Women’s Rights in the Face of National Unity, Political Dissension and Cultural Context

By John F. Storey

I believe the challenges that Women face in Europe and the United States differ greatly both in time context and cultural acknowledgement than Women in the Middle-East.  The International Stage had begun to transform in the second half of the twentieth country mostly for the former, where as tribal laws in the Middle East took precedent to define personal status of Women even to this day.  For example, the 1980 Copenhagen Program of Action changed how women were seen as the central caregiver and re concentrated the responsibility on both men and women equally.  Fast forward a few years into the mid 90’s, and recall that the International community began transforming women’s rights to overlap existing laws on universal human rights.  The Women’s Caucus for Gender Justice led this charge through the UN Assembly’s “Declaration on the Elimination of Violence Towards Women.” This was undoubtedly important for the framework of feminist progressivism in the States and also reflected a more vocal, aggressive transnational awakening. 

These accomplishments however, have not answered the problems of MENA’s women or changed the status of their second-class citizenship.

In the reading for this week, “Women of Jordan,” Amira El-Azhary Sonbol points out that the Jordanian Women’s education literacy is the best in the Arab world.  Yet, women are still pressured to not pursue higher levels of education.  This is because of the cultural rules imbedded within their society that wrongly establishes a women’s inferiority to man from birth.  Structured dependency on the father’s approval to work, unequal financial redistribution of wealth within the family and property registration in the husband’s name are all factors to this practice. 

When thinking about the ability to provide through policy, a State’s choice in budget allocation towards health and education plays a significant role in the development of a nation.  Countries that have more limited resources (oil specifically) such as Israel, Jordan, Tunisia and Syria benefit in long run if they invest in education to promote learning skilled labor. (Chapter 3 Richards)  Although this is true, there are other variables to consider even if education is important to the government’s agenda.   The undeniable surges in population growth for instance, limit Middle Eastern countries ability to provide quality education in primary and secondary schools even if a large portion of the budget is provided. 

Circling back to the theme of issues in gender, infrastructure of any state is key to equality.  When there is a shortage of essential resources to support infant mortality, women are naturally going to be pressured to bear more children in the hopes that at least one male will survive the family.  In the 90’s, Iraq was severely sanctioned because of the actions of Saddam Hussein’s regime.  This had a huge impact on the survival rate of infants and decreased the literacy rate for the young teen generation (see Richards pg 104-106). Without a basis for education and more time put towards preventing child deaths, women were at a disadvantage to pursue their own equality agenda.

There are instances in history that Women in the Middle East have successfully used modern technology to call for change.  The Internet for example, has been a great tool that has given women the opportunity to lead movements while separating their political contributions from men. 

The Women in Black worked to make the significance of their involvement known on its own rather than the media disregarding their participation or meshing the activities of peaceful contest with other movements.  They peacefully acted to oppose the “occupied territories” in Israel in various ways, such as putting a “closure” on the Israeli Ministry of Defense.  Since the Israeli media did not wish to publicize their actions, women turned to websites and mass email listings to gain coverage and support of their development.  If the Internet had not been available as a means for exposure, than women would still be marginalized to other aspects of Israeli society that was completely controlled by the government’s agenda.  Instead, women were able to convey their participation to thousands more and make waves against the mobilization of war in Israel.  Through this manner, women successfully presented their cause for equality.   

Gender in MENA Societies

In the post-colonial era, many of those living in rural areas of the Middle East and North Africa have and continued to move to urban areas in pursuit of employment. While more women are in the labor force nowadays than in decades past (R&W), those women who are willing and able to work are in competition with men for available jobs. With regard to states' choices in health and education spending, MENA states' failure to aggressively promote policies that decrease fertility rates may be part of the reason for the massive percentage number of Middle Easterners under age 20 (R&W) , the physical cost of which is born by women. If curriculum is gendered as Sonbol asserts, then women are being handicapped during formative educational years. Additionally, women in countries such as Jordan cannot work without the authorization of a male guardian. Even if they can work, they are discouraged from taking jobs that are dangerous or involve night work (Sonbol). Perhaps this is part of the explanation for why their labor-force participation rate is lowest for any region of the world (R&W). As of 2000, women have entered the labor force at an increasing rate. This is encouraging; however, it will also exert greater pressure on current labor markets in addition to the growing population of young unemployed males and on future labor markets given the fact that half of the region's population is under 20 years old (R&W).

