What is a Woman's Place in the Arab World?
We have to be careful when we criticize aspects of a foreign culture. It is often a bit presumptuous to do so, and can open up our culture to valid criticisms as well. We are all far from perfect, and we know it.
Having said that, even to the casual observer, it is readily apparent that many women in the Middle East are not treated well, and this may well explain some of the problems in the region. In some Arab countries women can not vote, or can not drive, or can not own a business, or can not even work outside the home. The rule of the Taliban in Afghanistan was perhaps the most blatant example of the oppression that women are subjected to in parts of the Middle East. I’ll never forget the image of a poor woman being stoned to death in a soccer stadium, for allegedly engaging in adultery.
All this stands in stark contrast to Muhammad’s teaching, and to his example as a man. You may or may not know, but Muhammad’s first wife, Khadijah, was a very wealthy businesswoman who owned a number of successful businesses. It was she, in fact, who proposed marriage to the young Muhammad, and who encouraged him in his becoming a prophet, and in his founding the new religion. Later, one of the prophet’s daughters went on to become one of the greatest theologians of Islam. And in his teachings, Muhammad defied the tribal customs of the day and advocated on behalf of treating women as partners, and protecting their rights.
In many respects, strange as it may seem, Muhammad could be thought of as one of the first feminists of the ancient world. When he passed away, however, the tribal customs of the day, including treating women like property, came to be enforced, and became integrated into religious teachings.
What is wrong with marginalizing women in the Middle East? Plenty. First of all, how can you thrive economically if half of your workforce is oppressed and marginalized? Also, keeping women down can make it more possible for ideological extremism to flourish. Who are women? They are the givers of life, and the caretakers of life. They know how to make things work, often using scarce resources. Their families depend on them. They work tirelessly to protect their children, and therefore, they don’t have the time or the inclination to incite ideological hate, or to instigate violence. When your job is to care for your family, you are not predisposed or conditioned to promulgate hate. Caring for others does not leave much room for hate.
Women are the givers of life, and the caretakers of life, and as such are uniquely qualified to reconstitute their societies consistent with a Vision of Hope—a Vision of Peace, Prosperity, and Freedom. Empower women in the Middle East, in way that they deem appropriate, and you will have changed the face of the Middle East.
Investing in female entrepreneurs, for example, makes a lot of sense and will accomplish a great deal of good: women will reclaim their sense of dignity, they will spark needed economic growth, and women and men will work together as equal partners. With economic power women will begin to have a say in political reform and will advocate for their rights: the right to vote, the right to run for office, the right to own and manage a business, the right to work for equal pay, the right to pray with men, the right to participate fully in religious worship, the right to choose a husband, the right to make decisions about her body, and the right to partner with her husband on an equal footing.
As women are empowered economically, and as women’s rights are asserted ever more vigorously, then gradually the moderating influence of the feminine mystique will help to dull the sharp sword of extremist positions. As the natural givers of life, and as the natural caretakers of life, women do not have a lot of patience for war and bloodshed, and their rational disposition toward peace can and will become a part of the political landscape of the Middle East.
So Mamas, this may well be the time, before time runs out, to do what it takes, to really protect your babies, and to protect them in a way that will keep them safe for generations to come.
Please feel free to visit our website at www.sellingavisionofhope.org, where your comments would be deeply appreciated.
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it is not presumptious. human rights are universal and can not be negated for cultural reasons. benign aspects of culture are fine(food for example), but those violating human rights are not, and never will be fine.
Bob your enthusiasm for human rights is not un-noticed but he has a point. Arab/Islamic cultures are not the only ones who have oppressed women. By your logic, you expect nearly all cultures in the World to come up to speed or be subject to culture bashing. Be realistic.
May I remind you that the US was slow to giving women rights to vote, and other norms were not done away with until recently.
Its a process. Give it time.
pretty much every patriarchal culture in the history of time tries to make women commodities owned by their husbands, produce babies and cook food.
islam tends to like to dress them in potatoe sacks and have honor killings and polygamy, but largely its pretty damn similar.
and yes, ALL CULTURES ON THE ENTIRE PLANET HAVE TO RESPECT HUMAN RIGHTS. I do expect that. and I wil make no excuses for it. and don’t forget that the first human rights advocates w/ no previous good examples, no universal convention on human rights, no liberalism setup had to fight in the west. this isn’t new ground anymore, and shoudln’t take nearly as long. of course you still have to overcome the same bigots as the first time.
It is new ground for those not in cultures who have adopted liberal democracy.
In any case, im not going to have this debate because I agree that there is some catching up to do. Its irrational to think that it is going to happen any time soon.
Islam bashing or cultural demonizing is not very useful. Trying to be pro-active is the right approach.
