One of the significant movements which characterized the 20th was the feminism movement which advocated for equal rights for women. The success of this moment resulted in rise of women’s rights. This ascendancy resulted in better treatment of women in much of the developed world.
As a result of the calls for equality and the respect of rights for women, women were given similar privileges to men. No longer was the life of the women seen as secondary to men’s as they were afforded similar educational, political and occupational opportunities.
However, these positive results of the 20th century feminism movement were not reaped by all countries. Some countries still continue to treat their women in appalling ways. One such country is Afghanistan which has been noted for its violation of women’s rights. The United Nations High Commission for Human Rights which has taken a special interest in the plight of women in this country notes that Afghan women are subject to intensified violence (UNAMA 1).
Women in Afghanistan still lack rights, protection and freedoms that most women in the western world take for granted. As a result of this oppression and violence, some Afghan women have resulted to suicide as an escape from this repressive existence. This points out to the desperate situation that the women are in. As such, help from the international community is needed so as to improve the women’s rights situation in Afghanistan.
This paper shall argue that the U.S. which is a major player in Afghan affairs should do more to protect the human rights of women who have continued to live in oppression in Afghanistan. To reinforce this assertion, this paper shall discuss the oppressive and desolate environment in which many Afghan women are forced to live in.
Human Rights and the Afghan Women
The history of the Afghan women is a turbulent one with incidents of abuses and oppression being rife. These abuses were heightened during the Taliban rule which lasted through the 1990s. The Taliban was made up of Afghan men and boys who trained in Pakistan along with mujahedin to fight for the freedom of their country.
This “freedom fighters” were raised in refugee camps and trained in ultraconservative religious schools which instilled in them fundamentalist values. Once the Soviet forces had been expelled from Afghanistan, the Taliban group formed the government and according to them, their aim was to systemize Afghanistan to be the world’s most pure Islamic state.
To bring about these ideals, the Taliban enforced strict religious laws which greatly limited the rights and freedoms of women during its reign. It is for this reason that the Taliban have been the party mostly blamed for the mistreatment of women in the country.
The Taliban was most notorious for issuing edicts which resulted in the limitation of women’s rights and freedoms. One of the most contentious reforms during the Taliban era was as pertaining to marriage of children. According to the Taliban, it is “good and Islamic to marry your daughters off while they are young’ (Ellis 143).
In the modern age that we are living in, this is tantamount to child abuse and studies indicate that girls who are forced into such marriages have a higher chance of suicide or mental problems. The Taliban has were also responsible for the implementing a caste based system which resulted in women being considered second class citizens in Afghanistan. Wives and daughter were therefore treated in the Taliban era as the individual property of their husbands and fathers.
Taliban reforms also led to a ban on employment of women and a temporary halt to formal female education; these reforms were very retrogressive in nature. The Taliban religion police were also often accused of beating women with sticks in the street which undoubtedly led to a deterioration of the already bad situation for the women in Afghanistan.
While it is assumed that the Taliban were the only ones responsible for the abusive treatment of women in Afghanistan and therefore their fall would result in better treatment of women, this is not entirely true. Rawi asserts that religious fundamentalism which still exists in the Afghan community is the chief cause of misery for women. Due to this religious fundamentalism, most of the rural Afghanistan population is patriarchal and women are brought up to serve their male folks.
This fundamentalism results in women being restricted from holding jobs or even attending jobs and those who do are constantly threatened or at times even physically abused. The UNAMA reveals that an escalation of this condition has resulted in women been killed for “holding jobs that are seen to disrespect traditional practices or are considered ‘un-Islamic’” (1).
In 2004, the Afghan government under the leadership of Ahmed Karzai formulated a new constitution which among other things made provisions for equal rights for women. The new constitution also made provisions which would require that women be a part of the national assembly. A special women’s ministry was also created to bring about the rapid development of women affairs as well as fight for their rights.
However, Rawi notes that these politically motivated moves did not translate to real changes in the lives of the Afghan women. Rawi reveals that the funding which the specially formed Women’s Ministry received was siphoned off by powerful warlords who held positions in the new government.
Another avenue in which the rights of women have been stifled is the parliament. Gopal explains that the reason for this is that the Afghanistan parliament is made up of warlords who were part of the mujahedeen. The mujahedeen was responsible for many atrocities against women including the killing and mass rape of women in Afghanistan during its reign in the 1980s.
It is therefore little surprise that a parliament which is made up of such elements proposed to pass a law that would “legalize marital rape, prohibit women from leaving the home without permission, deny them the right of inheritance and set the minimal female marital age to sixteen” (Gopal).
This legislation which was repressive to women sparked universal condemnation of the Afghan government and resulted in the suspension of this bill which is out rightly oppressive to women.
Role of the U.S.
Following the invasion of Afghanistan by the US in 2001, the then US secretary of state, Colin Powell, made a declaration that “the rights of women in Afghanistan will not be negotiable” (Rawi). With this statement, it was assumed that the U.S. would play a significant role in championing the rights of women which had been almost non-existent in Taliban run Afghanistan. To this end, the U.S. has played some role in ensuring that women rights are in place.
Owing to the role of the U.S. and the international community, the Taliban backed reforms have been condemned and in most cases removed. As such, Afghan women’s rights seem to have improved to some extent. However, these improvements have been localized to the urban areas and even then, they have been limited due to the Taliban influence.
The reality for women today in Afghan is still grim despite the promises that the U.S. made to the Afghans. The women still continue to suffer and their rights are constantly violated and the government is unable to ensure their safety due to lack of proper organization.
The Taliban still continues to deter moves to empower women since despite having been thrown out of power; the group is still active in the country. The Taliban has been said to be conducting covert activities aimed at undermining the little human rights that women have gained over the last 9 years.
The United Nations High Commission for Refugees reveals that the Taliban has continued conducting covert activities in regions such as Kandahar where leaflets with messages such as “Stop sending your women to offices and daughters to schools. It spreads indecency and vulgarity. Stand ready for the consequences if you do not heed the advice” being distributed to the population (5). Such messages undoubtedly spread fear to the families and result in women being oppressed.
The U.S. can curb this by ensuring that the Taliban forces that are instilling fear by spreading these hateful messages are apprehended. By doing this, the U.S. can ensure that families are not intimidated into removing their holding their women at homes and refusing them the opportunity to attend school or go to work.
As has been noted, the Taliban has continued to undermine any moves towards liberating women in Afghanistan. While the U.S. and its international partners have tried to invest in the education of women in Afghanistan, their efforts have been thwarted by the threatening pamphlets distributed by the Taliban as well as physical attacks on schools.
A report by UNAMA documents that in areas where U.S. financed schools operate, parents do not send their female children to school for fear that they may be abducted by anti-government elements who wish to derail government efforts (16). It is therefore evident that the insecurity issue in Afghanistan plays a part in the denial of rights to education for women.
While women who are in high profile positions can be protected by bodyguards, other women such as teachers and nurses cannot receive the same treatment. The U.S. can reverse this situation by ensuring that there is adequate security in Afghanistan. This will result in more girls going to schools and therefore empowering them.
In some cases where women report that they have been threatened, harassed or attacked to the authorities, the law enforcement and judicial institutes lack the capacity to deal with this situation. UNAMA reveals that in some instances where cases get to court, the cases are not taken seriously and no proper records of the same are kept.
This results in the perpetrators of violence not being punished as a result of the dysfunctional system. As such, it can be aid that the Afghan authorities lack the available facilities to deal with the problems that women face even if they wished to. The U.S. can play a major role in reversing this situation by channeling funds to critical areas in the Afghan government.
The role that the elected government can play in ensuring the rights of women cannot be understated. As it currently stands, the government is weak and cannot fully control the country. This has resulted in a situation where the central government holds little influence in the rural society which is dominated by tribes.
This tribes are deeply patriarchal and “women are commoditized into a resource to be bartered, sold and fought over” (Gopal). While the government of Karzai has made attempts to improve the lives of women in Afghanistan, its reforms cannot be enacted in the areas of the country where the weak government has no presence.
It is only though a strong well functioning central government that the rights of women can be guaranteed. Issues such as forced marriages and early marriages which are prevalent in rural Afghanistan can only be dealt with if the Afghan government is strengthened. The U.S. can bring about the strengthening of the Afghan government through a number of ways.
By helping rebuild the infrastructure, the U.S. can enable the remote parts of Afghanistan to be opened up. Financial aid will also enable the Afghan government to set up government institutes in all areas therefore solidifying its presence. This will bring about positive changes for the women of Afghanistan.
Discussion
Admittedly, the main objective of the U.S. in Afghanistan is to bring about stability in the country so as to prevent it from being a hub for terrorists. However, the U.S. has also purposed to create a better Afghanistan for its civilians. For this to be achieved, the rights of the women cannot be ignored since women are an integral part of the society.
Presently, the western influence in Afghan has had some significant positive impact on the lives of women. In Kabul which is the capital city of the country, women have been given freedom to attend school without fear of reprisal. Women also have jobs therefore giving them an opportunity to make a living. However, these positive changes are mostly restricted to the urban areas.
Considering the fact that the majority of women in Afghanistan live in the rural areas, the rights of women cannot be fully realized until the conditions in rural areas are changed. The U.S. has the necessary resources to ensure that this is achieved therefore guaranteeing the rights of women in Afghanistan.
Conclusion
This paper has set out to argue that the U.S. government should do more to bring about the improvement of the women’s right in Afghanistan and not allow the women to be sacrificed by the tribal costumes and be intimidated and threatened. This paper has showcased the human rights situation for the women of Afghanistan by discussing how women in Afghanistan are denied of their basic rights.
The women are not allowed to go to school, and are often treated as property and forced into abusive marriages. It has been revealed that women live in fear and have no freedom especially in the rural regions which are highly patriarchal.
While this paper has demonstrated that the conditions for women have improved significantly since the U.S. led invasion of 2001 which resulted in the fall of the Taliban, women’s conditions are still far from ideal.
The women of Afghan still face many challenges and some of them still lead oppressed lives. From the discussions presented herein, it is evident that the U.S. can do more to ensure that Afghan women have their rights respected. Only then can the Afghan women be truly liberated and enjoy freedom and prosperity as women in the free world do.
Works Cited
Ellis, Deborah. “Women of the Afghan War.” Greenwood Publishing Group, 2000. Print.
The entrenchment of equal rights of women and men and more noticeably the right of every American woman to vote came into being after the enactment of the nineteenth amendment. It happened in 1920, two years after World War I had ended and nearly after a century of agitation by activists and reformers for that right.
However, It is notable that some states, especially those in the west, with the exception of New Mexico, had already ratified such rights at various levels by 1918. In some of these states, all the rights of citizenship were entrenched in their constitution while others passed but reserved the right to vote.
According to Professor Erika A. Kuhlman, women’s suffrage was realized through the process of agitation for granting of equal rights of women by women activists. Professor Kuhlman argues that progressive reformers inspired progressivism to be a way of life from the mid to the end of the nineteenth century.
The leaders of these reformist movements sought to advance their quest for the emancipation of the woman through creating alliances among groups of common political interests. Such groups included the marginalized or those people among the society who by virtue of gender, race and economic status, could not enjoy the benefits of full citizenship. Among these groups were the African Americans, native Indians and the wage laborers.
The two women activists are of particular interest to Professor Kuhlman. She regards as the most credited with the attainment of women’s suffrage among other rights, namely, Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony. The Seneca Falls convention in 1948 by Elizabeth C. Stanton and others marks what Professor Kuhlman depicts to be the first milestone in the quest of the emancipation of the American woman.
In this convention, Elizabeth C. Stanton and others present their grievances. These violations of the very Declaration of independence by their male dominated society were presented in their “Declaration of Sentiments”. The two activists met at a convention three years later, and in 1852, Susa B. Anthony joined Stanton’s movement, which sought to raise concerns on the possible causes and abolishment of domestic violence.
In Erika A. Kuhlman (2002), Professor Kuhlman outlines how these two women mobilized and lobbied for the suffrage of the woman in the American society. After the civil war in 1865, the two reformists joined the abolitionists’ causes who agitated for the thirteenth amendment which aimed at abolishing slavery.
Upon the nation passing the thirteenth amendment in 1865, the abolitionists pushed further for the fourteenth and fifteenth amendments that sought to grant full citizenship rights to every man irrespective of their former economic and social status.
Simultaneously, the Stanton and Anthony pushed for incorporation of the equal rights of the women and men into the constitution. To their dismay, the fourteenth and fifteenth amendments were passed, but the male dominated government did not think that time was ripe for women equality.
The author sees the two reformers as progressive and persistent persons who stood for their movement till its demise and did everything for the realization of equal rights. It took a lot of time and efforts to persuade the male dominated federal government to pass the nineteenth amendment.
According to Professor Laura Woodworth-Ney, women’s suffrage was brought about by a combination of factors that varied from place to place. Professor Woodworth–Ney agrees to some extent with Professor Kuhlman assertion on the role of progressive reformists but on limited terms. A major contributor to the realization of the women’s right to vote, Professor Woodworth-Ney, contents that this cause was only attributed to play a key role in some selected states.
According to Professor Woodworth-Ney, in the western states where the right to vote for women was granted first, only in the Pacific Coastal states of Oregon and Washington, the progressive reformist movements played the most notable role in the attainment of suffrage for women. It was until 1871 when Susan B. Anthony alongside Abigail Scott Duniway toured the Pacific Coast and when the agitation for women’s suffrage got a new impetus.
Consequent activism by Duniway and others through her publications and other activities led to the passing of a law that granted the right to own property to women in 1878. However, the dream of women to have the equal rights would not have ever come true if some years later, agitation by reformists from western states that had already passed the law passed it in Washington and Oregon.
