Women's Role in the Middle East

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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...

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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. .

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