Women in Islamic Cultures

Women in Islamic Cultures

For years American women have been and still fight for equality. On the other side

of the world however lies a different story. In the Arab-Muslim society familiar western

concepts of sexual equality and the liberation of women are irrelevant and unnecessary

from local women's point of view. Writing this essay I have explored and was fascinated

by the different definitions of the power of a woman and where exactly it lays.

In Arab-Muslim societies there is a complex, well defined and highly structured set

of gender roles which underpin personal and public life, and gives marriage and the

family a central importance, whereas in the U.S. gender roles have blended over the last

few decades to a point where both women and men have the same goals, with priority on

career advancement and high social status. It seems that all that separate women and men

in the U.S. are stereotypes and the ever disputable "Glass Ceiling." With such diverse

emphasis on life, to compare in what ways the power of women in the U.S. and in the

middle eastern societies are different we would first have to define power,

Power- an ability || physical strength || controlling influence || a person of great influence

and authority.

Authority and influence are recognized in different places in these two completely

different societies. An Arabian women's realm is the home. Motherhood, childcare,

cooking, cleaning and managing domestic affairs make-up the primary female sphere of

influence and activity.

Women in the U.S. cannot run away from these responsibilities, after all women in the

US do clean their houses, take care of children and manage ...

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...proach life, to not limit yourself and explore everything that you can benefit from. I see

these women who are very strong in my opinion however they have much to offer to the

world and they are not being fair to themselves to devote their whole life to the serving of

other people. As for achieving goals I'd have to say that i still stick with the american way

because "if your not willing to give it your all then don't even try". Arab women limit

themselves to what they are able to achieve in life.

Being a women I believe we are powerful in many ways and wish that all societies could

learn from each other, we could learn from arab women to appreciate and put more

emphasis on home life and they could finally show themselves to world, shine as we

all should in the spotlight and not behind the scenes and achieve all the goals we desire.