The state of Wyoming was the first state among all the other to pass this law in 1869. The passage of the law of suffrage for women was solely attributed to attract women to immigrate and persuade some of them to stay there. Professor Woodworth-Ney notes that, by the time this law was passed, the state had a women population of about 400. In the case of Utah which became the second state to pass the suffrage law, religion was the key player.
The predominant religion in the state was Mormon which advocates for polygamy. The national government had been exerting pressure on the abolishment of such practices. Therefore, the legislators in Utah thought a way round and passed the women’s suffrage law. In doing so, they sought to persuade the national government that the women there made their own decisions and were comfortable with polygamous agreements.
Professor Woodworth-Ney goes on to assert that, in Texas, the drive to pass this law was influenced by the notion that granting equal right to women would serve to disenfranchise non-whites further. They argued that by enacting this law, white votes would be increased, and, therefore, it would increase the chances of whites to retain control of state legislations.
All of the three Professors, namely, Foner, Woodworth-Ney and Kuhlman, agree that granting women’s suffrage was not the ultimate solution to absolute practice of equality in America. Although all the women around the nation could exercise their right to vote, there still existed some laws and practices in the society peculiar to states that contravened the enjoyment of full citizenship status of the American woman.
Some labor laws were restricting the rights of the working woman. Some laws banned women to work at night. Others still prohibited women from doing certain duties, such as holding jobs that could require one to exceed a given time limit a day.
The Professors and the author’s statements indicate strongly that granting the right to vote to women was extremely an evolutionary process. It is notable that on more than one occasion, the granting of the suffrage right was occasioned by overwhelming forces of nature.
As it has been noted, cultural, religious and racial interests for the males were perceived to be served better on enactment of women’s suffrage. The thirteenth, fourteenth and fifteenth amendments partially liberated the African American woman and fully granted all the citizenship rights to their male counterparts. It is natural to conclude that all the women of color together with their white counterparts were on their way to emancipation.
The women’s rights movement has become stronger in the last decade. Indeed, the US has hosted many of the movement’s events and activities because it is the world’s superpower. One can argue that the movement has for a long time been centered on making policy changes in the US legislation, which would then affect other countries. In America, there has been a steady rise of feminist clinics where necessary reproductive health services can be received in a conducive and female-friendly environment. Feminists in the US have indeed taken advantage of the country’s stable political standing in the global platform to push their agenda. For example, whereas the women’s health rights movement is a global affair, the fact that events related to the movement are mainly held in the US means that other countries do not feel the impact of the said events. It implies that even though policies in the US have been changing in regards to women’s health, policymakers in other countries have not been much affected.
The nature of the women’s health movement has so far been to drive policy change in the US. One can argue that this is so because the movement began in the US. In analyzing the media reflection on the activities that lead up to the organizing of health events for feminists, one can confirm that indeed the agenda has so far always revolved around how women are treated in the US. For instance, women from different parts of the world join the movement’s forums and activities, yet the countries they come from still oppress women. Due to this, it can be stated that the women’s health movement has failed in protecting all women regardless of the region they are from, and their background.
It is expected that the women’s health movement will change strategy and focus more on other countries that still uphold conservative and unfair policies on women’s health rights. For example, in Saudi Arabia, women still cannot access reproductive health services freely due to cultural constraints. However, the women’s health movement has several prominent supporters from the region.
It is also expected that in the coming years the movement will appreciate male involvement in the attainment of female health rights. One might argue that the proposed suggestion is chauvinistic to some degree. However, the majority of the world leaders and policymakers are male. Also, the world has not fully embraced the issue of gender equality, and it is for this reason that movements such as the women’s health movement still struggle to be heard. However, it is anticipated that more support will be needed to ensure that women get quality and timely reproductive health services despite age, social class, and region of residence.
When my generation makes its mark on the cause, the women’s health movement will impact policy in all countries and not just the US. The statement does not in any way undermine the global achievements that the movement has recorded over the years. It is, however, an affirmative call to action to ensure that all women around the globe reap from the significant achievements of the movement as it represents all women equally. Even though there are country chapters of the movement, they require substantial support to ensure that they too make an impact at a local level.
Beginning in 2010, the Arab world has entered what is now known as Arab Spring—a series of social protests, often taking the form of non-violent demonstrations but also resulting in violent outbreaks. The wave started with social unrest in Tunisia in 2010 and soon spread across large part of the Arab World, including Yemen, Bahrain, Egypt, Syria, Libya, and to a lesser degree, Iraq, Kuwait, Algeria, Morocco, Jordan, Oman, and Saudi Arabia. The main wave was over by 2012, but the social and political aftermath of the phenomenon can still be detected today. From a strictly political perspective, the Arab Spring resulted in major changes only in Tunisia, where a constitutional democratic government was established after the revolution. However, many scholars tend to prioritize social motives as that direct effects of the event.
While the initial cause, according to the consensus, was the disillusionment with the existing government, the movement soon became associated with social rights and equality, and their derivative effects, such as unemployment, an alarming poverty rate, and an environment unfavorable to educated youth. Understandably, Arab women soon became the center of attention in the media, both inside the Arab world, and on an international scale. Some analysts speculated that women have served as a major force in the revolution and will sooner or later face the most radical social and cultural changes following from the Arab Spring.
Nevertheless, the majority of these suggestions turned out to be over-optimistic, far-fetched, hasty, and for the most part, unfulfilled by 2016, as aside from small-scale improvements, the situation is only slightly improved. Furthermore, despite active participation directly in the demonstrations and the social activism movements that followed, there are feasible risks of regression, as some experts point out, resulting in adverse effects. Simply put, while the Arab Spring can still be perceived as potentially beneficial for women, it also poses a threat of setbacks, and its ultimate impact is yet to be determined.
The aim of the research is to define the effects that the Arab Spring has had on the perception of women in the Arab society. To be more accurate, the differences in the vision of women’s roles and responsibilities as citizens will be considered and assessed.
Women as peace-builders
From the perspective of the international legal provisions, when locating the demographics that are typically affected by military actions to the greatest extent, women are traditionally singled out as the most vulnerable members of the population. The reasons for the observed phenomenon are quite evident; since participation in military actions is typically viewed as men’s duty, women do not receive the necessary training to protect themselves. As a result, the female members of the population may fall prey to aggressive opponents and be subjected to many forms of violence, including the sexual one.
As a response to the consistent threat to the identified members of the community, the article 27 of the Geneva Convention (IV) relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War states, “women shall be especially protected against any attack on their honour, in particular against rape, enforced prostitution, or any form of indecent assault” (Fernandez and Ortega 2). Although providing some form of protection, the regulation can be defined as simplifying the danger to which women are subdued. Furthermore, it distorts the contemporary image of a woman, which is far from being passive and non-militant. Women can take an active part in protecting themselves and their community, as well as supporting the affected population by assisting in the areas such as healthcare, leadership, etc.
Thus, although admittedly destructive, military confrontations can be considered the tools for subverting the archaic societal norms and replacing them with more appropriate ones, and women playing the roles traditionally considered male is a graphic example of such change. In fact, the ideas represented above were suggested in the United Nations Security Council Resolution (UNSCR) 1325 in 2010. Based on the provisions of the resolution, a reconsideration of the current gender policy and the enhancement of women’s role in military conflict management are needed to enhance the efficacy of negotiations and the related processes. Thus, women can participate in decision-making processes on the state level, contributing to a change in the political landscape of the country.
The Effect of Arab Spring on Women Security
From the onset of the first demonstrations in Tunisia, followed by the rest of the countries of the Arab World, the phenomenon now known as Arab Spring became strongly associated with women. The extensive participation of the female population in the uprising was by some experts as a defining factor in the successful outcomes of revolution thoroughly covered by media and created the overall image of Arab Spring as a major opportunity for women to realize their potential. Their participation in protests on a par with men and, in some cases, prominent involvement in journalism and other forms of activism is cited in Tunisia and, to some degree, Egypt, Libya, and Yemen (Shalaby and Moghadam 37).
The most evident reason for such active involvement was their dissatisfaction with their social status in most of Arab countries. Naturally, the scale, scope, and magnitude of events suggested major changes in the lives of women following the revolution. One particular area that was expected to be subject to change was the security of women resulting from improved gender equality. In fact, the equal participation of men and women was so intense and presented such a contrast to the traditional image of oppressed victims with no rights, that it was perceived as a turning point at the beginning of a new era of gender equity. However, subsequent events show little improvement over the initial situation. In Tunisia, for instance, the newly installed government has tried to distance itself from the previous hegemonic masculinity, which included, among other things, oppression of women (Shalaby and Moghadam 117).
Studies show that the Arab Spring has had a significant impact on the culture of the states involved in the confrontation. For instance, literacy rates among women reached a stunning mark of 86% in 2012 (UNICEF “Statistics” para. 5). The academic participation of female members of the population has also risen in Egypt, secondary school attendance ratio reaching 69.5% (UNICEF “Statistics” para. 5).
While the intuitive assumption is that the new regime should embrace women’s empowerment, the actual result is paradoxically the direct opposite: The new government is making an effort to depict the women who actively participated in the uprising and were responsible for its success as associated with the old regime, e.g., the accusations of certain secular women’s movements being implicated in the discrepancies characteristic for previous governance, and other attempts to imply their participation in malevolent dealings of the old regime (Stepan and Linz 24). This naturally compromises women’s social security and undermines their political capability, not to mention a worsening public perception. Unfortunately, insecurities do not end there, as some sources also report a decline in physical security of women resulting from Arab Spring.
In Egypt, for instance, activist groups reported multiple sexual assaults during the protests on Tahrir Square in June 2013. This issue eventually became persistent enough to create a response in the form of anti-sexual harassment groups aimed at protecting women from violent sexual attacks. According to the analysts, such behavior was not entirely spontaneous, since it aligned with the policies of Muslim Brotherhood’s government, which is known for its reluctance to address the problem (Stepan and Linz 23). This assertion is partially confirmed by a Thomson Reuters Foundation poll. According to its results, Egypt currently has the worst life conditions for women, with violence and harassment among the chief factors responsible for the ranking (Mele and Vujnovic 331). This means that violence against women was not a spontaneous reaction but a sign of a systematic phenomenon partially grounded in existing prejudice, newly emerging policies, and social factors such as poverty and literacy.
Furthermore, the Arab Spring has had a direct effect on the literacy rates in the affected states, in general. With a much stronger emphasis on the significance of IT innovations and the opportunities for communication that they provide, the target environment incorporates more chances for learning and conversing than it used to. As a result, the process of knowledge and skills acquisition has been launched, and the literacy rates are currently growing in the identified environment (UNICEF “A Generation on the Move” 23). In other words, global organizations tend to view the Arab Spring as a factor affecting the education levels positively. However, the conflicts between the Arab Spring countries and the states in the Middle East, Gulf Countries, and the UAE, which the movement implies, make it quite clear that numerous political, economic, financial, and social challenges lie ahead.
Women That Became Famous During and After the Arab Spring
During the course of the Arab Spring movement, several women stood out as prominent examples and served as a model for others to join the revolt. Among the best-known of these is Asmaa Mahfouz, an Egyptian activist credited by the media as one of the facilitators of the Egyptian Revolution. While involved in the Coalition of the Youth of the Revolution, she is mostly remembered as an author of a 2011 video voicing disapproval of Mubarak’s regime, which allegedly was responsible for triggering the Revolution. While some believe that such scope diminishes her other achievements, it also illustrates the role of social media, which, according to some scholars, played a defining role in the Arab Spring (Leender 249).
Israa Abdel Fattah, an Egyptian activist credited by the media as one of the facilitators of the Egyptian Revolution, is a similar example of a woman strongly influencing the course of the uprising. She is well-known for her blogs and YouTube videos, in which she discloses some of the issues on the political and cultural agenda of Egypt. Her contribution to informing the world of the course of events, and leadership for women of Egypt eventually created a strong movement of activists (Leenders 251). Her case remains an illustration of both the role of women in the Arab Spring movement and insecurity created by the transformation associated with it.
Examples of positive effects on women can also be found. For instance, most of the countries under the influence of the Arab Spring report improvements in access to education for women. With the exception of Yemen, all of the countries display steady growth of women’s school enrollment, with at least three of them reporting a prevalence of women in higher education establishments (Mohamadieh 373). It should be noted, however, that the cultural heritage of the reported countries still poses a sufficient barrier to women on most occasions. Besides, women still experience difficulties in applying their obtained expertise to pursue a successful career, since their society discourages them from achieving success on a par with men. Another positive effect can be observed in access to health care. After the onset of the Arab Spring, both maternal mortality and infant mortality in most countries decreased significantly, and female life expectancy rose by 18 years on average (Mohamadieh 375). Thus, while some areas demonstrate improvement, the overall impact of the Arab Spring on women cannot be definitively deemed positive due to cultural and political barriers.
Islamic Extremism’s Influence on Women
The emergence of Islamic extremist groups has also played an adverse role in women’s rights after the revolution. While neither Quran nor Hadith feature specific instructions that explicitly define the role of women in society, extremist groups tend to emphasize and sometimes reinterpret the messages to specifically restrict women rights (Johansson-Nogués 399). As these groups often emphasize radical policies that suggest economic and political reforms, and distance themselves from the old government, they look especially attractive in the light of the Arab Spring, which was primarily driven by disillusionment with the old regime. As a result, they have gradually become more influential over the latter years. Unfortunately, patriarchy is among the cornerstones of their ideology, which inevitably widens the gap in gender equality.
