Guests of the Sheik: An Ethnography of an Iraqi Village Essay

Elizabeth Fernea entered El Nahra, Iraq as an innocent bystander. However, through her stay in the small Muslim village, she gained cultural insight to be passed on about not only El Nahra, but all foreign culture. As Fernea entered the village, she was viewed with a critical eye, ?It seemed to me that many times the women were talking about me, and not in a particularly friendly manner'; (70). The women of El Nahra could not understand why she was not with her entire family, and just her husband Bob. The women did not recognize her American lifestyle as proper. Conversely, BJ, as named by the village, and Bob did not view the El Nahra lifestyle as particularly proper either. They were viewing

“Women and Gender in Islam” by Leila Ahmed was published in 1992, at a time when research on Arab women was a young, newly emerging field of study. Leila Ahmed is an Egyptian American writer and feminist. Her text “Women and Gender in Islam” targets proclaimed feminists, both western and non-western, as the intended audience. The text is involved with the discourse of gender, the discourses of women, the discourses of feminist, and colonial and post-colonial discourses.

Women’s rights in Iran or the Middle East has always been an arguable issue. Although there rights have been changed throughout the centuries they were never really compared equal to men or noone really accepted them. Specially for women in Iran, they barely had any rights in culture, marriage or other aspects of their lives. In the following essay you will read about the everday lives of Middle Eastern women.

On the social aspect, women returned to the weak and demure image of helpless women. ?Momism? became the term to describe the ideal household women in the 1950s. As always, men dominated the suburban household. People once again became religious in fear of being accused otherwise. Female sexuality became a shocking issue of the 50s. With the moral of Christian culture, premarital sex and other lewd acts were shunned from society.

This is an interesting exception to the stereotypical and usual relationship between a Muslim man and woman. Usually the man would have the majority of power in the relationship, but the protagonist has made the relationship on her terms only. We also learn from the narrator that the protagonist has a strong disposition. We can conclude that she seems to exude some power . We also learn that her father thinks highly of her and feels that she is “intelligent”, “well brought up”, and “obviously knows the value of traditions and respects them.”

Out of all the many countries in the world, each one is unique and individualistic with many exclusive qualities to each one. Many times, the countries get compared to the Western civilization of the United States. The book Guests of the Sheik is just that, but more. An American woman, (Elizabeth Fernea) travels to a completely foreign land, not known at all to her and experiences the culture first hand. She is at first willing, since her husband, Bob, had no choice and his job permitted him to do so (in moving to a completely new country). We learn in the book, that not only is where she staying, completely different than America, but surprisingly, the Iraqi people are not

However, through their constant interaction, both sides began to recognize some benefits each culture possessed. It takes time when you are immersed in a particular community to understand the cultural ethos and eventually the community as a whole. Through Elizabeth Fernea’s ethnography on Iraq’s El Nahra village, we learn that all cultures have unique and equally important aspects. In El Nahra, for example, the cultural ethos is family honor. The actions of the community are based on the solid family bonds that exist throughout. However, individualism drives the majority of America. Our actions seem to be a direct result of the cultural ethos. In this, lied much of the uncertainty between Bob, BJ and the El Nahran people. In America, we spend a great deal of the time away from home and our families and completing tasks that will further the success of the individual. Generally, Americans are willing to sacrifice a lot of their family solidity for individual success. A sacrifice of this magnitude would be unheard of in a community such as El Nahra. Their relationships, both marriage and friendship are based on their family, and no one seems to know any other lifestyle. Marriages in El Nahra were, for the large majority, predetermined. This tradition in America would be strongly questioned and completely disregarded, based on the cultural ethos of individualism. Americans put a large emphasis on

In recent years, America’s attention has been gripped by stories of women who have escaped from the Middle East. Each has a unique story, but they all have the same themes of oppression, abuse, and domination. Americans rushed onto the scene ready to “save” Middle Eastern women and many of the activists are now been highly praised for the influence they made in the region. Others, however, have come to question whether the Muslim women in the Middle East really needed the U.S. to rescue them from Islam. *Insert Thesis*

