Women in the Middle East: Why Do They Hate Us?

My brother called me the other day to tell me about an article he read in the magazine Foreign Policy (FP).

The article is titled Why Do They Hate Us? and is about women in the Middle East.

Why Do They Hate Us? is written by Mona Eltahawy, who, according to FP is an Egyptian-American columnist who went through her own hardships in the Middle East.  In November 2011, Eltahawy was beaten by Egyptian police and sexually assaulted. The incident left her with a broken left arm and right hand.  After this she Interior Ministry and military intelligence detained her for 12 hours.

Eltahawy explains that even though women in America have problems concerning equality, it does not compare to those in the Middle East.

She tells stories of atrocities committed against women and what they must live with every day.

Eltahawy explains how Arab countries are not even ranked in the top 100 for the gender differences and a country's wealth doesn't have much to do with that.

Not a single Arab country ranks in the top 100 in the World Economic Forum's Global Gender Gap Report, putting the region as a whole solidly at the planet's rock bottom. Poor or rich, we all hate our women. Neighbors Saudi Arabia and Yemen, for instance, might be eons apart when it comes to GDP, but only four places separate them on the index, with the kingdom at 131 and Yemen coming in at 135 out of 135 countries. 

Additionally, Eltahawy provides facts though startling and personal connections. These include:

• In Yemen, 55% of women are illiterate, 79% do not participate in the labor force, and one woman serves in the 301-person parliament.
• In Egypt, more than 80% of women said they'd experienced sexual harassment and 60% of men admitted to harassing women.
• In Egypt, more than 90% of ever-married women in Egypt have their genitals cut in the name of modesty.

She tells true stories about atrocities, such as 15 girls dying in a school fire in Mecca because "morality police" barred them from fleeing the burning building because they were not wearing headscarves and cloaks required in public.

Now don't get me wrong, I don't expect the article to be taken at face value, but start a conversation. I know it's going to be a controversial topic, but see how others feel about this issue and learn more about it.

This behavior and treatment toward women is not acceptable in any country.  See what you can do about injustices  whether it is internationally or in your own neighborhood.

"Love and respect woman. Look to her not only for comfort, but for strength and inspiration and the doubling of your intellectual and moral powers.  Blot out from your mind any idea of superiority; you have none." --Giuseppe Mazzini

The "Velvet" Class of Saudi Arabia

I wanted to look at another Middle Eastern themed book today.

Girls of Riyadh by Rajaa Alsanea has an interesting story behind the book. It began as a type of blog.  Every week, Alsanea would send out stories to subscribers about her friends, whose names were changed in the book. Each story builds to the larger story of the book, it isn't just a collection of random stories.


The publishing group sums up the book as so:

When Rajaa Alsanea boldly chose to open up the hidden world of Saudi women—their private lives and their conflicts with the traditions of their culture—she caused a sensation across the Arab world. Now in English, Alsanea’s tale of the personal struggles of four young upper-class women offers Westerners an unprecedented glimpse into a society often veiled from view. Living in restrictive Riyadh but traveling all over the globe, these modern Saudi women literally and figuratively shed traditional garb as they search for love, fulfillment, and their place somewhere in between Western society and their Islamic home.

In each chapter, before she starts that week's story, she responses to her readers and also provides a lyric, poetry, or line from the Quran.

This blog turned book caused quite the buzz in the media in Saudi, which can be seen in her commentary in the beginning of each chapter.

After its debut in the Middle East and the author's tough decision, it was released in America.

It was definitely an interesting read because of the life this took on in the media.

Girls of Riyadh is more of a young adult read that talks about four friends in the wealthy or "velvet" class. These women are in their 20s and are experiencing things like marriages, school, and discrimination.

As I've read in reviews, it isn't an accurate depiction of a typical Saudi woman's life.  I believe, however, it is a good book to read just for what it went though in the media and that she does real life accounts of her friends lives.  It was a nice addition that at the end of the book she told what her friends thought of this project, how some of them helped, and how some of the friendships were severed because of it.

If you want to read more about the book or find an excerpt, head over to Google Books.