Would Equal Women’s Rights Positively Affect the Political Climate of the Middle East?

“A country is like a bird with two wings. If one wing is cut off, then society will not function.”1 In this case, women’s rights, who comprise a large portion of the Middle East. In this region, the presiding image in these countries is that of suppressed, confined, undereducated women who require assistance in order to take the first endeavors in the direction of emancipation. To change this also means to change many issues, including varied social classes, existing religious customs, and the punishment of educated women; which is an unrealistic change. One may argue that countries would not be able to survive without the authority that allows unequal women’s rights however, it is exceedingly possible that if equal women’s rights were implemented into the Middle East then the political climate would be positively affected.

If women were to gain equal women’s rights in the Middle East, it will undoubtedly affect the political climate in a positive manner. Historically, it is easy to find examples of human rights atrocities against women in a society that does not afford them the same social status as men. On March 11, 2002 in Saudi Arabia, religious authorities prohibited 14 girls from escaping a school fire because they were not wearing traditional “hijabs”2 and their male counterparts were not in the area to retrieve them. They also prevented rescuers from assisting the victims because they were of the opposite sex, and therefore not qualified to contact and rescue the female victims. Because of the current religious laws which place women in a subjective role, women in the Middle East undergo violence in the forms of domestic and sexual assaults to child marriages and female circumcision. Not only is this a colossal, current ...

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...limate can be assured it will have a positive change from the intermittence of human right laws; due to the fact that the government cannot and will not intervene.

For decades, women in the Middle East, have received few human rights due to the fact that the governments believe violence inflicted upon them is a private matter. Furthermore, the current status quo amongst women is supported by the male population, and women in the Middle East currently lack the education or power to change it. Fortunately, organizations that advocate human rights issues in the Middle East are emerging all over the region, changing the government’s opinion, and assuring progress made by the women themselves. Finally, the UN’s interferences in the Middle East are positively affecting the region, making room for a hopeful future in the Middle East in regards to their political climate.