believes strongly in. Document #6 also quotes “ I had two options. One was to remain silent and wait to be killed. And the second was to speak up and then be killed. I chose the second one. I decided to speak up”.
Of course in this situation, like in any other, there will be anti-supporters.

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

in New York dress.
An additional type of document that would be useful to prove that there are people in the Middle East who are actually advocating for women is if there are people protesting in a large group or speaking to a small crowd. Also, articles written by journalists in the Middle East, or pictures taken by reporters, to show that people aren't just letting this happen. There are people who are out there trying to make a change, not just women. Also, journalists only show us the bad side of the Middle East, the revolutions and the mistreatment that is going on, since what the government is doing is intense.
The Middle East is a place where people don't really realize or aren’t informed of how inferior women are seen. Women are being oppressed and their rights aren't taken seriously. As there are people who support women and their rights, there are still a myriad of people who don't believe that women should have or have rights. We should try to change their minds.