Discrimination lives, separation prevails, and oppression will always remain.“Why do they hate us?” writes Mona Eltahawy, a freelance Egyptian-American Journalist who writes publications about women’s issues and social welfare in the Islamic world. She talks of a short story written in the book entitled “Distant View of a Minaret” by another Egyptian writer, Alifa Rifaat. The book begins with a piece about a woman who feels nothing about her relationship with her husband. She remains unmoved, as Eltahawy would say, by intercourse with her husband as he only does the act for his own pleasure.The woman is distracted during sex and notices the simplest things around the room--a spider web hanging from the ceiling and the realization to cut her toenails as she stretches her body for her husband’s reach. She is not satisfied and has always been denied the sexual climax from her husband during these times. This way, he inevitably seizes her will to do anything. The Islamic call to prayer interrupts the moment and her husband leaves her, letting her go wash up and rejuvenate herself as it is demanded to do so in the Islamic religion. She takes a shower, gets fully dressed and goes deep into prayer. Feeling content with her worship, she feels a different sort of satisfaction and is looking forward for the next call to prayer as she looks out a balcony from her home. Her duty to her husband still remains and she virtuously makes him coffee, just the way he demands it. Taking it to their bedroom, she suddenly notices something. Her husband’s body appears to be limp in bed as if he suffered an attack. He is dead. She steers her son to fetch a doctor while she waits. She takes the coffee back to the living room and drinks it for herself. “She...
... middle of paper ...
...ml>.
6) "Egypt: End Sexual Violence Against Women Protestors." -Amnesty International USA. N.p., n.d. Web. 6 Dec. 2013. .
7) Eltahawy, Mona. "Foreign Policy Magazine." Foreign Policy. N.p., n.d. Web. 5 Dec. 2013. .
8) Rifʻat, Alīfah. "Distant View of a Minaret ." Distant View of a Minaret and Other Stories. London: Heinemann Publisher, 1987. 1,2,3,4. Print.
9) "Womens Rights in the Middle East « Free Middle East Blog." Free Middle East. N.p., n.d. Web. 6 Dec. 2013. .
In the Hughes’ text, Women in World History: Volume 1, the chapter on Middle Eastern women focuses on how Islam affected their lives. Almost immediately, the authors wisely observe that “Muslim women’s rights have varied significantly with time, by region, and by class” (152). They continue with the warning that “there is far too much diversity to be adequately described in a few pages.” However, I argue that there is essential information and insight on said topic that the authors have failed to include, as well as areas of discussion with incomplete analyses. I will use Leila Ahmed’s book, Women and Gender in Islam: Historical Roots of a Modern Debate, as well as her essay entitled “Early Islam and the Position of Women: The Problem of Interpretation,” to cite the shortcomings of the text.
Mingst, K. A. (2011). Essentials of international relations. (5th ed., p. 79). New York, NY: W.W. Norton & Company.
Trofin, Liliana and Madalina Tomescu. “Women’s Rights in the Middle East”. Contemporary Readings in Law and Social Justice Vol. 2(1). 1948-9137 (2010): 152-157.
There seems to be a question of what resources are given to women in the Middle East and North Africa for them to have social change and be given the rights that they declare. Based upon their age, sexual orientation, class, religion, ethnicity, and race this identifies someone’s social status which results in the ge...
Overall, Islam and Gender is a valuable addition to the field of ethnography by examining the everyday struggles, experience, and involvement of women within the Islamic law. Hosseini targets a Western audience and hopes to leave them with a better understanding of the Islamic judiciary system and Iranian feminism. She successfully provides her readers with an unprejudiced account of the shari’ah and family law, and even includes the ideologies of those opposing her personal beliefs. Hosseini specifically requests Muslim women to take a stand develop their own local, Islamic feminist movement and openly advocates new discourse within Islamic jurisprudence.
It revolves around the issues of gender oppression, sexual assault, and importance of social status. Alifa Rifaat manages to express her opinions towards these themes by writing about a typical Egyptian marriage. She puts in focus the strong influence that a patriarchal society has. She also manages to prove how important social status is in society. The uses of literally elements such as theme and irony help express this view. It shows that in a typical Egyptian society women are commonly oppressed by all males in society
With the limitations of women's rights in the middle east there are people who a for women and think they deserve the same rights. For example, a document that was pro women was document 1 because it was about how an Afghan woman was abused by her husbands and other men, but she never let that bring her down because in the end she said “But i am woman, woman, a woman a
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.
Mingst, K. (2011). Essentials of international relations. (5th ed., p. 70-1). New York, NY: W.W. Norton & Company
Deeb, Mary-Jane. Freedom House. Women’s Rights in the Middle East and North Africa-Oman, 2010. http://www.freedomhouse.org/template.cfm?page=179 (accessed August 14, 2010)
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.
Haddawy, Husain. The Arabian Nights. Rpt in Engl 123 B16 Custom Courseware. Comp. Lisa Ann Robertson. Edmonton, AB: University of Alberta, 2014. 51-64. Print.
In “Distant View of a Minaret” by Alifa Rifaat, a lonely wife describes life with her husband as “a world from which she had been excluded” (Rifaat, 1996, p. 256). While a woman paints a picture of a seemingly mundane afternoon, a minaret viewed in the distance provides the reader with vivid symbols of the underlying resignation of expectation and desire she once had for her marriage and her husband.
...nd Politics." Encyclopedia of the Modern Middle East and North Africa. Ed. Philip Mattar. 2nd ed. Vol. 2. New York: Macmillan Reference USA, 2004. 890-895. Gale Virtual Reference Library. Web. 24 Jan. 2012.
“Women’s human security rights in the Arab world: on nobody's agenda.” 50.50 Inclusive Democracy, 2 Dec. 2013. Web. 16 Mar. 2014.