Gender Roles In The Middle East

Accustomed to stereotypical depictions, Westerners are told that Middle Eastern women are passive, weak, and always veiled. It is often assumed that the severe conditions in Saudi Arabia—where women are not even allowed to drive cars—represent the norm for women throughout the Middle East and in the larger Muslim world. In reality, Saudi Arabia’s versions of both Islam and sexism are rather unique in their severities, although the rule of the Taliban in Afghanistan is now emulating the sexist Saudi model. Women enjoy political and social rights in many Muslim countries, and Egypt has recently granted women the right to divorce their husbands. In Tunisia, abortion is legal, and polygamy is prohibited. Women have served as ministers in the Syrian, Jordanian, Egyptian, Iraqi, and Tunisian governments, and as Vice President in Iran.

In the past, Islamic women were not granted the right to vote or join in politics, but over the years the legal status of women in Islam has relaxed and changed. Muslim women in the Middle East have the right to vote, and may join in politics. Along with this, they are permitted to have vital government jobs. (Braswell, p.155) A woman 's status , however, is not as high as a man 's is in society. They still must follow many traditional customs. An example of one custom is that women are encouraged to do is dress modestly, by wearing veils in public. (Lippman, p.38) Although Muslim men and women are not looked upon as equals in every sense, there has been a lot of improvement and many changes have been made in the women 's favor.

Blee, Kathleen M., and Ann R. Tickamyer. "Racial Diffences in Men's Attitudes about Women's Gender Roles." ProQuest Research Library [ProQuest]. Springer Science & Business Media, July 2010. Web. 17 May 2016.

Being born a female in Iran one automatically has less control over her autonomy. This is due to the male dominant society which has placed limitations and expectations on females. These exceptions and limitations can range from being told what to wear in public to not being able to go out alone without placing themselves in danger. Through socialization these have become social norms in the Iranian culture that have resulted in explicit and implicit gender roles. According the Berger and Luckmann, socialization can be deconstructed into two parts: primary and secondary socialization (1967). In primary socialization, a child is taught by significant others what are appropriate attitudes, behaviors

What do you think of when you hear gender roles? You probably think of men and women having the same opportunities. Or you think of how there isn’t gender equality in most places in the world. Most people are against others saying that males and females should have gender roles, or that one thing should be identified into a gender role. There are very different norms in different societies around the world. Not all are agreed with, but some are completely supported. Gender roles have changed throughout evolution. Gender roles can even be created from humans portraying something a certain way. Life for those who have their life controlled by one human struggle with gender roles and how they should be. But how did gender roles even become a topic? How are gender roles for people who have almost no rights? The Middle East has different tendencies than in other places in the world, due to the fact of the religion they practice and the way they live. Islam is the second most popular religion in the world. There were about 1.6 billion Muslims in the world in 2010, according to Pew Research. Muslims constituted about 23% of all people on Earth. The religion is currently in a period of rapid growth, and is expected to reach 2.8 billion by 2050, when the number of Muslims will probably approximately equal the number of Christians in the world. Estimates of the number of Muslim adults in the U.S. have ranged from 1 to 7 million. The former estimate is based on public opinion polls

The creation of YPJ/YJA-STAR women guerilla units within the PKK ideology creates a sense of freedom and a step towards liberation. It could be noted that the transformation of gender roles within the Kurdish community, has transformed the appearance of the eastern women as no longer the oppressed victim, in which today the Kurdish female fighters are “presented as a novel phenomenon (Dirik, 2015).” Conversely, the Kurdish women’s freedom movement has been appealing in the field of war since the 19th century, in which the world has largely ignored. The intensification of the Kurdish female fighters in the movement can be understood as a reaction against the western world, as it believes that “imperialist states use this as a justification to

There are many types of family roles and dynamics that are taking rule in this two particular scenarios. The Middle Eastern woman that holds a Doctorate degree and should be very capable of taking care of herself financially and obviously has enough knowledge, still chooses companionship over a solitary life. In her relationship with her companion, she is known as the second wife and she’s ok with that because her culture believes having more than one wife is an equitable way of organizing relationships. Or the two Lesbian woman that have children together and are hoping their children fit into society even if they don’t. Worried that their children have two mommies and no man figure in their lives, these two types of family roles are definitely

The Palestinian community has traditionally been characterized by silence on the subjects of domestic violence and sexual violence. Gender roles and gender separation are still more or less strictly enforced and Palestinian women are largely not afforded their full right to protect themselves from Gender Based violeance (GBV).

