Between The Sexes A Great Divide Summary

Some women in Saudi Arabia are alright with this and some may not be. Some long for

In order for Saudi Arabian culture to have adopted such a mentality they must have had large amounts of people - particularly males - with the same belief in extreme modesty and male superiority. If at the inception of the Saudi Arabian culture individuals believed females were inferior to males, Saudi Arabian culture must have adopted policies that implied male superiority and misogyny. The means by which cultures create consensus upon shared beliefs such as male superiority and misogyny is to make the shared beliefs into a generally accepted ideology or law. Laws are made of rules; they determined “how the [ideology of gender roles] was formulated, applied and implemented” (Yahyaoui 38). In order to make particular gender roles a generally accepted Saudi Arabian ideology, the ideology must have been supported by laws both directly and indirectly. One form of direct control of women is religious police or vigilante. Women aren’t allowed to socialize, act, or dress in a fashion that isn’t considered appropriate. In order to ensure that no woman is behaving outside of what the culture condones, Saudi Arabian males created

Living behind the veil may be all the women of Saudi Arabia know, some may be comfortable with it, others afraid of the consequences they will face for not wearing it. Either way they do not have much of a choice since they are constantly chaperoned around by a male guardian know as a “mahram”, according to theweek.co.uk 4 “The guardian is often a male relative and will accompany women on all their errands, including trips and visits to the doctor”. Can you imagine having to go

Only 18% of the workforce in Saudi Arabia consists of females, compared to 48% in Canada. For the 18% of females that do work, they are forced to work in certain shops, such as female clothing stores, where men aren’t allowed to go in. Also, the work they do can’t interfere with their housework, meaning that if their mahram see’s it is interfering, or he doesn’t approve of the job, he can stop the women from going to the job. Women are not allowed to work side by side with men, making it very difficult for them to get a job that they want, that they can manage with their time

The history of the world is a complex arrangement of happenings and occurrences that have shaped the current state of civilization. At a fundamental level, history is the driving force behind every element of society that exists today. Within history, there are several factors that have and continue to determine the way in which our society functions. One of the most significant of these factors is gender. Today, conceptions, viewpoints and ideas surrounding gender are always changing. It is this fluidity of thought that ultimately allows society to progress forward and create change. However, gender has not always been as openly discussed. Tracing back through history, gender has consistently been a point of identity among humans.

Westerners often hear of how oppressed women are in Saudi Arabia. As a result, one might expect these women to be vocal about their challenges living in such a country. However, contrary to the assumption that they are unhappy, they are quick to defend their country, saying that their often overbearing abayas are parts of their tradition. These women say that they still enjoy freedoms and that “[i]t is Western women… who have been manipulated into becoming the toys of men” (Kristof 272). Even so, they still receive unequal treatment from men. Saudi women journalists must stay in their own rooms when they work while men do not. Because of these types of segregated and deleterious practices, Nicholas Kristof argues in his essay “Saudis in Bikinis” that the West is not being paternalistic in trying to advocate for women’s rights in Saudi Arabia; they are trying to free women who have never tasted true liberty. It is

The future for Saudi women is difficult to predict, however, it has much potential. The percentage of women that are being educated is constantly growing, women are opening businesses, participating in politics and being activists for the promotion of women’s rights. Women are starting to demand their rights and freedoms. Accordingly, the monarchy is incrementally responding to women’s demands.

One of the main disputes in the battle of Islamic women’s rights is the conflict over dress. According to a popular Islamic leader and Egyptian television personality, the sight of women is so alluring that it can be “intolerably distracting to men” and can “even

Evolutionary gender determinism proves that men and women are different, not only in a physical way, but in a psychological way as well. As far as history can determine, men were always the hunters who were dominant and competitive. On the other hand, women were known as the gathers, who were cooperative and capable of doing several things at a time. Since men and women are different in their make up. It is a struggle for the two genders to live together and maintain equality and harmony without one gender dominating over the other. In The Gate to Womens Country, Sheri Tepper brings forth a solution that allows the two genders to coincide with each other. She gives a somewhat feminist view in her novel,

Gender is actually a set of rules, customs and traditions assigned to people of a particular sex. Gender is not biological but sex is. Rather, according to Lorber, it is influenced by our society and our culture. By proving this claim, Judith Lorber has put forth the example of the man and this example is efficient in distinguishing “gender” as a practice than as an innate attribute.

Saudi Arabian women face countless restrictions against them. Some of the restrictions against the Saudi Arabia women are they are not allowed to drive and have their male guardian drive them, the women cannot be in public without wearing an abaya (cloak) or head covering.

Every Saudi woman irrespective of her age has a male guardian that protect her and he is like a legal representative to her. Therefore, if she wants to travel, go to university or to get a bankcard, she have to get permission from her male guardian first. This is the reason why they are offended, but because that all the woman’s are like that, they look at it as something normal; they feel protected and not abusive, but some of them are fighting against.

interactions performed by people on a daily basis; gender is not merely a concept, but an

The practice of veiling has been a topic of controversy amongst several Muslim and non-Muslim scholars (Ruby, 2006). The “new hijab phenomenon” originated in Cairo approximately two decades ago. Although not a common practice in Cairo, by the year 2000 over 80% of women adopted some form of veiling. The practice of veiling has also been embraced by several other Muslim societies around the world (Carvalho, 2013). The Western world has associated veiling as a form of oppression, gender inequality, and has been an object of pity and fear (Bullock, 2007 & Haleh, 2008). However, these stereotypes are not always reflective of the many who do wear it (Bullock, 2007).

Because the relationship between Islam and women’s fashion is a conflicting one, the global perception of the Hijab is one that is associated with oppression and failure to adapt to progress and modernity. However, in recent years, those in Muslim-majority nations have began showing how the hijab is in fact a symbol of freedom. This rise in the hijab-wearing community of Middle-Eastern countries, such as Kuwait and