I'm not entirely familiar with gender issues in Europe so I'll limit my discussion on this subject to women in the United States. Given a general lack of gender-specific schooling options in the U.S. I would find it difficult to assert that the state's choices in educational spending affect American women the way that they affect some women in the Middle East and North Africa. In at least one respect - the subsidization of oral contraceptives through the Affordable Healthcare Act - the United States' choices in health spending have increased women's access to health care in recent years relative to the efforts made by governments in MENA nations that I am aware of. Additionally, the American does not classify women as the property of their male relatives as the Jordanian legal system does with its female citizens; however, that is not to say that American women don't also face non-legal pressures regarding their dual roles as potential employees and mothers. For example, last year Google announced a new employee benefit allowing women to have their eggs frozen at the company's expense. While a free medical procedure may seem on its face to be a thoughtful and progressive offer, some speculate that this is Google's way of encouraging female employees to delay motherhood in favor of devoting as much time as possible to the company. Shaming and violence toward  girls and women based on actual or alleged sexual promiscuity exists in both regions. Women in both MENA countries and the U.S. are confronted with challenges stemming from institutions' perception of what it means to be a woman, albeit on somewhat different levels given their respective dominant cultural values.

With respect to political representation, Tunisia's new constitution does contain articles that support the ethical treatment of women and children. Tunisia has a higher rate of women represented in its parliament than the U.S. does in Congress - a gap which may continue to grow given Article 45 of the new Tunisian constitution's stated goal to "achieve the principle of parity between men and women in elected councils." According to the article posted by Prof. Hardig, Tunisia's higher parliamentary representation of women relative to the region's other legislatures may have something to do with a parity clause first utilized in the 2011 elections that required equal representation of men and women on the electoral list - a policy that I am not aware exists in other MENA countries. Meherzia Labidi, vice-president of the assembly from the governing Islamist Ennahda party's assertion that women "survived despotism and dictatorship due to female resistance, while the men were in exile or in prison" is a difficult one to quantify when searching for an explanation of women's relatively high representation. It may be that women's participation in political spheres is more widely accepted in Tunisia than in other MENA nations. Tunisian women gained the right to vote nearly 60 years ago and also have the right to an abortion, indicating that the Tunisian government, if not the Tunisian people, has endorsed the inclusion of women in decision-making more quickly and extensively than some of its neighbors.

Questions about Gender

Your readings this week cover a wide range of topics: economic growth and structural transformation; demographic change; health, education and labor markets; and the status of women in society. The common denominator for all of these issues is gender: women and men are impacted differently by rapid urbanization, the state’s choices in health and education spending, and the development on labor markets. In what ways? Do women in MENA face different challenges than women in Europe or the United States (where women’s representation in Congress is pretty abysmal)? Tunisia has a higher parliamentary representation of women than the region as a whole – how can we explain difference across the region in women’s political influence?

A few interesting links

Since we're beginning this semester's foray into the political economy of the MENA region in the context of the recent attacks in France, it seems appropriate to start off with some critical reflection on the emerging narrative (which is all too familiar by now).

The following links give some reason for reflection on the fundamental assumptions that are automatically employed whenever attacks like these are carried out in the name of Islam. Those of you who are fond of number crunching can reflect on whether empirical data on terrorism and general threat to human life corresponds with the American (and European for that matter) public's sense of what they should be afraid of...

The articles below give you some sense of the kind of critical questioning of the broader 'common sense' that I want you to do in your critical reassessment study later in the semester.  

On the issue of Islam and it's supposed compatibility with terrorism:

Are All Terrorists Muslims? It’s Not Even Close

Why I am not Charlie


On race:

Equal in Paris?

Dzhokhar Tsarnae​v was ‘black’ in Russia. Is he white in America?


On freedom of speech and general hypocrisy: 

These World Leaders are a Worse Threat to Free Press than Terrorism

Unmournable Bodies