The disillusionment with the Western social model and the tendency to turn to a more traditional society is also used by Islamic extremist groups to portray the rising role of women in society as an invention of colonial politics and a threat to Muslim society (Johansson-Nogués 397). The improvement in education and the presence of women in the social sphere following the social unrest in the Arab world also triggered a reaction: After the number of educated women increased enough to threaten male dominance, the supporters of extremist groups, often unable to compete with more educated and competent female specialists, immediately responded with additional restrictions and emphasized the need to restrict women to their inferior social positions. In Yemen, for instance, the Islah party openly declared a decision to allow women’s participation in voting, which was perceived as an improvement over the previously restrictive policy.
At the same time, no female candidate was put forward by the party, which rendered the decision useless and qualified it more as a publicity stunt than an actual reform. On certain occasions, the legal changes introduced after the revolution actually nullified the progress made in the field of women’s rights in recent decades. For instance, in Egypt, the provisions of the new constitution included a lower minimum age for girls to marry, and other changes were discussed that suggested increased limitations on divorce rights and freedom of movement (Stepan and Linz 19). In Tunisia, an unsuccessful attempt was made by the Islamic party to undermine gender equality by introducing a legal definition of gender complementarity, and in Libya, the 2011 changes in the constitution resulted in removal of the equality provision, followed by an announcement from the government with regard to removing restrictions concerning polygamy (Charrad and Zarrugh 234).
As a result, the Arab Spring created a somewhat paradoxical setting where the changing social climate favored both the improvement of women’s rights and action by the forces that are dissatisfied with such developments and have at their disposal the means to hamper any trend unfavorable for themselves.
Conclusion
The review of the consequences of the Arab Spring and its impact on women’s rights creates a rather bleak picture. Despite the seemingly obvious immediate improvement projected by the media and the general public, expectations were largely unfulfilled. However, this does not mean that results are nonexistent. The progress made in health care and education, not to mention the recognition on the global scale and the tremendous contribution to awareness cannot be ignored in assessing the outcomes. Thus, several conclusions and suggestions can be made to warrant further improvement of the role of women in the countries in question. First, the uneven results must be perceived as a sign of inaccurate predictions and an overoptimistic view, rather than a proof of improperly chosen methods. Second, the barriers hampering achievements must be acknowledged and possibly addressed.
For instance, the progress made in education is currently conflicting with values and cultural implications propagated by Islamic extremist groups, rendering the achievement unusable. Women have already demonstrated the ability to organize and undertake challenging tasks, despite major social and cultural resistance. It is a fact that the current climate is not favorable to goals pursued by women’s activist groups, but the first achievements are already observable, and while the situation still demands intervention, it can be argued that in ten to twenty years, the situation will be further improved. The unfulfilled expectations, in this case, are not so much a reason for despair as the proof of the complexity of a social environment that already demonstrates a capacity for embracing women’s rights, but still presents unforeseen challenges and requires cautious analysis to assist high aspirations for the future.
Works Cited
Charrad, Mounira, and Amina Zarrugh. “Equal or complementary? Women in the new Tunisian Constitution after the Arab Spring.” The Journal of North African Studies 19.2 (2014): 230-243. Print.
Fernandez, Rosa Anna Alija, and Olga Martin Ortega. ” Women’s Rights in The Arab Spring: A Chance to Flourish, a Risk of Hibernation.” Revista de Estudios Jurídicos 11.1 (2011): 1-12. Print.
Johansson-Nogués, Elisabeth. “Gendering the Arab Spring? Rights and (in) security of Tunisian, Egyptian and Libyan women.” Security Dialogue 44.5-6 (2013): 393-409. Print.
Leenders, Reinoud. “12 ‘OH BUTHAINA, OH SHA ‘BAN—THE HAWRANI IS NOT HUNGRY, WE WANT FREEDOM!’.” Social Movements, Mobilization, and Contestation in the Middle East and North Africa (2013): 246-258. Print.
Mohamadieh, Kinda. “No Revolutions without Equality and Justice: The struggle for women’s rights in rethinking development in the Arab Region.” Development 55.3 (2012): 369-381. Print.
Shalaby, Marwa, and Valentine Moghadam. Empowering Women after the Arab Spring, New York: Palgrave Macmillan US, 2016. Print.
Stepan, Alfred, and Juan Linz. “Democratization Theory and the ‘Arab Spring’.” Journal of Democracy 24.2 (2013): 15-30. Print.
UNICEF. A Generation on the Move. Insights into the Conditions, Aspirations and Activism of Arab Youth. 2011. Web.
In Middle Eastern countries, the status of women has been vulnerable prior to the twentieth century. Today, the situation is changing, as Arab females can obtain higher education, including education abroad, and also be employed, and they are expanding their ideas about what permissible and normal behavior is. A devoted wife and a caring mother of many children who wears a burqa and is afraid to go outside her home without her husband – this stereotype is widespread. However, women of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Saudi Arabia are allowed to participate in many activities and are becoming increasingly emancipated, even though some challenges still need to be addressed.
This paper will focus on the legal framework of women’s employment in the UAE and Saudi Arabia. The fact is that females in these countries have been discriminated against and their ability to work has been limited for many centuries, and they still comprise a small part of the workforce compared to males. This situation is largely determined by the local culture and religion, which define a woman as a person belonging to a man and therefore required to be dependent on him. The modern reality dictates new requirements and challenges, as women also want to become active members of society. In this regard, it is critical to examine the current position of women, their employment rights, and potential opportunities for further initiatives with the aim of achieving equality.
Examining Women’s Employment Rights in the UAE and Saudi Arabia
Background
The position of women in the societies of the UAE and Saudi Arabia is a cause for endless controversy. On the one hand, many of the first impression seem to be true. Public relations between women and men are limited in the given countries, and women are required to dress following strict canons of Islamic law and not appear in public without a male relative.1 There is a female half of the house that is strictly separated from males where women receive guests, and most of women’s duties are reduced to taking care of the house and raising children. Nevertheless, this does not mean that women are perceived as or treated as slaves.
Under a black garment covering the whole body, a dress from the best fashion designers in the world can be hidden, often decorated with embroidery or precious stones. In addition, women may enjoy the benefits of globalization, including the Internet and other technologies. In other words, one should stress that women are not treated as slaves but limited under the rules of Sharia and other legal restrictions.
At any time, a woman may apply to a Sharia judge to demand a divorce. The reason for this may be noncompliance with the conditions of the marriage contract: the appropriateness of the living conditions or mistreatment by her husband may play a role. The UAE constitution states that “equality, social justice, ensuring safety and security and equality of opportunity for all citizens shall be the pillars of the society (Article 14).”2
Even the ban on education for women has long been lifted, although in many educational institutions, female students are still not allowed to attend lectures by male teachers. In Saudi Arabia and the UAE, approximately ten local colleges teach only women, focusing on the most popular professions. However, in some areas of Saudi Arabia, primarily in the southern region of the country, morals are quite conservative, and local women are obliged to cover their hair and face and care only about home.
In the UAE, women’s s rights are in a special position and reliably protected by a legislative framework. According to the UAE constitution, “All persons are equal before the law, without distinction between citizens of the Union in regard to race, nationality, religious belief or social status.”3 It is unacceptable to disparage, harass, or insult a woman; there is no right to video or photograph Arab women.
For violations, the law provides for severe penalties, which can be expressed as significant fines or imprisonment. In the UAE, women occupy an important place, serving as inspirations and mentors for their husbands. An Arab woman should be able to provide her husband with all possible support in all situations and provide the right advice. In turn, Arab men should serve as support and protection for their wives. Along with the status of a caregiver for children and a hostess of the house, they are acquiring the role of active members of modern society. This situation is bringing about a completely new level of women’s work and education.
In 2008, Saudi Arabia ratified the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW), which was established in 1981.4 A proviso was included that in the event of any conflict between the convention and Islamic law, the kingdom would not be obliged to those provisions as noted. Only in 2004 was a ban lifted that did not allow women to obtain business licenses. Previously, women could open a business only on behalf of a male relative. According to Human Rights Watch, women do not have the right to travel without the permission of their male guardians or contact government agencies where there are no special departments to serve women.
Saudi Arabia, under strict Sharia law, is one of the most conservative countries in the world. The custody rules for men over women are regulated there by judicial authorities who are controlled by the clergy. The strict manner of Islamic norms is exacerbated by the fact that the country officially follows the doctrine of Sheikh Muhammad ibn Abd Al Wahhab, who promoted the so-called purity of Islam. In other words, this 18th-century Islamic theologian claimed to be following Islamic tradition in its most radical interpretation. Al Wahhab rendered important services to the Saudi princely house long before the establishment of Saudi Arabia.
It should also be remembered that modern Saudi Arabia was formed under the active influence of the Ikhwan. This was a movement for pure Islam, and its military units helped the first Saudi King, Abdulaziz ibn Saud, to seize Mecca and Medina and create Saudi Arabia.
Legal Discrimination: Women in the Workforce
Today, women make up one third of the government of the UAE, two thirds of civil employees, and two thirds of graduates of national universities. All this is part of the National Strategy for the Empowerment of Emirati Women, which was launched by Sheikha Fatima bint Mubarak Al Ketbi in 2015. The UAE, according to Thomson Reuters, ranks tenth out of 22 on the rights of women among Arab countries. At the international level, it takes the 109th place out of 148 countries in the context of gender equality. While employment and education offer good opportunities for women, their personal life and related restrictions remain a critical issue.
Only after 1960 were women given the opportunity to do some activities outside their homes and families. The situation started to change after the discovery of large oil reserves in the UAE. The first president, Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan, allowed women to work and opened elementary schools for female children. The sheikh’s wife, Fatima, headed the women’s federation and encouraged more and more women and girls to receive education, which should be regarded as a large step towards promoting women’s employment rights. Women composed 6.2 percent of the country’s workforce in 1988, working mainly in the education and health sectors.
“Society shall esteem work as a cornerstone of its development. It shall endeavor to ensure that employment is available for citizens and to train them so that they are prepared for it (Article 20, UAE Constitution).”5 At the same time, “every citizen shall be free to choose his occupation, trade or profession within the limits of law (Article 34, UAE Constitution).”6 Currently, the UAE has the highest level of female employment, namely 59 percent, among Gulf region countries, which is however only 14 percent of the total workforce.
On the Abu Dhabi Stock Exchange, 43 percent of investors are women, and the city’s association of emirates entrepreneurs includes 14,000 women. In 2006, women accounted for more than 22 percent of the Federal National Council. According to recent information, there are only two women judges in the country. The situation seems to be worse in Saudi Arabia, where women are not allowed to participate in investment, and they received the right to drive a car only in 2018.
The women of the UAE, unlike those of Saudi Arabia, are welcome to join government departments, including the police. In rural areas, many women work on par with men and occupy posts of responsibility in many industries. The participation of women in the public and political life of the UAE has received close attention. In the first elections of the representative body of the UAE, the Federal National Council, more than 1,100 women participated as electors, representing 18 percent of the people having the right to vote. In the government, the posts of minister, deputy minister, and department head in a ministry are occupied by women in 5.6 percent of cases. The law is part of the Women’s Empowerment Strategy in the UAE. In Saudi Arabia, females cannot participate in elections or occupy positions in ministries.
The UAE government passed a law equalizing the remuneration for men and women in similar positions. In making them partners in the country’s development, this new legislation provides equal opportunities for women. In other words, the law gives them a stronger right to contribute to the implementation of national strategies and ambitious projects and reduces the gender gap. In 2015, the Council on Gender Balance was established in the UAE, lifting the country to a principal position in gender issues among the leading countries worldwide.7
The approval of the new law by the cabinet is consistent with the government’s goal of protecting the rights of women and supporting their role in the development of the state. The foundations for this initiative were laid by Sheikha Fatima, chairman of the Women’s Supreme Council. “Women throughout the region earn less than men despite labor laws that mandate equal pay for the same type of work and equal opportunities for training and promotion.” This shows that not only laws, but also the manner of their implementation should be developed and monitored.
There are still a number of barriers to the participation of women in Arab countries in economic activity, which is associated with religious traditions. There is an insufficient level of development of productivity and wage discrimination. Therefore, only a third of women are included in the group of economically active women. The consideration of women’s rights in Saudi Arabia requires closer attention to their cultural traditions and the way women are perceived in Saudi society.
Since early childhood, girls are taught that their main role is to support the family, give birth, and raise children. In other words, it is believed that a man is obliged to work, while a woman takes care of the family.
However, Sharia allows a woman to work, provided she does not neglect her family responsibilities, and also if no one is able to ensure her basic needs. According to Saudi law, a woman can work only in specially designated places for women, or as a doctor or teacher and in areas where a female client should avoid contact with men. In theory, a woman can perform any government work in which she can come into contact with men. In practice, this is done in the private sector, where men and women work under the same roof, although private businesses are supposed to follow the example of government agencies. Officially, a female cannot take a business trip without a mahram (husband or relative).
The key barrier is associated with the fact that a woman can work only when she is allowed to do so by a mahram, while the work is also supposed to be suitable for the female physique and mentality. For example, women cannot work in the judicial field or occupy important government positions. Although educational institutions and medicine remain key areas of work for women, the number of women working in the field of finance slightly increased between 2000 and 2008. This means that the female part of society is gradually increasing its economic role in the country.
The empowerment of employment for women has been resisted by the Ministry of Labor, religious conservatives, and Saudi citizens. They follow strict Islamic principles that dictate that a woman’s working is contrary to her nature. The Saudi Ministry of Labor is also skeptical about the possibility of expanding labor rights for women, citing the fact that the best place for a woman is in her home. They emphasize that no woman can work without the consent of a guardian, so she cannot replace her family responsibilities with work. However, in recent years, women are beginning to play an increasingly significant role in such industries as banking and medicine.