Make a donation to the Mona Foundation. A Baha’i Charity dedicated to the advancement of women and girls in the developing World.
there are certainly ppl who believe a lot of what I believe who are nicer. but to some extent you need criticizing. no1 is gna change if no1 says what they are doing is wrong. look at how laws in the west changed, they didn’t change by ppl saying the catholic church was super awesome and it’d be swell if they did this or that. they SLAMMED the catholic church. same w/ women’s voting rights or civil rights. rosa parks REFUSED to sit in the back, she didn’t say that “she understood the situation that developed requiring separation of the races and felt deep sympathy for its cultural roots but felt that the time had come to maybe sorta/kinda change a little.”
I need criticizing? Look around pal. Who do you think we are? We are doing exactly what you think we should be doing. Its easy for us Americans to sit in our home offices and bark about human rights. Its frankly very arrogant of you to come here and tell the users what they should be doing and calling thier cultures and backgrounds bigoted. Spare us. If you are really interested in human rights and activism, prove it. Or are you simply interested in culture bashing?
in this particular thread I was merely responding to the idea that we have to tiptoe around:
“We have to be careful when we criticize aspects of a foreign culture.” for me that is a no-no. that is what is stopping positive change, not helping it.
and I suppose its “easy” for me to “bark” about human rights. as for culture bashing, like I pointed out earlier, most are pretty similar in terms of patriarchal societies if you go back far enough. yet to move forward we have to be willing to confront it on an individual level. for example, here’s john adams former president, and founding father of the United States:
“The Church of Rome has made it an article of faith that no man can be saved out of their church, and all other religious sects approach this dreadful opinion in proportion to their ignorance, and the influence of ignorant or wicked priests.
– John Adams, Diary and Autobiography”
or thomas jefferson:
“Question with boldness even the existence of a god; because if there be one he must approve of the homage of reason more than that of blindfolded fear.
-Thomas Jefferson, Letter to Peter Carr, August 10, 1787:”
which I think strikes right at the heart of islam’s problems, no questions, no criticism. ever. and any insinuation otherwise is dealt w/ hatred and violence. in the west we call those who question islamophobes, I’m sure in the islamic world there’s a more direct and violent way of dealing w/ questions.
take what I say however you want. maybe you do actually confront and criticize, in which case I am more agreeing w/ you. on the other hand(and the more likely one) maybe you feel that culture/religion must NOT be criticized and all things that could be criticized must be deflected into a “tiny minority” or some other obfuscation.
I agree. The independent investigation of truth is a cornerstone of my religion, the Baha’i Faith. But I also think its not what you say, but how you say it. Your comments up to now have been inflammatory and counter-productive to what you are actually meaning.
Why don’t you articulate it a bit better and engage people intellectually. Name calling is not going to do anything.
If you are serious you can write an entry and I will publish it for you and give people a chance to respond.
should I call the priests ignorant and wicked? I understand the islamic world is very defensive and they do not have any real exposure to freedom of speech, they are much more use to a world where their beliefs are beyond reproach. i also understand that very influential forces in the islamic world try to fan all flames and create a victim atmosphere around muslims that makes them even more sensitive. but that is not really my fault.
niceties, as I hinted to earlier, only go so far. now you would probably be right in saying this is one of the better forums and I could goto numerous other islamic forums and get absolutely screamed out of the building for even hinting at the things I’ve said. but change won’t happen just by being nice, I see this is in the west. the islamic world is going backwards and we can’t develop the balls to tell it so. all we can manage to do is say how “a tiny minority have hijacked the religion etc etc.” you know the spiel. when in reality across the islamic world human rights are receeding in a multitude of fashions.
3 people participated in this debate about women’s place in Arab (better said: Muslim) world, none of them “Muslim and living in the filed”! It’s interesting enough that the main author (Nissim) has a better grasp of the core problem, also provides a better solution.
Almost everybody does agree that women are not treated well in Muslim world, but there is not an agreement on the proper solution, neither in details nor even in the general approach. Some say that ‘root out the Islamic Ideology and the problem will come to an end’. I bet that if this approach is to be adopted, not only clergies will resist, but also women themselves will resist to some extent.
Such solutions originate from the mind of those people who are not familiar with the current situation in Muslim world. You might remember something about Catholic Church’s History, but who believes that the same thing might be effective in Muslim world? Who thinks the same method might help the cause of women in Muslim world? Comparing Catholic Church’s history with that of Muslim Societies, one might easily find out that many important factors work differently in the current quest.
If (and only if) Islam was incapable of tolerating reforms to become conforming to modern standard of humans rights, rooting out the Islam might be the only solution. But neither Islam is so rigid, nor are people so bonded over an orthodox interpretation of Islam.
