Monday, October 07, 2013

Opinion: The Time is Right for Change


  Monday, 7 Oct, 2013

Every part of the world has seen changes in women’s social status at different times in history. The authoritarian male-female relationship, which entails men viewing women as their property, also existed in Europe. Not long ago women in Europe gained the right to vote and we can say the same thing about China prior to the Cultural Revolution. In the Arab world we all know that women in general went through similar stages with regards to the right to education and work.

 Therefore, women in the Gulf are no different apart from the delay in giving them their rights and reforming the authoritarian male-female relationship. For decades, Gulf societies—and this varies from one Gulf state to another—have been fiercely fighting for women to receive no more than formal schooling.


Due to the mutual influence and mass communication, globalization has shifted us to a new lifestyle where it is no longer possible to prevent change. Therefore, it is no longer possible to use terms, such as “Westernization,” and “immunization” as they both belong to that period of history where it was possible to control the scale of mutual influence among people around the world. Hence, today we find ourselves face to face with a new generation of women that is open to the world and constantly draws comparisons between lifestyles in the Arab world and the West, thanks to the media and the experience of studying abroad.

Tens of thousands of female students are experiencing independent lives due to the several years they spend studying in the West. Both young men and women have become responsible for building their independent personalities and giving a special meaning to their lives. This new self-view is crucial for their future expectations, and cannot be ignored simply on the grounds of privacy, especially in an open world such as ours today.

Those monitoring the language of women at this point in time on social networks will notice a tone indicative of suppressed anger resulting from the difference between their own sense of self and their position in the current social system.

Their anger largely wells up from the need to recognize the individuality of women in the modern world we live in today, whether we like it or not. This individuality is being violated in several ways, such as women viewed as a burden on men in many governmental transactions, the inability to move inside the city unaccompanied by a man due to lack of public transportation or restrictions on women driving cars, to the faulty marital relationship due to the way it was established and its authoritarianism nature. This is not to mention other issues such as divorce and child custody. Hence, we need to reconsider some concepts of Islamic jurisprudence in line with human dignity, which has been endorsed by all religions.

Some members of our societies have already objected to changes made in regards to this issue—such as women’s education and awarding them scholarships to study abroad—basing their argument on exaggerated assumption and fears aimed at undermining these key human rights. After adopting these changes, these assumptions have been shown to be mere exaggerations made at the expense of a large segment of citizens. Therefore, it is high time we moved forward with bringing about change in order to live up to the aspirations of this promising generation of Gulf women.

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