If men and women work in the same industry, men tend to receive higher wages and other benefits. According to Saudi legislation, health insurance is not provided to a woman during childbirth, but is to be given through a male employee, her husband.
Nowadays, women in Saudi Arabia make up 17 percent of the workforce. For comparison, in other Muslim countries, for example, the UAE or Kuwait, their share is more than 40 percent. According to Al-Ahmadi, women’s career development in Saudi Arabia remains extremely slow due to the active resistance of men and the state.8 Only two influential women in the country, Dr. Al-Hazzaa, the head of the King Faisal’s ophthalmology department and Dr. Al-Olayan, an entrepreneur, are widely known. In 2013, the first woman was registered in Saudi Arabia as a novice lawyer, after women were officially allowed to work as lawyers. The question of how much attention is given to their arguments and work remains controversial.
In the kingdom, there is an initiative to build a separate district in the city of Al-Khufuf where only women can work. Without violating the conditions of gender segregation, the women would be able to successfully implement their careers without hiding from the public. Women’s companies and facilities for production are expected to be located there. Western agencies are skeptical of the project, calling it a PR campaign to improve the image of Saudi Arabia. Indeed, the placement of special jobs for women in a particular city does not fit the concept of gender equality. On the other hand, such a step may be regarded as a way to allow women to work and then improve their situation. As declared in Saudi Vision 2030, the state aims to increase women’s participation in the labor force to 30 percent, thus revolutionizing the Saudi economy.
Unemployment rates for women in Saudi Arabia are almost five times higher than for men, as about a third of women of working age do not have a job. Moreover, among university graduates, there are more women than men: 105,494 versus 98,210 in 2016.9
However, due to the cultural characteristics and traditions of Saudi Arabia, women find it difficult to get a job. It has become evident that not only legislative obstacles but also cultural stereotypes impede women’s entrance into the workforce. It is very difficult to get interviews, as young women who have graduated from the university with certain degrees have noted. They hope to quickly find work in Saudi Arabia, yet have to spend months before becoming employed. In 2011, the government banned men from working in lingerie stores. Since then, the number of women in retail has reached 200,000. Retail is the only sector where many women can work, which may help the broader society understand the fact that women can participate in every sphere.
The difficulties faced by Saudi women are largely caused by a conservative culture and outdated laws. Many get married early and take care of home and children, having no time for education. Those who want to have a career encounter barriers due to bans on certain types of activities. For example, driving was not allowed. Gender segregation in many public places and the unwillingness of companies to hire women also violate the rights of women. Changing this situation is one of the key elements of the economic reform plan of Prince Muhammad ibn Salman. One of its tasks is to increase the share of women employed in the workforce and cut the total unemployment rate almost in half.
Economic Empowerment
In the UAE, women’s rights are enshrined in the basic law. The country’s constitution declares that a woman in the UAE can receive an education and work on par with men. Today, there is some progress in this issue and some opportunities are available.10 For example, in Dubai, many modern Arab women are engaged in various spheres of public and political life. These changes have had a beneficial effect both on the state as a whole and on the Arab public. In Saudi Arabia, the situation is similar to that of the UAE: young women prefer receiving higher education in order to be employed and find a career. However, a review of the available literature shows that more opportunities are available to UAE female citizens based on various programs, grants, and state projects.
More and more young Arab women are beginning to enroll in higher education and receive relevant diplomas. A modern woman in the UAE occupies a position no less respected than men and is able to earn just as much as men. This situation does not mean that Arab women are actively fighting for independence or are trying to prove their worth. On the contrary, the changes are happening quite harmoniously, and Arab women understand and realize the importance of modern educational processes. In the UAE, women who receive higher education contribute to the rising of the country to a completely new level.
In order to better understand the actions of the UAE, it is useful to take note of the 2030 Dubai Industrial Strategy, which includes 75 initiatives and involves investing $44 billion in the emirate’s economy. The strategy is based on five objectives, which include the development of industry and innovation as well as the promotion of energy efficiency. The goal of the strategy is to attract more international industrial companies to Dubai. All this indirectly will have a positive impact on the Dubai economy in particular and the UAE as a whole, thereby strengthening the country’s position in the international arena.
By 2018, the Dubai transport system will also change significantly: 25 percent of the city’s traffic will make use of autonomous transport. The neighboring emirate of Abu Dhabi is implementing a number of important initiatives, including Abu Dhabi Economic Vision 2030, Environment Vision 2030, and Plan Abu Dhabi 2030. All of these will have a positive impact on the development of the UAE and the region as a whole. By 2030, significant results will be achieved by implementing the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) program for the UAE’s sustainable development. This includes 17 targets based on the UN Millennium Development Goals and should greatly improve living conditions throughout the country.
It should be emphasized, however, that traditions in these countries still remain very significant and are highly respected. Even in traditional educational institutions, women are separated from men — these are the requirements of the Sharia, the custom since ancient times, when Arab statehood was in its infancy. Females in the UAE and Saudi Arabia are educated separately from males. Arab scholars stress that it may seem that women’s rights are being denied, but this is not the case, and Arab women have all the rights and freedoms of a modern individual.
As an example of the ongoing economic empowerment, one may note that in ultra-conservative Saudi Arabia, women attorneys have received the right to appear in court. This was reported in 2012 by the Egyptian newspaper Al Watan.11 The decision of the Ministry of Justice of the Saudi kingdom came into force at the end of the great Muslim holiday of Eid-al-Adha. The ministry’s document notes that a female attorney with a diploma and having completed a three-year internship at a law firm has the right to appear in court. Until now, women lawyers did not have such a right. Many young female attorneys are currently undergoing internships to be eligible to speak in court.
To return from statistics about the status of women to their rights, one may note that Saudi Arabia is the only state in the world where women had no right to drive a car until 2018.12 Several campaigns by human rights defenders failed to convince the government to lift this driving ban. In Saudi Arabia, seven activists fighting for women’s rights were arrested, as reported by Human Rights Watch. Among the detainees, there are two men and five women, including the blogger Eman al-Nafyan and the activists Aziza Al-Youssef and Loudzhan Hatlul, who had already been arrested for trying to enter the country by car. Representatives of the authorities said the detainees were suspected of trying to undermine the security and stability of the kingdom and had suspicious contacts with foreign countries.
The Saudi crown prince wants to make it clear to all citizens that they are eligible for all freedoms and rights, and there are certain steps towards this. Now the women of Saudi Arabia have received the right to drive a car. The decree of King Salman bin Abdul Aziz Al Saud on the elimination of the prohibition on driving vehicles for residents of the kingdom came into force. The lifting of the ban is one of the most significant steps in the framework of the Vision 2030 strategy that was adopted at the initiative of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. The key objectives of the strategy are to turn Saudi Arabia away from oil dependence and transform it into one of the most modern economies worldwide. Thus women are now empowered to use a car to get to work, and public transportation is developed as well.
Previously, work in Saudi Arabia for women was possible only in the fields of education or healthcare. In the medical industry, women could only be employed as gynecologists and dermatologists. Employment in the oil industry can provide access to the profession of engineer, although only one company in Saudi Arabia, Saudi Aramco, employed women. Other organizations did not have similar employment rights for women. In 2015, women were allowed to work at sales counters in department stores, but only under the condition that women’s faces were completely covered. They also have the right to work as storekeepers in these organizations.
The demand for foreign labor is due to a lack of qualified specialists among the local population, the low level of women’s labor activity, and the unwillingness of the majority of Saudi citizens to work in unpopular and underpaid sectors of the economy. The main factor behind the demand is the rise in world oil prices and, as a result, the growth of the kingdom’s economy. Saudi authorities are working on a draft of new labor legislation that is similar to the existing law in the UAE.
The Ministry of Labor of Saudi Arabia has created a department for the rights of foreign workers, optimized a labor complaints mechanism, created shelters for abused female servants, and tightened penalties for employment agencies, sponsors, and employers who violate the rights of workers.13 For a two-month delay in wages, an employer may be deprived of the right to hire employees for a period of one year. If an employee is not paid a salary for three months, he has the right to change his sponsor without any sanctions (the system established in the kingdom determines that the place of work can be changed no more than three times, and a foreigner has to pay a fine for this change).
Vision 2030 mentions the creation of new jobs in the state, including for women, as priorities for the next fifteen years. In addition, the Saudi authorities intend to concentrate on the development of industries not related to oil production. In this way, they hope to cope with oil dependence in a country whose revenues have noticeably decreased after the fall in world prices for oil. For example, Saudi Arabia plans to create a state-owned investment fund with total assets of $2 trillion, which according to the authorities will become the largest in the world. Another key point will be the possible privatization of such sectors as healthcare and education.
Today, the state is ready to entrust women with positions of high responsibility as civilian pilots and air traffic controllers. In addition, more recently, women have been able to enter service in law enforcement, become road police and instructors in driving schools, as well as serve at the border. The right granted by the monarch to women to drive cars essentially became a prologue to numerous innovations in the life of the kingdom and opened the way toward a modern society. While Saudi Arabia was formerly one of the most closed countries in the world, and the ultraconservative culture of Islam played a decisive role here, it is rapidly undergoing dramatic changes.
More educated women tend to join the labor market, and the percentage of women employed is reaching higher rates: in Qatar – 50.5 percent, in Kuwait – 42.3 percent, the UAE – 37.5 percent, and in Saudi Arabia – 14.6 percent. During visits to the countries of the Gulf Cooperation Council, the representatives of the United Nations have been encouraged by the latest efforts of the countries of the region in the area of human rights. Many of the member states of the Organization of the Islamic Conference have made a number of changes to their legislation governing women’s rights related to employment.
United Nations data indicates that the share of women in key roles such as lawmakers, senior officials and executives has reached ten percent in the UAE and eight percent in Saudi Arabia. This demonstrates the need for further laws that may increase the prevalence of women in the public and private sectors of these countries.
As for the issue of employment, women’s involvement is now higher, even though it is still limited in some regions of these countries. Arab women are now attaining positions that were earlier thought to be beyond their capabilities. They occupy prominent roles in government. Arab women are also developing as entrepreneurs, beginning their own companies, and succeeding in economics. As measured by their achievements and rewards, women are still not equal to men. Today, Arab women are a force in their own countries, creating the groundwork for future generations. These women are working hard to become leaders in their fields and succeed in their own countries. With ambition and determination, they are conquering endless horizons with their achievements.
Educational Opportunities
The low status of Saudi women has affected their educational level. In a recent report, a high level of illiteracy among Saudi women was noted, with literacy rates lower than that of the UAE women. Official publications reflect the backlog in women’s education in the country in the statistics for the last 25 years of the country’s development. The number of school students increased from 537,000 (400,000 boys) to 2.8 million (of which 1.5 million are boys).14 The number of university students increased from 6,942 to 122,100 people. At the same time, the number of female students increased from 434 to 53,000. The positive tendency is obvious, and further strategies are likely to be beneficial in empowering young females to receive higher education.
In Saudi Arabia, there are special universities for both men and women, which are separate for each sex. Not only women but also men are taught in the whole range of disciplines, but without direct contact between them. The teacher can be in one room, and the female students are in another, and the training is conducted with the help of a large-screen display. If a female student has a question, she can call the lecturer on a special internal telephone.
Women believe that their education is quite good, and they enjoy this opportunity. It is unclear to what extent the segregation affects the quality of education, but in Saudi Arabia, the number and diversity of classes offered to men are much greater than those available to women. Also, some gaps in education according to location are revealed in communication, which, however, can be attributed to the objective of not confusing the names of places where education has not been present.
With respect to female schools and universities in the UAE, one should state that the strategies of the country to eliminate the gender gap are evident. In particular, of almost 10,000 graduate and undergraduate students registered at Zayed University in 2017, 89.9 percent were women.15 At the Higher Colleges of Technology, the ratio of male to female students is more balanced and stands at 62 percent.
Pennington notes that attracting and retaining male students is becoming a challenge, since they have a wide range of educational opportunities. While both men and women can be expected to be present in the country’s workforce, special attention should be paid to this challenge. In 2015-2016, the prevalence of female graduates was 77 percent, which shows that Arab females are being offered a full range of educational options so that they can further progress in their careers.
Educational quality and relevance constitute the basis of the highest priority state programs of the United Arab Emirates, which makes it a leader in the world rankings for educational prestige and relevance. Building on the centuries-old experience of the developed countries of the world in the sphere of education, the UAE government created a unique educational system, using a completely new methodological basis. Today, education in the UAE is a universal symbiosis of innovation, technological potential, and culture. In addition, a high level of educational potential and interest among the population led to the creation of elite universities of international reputation in the country along with training centers for the largest global companies.
Within the last decades, pivotal changes and developments have occurred that have beneficially affected the situation of women in Arab countries. These changes include overcoming gender inequality by opening new paths in education. Education has become the most powerful tool for women’s empowerment, serving as a core facilitator of economic and social changes. The prevalence of women students has risen at all levels of education in Arab countries, and the number of applicants among young women tends to exceed the number of male applicants.
Achievements, Needs, and Recommendations
The Ministry of Labor and Social Development of Saudi Arabia has tried to assist women in addressing the ban on driving by offering them travel vouchers using Uber and Careem. In 2016, 400 women took part in a pilot program of the ministry, and the program should serve 150,000 women by 2020. In addition, the government no longer requires companies to divide the jobs of women and men. Now, they are obliged only to provide women with separate toilets, a security system, and rooms for food and prayers.
