Click here (projectsyndicate) to read about the current (sub)status of women in many Arab nations... What do you imagine the future holds for these societies? Why so?
5 comments:
Anonymous
said...
The end of Tawakkol Karman's quote “...the energy of both women and men together" echoed the idea in Genesis Rabbah 14 that the combination of man and woman ended up being "strong and beneficial to the human race."
It is sad that the western powers would support the Arab Spring, almost feigning ignorance that revolutionaries would actually install a democracy of equal rights.
If anything this shows that theocracy is not democracy. Now what little progress that was achieved by the previous governments will be scaled back.
What makes one think that if women held a place in the government that they would be respected. If a nation has lived most of their life having women be a minority and not having their views mean anything, then what would make those men that have been raised this way respect a women in power. Imagine if you raise up without any respect and then just expect them to respect others when they get into the real world - they wont because they don't know how to. So I think that yes, women one day can hold a government position, but I think it will be very difficult for them to gain respect from the male population - therefore, they will not be taken seriously.
-_- My first statement didn't publish and was erased so this one won't be as sweet as the first. Sad day.
Anyways the dominating religion in this region is muslim, if im not mistaken. Muslims don't exactly have a good opinion on females. They are primarily to serve a man. The women should not have protested unless they were willing to go all radical-buffy-the-vamp-slayer on their butts. In order to get any amount of change they would of had to risk it all and lose a lot in return....with probably little to no change even then. It is very difficult to shake the basic foundations of values on which these people have stood on for thousands of years.
"In Tunisia, the election in 2011 brought 49 women into the 217-seat Constituent Assembly. But 42 of these women are members of Ennahda, which regards Sharia (Islamic law) as the source of legislation. Long-time Tunisian activists fear that Ennahda, which dominates the assembly, will use the presence of women MPs to restrict women’s rights."
This paragraph was particularly striking because it almost seems as if women are being used as a cat's paw, for lack of a better phrase, by the Ennahada party in Tunisia. It is as if they used the women of TUnisia's desire for equality to gain a greater political foothold, all the while advocating for Sharia Law, which is in direct conflict with women's rights. How devastating for women's rights for these women to be elected only to find themselves party to decisions that seal the fate of women in the most horrible way. Compare this situation to that of Rwanda where the genocide that occurred there wiped out so many men that women were, by necessity, thrust into leadership roles. That a staggering death toll was the only precipitating force for change in Rwanda certainly does not bode well for Arab countries.
5 comments:
The end of Tawakkol Karman's quote “...the energy of both women and men together" echoed the idea in Genesis Rabbah 14 that the combination of man and woman ended up being "strong and beneficial to the human race."
Stephanie
It is sad that the western powers would support the Arab Spring, almost feigning ignorance that revolutionaries would actually install a democracy of equal rights.
If anything this shows that theocracy is not democracy. Now what little progress that was achieved by the previous governments will be scaled back.
Kenneth
What makes one think that if women held a place in the government that they would be respected. If a nation has lived most of their life having women be a minority and not having their views mean anything, then what would make those men that have been raised this way respect a women in power. Imagine if you raise up without any respect and then just expect them to respect others when they get into the real world - they wont because they don't know how to. So I think that yes, women one day can hold a government position, but I think it will be very difficult for them to gain respect from the male population - therefore, they will not be taken seriously.
Mylinda
-_- My first statement didn't publish and was erased so this one won't be as sweet as the first. Sad day.
Anyways the dominating religion in this region is muslim, if im not mistaken. Muslims don't exactly have a good opinion on females. They are primarily to serve a man. The women should not have protested unless they were willing to go all radical-buffy-the-vamp-slayer on their butts. In order to get any amount of change they would of had to risk it all and lose a lot in return....with probably little to no change even then. It is very difficult to shake the basic foundations of values on which these people have stood on for thousands of years.
"In Tunisia, the election in 2011 brought 49 women into the 217-seat Constituent Assembly. But 42 of these women are members of Ennahda, which regards Sharia (Islamic law) as the source of legislation. Long-time Tunisian activists fear that Ennahda, which dominates the assembly, will use the presence of women MPs to restrict women’s rights."
This paragraph was particularly striking because it almost seems as if women are being used as a cat's paw, for lack of a better phrase, by the Ennahada party in Tunisia. It is as if they used the women of TUnisia's desire for equality to gain a greater political foothold, all the while advocating for Sharia Law, which is in direct conflict with women's rights. How devastating for women's rights for these women to be elected only to find themselves party to decisions that seal the fate of women in the most horrible way.
Compare this situation to that of Rwanda where the genocide that occurred there wiped out so many men that women were, by necessity, thrust into leadership roles. That a staggering death toll was the only precipitating force for change in Rwanda certainly does not bode well for Arab countries.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/dec/17/rwanda-women-politics-humnan-rights
Megan
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