When I first started the book and was reading through chapter one, something that immediately interested me was hearing about the Palestine Arab Women's Congress. There was about a page addressing it (Pages 31 and 32) but I was curious for more information as it brings up a whole gender equality theme for Palestine. This congress was led by a Palestinian feminist named Tarab Abdul Hadi. This congress promoted political activism as well as humanitarian activism. In 1920's Palestine, female activism was highly controversial. She participated in the 1930's campaign "removal of the veil". This encouraged Palestinian women to remove their veils (also what I see as a rebellion against the separation of genders, a true feminist movement) and historical because 1920's and 1930's palestine was generally conservative by nature. There were still many WOMEN against these movements, very controversial country-wide. This interested me because it's still a prevalant issue today and when I first read it, it was one of the first things to jump out at me in the book as something I'd like to know more about. It also addresses Palestinian culture, even though the women's movement isn't what the book focuses on.
Facts from:
"Palestine Facts." Chronological Listing. Passia, n.d. Web. 05 Mar. 2014.
"Tarab Abdul Hadi." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, 16 Feb. 2014. Web. 05 Mar. 2014.
Great focus Maddy- however, I would like to note that Tarab Abdul Hadi was only oposed to the veiling and covering of faces, not hijab (headscarf). Many Muslim women that I know feel that their hijabs are part of their Identity as women- Hadi herself wore a hijab, even after crying the removal of face coverings (this is all according to my mother by the way).
ReplyDeleteI was also interested in this, and wanted to learn about what kind of women movements are currently going on in Palestine. According to "This Week In Palestine" it said that ,most of the issues with the movement where directly correlated with the Palestine-Israeli conflict, which was very surprising to me. It didn't give any specifics on how though. Women in Palestine (According to said source) feel misrepresented in decision making and that was why the Women's Movement first began. The biggest struggle with the movement thus far though has been making the movement heard and making it important. Thanks for the insight on The Women's Congress!
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ReplyDeleteThank you Maddy, for bringing this topic up. I have always been disgusted with how women are treated in many countries. Gender equality has been an issue since the beginning of human civilization, but it seems particularly in the Middle East women struggle greatly in trying to obtain rights that should have been given to them long ago.
I know when I did the Diplomacy project women could not drive in my country (Saudi Arabia) and I have yet to find an argument good enough in supporting the reason as to why this is. I understand that in Palestine and the other countries it is all mostly due to religious practice, which I am normally very good at respecting and recognizing but I do not feel it should ever be anyone's place to tell a women she must listen to all the men in her life, and cover herself up. Why do the women have to cover their face and the men are not required to?
After observing in the book multiple instances where the women had to obey the men, I decided I wanted to find out if Palestine and other women's rights organizations were making any progress. According to The World Post, March 8 was International women's day (I wish I had known before) and while the majority of the world had much to celebrate in the improvement of gender equality, the Middle East has accomplished very little. While society encourages wives to be subordinate to their spouses, there are few to no laws protecting these women. Many men have abused their power as the domineering half of the Middle Eastern society. The government has yet to improve any of it's laws that currently initiate gender inequality. One of the many laws remaining being that a man is pretty much protected in raping or abusing his wife because "sex" is apart of the marriage, so by being married you are giving consent. I know that not all men abuse their power, but as long as there are men that do, this will be an issue.
Looking on the brighter side, women have made some improvements in the Middle East. In Kuwait, women can now vote, run in elections and obtain a passport without male consent. Finally at least 50 years after all the incidents of Ghada's family not being able to travel with out a male guardian- they finally could.
While this is a huge step in the right direction, we still have a long way to go in helping these women receive the same amount of opportunities as the men in their world. Yes, times have changed for the better since 1940, but we still need to support the current Women's Rights groups as they need all the help they can get in a society where girls are shot when going to school.
I understand that many of my comments are broad statements, but just because they are generalizations does not mean they are not true. I know that there are many many many Men with complete integrity and good intentions, just as there are women with bad intentions. Gender equality, however, is inarguably an issue in the Middle East especially and I hope some day the issue will only be in our history text books and no where else.
Source:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/sarah-trister/womens-rights-in-the- midd_b_493714.html