Islam is probably notorious for how it has manifested in the treatment of women. In many middle eastern countries, women have less political power and social mobility. Kuwait, for example, only just granted women the right to vote in 2005 and Saudi Arabia still has not granted full voting rights. Women are now obtaining high levels of education and rapidly entering the work force, but this applies primarily in the cities. Having lived in a Bedouin village, I can attest that there is still a very conservative emphasis on values. Women do the cooking, cleaning, and raising of children and will stay at home expecting to fill these roles.
I'm not going to go into all of the details about women and gender roles, because that opens a huge box of issues. I will briefly mention a few though.
Despite common misconceptions, these oppressive gender roles do not rise out of the Islamic religion itself, but is more of a social consequence of it. That is not to say that people will not use the Qur'an to to justify unequal lady treatment, because they sure do. For example, in Mosque it is the custom for women to always sit behind the men and kneel behind them during prayer.
Women are expected to dress conservatively. Since I have been here, I have not seen a single woman wear shorts or sleeveless shirts on the streets. Most women wear long pants, and a long sleeve shirt. In fact, skirts that go to your knees are considered rather scandalous; when I walked back from the dinner with the US Ambassador wearing a formal knee-length black and white dress, I heard catcalls from men down the street and in cars. Women are also expected to sit in the back seat of taxis and cars; men always sit in the front, and - as I observed on my bus to work - men would rather crowd in the front seat than sit in the back where there are vacancies.
I have grievances against many of the men in this city. It is difficult to generalize, as there are also many men I have encountered who are kindhearted and respectful of women. For example, my host brother Zed and my host father are both very kind and several taxi drivers have engaged me in meaningful conversation about the culture of the city. On the other hand, many taxi drivers have verbally harassed me. I will never forget the taxi ride where the driver consistently asked me where I lived and leered at me through the rearview mirror before pointing to his chest and asking me how to translate "chest" in English. It was very uncomfortable indeed. When I walk from the gym or try to call a taxi, I have faced so many instances of men leaning out from their cars, leering in Arabic, and honking - my friend has told me that this has happened to her even when they were obviously with their wives or girlfriends! It's incredible what the men believe to be civilized and acceptable behavior.
On an even more serious note, we attended a lecture at SIT that was given by a Women's Studies professor at Jordan University. She told us of many atrocities across the city that seem so conservative and yet so dreadful such as suicides of young Jordanian women and honor killings. These will occur when a young woman has lost her virginity before marriage; she will even be forced into suicide to defend the honor of her family or a male relative may murder her. In fact one young woman was recently murdered by her father because she had merely chatted with a man on facebook.
And what's worse is the civil code permits a rapist to marry the woman he has raped. Oftentimes her familly will go along with this sham of a wedding in order to - once again - preserve the family's honor. This makes me so angry.
And because DOMA was overruled in America just yesterday (yay for the court upholding what was already a cultural norm) an honorable mention goes to the concept of how homosexuality is not only shunned and negatively viewed but young gays are brutally murdered. Horrific.
Social movements are now rising through the country that champion the role of young women in society, but it will be a while before anything substantial happens. The misogynistic tendencies are so embedded in the culture and associated with the religion that only a massive overhaul can overrule these traditions.
Despite common misconceptions, these oppressive gender roles do not rise out of the Islamic religion itself, but is more of a social consequence of it. That is not to say that people will not use the Qur'an to to justify unequal lady treatment, because they sure do. For example, in Mosque it is the custom for women to always sit behind the men and kneel behind them during prayer.
Women are expected to dress conservatively. Since I have been here, I have not seen a single woman wear shorts or sleeveless shirts on the streets. Most women wear long pants, and a long sleeve shirt. In fact, skirts that go to your knees are considered rather scandalous; when I walked back from the dinner with the US Ambassador wearing a formal knee-length black and white dress, I heard catcalls from men down the street and in cars. Women are also expected to sit in the back seat of taxis and cars; men always sit in the front, and - as I observed on my bus to work - men would rather crowd in the front seat than sit in the back where there are vacancies.
I have grievances against many of the men in this city. It is difficult to generalize, as there are also many men I have encountered who are kindhearted and respectful of women. For example, my host brother Zed and my host father are both very kind and several taxi drivers have engaged me in meaningful conversation about the culture of the city. On the other hand, many taxi drivers have verbally harassed me. I will never forget the taxi ride where the driver consistently asked me where I lived and leered at me through the rearview mirror before pointing to his chest and asking me how to translate "chest" in English. It was very uncomfortable indeed. When I walk from the gym or try to call a taxi, I have faced so many instances of men leaning out from their cars, leering in Arabic, and honking - my friend has told me that this has happened to her even when they were obviously with their wives or girlfriends! It's incredible what the men believe to be civilized and acceptable behavior.
On an even more serious note, we attended a lecture at SIT that was given by a Women's Studies professor at Jordan University. She told us of many atrocities across the city that seem so conservative and yet so dreadful such as suicides of young Jordanian women and honor killings. These will occur when a young woman has lost her virginity before marriage; she will even be forced into suicide to defend the honor of her family or a male relative may murder her. In fact one young woman was recently murdered by her father because she had merely chatted with a man on facebook.
And what's worse is the civil code permits a rapist to marry the woman he has raped. Oftentimes her familly will go along with this sham of a wedding in order to - once again - preserve the family's honor. This makes me so angry.
And because DOMA was overruled in America just yesterday (yay for the court upholding what was already a cultural norm) an honorable mention goes to the concept of how homosexuality is not only shunned and negatively viewed but young gays are brutally murdered. Horrific.
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