In the book, Women in the Middle East, a Saudi Arabian proverb states, "A girl possesses nothing but a veil and a tomb" (Harik and Marston 83). The key words, "veil" and "tomb" lend evidence to the fact that many Middle Eastern women lack identity symbolized by the “veil” and lack the right of ownership except for their veil and the tomb. This statement further enforces the notion that many women in the Middle East are expected to serve and tolerate the oppression of the men in their lives throughout their lives on this earth. Moreover, it confirms that many of these women do not get the opportunity to obtain education, join the work force, and even participate in the political affairs of the country. This arrangement further helps the

Gender roles in Pakistan are completely segregated and unequal. Women have no rights in Pakistan and are looked down on from the day of birth. The women are required to be subordinate to men and the Pakistani’s family honor relies on the woman’s obedience. The women of Pakistan naturally adopt the role of being the primary caretaker for the family. The Muslim faith has a significant influence on decision making and roles males and females must have.

The portrayal of women in the media is a global phenomenon that many nations, countries and cultures struggle to find equality in the portrayal of gender throughout media systems. The Middle East and the Arab World is no exception to this phenomenon, recognizing and contributing to the negatively portrayed images of Arab women represented in the global mass media. For my research paper, I chose to focus on how women in the Arab World are breaking boundaries of these negative stereotypical images, while using social media as an outlet for online activism and empowerment. By conducting research on how women are portrayed as “subservient” to men in the Arab World, I started to form my research question in how women are interpreting these portrayed images, how they are reacting to these misrepresentations of themselves in the media, and what exactly they are doing about changing the image of themselves and the evident inequalities between men in civil society. I continued furthering my research with the introduction of social media to the Arab world and the combating of stereotypes of Arab women in the media. Collectively, based on all of my research and knowledge of global mass media, the portrayal of Arab women in mass media, and the exponentially rising usage of social media in implementing social change, Arab women have gained a voice in standing up for rights in civil societies throughout the Arab World. My research led me to formulate the following research question: How

One of the Middle Eastern Countries I researched was Iran. Iran went from being a country with strong women activists and leaders to being viewed and treated with far less worth than a man. Litchter writes, “The murder of a man was regarded as a capital offense, whereas the killing of a woman was not afforded the same serious status. The punishments for murderers were divided according to the sex of the perpetrator. Execution was the inevitable end for a female killer, whereas a male murderer was given the alternative of paying diyya (blood money) to the next of kin of his victim” (Lichter, 2009). Seeing these changes is a travesty. There are so many misconceptions about Islam and Muslim women, many coming from these drastic changes that the

Gender problems are big problems in society. Although today 's gender problems are better than before, it still cannot be resolved completely. There are many kinds of gender problems. For example, gender role, gender identity, gender stereotypes and gender-equal problems. The short story "A Season of Madness", by Hanan Al-Shaykh, shows some problems of genders and society. In "A Season of Madness", the author tells a story of a Lebanese woman- Fatin, who is desperately seeking a way out of her marriage. In the story, Fatin mentions that she used to be content as any wife who convinced that life is marriage, children, running a house and secretly retiring herself. However, she is tired for the boring life and starts going outside to draw and paint; then she falls in love with another man and she wants to divorce with her husband, but has no reasonable ground. Therefore, Fatin pretends to be mad for divorce. Finally, the mother in law and her husband believes that she is mad rather than divorces with her. Gender role and gender stereotypes problems have been showed clearly.

     Women’s roles are not the same in different cultures. Most important is that women in Uzbekistan, where the population of Muslim people were from 50 % up to 70 %, made the big progress in eighty years. From that time women started to become more free in education, marriage, and fashion than they used to be eighty years ago.

The role of women in Islam has evolved over time. During the time of the Prophet Muhammad (SAW), as well as the era that shortly followed the Prophet’s death, women were given a great sense of power, freedom, and rights. However, because the Quran and hadith are open to many different interpretations, a male-dominated society began to slowly restrict the rights of women and slowly began to push their roles towards staying within the household and being protected by being secluded. This is evident in societies today such as Saudi Arabia. However, over history, as well as in modern times, numerous women have overcome these obstacles and made a clear difference in society.