However, the majority of office buildings in the country are designed without an expectation of the presence of women, so their hiring may require significant redevelopment costs. Therefore, one of the needs is associated with the redesign of workplaces to make them women-friendly. It seems that the issues mentioned here constitute the core of special adjustments that companies must take into account.
One more need relates to the resistance of some companies to adopting the new policies. Saudi Aramco, the oil company, has always been one of the rare exceptions, as men and women have worked together there for a long time. Other state-owned companies are slowly adapting to the new policy, and some critics accuse the authorities of an inability to clearly convey the new requirements to companies. Some initiatives follow the best international practices in the field of gender equality and women’s involvement in the labor market, but this seems to be incomprehensible to some businesses. For example, if the company employs 50 or more women, there should be a place for their children, but this is not clearly explained and has not worked in practice.
An effective example is Dubai Airport management with its Purposeful Women Program, which targets women managers and is meant to enable them to be among the future leaders of the company. The nine-month program helps Emirati women to advance in leadership knowledge and skills based on multifaceted assignments and master classes. Also, it assists them in creating a set of professional communication networks in the organization and outside it. According to the outcomes of the training, women are obtaining a professional certification that is approved by the Institute of Leadership and Management.
The program strives to meet the goals of the UAE’s national policy in accomplishing gender balance in the workforce and meeting the country’s goal to be among the 25 most progressive countries in the context of gender equality. Today, Dubai Airports has more than 200 Emirati women in various positions, of which 32% occupy management positions. Dubai Airport is encouraging more women to build a career in the aviation sector of the emirate and hopes that their numbers in the state will increase over the coming years.
Similar strategies based on the education of women may be applied to other sectors, although they should be specific to the selected professional area and pertinent to modern requirements. In this context, the UAE is outpacing Saudi Arabia by introducing the National Tolerance Program, which includes a number of initiatives aimed at promoting the ideas of tolerance, peaceful coexistence, and acceptance of all people.
These initiatives are related to the denial of any manifestation of violence, intolerance, and discrimination, including against women. In addition, the Ministry’s tasks include strengthening the role of the family in building the nation and spreading the idea of tolerance among young people. Preventing the adverse influence of fanatics and extremists and enriching the scientific and cultural components of society are also targeted. The ministry can play a role in international efforts to promote tolerance while emphasizing the leading role of the UAE in this area.
In light of the review of women’s employment rights, it is critical to give attention to the question of whether companies and the government should utilize positive discrimination in favor of women. In addition, in the UAE labor market, discrimination against men can be observed. The annual Arabian Business Women’s Forum was held in 2016 in Dubai (UAE), at which the current situation of women in the UAE’s labor market was discussed.
The forum was attended by representatives from the Gulf countries as well as from European countries and the USA. Habib Al-Mullah, head of the Baker and McKenzie law firm in the UAE, noted that currently in the Emirates, there is a problem of labor discrimination not against women, but against men. For example, in a situation where there are two candidates for a position, one of whom is a man and the other is a woman, the choice will almost always fall to the woman.
Al-Mullah believes that the tendency to choose women for workplaces in the UAE can have negative consequences. In the pursuit of creating an image of a country that welcomes women’s work, the UAE government has acted against the interests of both men and women. Women are confident that they will get jobs, which ultimately leads to a decrease in labor productivity. The so-called gender-based quotas appear to decrease labor market competition, thus leading to a failure to employ the most competent specialists. “According to a Pricewater house Coopers report, at 77 percent, the UAE is registering the highest rate of females in higher education in the entire world. The United Nations also recognizes the UAE to be among the most developed nations in educating women.”16 The path forward may lie in a return to a system equal for all. Jobs should not be reserved for someone, and women as well as men should have incentives to compete for a particular position.
Thus the decision to apply positive discrimination seems to be appropriate for both the UAE and Saudi Arabia. “The UAE leadership believes that positive discrimination towards women and active encouragement for their entry into previously male dominated fields is an essential first step towards an equal society. In order to prove themselves in their chosen careers, women must first be given the platform to achieve.”17 As for the UAE, such discrimination is necessary to achieve equality with men, while Saudi Arabia needs to address the perception of women as subjects belonging to men.
A number of cultural, organizational, and personal problems prevent women from gaining leadership positions. Women live in a patriarchal society, in which the social system is still based on the authority of men, while women are discriminated against in workplaces.18 Men still firmly hold power over high-level positions, and women are not encouraged to participate at the top levels of large government agencies and private companies. Another reason is the division of domestic work according to traditional gender norms and stereotypes, seeking to limit the role of women only to childbirth and child rearing. Many women refuse to move up the career ladder so that they can raise their children. The general perception remains that women cannot devote all their time to any duties other than their family.
The third reason is related to the type of education women receive, where traditional ideas about what constitutes relevant areas for women’s employment strengthen their internal self-concepts. Most young women are graduates in the field of education, humanities, and natural sciences. Thus they create a gender imbalance in the labor market that affects the filling of key positions. Work labeled as feminine usually includes teaching or social services. Meanwhile, current research suggests that women as top managers can positively influence a company’s performance and improve its productivity as they bring different management styles, skills, and experience to the corporate environment.
As a result of initiatives undertaken by the UAE government to empower women today, up to 60 percent or more of those employed in the public sector are women, and they hold positions of responsibility. An important role in reinforcing women’s rights in the UAE is played by the General Women’s Union (GWU), which emerged from the UAE Women’s Federation, uniting various women’s organizations in the country.
The Union actively participates in the public life of the country and cooperates with the United Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM) and the United Nations Development Program. However, the evidence shows that the private sector lacks the presence of women, which can also be observed in Saudi Arabia. Both countries are promoting their visions of future economic development, where women will be given a greater role in enhancing the workforce. By increasing the share of women, it is expected to achieve greater results, both in terms of gender equality and economic prosperity. In this context, there is a need to introduce measures to raise the number of women working in the private sector by cooperating with global organizations.
In order to develop the skills of female employees in decision-making and leadership and assists them in realizing their potential, the government should provide women with appropriate training, guidance with career development, mentoring programs, and networking opportunities. It is also necessary to consistently pursue a gender policy in private enterprises so that women can be equally involved in the social, economic, and political issues of the country. The government, non-governmental organizations, civil society, and the private sector should work to promote women and guarantee gender balance in leadership positions.
Today, women working in the Gulf region are ready to solve problems in all positions, their expectations are growing, and they require reforms and changes in society. It is important that they receive support from both the family and the state.
Conclusion
To conclude, it should be stressed that for many years, it was believed that Arab women are weak and submissive, that they are largely dependent on men, and that they lack leadership qualities. At the same time, men were always considered stronger, more powerful, and competent. Today, there are many female voices in the Arab region. Their numbers are rising, specifically in terms of employment opportunities. The women of the UAE come from a traditional society but are transforming it into a more flexible one, while Saudi Arabia women are still in need of laws and regulations to expand their rights. In these ways, women are striving to address the gender gap by breaking down biases, gender stereotypes, and traditional internal barriers in patriarchal Arab society.
Despite some progress, Saudi women’s entry into the arena of socio-economic and socio-political life has a specific character, corresponding to the degree and quality of social transformations. Like most social changes in the kingdom, women’s employment laws lie within a framework of Islamic values and social policy. First, progressive changes in the labor status of women are taking place in parallel with the general course of development, but segregated from men.
Second, even the most ardent supporters of women’s rights recognize that there are undoubtedly restrictions beyond which women cannot enter into this society. Although Saudi women gained the right to education and employment, the priority in decision-making still primarily depends on men, which speaks to the stability and continuity of traditions. The Islamic traditions that influence the changes in the status of Saudi women should be integrated into the necessary changes.
Bibliography
Al-Ahmadi, Hanan. “Challenges Facing Women Leaders in Saudi Arabia.” Human Resource Development International 14, no. 2 (2011): 149-166.
In spite of being a highly modernized country, Saudi Arabia has some of the most restrictive laws for women. Women’s rights in Saudi Arabia are greatly influenced by the religious beliefs of the country’s population. The country is predominantly Islamic with about 97% of the population practicing this religion.
Islam plays a significant role in the Kingdom since Saudi Arabia is the birthplace of Prophet Muhammad and the location of the holiest Muslim sites. Strict Islamic codes of conduct are therefore enforced in the social lives of the Saudis. Over the past decade, there have been attempts to fight for greater rights for the women in the Kingdom. These efforts have yielded some change in practices leading to the development of different perspectives on the human rights issue by different groups.
My interest in the topic stems from my concern about women’s rights globally. In my opinion, the rights of women in Saudi Arabia have not improved much over the years. The lives of women are still dictated upon by the male members of the population. While most countries have made significant steps towards improving the rights of women within their borders, Saudi Arabia has largely been accused of making trivial steps.
As the world is exposed to more news and information about Saudi Arabia, the women’s rights issue has attracted more attention. It would, therefore, be enlightening to review how to progress in Saudi Arabian women’s rights is regarded by different parties both within and outside the country. This paper will review the a issue of women’s rights in Saudi Arabia from the perspective of four different groups including the modern Saudi women, traditional Saudi women, Government officials, and international women’s rights organizations.
Perspectives
Modern Saudi Women
Young women have been at the forefront of a demand for change and they are unwilling to go on living in the status quo, which suppressed women’s rights. The document by Oates highlights the hardships that women face in Saudi Arabia and the steps they are taking to challenge the status quo. As a professional human rights advocate and expert in issues of women’s human rights, the author is able to present a clear picture of the situation in Saudi Arabia though the article.
Oates highlights the activism that young women in Saudi Arabia have undertaken to bring about changes in their country (7). Some increases have been made to women’s rights but the pace of this progress has been very slow with the government offering only minimal reforms. The young generation has viewed this as inadequate and many have started using the internet to call for major changes.
The source demonstrates that young women in Saudi Arabia are unwilling to settle for the minimum reforms to their rights. Instead, they want more rights that will lead to more independence for women in the country. In opposition to the religious conservatives, women want to be given the rights that they feel they are entitled to as human beings.
To increase the likelihood of this happening, women have engaged in advocacy leading to international attention to the women’s rights issue in Saudi Arabia. From this source, I learned that the fight for women’s rights is done with some personal risks for the women activists who might be arrested and imprisoned for their advocacy.
Traditional Saudi Women
Traditional Saudi women, who mostly include older women and devout conservative matriarchs, consider that they have adequate rights in the Kingdom. The article by House Karen seeks to find out the opinion held by older and conservative Saudi women on the issue of women’s rights. House is an expert source since she is an acclaimed Middle East scholar who has published books on modern Saudi Arabia.
The article demonstrates how old women feel that the rights currently enjoyed by women are adequate for them. House reveals that most of these women are in favor of systems such as guardianship that requires all women to have a male guardian who dictates the woman’s public interactions (55).
They earnestly believe that men have charge over women. For example, older women strongly object to the calls for women to be given more rights and freedoms to manage their lives. House reveals that the devout conservatives are opposed to the women who have been fighting for freedoms to travel without guardians or the right to drive as dangerous infidel influences from the West (54).
From this source, it is evident that there are women in Saudi Arabia who feel that women’s rights being championed by the younger generation are because of the influence of Westerners. The source shows that most of the older women are not only passively happy with the women’s rights condition in the country but actually actively resist any form of change that might be proposed.
With such opinions from a segment of the women population in Saudi Arabia, it is hard to bring about change in women’s rights. This source demonstrated to me that the fight for women’s rights is frustrated by some of the women who are comfortable with the status quo. The source will have been more useful if it illustrates on how young women are trying to influence the older population.
Government and Religious Leaders
The Saudi government has engaged in a number of actions aimed at increasing Women’s rights in the Kingdom. The article by Butters illustrates how women are steadily gaining rights and enhanced freedoms because of government action. Butters reveals that government-led reforms have led to changes in the religious police units which are charged with enforcing decency codes (22).
The religious leaders have in recent years issued a fatwa that condemned family violence as a crime punishable by law. This marked a significant deviation from the traditional trend where violence against women was seen as the right of the man instead of a crime. For government officials and religious leaders in Saudi Arabia, the country has made tremendous changes to improve women’s rights over the past decade.
From this source, it is clear that the seemingly small advances in promoting women’s rights by the Saudi government are significant considering the influence that conservatives have in society. Most citizens of Saudi Arabia practice Wahhabism, which is the ultra conservative form of Islam.
Religious leaders, therefore, have immense power and influence in the operation of the society in the Kingdom. The government, therefore, has to consider the wishes of the conservative clerics who exert a strong influence on government policy. According to religious leaders, women’s rights have improved significantly in the Kingdom. This source showed how religion continues to influence women’s rights debate in the Kingdom.
International Women’s Rights
The journal article by Mtango Sifa seeks to review the status of women in Saudi Arabia from an international perspective. Mango’s article is important in this research since it sheds light on the international standard against which Saudi women’s rights are measured. This scientific source sets out to show how Saudi women are denied some rights because of the laws and customs practiced by the Kingdom.
Special consideration is given to the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) treaty, of which Saudi Arabia is a signatory. Mtango shows that while the treaty prohibits any form of discrimination of women based on sex, Saudi Arabia continues to exercise pervasive discrimination of women because of their gender (50).
This source expresses the opinions held by international women’s rights movements, which are liberal in nature. From a Western perspective, Saudi women are denied many rights that are taken for granted by women in the Western world. The article demonstrates that Saudi Arabia has a long way to go to fulfill the core Articles presented in the CEDAW treaty.
Discrimination against women is still widespread, and the changes made only address a small portion of this. From an international perspective, the women’s right situation in Saudi Arabia is appalling. This source showed that Saudi women’s rights are still below the standard set by the international community.
