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.