Proposing a new model of life, consistent with a new interpretation of Islam as well as conforming to international norms, might be the ultimate solution.
For an example of such reforms, I suggest you to read this previous post of mine in MEY:
Women’s Rights and Islamic Laws
http://www.mideastyouth.com/2007/07/08/womens-rights-and-islamic-laws/
*****
If you are going to address the problems of women in Muslim world in general and Iran in particular, I recommend you to read this article first of all:
Revolution, Islamization, and Women’s Employment in Iran
http://www.watsoninstitute.org/bjwa/archive/9.2/Iran/Bahramitash.pdf
The author of the above paper is Roksana Bahramitash, Iranian Postdoctoral Fellow in ‘Simone de Beauvoir Institute’, Concordia University. She is obsessed by Women’s cause, especially in a globalizing world.
Afghanis are NOT Arabs, Afghanistan is NOT in the Middle East.
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Khadijah was a non Muslim woman who existed in a non Muslim society. In fact, she was operated her own business well before the emergence of Islam. You can’t credit her success with having anything to do with Islam or Muhammad. What’s more revealing about Islam, is the status of Muhammad’s wives after Muhammad was a Muslim.
Muslim women always had the right to manage businesses and own properties. Women even fought in battle alongside the prophet (ex: Laila Al Ghifariah.) If the Koran denied women of such rights, how do you explain the Koran speaking highly of the Queen of Sheba (27:32), there are many other women within the Koran who are praised, namely the virgin Mary.
This is an insightful article by an American convert to Islam regarding women’s rights and equality in the faith.
That’s an excellent article, Esra’a: thank you. Several others on the site look interesting, too.
Still, this column by Nissim isn’t talking about a woman’s place in Islam but today’s real world, where it “stands in stark contrast to Muhammad’s teaching.”
I was going to add that, but the arguments were too tempting to ignore. Some of these opinions need to be addressed, so that people are aware of who we really are and what we represent.
Arab and Muslim are incorrect synonymies, however, and people need to think before making that immediate connection.
You may all want to check out http://www.womenforwomen.org where you can help finance women’s job training in war-torn third world countries. Sorry if you’ve seen me push WFW before, but it’s a great cause and I want to reach as many people as possible with it.
I struggle to discuss feminism in the context of the Arab world because people always call the religion card, making it an awkward argument to get in to. Possible misinterpretations aside, the culture of the Arab world has been bred and raised to see women as second class citizens and the reasoning behind it has always been placed on Islam, regardless of the validity of that argument. Thus, any debate is seen as a direct insult to Islam.
As long as men enjoy their position of power and learn at their father’s knee that status quo is the best way to go, women will continue to suffer. I don’t know what it would take to change things.
Well, Muslims, it’s about your self-indulgent hypocrisy. You can call US the “Great Satan”, opine that Western women are and dress like sluts, assert that the reason your economic and intellectual achievements are so puny is because of Western oppression — but let a Westerner make the obvious observation that Islam treats women like ancient tribal harem properties, and you squeal with indignation. Observe the obvious truth that virtually all religious violence and terrorism world-wide is committed by Moslems, and you are accused of “Islamophobia”. Note that the Koran contains bloodthirsty threats against all non-believers, and you whine that moderate Muslims are the real Islam — while doing squat to restrain the “minority extremists”.
Pretty hard to take you seriously, all in all, except as demented dangers to world survival and sanity.
Brian you’re obviously an expert at this stuff. Have you considered a career at Harvard?
It’s Iran that calls the U.S the “Great Satan.” This is about the Arab world. But I guess we brown ones are all the same terrorists to you. Touché.
About TeacherLady’s appeal: the #1 way, bar none, of improving a country’s economy and quality of life is to provide education for girls and women (if they are being denied). The #2 way is to enable them to run small businesses with microloans and lending circles. (The #3 way is to deed slum properties to families so that they can obtain credit and enter the official, legitimate economy — see de Soto’s Peruvian work and systems.)
Esra: read what’s there, not what you assume.
I didn’t say “Arabs”. I said “Muslims”. Or don’t Persians qualify as “real Muslims”? And I do believe I’ve seen the phrase on placards in Palestine and elsewhere, in any case.
This article is not about Muslims. The title reads: What is a Woman’s place in the Arab world? It only became about Muslims when people were making the wrong assumptions. The Arab world includes Jews, Christians, and Baha’is.
Brian, the problem is how to get the male population to “allow” those things to happen. Theoretically, women in the UAE are capable of any of those things, but all it takes is a father, brother, or uncle to say no, and the door closes on her without question… And that’s a “modern” Arab nation.