Conclusion
From this exploration, it is clear that the issue of women’s rights in Saudi Arabia is complicated by the religious beliefs and cultural traditions of the country. In my opinion, the women’s rights issue in Saudi Arabia should not be compared to western standards which are set from a secular perspective. Instead, the rights should be compared to those of other open Islamic states that have liberal rights for Women.
Due to this research, I now appreciate the fact that the denial of some rights to Saudi women is deeply ingrained in society with some women even supporting it. It will, therefore, take significant time for the situation to change in the country.
It would be enlightening to consider the views that young men concerning the rights of women in the Kingdom. This question is important since the perception of young men will influence future policies by the government since men have a greater influence on the policies adopted by the Saudi government compared to women.
Works Cited
Butters, Andrew. “Saudi’s Small Steps”. Time International 174 (2009): 22-26. Web.
House, Karen. “‘I pray my daughters have a life like mine’.” Newsweek 160.14 (2012): 54-59. Web.
Mtango, Sifa. “A state of oppression? Women’s rights in Saudi Arabia”. Asia-Pacific Journal on Human Rights & the Law 5.1 (2004): 49-67. Web.
Oates, Lauryn. “Women drive change in Saudi Arabia”. Herizons 25.2 (2011): 7-8. Web.
The contemporary world is full of controversial issues that inspire debate all over the world. In the United States, the issue of abortion, or the debate between pro-life and pro-choice advocates, is a long-standing controversy that encompasses the topics of human rights, ethics, public health, and even global development. In April 2017, U.S. President Donald Trump signed a bill allowing individual states to defund Planned Parenthood projects and clinics that perform, among many other services, abortions (Mercia par. 1). Earlier this year, President Trump also signed an executive order defunding the International Planned Parenthood Initiative, which provides health services for women in developing countries (Richardson par. 1). As a result of this executive order, the organization will lose $100 million annually, money which could be spent improving the health and living conditions of women in poor countries with low access to health care (Richardson para. 4). This essay will argue that the decision to defund Planned Parenthood and similar initiatives are ethically wrong because these organizations offer irreplaceable benefits to many women, both in the United States and all around the world.
About Planned Parenthood
Planned Parenthood is the oldest and largest international organization that offers and promotes reproductive healthcare services in a variety of countries. Over its 100-year history, the organization has been a significant part of the women’s rights movement in the United States (PPH par. 3). The first Planned Parenthood clinic opened in Brooklyn in 1916, at a time when women’s reproductive health was among the issues least prioritized by the government, and the discussion and dissemination of birth control were prohibited by law (PPH par. 2). It took decades for the government to acknowledge the necessity of the services offered in these clinics and even longer for the public to accept a woman’s right to reproductive health care, the establishment of which was among the top priorities of this organization (PPH par. 3). Today, Planned Parenthood is a truly global organization that supports 650 health centers in the United States as well as more than 100 partner organizations with similar goals in countries across Africa and Latin America (Planned Parenthood par. 1). Planned Parenthood provides services to 2.5 million patients in the United States, helping prevent an estimated 579,000 unwanted pregnancies each year (par. 6). Moreover, despite the widespread belief that the organization actively promotes abortion, pregnancy terminations represent only 3% of the services provided by all Planned Parenthood clinics (par. 7).
Also, current federal legislation prohibits clinics from using government funding to pay for abortion services, which means that taxpayer money is used to fund other services (Mercia par. 3). A total of 45% of Planned Parenthood’s services are devoted to STD testing and treatment, and a further 31% of its services provide appropriate contraception (Planned Parenthood par. 7). The number of rendered services for cancer screening and prevention is more than two times larger than the number of abortions performed annually (Planned Parenthood par. 7). The vast majority (75%) of patients who receive Planned Parenthood services in the United States have incomes at or below 150% of the federal poverty level (Planned Parenthood par. 8), which means that they would not be able to pay for these services in standard healthcare institutions. Therefore, by taking away funding from Planned Parenthood clinics, the government is depriving the poorest populations of vital reproductive healthcare services, such as cancer screenings and STD treatment. Furthermore, by creating barriers to the treatment of sexually transmitted infections and diseases (STIs/STDs), the government’s choice to defund Planned Parenthood has also promoted their spread, thus endangering other U.S. residents as well.
Need for Services
The United States
Even though the United States has a well-developed healthcare infrastructure, there is still a need for free health care and education to be provided to certain populations. For example, the overall rate of unintended pregnancies in the United States is already high for a developed country at 52 per 1,000 women between the ages of 15 and 44; however, for certain demographic groups—including African American, Hispanic, and teenage women—the rates are much higher (Haider et al. 94). For every 1,000 African American females, for example, there are 91 unintended pregnancies, which is almost twice as high as the national average (Haider et al. 94). The primary cause of unwanted pregnancies is low access to contraception. Haider et al. explain that low-cost methods, such as oral contraception or male condoms, are inconsistent and can have effects as low as 85%; more effective methods like the subdermal implant, often referred to as long-acting reversible contraception (LARC), have higher costs and are not accessible to disadvantaged women (95).
Being unable to afford effective contraception, these women use contraceptive methods with a high probability of user error or simply no contraception at all, which results in unintended pregnancies; these pregnancies can either be terminated medically or become an economic burden: reports show that unintended births that were publicly funded cost over $10 billion in 2006 alone (Haider et al. 95). Haider et al. agree that the provision of contraception and sexual education free of charge would reduce abortion rates and promote reproductive health in adolescent and minority populations (95). Even though Planned Parenthood clinics are commonly accused of supporting abortion with the help of government funding, they can provide contraception for free, thus reducing the rates of unintended pregnancies and abortion.
Ford et al. also discuss the need for sexual health training and education, as well as free STI/STD screenings, in the United States (96). The researchers state that the most effective means of promoting sexual health across the population are “increasing access to sexual health services, emphasizing sexual health education and encouraging screening for sexually transmitted infections (STIs) including human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)” (Ford et al. 96). The lack of any one of these practices—for instance, reproductive health education—can hurt many populations. For example, a lack of sexual education has led to a stigma that Haitians, hemophiliacs, homosexual people, and heroin addicts are the only populations at high risk of contracting HIV, thus reducing HIV screenings and preventative practices among other populations (Ford et al. 97).
The promotion of tests and screenings is also an important part of the work of sexual health clinics. Ford et al. agree that healthcare providers can be effective in persuading patients to check their reproductive health regularly, which can prevent the spread of STIs/STDs all over the country (98). Nevertheless, certain screenings can be very costly. For example, screenings for cervical and other types of cancer are the kind of tests that disadvantaged women may not be able to afford. Moreover, knowledge of sexual health among women from vulnerable populations can be very limited due to cultural, language, or educational barriers. Planned Parenthood clinics help address both of these issues. First, the clinics offer free STI/STD tests, as well as free screenings for breast, cervical, and other types of cancer. Moreover, the specialists working at the clinics can be primary sources of reproductive and sexual health knowledge for disadvantaged women. The funding of these clinics, therefore, becomes essential to promote reproductive education and to prevent the spread of STIs/STDs.
Developing Countries
U.S. policy also has a substantial effect on health initiatives in other nations, particularly in the developing parts of the world. For instance, Okonofua and Ogu state that “many African countries have never been able to develop policies on population and development without the influences of international organizations and lead countries such as the United States” (9). Moreover, the United States plays a big part in the funding of organizations that promote sexual health in developing countries (Okonofua and Ogu 9).
The lack of financing from the United States will, therefore, hurt the development of health care in countries with vulnerable populations. Access to public health services in these countries is rarely sufficient to provide for the needs of the community. One of the most prominent examples of the need for reproductive health promotion in Haiti, where the rate of maternal mortality is one of the highest in the world (Arnesen par. 11).
Over 99% of these deaths are preventable if a proper approach to reproductive health promotion is undertaken (Arnesen par. 1). For example, Haiti has a very low number of clinics offering reproductive health services in rural regions; moreover, the country’s poor economic situation increases women’s dependence on men for their income, which serves to reinforce traditional gender roles and decreases women’s control over their health. Arnesen points out: “In a survey of pregnant women in rural Haiti, 94% of women reported that their husband or male partner made their health decisions for them, 4% reported that their mother was the primary decision-maker for health concerns, and only 2% of the women surveyed reported that they made their own decisions in matters of their health” (par. 7). The provision of free reproductive health services can thus become a source of empowerment for women, as it would enable them to make their own health choices. They would no longer have to rely on their partners to use male condoms but would be able to ask their doctors to prescribe oral contraception, thus preventing unintended pregnancies.
Unsafe abortions pose another serious concern in this case: in developing countries, 7 million women are treated for complications from unsafe pregnancy termination, and at least 22,000 women die during or as a result of unsafe abortions (Singh et al. 22). The main reason that women go to a non-professional person for an abortion is the lack of free, safe, or legal alternatives. Therefore, the promotion of safe abortion in developing countries is a necessary measure that would save thousands of lives every year until the proper access to contraception is established to prevent these unintended pregnancies in the first place. By taking away funding from Planned Parenthood International, as well as other organizations promoting safe abortion and working to increase contraceptive access, the United States government has put the lives of many vulnerable women at risk.
Conclusion: Female Rights Issues
Access to reproductive health care is a basic right that all women deserve to have. The 1994 International Conference on Population and Development “shifted emphasis from an earlier focus on a narrow family planning to one that puts women at the center of the process, which recognizes, respects, and responds to the needs of women” (Okonofua and Ogu 9). As a result of the conference, women were guaranteed the right to deal with their reproductive health and family planning concerns without external influences (Okonofua and Ogu 9). President Trump’s order is a severe violation of this right. Though many people argue that taxpayer money should not be spent on abortions, the clinics were already prohibited from directing the government’s money to abortion before President Trump signed the bill (Mercia par. 3).
By taking away funding from Planned Parenthood, President Trump is depriving women of other life-saving services, including cancer screenings, STD tests, and effective contraception. The decision is, therefore, a direct threat to the right of American women to be healthy and make family planning choices for themselves, as well as a violation of the UN’s development goals that promote justice and freedom for women in developing countries.
Overall, the defunding of Planned Parenthood is not only unjust but morally wrong: it shows how an individual man can exercise control over millions of women worldwide, depriving them of their right to live independent, healthy, and fulfilling lives. Moreover, it is a step back from the progress toward gender equality made in the United States over the past few decades. Although Planned Parenthood claims that they will forfeit the investment and will continue to provide healthcare services to women all over the globe (Richardson par. 4), the lack of funding may hurt the quality or availability of services provided, hurting not just women but entire families and communities as well.
Works Cited
Arnesen, Rachel. “Haiti: Improving the Maternal Health Situation through Increased Contraceptive Use.” Yale Global Health Review. Web.
Ford, Jessie V., et al. “Sexual Health Training and Education in the U.S.” Public Health Reports, vol. 128, no. 1, 2013, pp. 96-101.
Haider, Sadia, et al. “Reproductive Health Disparities: A Focus on Family Planning and Prevention Among Minority Women and Adolescents.” Global Advances in Health and Medicine, vol. 2, no. 5, 2013, pp. 94-99.
Okonofua, Friday, and Rosemary Ogu. “Reproductive Health After the US Elections: Implications for Sub-Saharan Africa.” African Journal of Reproductive Health, vol. 20. no. 4, 2016, p. 9.
Planned Parenthood. Creating a Healthier World for Everyone, 2016, Web.
Planned Parenthood of the Heartland (PPH). “Our History.” Planned Parenthood, 2017. Web.
The idea for this project came to me while I was reading the news. Talk of defunding Planned Parenthood was in the air even before Donald Trump was elected President. To me, this seems to be a human rights issue: given the fact that government funding does not go to abortions, removing it completely only decreases the access of disadvantaged women to important health services. In my opinion, making personal health choices and obtaining adequate medical care are among the primary rights of every person. Nevertheless, the government has created additional barriers for certain groups of people to gain access to better, healthier lives. The Affordable Care Act, known commonly as Obamacare, extended care to thousands of people who never had access to medical aid before; however, some state governments refused to accept the act, and now there are talks of President Trump intending to reverse the Affordable Care Act completely. I find it unjust, and it pains me to see how many people are in support of defunding Planned Parenthood. If the demand for reproductive health care is so high in the United States, what would be the effects of defunding in developing countries, where access to care is already much lower?
In this essay, I wanted to explain my point of view on the defunding of Planned Parenthood and similar initiatives. I focused on describing what the clinics actually do, as it seems like many people are unaware of the positive impact that Planned Parenthood can have, even in their own communities. I also addressed the current state of reproductive health care in developing countries to show why funding international reproductive health initiatives is critical and why promoting safe abortion in developing nations is necessary. I concluded the project by explaining the impact that this bill had on women’s rights and the ethical issues surrounding them. All in all, I believe that this essay may inspire some people to think differently about the topic and to understand those who, like me, oppose President Trump’s decision.
Human rights organizations emphasize that women all over the world “are in double jeopardy” (“Women’s human rights,” 2005, para. 1); not only their human rights can be violated the way it happens in many countries, but also they may be discriminated against specifically because they are women. There are many ways in which women’s rights are violated, and modern international standards imply that governments should recognize, respect, and fulfill the rights of women.
Monitoring the women’s rights situation is an important process because it allows identifying areas in which action should be taken and provides recommendations as per what the action should be. A particular aspect of monitoring is comparing women’s rights situations in different countries to gain insight into what is going on, what can be improved, and what should be done to achieve improvement. Comparison, especially among countries that are close to each other, also helps identify similarities and differences in particular aspects of women’s rights.