Through out Middle East the lives of women appear to have no influencing role in society. Elizabeth Fernea provides an survey of the traditions of an Iraqi village in her book Guests of the Sheik. Within this book, Fernea explores the element of gender and its impact on the roles of women in Iraq, directly in the village of El Nahra. She also encounters the expectations based on the gender-specific social constructs of polygamous families. Another woman author, Leila Abouzeid, explores similar elements in the work Return to Childhood, which is based in islamic Morocco. Fernea, who the women of the harem call Beeja, presents experiential information about the life of both women and men and her role within her husband 's life as it reflects

There are many political, religious, and cultural factors that shape the lives of Islamic women many of them are completely different than factors in the lives of American women. Islam is one of the world’s fastest growing religions; however, Brooks argues that “Islam’s holiest texts have been misused to justify the repression of women, and how male pride and power have warped the original message of this once liberating faith.” The book also shows these factors have slowly been taking away women’s rights, rather than furthering them.

The 1950’s were cookie cutter; there was usually a working father, a homemaker mother, and a couple of kids. Although women were working and had jobs in the 1950’s, after WWII many women still stayed home being a house wife if the husband’s income could afford it. If women had jobs, and the job was unnecessary they were considered selfish. Having a husband at this time was more important than having a job or a degree. Marriage in the 1950’s was highly based around religion. Pre-marital sex was considered unacceptable, and women were married at ages as low as nineteen (People & Events, 1).

Sabah is a 40-year-old Muslim unmarried woman, who still lives at home in Toronto, looking after her mother since her father died and she is the glue that keeps the family together. Her brother, Majid, despite being married to a non-Arab Canadian woman, has conservative Muslim view of life. From his standpoint, Sabah's place should be at home, his daughter caring for their mother Souhaire should have an arranged marriage and he should support them all as the man of the house.

Lila Abu-Lughod stands for different endings of the limit of view in the argument on women in the Arab world. For her concern, Mona gives us a direct description of the authorities of women's rights in the Arab world, and when it arrives to the position of women in the Middle East, it's not finer than you imagine. It's much sad. She talks about case after case of misogynism at the flat of the state, Islamic establishment, and even on the street, hatred is the region of Arab culture and part of Islam. Lila, on the other hand, in “Do Muslim Women Need Rescue”?, takes much average position on the difficulty of Muslim women, and she is surely anti to the gracious of Islam reported to which islam is misogynist or maybe tyrannous. According

“Now more than ever Islamic fundamentalist thought is dictating limitations to [women’s] social development, as a wave of sociopolitical conservatism spreads all over the Arab world.” This sentence sums up the main idea of May Seikaly’s article. The author, a professor of Modern Middle Eastern history with a focus in oral tradition, theorizes that Islamic tradition has hindered the advancement of women in society. In introducing her argument, she provides readers with a background of Bahrain’s modernization, beginning with the discovery of oil in Bahrain. Her theory is argued with supporting evidence, but it seems to focus almost specifically on Islamic tradition, rather than other possible factors influencing changes in society.

The land of two rivers, Iraq, has a fascinating culture that has been misinterpreted by the present turmoil. According to Elizabeth Pietanza, “Iraq has many different names associated with it including the land of two rivers, Mesopotamia, the Fertile Crescent named because of the two rivers that flow through Iraq including the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers. It is termed the Fertile Crescent because of the ample amount of agriculture that takes place around the rivers” (Pietanza 2001:1078). Iraq has been divided amongst many types of people including Armenian, Kurdish, Sunni, Shia, and Chaldean, but each possess a sense of nationality and love for the country they were born in. The very country that is seen on the news as being fragmented, is actually intertwined by the common language of Standard Modern Arabic and how there are different group of people who speak different languages, the kind hearted gestures, and gender equality for females.