In a review of relevant literature, women’s rights in Palestine can be compared to women’s rights in three neighboring countries—Jordan, Egypt, and Israel—from the perspective of violence and discrimination, and specific differences, including the Israeli occupation of Palestine, should be addressed.
Violence
Violence against women is a daunting problem in today’s world and a remarkable part of women’s rights violations. In one of its resolutions, the United Nations (2009) states that it’s General Assembly “[s]trongly condemns all acts of violence against women and girls” (para. 21) and “[u]rges States to end impunity for violence against women by investigating, prosecuting with due process and punishing all perpetrators [and] by ensuring that women have equal protection of the law and equal access to justice” (para. 24).
Many countries claim to comply with the UN resolutions, which implies efforts aimed at incorporating such regulations into national legislation and enforcing related laws, but the actual situation remains rather disturbing, especially in countries in which violence against women may be recognized by some as part of culture and traditions.
It can be argued that Palestine, along with its neighboring states, is one of such countries; in many segments of the population, there are practices of forcing women into submission or punishing them for perceived misbehavior, both involving violence, that are still used today. According to Syam (2016), approximately 50 percent of women in Palestine report exposure to economic or social violence; almost 25 percent report exposure to physical violence, and more than 10 percent report exposure to sexual violence.
When examining these statistics, one should take into consideration that non-reporting violence is a widespread phenomenon, and it is likely that many victims fail to report; possible reasons may include fear, inability to access channels through which their complaints will be heard, or uncertainty whether such cases should be reported at all. Syam (2016) stresses that the perpetrators in those violent cases are mostly the victims’ husbands, i.e. violent acts are committed by women’s closest people, often in their own homes.
Sexual violence is a problem in the neighboring countries, too, but certain differences can be observed. In Egypt, the rates of public sexual violence (i.e. harassment and abuse in the streets, especially during such events as mass demonstrations, or in public transport) have increased since the revolution in 2011 (Langohr, 2015). Also, according to a recent report, 99.3 percent of women in Egypt experience exposure to sexual harassment (Nahhas, 2015). However, the opposition to such violence and civil activism against it have increased, too (Langohr, 2015). The general trend toward the expansion of civic engagement and a larger role of activism has resulted in more extensive measures taken by the government to protect women from public sexual violence.
There is a widespread international perception that women in the Middle East are heavily persecuted, deprived of their rights, and subjected to violence, and this perception can be detrimental sometimes to the actual position of women in the area. Anderson (2012) refers to a book published by Norma Khouri, a Jordanian-born American author who described her life in Jordan with frightening details of how women are violated and murdered in that country.
Prominent Jordanian women’s rights activists noticed many inaccuracies in Khouri’s narrative, investigated it, and found out that the book was a hoax. One of the activists later said, “She [Khouri] ruined the reputation of Jordanian women, saying they were imprisoned in their homes and so on. Jordanian women have excellent education levels that are gradually being translated into participation in the workforce. Her tone is that all Jordanian women live under these traditional practices, which is wrong” (Anderson, 2012, p. 3). Therefore, it should be internationally recognized that there are successes of the women’s rights movements in the Middle East, and this will help such movements to succeed further.
It can be stated that the most extreme form of violence is murdering, and in the four countries of interest, killings of women occur in an especially brutal form: so-called “honor killing”, i.e. killing of a person by his or her family members due to perceived misconduct or violation of certain ethical principles. O’Connor (2014) states that, in 2013, 27 women were victims of such killings in Palestine in comparison with 13 killings documented in 2012.
It is also stated that the Palestinian Authority initiated special training for the police to detect such cases, report them, and prevent violence against women on the territories the Palestinian Authority controls. The descriptions of honor killings are highly disturbing; O’Connor (2014) refers to the case in which “a young Gazan mother of five … was bludgeoned to death by her father because he suspected she was using her cellphone to talk to a man” (para. 11).
It is noteworthy that religious leaders and authorities of Palestine condemn this practice; Sheik Yousef Ideas, head of the Palestinian Islamic-law court, notes that women are being killed based on rumors or suspicions that would be ignored if they were men (O’Connor, 2014). It is also acknowledged by Muslim clerics that “honor killings” of women do not comply with the Koran.
In Jordan, “honor killings” take place, too. According to Cuthbert (2016), a young woman was killed by her 18-year-old brother in her sleep because he had found out that she owned a mobile phone of which the family did not know. The overall number of cases, according to human rights organizations, is 15 to 20 per year. Similar to the situation in Palestine, legal authorities publically condemn the practice and refer to the country’s Constitution that prohibits such forms of violence.
According to Nahhas (2015), Jordan is ranked second-worst country by the number of “honor killings,” and the first place belongs to Egypt. The women’s rights report that provides this data also refers to the number of women who avoided being killed by a family member because they went to the police for protection; 24 such cases were recorded in Jordan in 2012.
Since the problem is particularly daunting in Egypt, extensive measures are taken in this country to stop “honor killings.” On the international level, among researchers and journalists, there is currently an additional initiative to stop the use of the term “honor killings;” however, the opponents of this idea say, “By naming these ‘honor killings,’ we are acknowledging the role that this misogynistic concept of honor plays, not only in the murders themselves but in these entire societies and how it entraps both men and women” (Welle, 2016).
It can be argued that the recognition of the perception of honor as something that allows killing a person brutally is important in studying and combating the phenomenon of “honor killings.” At the same time, it should not be overlooked that the concept of honor is often a disguise for actual causes of killings; O’Connor (2014) argued that it “can serve as a cover for domestic abuse, inheritance disputes, rape, incest or the desire to punish female independence” (para. 4). However, eradicating this form of violence is complicated because some people perceive it as part of their cultural heritage and their right to commit violence.
In Israel, cases of violence against women were reported, too. Particularly, women’s rights organizations report “honor killings” in national minority communities; however, the Israeli government denies the seriousness of the issue and claims that the incidence of women’s killings by their family members is the same among Arabs and the rest of the population (Weinglass, 2015). Similar to the other three countries, Israel demonstrates a remarkable contrast between the women’s rights situation in urban areas and that in rural areas. In the latter, women are less protected from violence, and the government recognizes its responsibility to reach the most vulnerable parts of the population as part of an effort to comply with the international standards of opposing violence.
Discrimination
Discrimination against women is another major women’s rights topic, and like violence, it is observed in a variety of forms in many countries. In an international convention, the United Nations (1979) called upon its participants to “condemn discrimination against women in all its forms [and to] agree to pursue by all appropriate means and without delay a policy of eliminating discrimination against women” (para. 28). All four countries of interest ratified the agreement; Egypt in 1981, Israel in 1991, Jordan in 1992, and Palestine in 2014 (“Convention on the elimination,” 2017). However, the governments’ actions toward the elimination of discrimination appear insufficient until today.
In Israel, this insufficiency of measures is especially visible in the way women are treated in Arab communities. Neila Awad-Rashed, the director of Women Against Violence, refers to the “three circles of oppression” (Weinglass, 2015, para. 5) of women, i.e. being oppressed as women, as citizens, and as a minority. Many activists in the county refer to these and other forms of discrimination, e.g. in terms of wages or workplace treatment. However, Dotan (2015) argues that women in Israel have managed to achieve “social mobilization through law” (p. 29), i.e. to promote their rights through attempts to change the existing legislation.
In Palestine, many appropriate laws are in place, too, but the problem is that they rarely work. For example, there is the issue of violating labor rights; according to Abu Jahal (2016), many working women are forced to work extra hours or not allowed to go on leaves, but they are afraid to speak up because of the fear of losing their jobs. The government has published guidelines for protecting working women, but activists claim that there is a lack of enforcement, and the publication itself will not improve the situation. Also, Syam (2016) notes that women are limited in their access to political participation, and it ultimately deteriorates the quality of their lives.
In Egypt and Jordan, women’s rights movements demonstrated several achievements in terms of opposing discrimination against women, and even positive discrimination (Yahiaoui & Al Ariss, 2017) was adopted: parliaments of both countries have quotas for women. However, Egyptian activists claim that women’s rights are still frequently violated because “the deeply religious society remains very much rooted in conservative traditions” (Frantzman, 2017, para. 1).
Weinglass (2015) referred to conservative traditions as the source of discrimination, too; the author argues that a patriarchal society presents many ways in which women’s rights are restricted or violated, including barriers to free labor and lack of representation.
Specific Differences in Women’s Rights Situations
Apart from the differences and similarities summarized above for two areas of violating women’s rights (violence and discrimination against women), there are also specific differences that stem from the four countries’ different political situations. Primarily, it should not be overlooked that Palestine is affected by occupation, and it is a major factor in the context of women’s rights.
Elia (2006) reviews three documentaries about the way Palestinian women live under the Israeli occupation, and the general impression the author has about the films is that, for Palestinian women, it is a constant struggle. One of the characters says, “The Israeli occupation invades your most private spaces, space even your husband and children never enter” (Elia, 2006, p. 125).
Further, a story is told about Israeli soldiers attacking women who try to collect olives (this is often the only source of income for local people); the women express their bitterness because those olive trees were grown by their ancestors and not by Israelis. Although occupants commit violence, a character of the documentary titled Soraida, a Woman of Palestine teaches her children not to hate all the Israelis, not to give up, but to never commit violence in response.
Abu-Lughod (2010) describes differences between the women’s rights situation in Palestine and that in Egypt, and the general conclusion is that Egypt has a “women’s rights industry” (p. 33), while Palestine does not. In Egypt, people make careers, attract investments, and create wide networks of cooperation because the agenda of women’s rights is trending, and the women’s rights discourse is strong and influential.
In Palestine, there are organizations dedicated to improving the women’s rights situation, too, but they fail to build strong connections with the government or the society to promote their agenda more extensively. To understand the difference, the author examined a rural community in Upper Egypt, in which women were not affected by the discourses of women’s rights. While those women were restricted in some of their rights acknowledged by the state, they also recognized many important rights and used certain power in their social interactions despite being unaware of the international standards of women’s rights.
The author suggests revising the concept of women’s rights and adding clarity to it, specifically in terms of cultural relativism. When discussing what rights a woman should have, activists and researchers should take into consideration the context in which the woman lives. However, it does not mean depriving certain women of universally acknowledged human rights, but it refers to designing a better toolkit for approaching the women’s rights situation in a specific country.
Conclusion
In a review of relevant literature, it has been established that two major areas in which women’s rights are violated and two major topics in women’s rights-related discussions are violence and discrimination. Sexual violence and extreme forms of violence, such as “honor killings,” are present in all four countries of interest: Palestine, Jordan, Egypt, and Israel. In all four countries, authorities condemn violence, but the practices of violence against women persist due to being perceived as part of traditions.
Notably, activists who oppose violence in Egypt are more empowered and influential than in Palestine, but important steps toward civil resistance to violence are made in the latter country, too. In terms of discrimination, a major problem of Palestine is that relevant legislation is not sufficiently enforced. Again, researchers see the roots of discrimination in patriarchal and conservative features of the four countries’ societies.
A specific factor that makes Palestine different from the other three countries is that it is affected by occupation in addition to other factors that contribute to the women’s rights situation. The comparison has shown that, while there are problems with women’s rights in all four counties, there have also been important achievements in terms of civil activism, opposition to violence and discrimination, and governments’ efforts to comply with the international standards of honoring women’s rights.
References
Abu Jahal, E. (2016). New initiative aims to protect Palestinian working women. Al-Monitor. Web.
Abu-Lughod, L. (2010). The active social life of “Muslim women’s rights”: A plea for ethnography, not polemic, with cases from Egypt and Palestine. Journal of Middle East Women’s Studies, 6(1), 1-45.
Anderson, J. L. (2012). Can you hear her now? Changing the discourse on women’s rights in Jordan. Kaleidoscope, 10(1), 1-8.
Convention on the elimination of all forms of discrimination against women. (2017). Web.
Cuthbert, O. (2016). Calls for action as ‘honour’ killings in Jordan show sharp increase. The Guardian. Web.
Dotan, Y. (2015). The boundaries of social transformation through litigation: Women’s and LGBT rights in Israel, 1970–2010. Israel Law Review, 48(1), 3-38.
Elia, N. (2006). Film review: This is not living: Alia Arasoughly. Women make movies, 2001. 42 minutes. Women in struggle: Buthina Canaan Khoury. Women make movies, 2004. 56 minutes. Soraida, a woman of Palestine: Tahani Rached. Women make movies, 2004. 52 minutes. Journal of Middle East Women’s Studies, 2(3), 125-130.
Frantzman, S. J. (2017). The struggle for women’s rights in Egypt. The Jerusalem Post. Web.
Langohr, V. (2015). Women’s rights movements during political transitions: Activism against public sexual violence in Egypt. International Journal of Middle East Studies, 47(1), 131-135.
Nahhas, R. (2015). Honour killings: A crime in the name of “family honour.” The Arab Weekly. Web.
O’Connor, A.-M. (2014). Honor killings rise in Palestinian territories, sparking backlash. The Washington Post. Web.
Syam, A. (2016). Advocating for women rights in Palestine. Web.
United Nations. (1979). Convention on the elimination of all forms of discrimination against women. Web.
United Nations. (2009). Resolution adopted by the General Assembly on 18 December 2008. Web.
Weinglass, S. (2015). The deadly war on women that Israel refuses to talk about. The Times of Israel. Web.
Welle, D. (2016). Rethinking the term ‘honor killing.’Daily News Egypt. Web.
Women’s human rights: A fact sheet. (2005). Web.
Yahiaoui, D., & Al Ariss, A. (2017). Diversity in the Arab world: Challenges and opportunities. In M. F. Özbilgin & J.-F. Chanlat (Eds.), Management and diversity: Perspectives from different national contexts (Vol. 3) (pp. 249-260). Bingley, UK: Emerald Group.
Deliverance, transformation, and salvation from the yokes of overbearing cultural economic and social-political discrimination are an imperative agenda in modern society. Internal conflicts within states and interstates wars have been a common hallmark of the political history of Afghanistan. The instability, which is the unfortunate outcome of those struggles, has resulted in further unforeseen outcomes. For example, the neo-colonialism twisted in other obstinately assistive and emancipatory missions.
The author of this article has detailed her opinion in all the aspects surrounding the attempts to describe the women of the veil (Muslims women). While structural, societal, political, and economic oppression is a reality, the author is skeptical, as the same had not been done objectively. For instance, she finds constant bombing a violation of civil rights.
Social Context
The author chides the activities of the Western colonies in Afghanistan in restoring the rights of the women of the veil. Social stratification is a product of a long history. This is a manifestation of different circumstances incidental to one’s lives and a structural design of one’s desires. The author feels that the fight for the deliverance of the women should first focus on the appreciation of this reality hence deliberating on global injustices as they shape the plight we find ourselves in.
In Afghanistan, when the Taliban came into power, wearing the veil was made compulsory for all Afghanistan women. This was coupled with other discriminatory facts, which include poor health, unemployment, denial of schooling for the women, malnutrition, etc. This, according to the author, is what could have given many meanings to the discrimination of Afghanistan women as it reflected their real needs.
What Affects Muslim Women in Canada
Prejudice plays a key role in the negative experience of Muslim women in Canada, as well as in the Western world in general. The fear of terrorism and the immediate relation of Muslim people in general and Muslim women in particular to radical Islamic movements is the first obstacle on the way of understanding Muslim women for most Canadians and Europeans (Abu- Lughod 784).
While a rapid increase in terrorism awareness in the 21st century was not random, Western people clearly lack understanding of the Muslim culture in order to differentiate between radical Islamic groups and regular Muslim people, women in particular.
The concept of a woman as a martyr to the patriarchal rules of the Muslim society is another misconception and hindrance to understanding Muslim women: “Projects of saving other women depend on and reinforce a sense of superiority by Westerners, a form of arrogance that deserves to be challenged,” (Abu- Lughod 789).
Political Context and Historical Context
As mentioned above, the current life of Muslim women is also a result of prolonged political history. Afghanistan had experienced long periods of political and civil strife until the Taliban’s rule. It is after this that the wearing of the veil for women was declared a compulsory part of their clothing. Those, who belonged to elites, ran away while the poor stood back to scramble for the power.
Taliban’s rule imprisoned women to their homes and thus so much of their rights were compromised. Even then, the author feels that the attempt to assist these women should not be restricted to making the entire Muslim community abandon the veil. Considering the custom as a medieval imposition manifests a disrespect to the Muslim traditions and the lack of understanding of the Muslim culture.
The author also states that other interests incorporated in the battle were only used as a cloak to hide the real economic and political agendas regarding the oil dealings. Citing the case of African women and the female genital mutilation, Abu-Lughod effectively affirms her position.
Main Objectives
The author’s main objectives in the article are: to spread the word, share knowledge and to correct existing misconceptions hovering around the struggle to assist the Muslim women in gaining rights and freedoms. In her article, Abu-Lughod seeks to extrapolate on the wrong convictions on the saving missions, which she assumed to be sanctioned poorly.
The article focuses on revealing the impropriety of the measures taken by the western powers in Afghanistan. While the situation in Afghanistan deserved a complete overhaul, the author attempted to show that the measures taken were inordinate for addressing the situation. Use of armaments and superior weaponry to quell the situation could be justified because of the potential repercussions that it carries.
The author’s goal was to invoke the malice and the intent that was backing these saving missions and suggest other ways of addressing the current situation regarding the rights of Muslim women and their representation in the Western society. This would ultimately guarantee a global fight for the deliverance of all women including, but not limited to, African women in America.
How to Influence Other Women from Canada and Western Block in General
The notion that wearing the veil is a medieval rudiment is the ridicule of the free will of the Muslim women to choose whether to wear the veil or not. Particularly, fighting the Taliban is not equal to fighting for the rights of women, as in the process, other rights of women are compromised. This has prompted the rise of feminist movements from western block advocating the rights of women, which the current formulas jeopardize.
In order to influence other women from Canada and Western block in general, people should be convinced that the rights of Muslim women are upheld. They should be motivated to embrace the self-sufficiency of Muslim culture. Any person, who will be found violating or despising the Muslim culture, will face severe repercussions. Finally, a rigorous campaign should be started in these regions to enhance awareness and motivate people to support Muslim women.
Authors Issues, Arguments, and Suggestions
The author of this paper seeks to show that the used armament to liberate the Muslim’s women from the Taliban’s rule is not justified. Abu-Lughod furthers the opinion that the subject has been given more attention than it actually needs. The author claims that as these women deserve deliberation and that the battle should be fought globally, but not be focused on one area alone.
Abu-Lughod says that this battle should focus on listening to the voice of women, who are the real victim. Even then, she concedes that their voice may not be fully heard. Only after women’s opinion is taken into account, policies that promote the provision of irrefutable human rights to women will finally have the desired effect.
Personal View on the Subject
Personally, I believe that the problem of Muslim women in Canada and other Western countries needs an urgent solution. Fueled with the fear of terrorists and gender inequality, people’s attitude towards Muslim women may deteriorate to the point when the latter may be shunned by Western society.
Therefore, one must admit that prejudice exists and that it needs to be eliminated so that people could view Muslim women as unique personalities and the people belonging to an original and beautiful culture. Nevertheless, the obvious problems of women’s treatment in the Muslim world are not to be ignored, either. While people must respect other cultures’ traditions, they must not turn a blind eye to violence. Herein the necessity to provide Muslim women with their irrefutable rights lies.
One Contemporary Incident
As an anthropologist and a professor, Abu-Lughod valued the life of women in the Middle East. She rejected some suggestions that were meant to frustrate the Muslim women. She valued all women without considering the races or religion (Abu- Lughod 787). Lila Abu-Lughod produced a book that encouraged the saving of Muslim Women.
The book is widely known for its unique nature of upholding democracy and the global campaign of saving Muslim women. She asserts that the Islamic faith is just like any other religion, including Christianity, Hinduism among others. Therefore, Abu-Lughod rejects any form of discrimination and supports the idea of providing every single person with the key human rights.
Conclusion
In conclusion, I agree with the author when she utters that the concept of feminism has been used for political purposes to the point where it has finally started applauding to the ideas that it used to subvert.
Moreover, the feminist perspective of the Islamic women needs a thorough reconsideration so that the politicized ideas, the fears of terrorism and the related issues should not stand in people’s way of understanding the Muslim culture and the image of a Muslim woman. Eliminating political issues from the feminist movement is bound to lead to Islamic women gaining their rights faster and the Western world is reconsidering its concept if a Muslim woman.
It can be argued that most of the significant gains in the struggle for civil rights movements are won by people rather than processes (Collier-Thomas & Franklin, 2001 p.24). Alongside inconceivable odds and often at great deal risk, activists in the freedom struggle have won victories that have positively impacted their own lives as well as those of their neighbors and future generations (Collier-Thomas & Franklin, 2001 p.24).
Main text
There are various strategies (tactics) used by women in the struggle for civil rights including peaceful protest demonstrations, legal action against the authorities, work boycotts, bus boycotts, sit-ins, freedom rides to social movements among others (Collier-Thomas & Franklin, 2001 p.24).
Women in the struggle for civil rights normally mobilize thousands of people whereby they utilize this large group of individuals so as to carry out peaceful demonstrations (Collier-Thomas & Franklin, 2001 p.47). In order to mobilize many demonstrators, these women usually raise fund enough from individual donors, charity organizations, non-governmental organizations, companies as well as the government. The fund so raised through the above means is used to prepare these demonstrations. During the preparation process the women usually print t-shirts or other outfits which are written some of the things they feel are not okay with authorities. They also hold meetings with key stakeholders so as to arrange how these demonstrations shall be carried out. In some situations these women normally employ mean such as the media and other publicity protocols to announce to the general public when and where such demonstration shall take place. They also distribute t-shirts and other outfits to the demonstrators. After everything is set these women lead demonstrators whereby they march as big group through the common streets to the offices of the authorities so as to hand in their grievances, in most cases in a written document.
Women in the struggle for civil rights can also seek a legal resolve for a matter they feel is against the rights of civil society (Collier-Thomas & Franklin, 2001 p.49). Since all of them can not go to court of law to sue the authorities violating civil rights in question they choose a representative. In most cases one of them who is by profession a lawyer is chosen as a representative and in case where no member is competent enough to present them, these women look for legal services from a law firm whereby they assign an advocate a duty of representing them in a court of law. In this case, they file a case against the authorities who are violating civil rights. In their plaint the women give reasons as to why a certain policy in place is violating the civil rights. And in this perspective they demand the authorities to reverse some policies the authority has implemented or bar some policies from being passed which they feel are in violation of civil rights (Collier-Thomas & Franklin, 2001 p.49).
In other instants, women in the struggle for civil rights can also file a case in a court of law demanding the lawmakers to enact some policies of which they feel when passed will protect the civil society from some atrocities of the authorities as well as others (Collier-Thomas & Franklin, 2001 p.49). This normally happens when they find it essential to enact some new laws in the constitution or amendment the constitution in some way in order to protect particular civil rights.
In some cases women in the struggle for civil rights can as well lobby behind the legislators who in return take their grievances in the parliament (Collier-Thomas & Franklin, 2001 p.56). For this case the lawmakers debate the issues concerning the civil rights in question in an effort to determine whether it was necessary to create laws or review them with respect to the issues raised by women in the struggle for civil rights.
Women in the struggle for civil rights also call for work boycotts for their members as well as those they can influence (Collier-Thomas & Franklin, 2001 p.59). This is whereby these women call for a nationwide work strike for all of their members as well as those who follow their cause in demanding some rights from the authorities. This is in order to paralyze some activities of the authorities so that they the authorities can bow down to their demands. For instance, their teaching members can boycott going to classes hence paralyze teaching in schools and since, basic education may be provided free by government this can force the government to accept the demands raised by women in the struggle for civil rights.
Another strategy used by women in the struggle for civil rights is sit-ins (Collier-Thomas & Franklin, 2001 p.58). This is whereby the members of such organizations go and sit for a long period in the compounds of the authorities’ offices. In this way the authorities will see them and look for way of solving their problems. This is because while sitting in the authorities’ offices they cause disruptions to flow of work in such offices and thereby forcing the authorities to accept their cries.
Further, women in the struggle for civil rights can attend national conferences while carrying placards displaying some information for the leaders to read (Collier-Thomas & Franklin, 2001 p.58). In this way those in the authority will see the message the organization wishes to pass to them and acts on it. Conversely, while in such national gathering, they can sit in specific place and while there, they can heckle a leader who tries to tell the audience something which is in violation of civil rights.
Another strategy used by women in the struggle for civil rights is to distribute leaflets carrying some information to those in authority in public gatherings. Here, these women use their members and the general public to distribute the said leaflets to many individuals those in the authorities included.
Women in the struggle for civil rights can as well compose a song on which its message is intended to bar or call for specific policies to be passed to advance certain civil rights. These songs are normally sung in the public or in national gatherings whereby the message contained in those songs shall be heard by those in the authority and hence act on it.
Additionally, women in the struggle for civil rights can also publish some leaflets, brochures, magazines and the use of the internet to advance their grievances to the authorities (Collier-Thomas & Franklin, 2001 p.58). In this way some prints will carry the message which they want to pass. The leaflets or brochures so printed can be distributed to the public, so as to communicate the message they want to pass.
Another tactic employed by women in the struggle for civil rights is hunger strike. This usually happens when some members of civil rights movement are in custody. Here, these members refuse to eat while in jail. This as a result forces the prison administrators and those in authority to accept their ideology on particular civil rights issues their organization wants to be implemented.
Another method that can be employed by women in the struggle for civil rights is freedom rides (Collier-Thomas & Franklin, 2001 p.65). This is whereby the organizer mobilizes a big group of people with the aim of riding motorcycles or bicycles as group in order to demand from the authority to act on particular policies which are in violation of civil rights. In many cases the participants of this freedom ride usually perform this activity in the popular streets whereby through interruption of smooth flow of traffic they make the authority understand their grievances.
Social movements are other strategies used by women in the struggle for civil rights in order to check the government on how it handles civil rights issues. This is whereby individuals form a civil rights organization in which the core mandate of organization is to look into issues of civil rights with the aim of advancing them.
Summary
In a situation in which all other lenient strategies have failed to bear any substantial reforms women in the struggle for civil rights can call for mass action against the authorities violating civil rights (Collier-Thomas & Franklin, 2001 p.56). This entails mobilizing of multitude of people who march toward the office of the authorities with a purpose of removing the bearers of the said offices from their positions. In many cases this results in violent encounters between the participants of the mass action with police. This is characterized by running battles between the police and the demonstrators. The riots police in this situation use tear gas among other means to disperse demonstrators and the demonstrators respond by throwing stones at them (Collier-Thomas & Franklin, 2001 p.56). The riot police normally arrest many demonstrators together with their leaders in an effort to contain the rioting mob. At the worst the police can resolve to fire live at the rioters. This in many cases results to loss of lives and many governments and o international human rights organizations do not encourage this kind of action by the police.