Women In The Middle East

Throughout history, women have had to fight for equal rights to men in areas such as suffrage, employment, and civil liberties. Though gender equality is a global problem, this issue is especially complex in the Middle East. The Middle East, located in Asia, includes eighteen countries in western Asia, as well as Egypt. The dominant religion of the Middle East is Islam, and many of the countries in this region are devout. In the Middle East, women may, in many cases, have limited civil rights and face dramatic discrimination or violence. In some countries women are often mistreated or even killed simply because they are women. There are many places in this region where women’s rights are developing, and in fact some countries do have very
Since the early 200’s, mothers have been able to pass their citizenship on to their children, giving them access to generous social services and stable government jobs. Government authorities have also made an effort to hire women to prominent government roles. However, traditional attitudes toward women have run up against the country's modern image. Despite some advances, women remain second class citizens in the U.A.E., where the legal standard of “male guardianship” denies women the right to make autonomous decisions about marriage. Because of this restriction, a woman cannot marry unless her male guardian concurs with her marriage contract. If he objects, she can appeal to a judge to act as her guardian. Men, on the other hand, can marry up to four wives. Once married, the law requires a woman to be obedient to her husband. Many women are in paid employment in the U.A.E., but a woman who takes work without her husband’s consent can be deemed “disobedient” under the law. Furthermore, the U.A E. has no specific law on domestic violence. While general laws on assault can apply to marital abuse, U.A.E. law fails to spell out protection measures and the responsibilities of police, courts, and other government agencies in addressing domestic violence. Despite the U.A.E.’s progress toward equality for women , there are
Rather than accepting their fate, these women have decided to fight to gain equality, although is not easy by any means. One of the reasons that gender equality is such a complicated issue in the Middle East is that some applications of fundamentalist Islamic law include limited rights and even violence toward women. ISIS/ ISIL is currently the most prominent fundamentalist group in the Middle East, but other groups also have influence in the region and in nearby nations. In Afghanistan and Pakistan, the Taliban has been a significant political force for the last two decades. This group advocates limited freedom for women and is particularly opposed to the education of girls. Recently, the efforts of one young Pakistani woman have brought this issue to the attention of Western media.
Malala Yousafzai was born in Mingora, Pakistan. For the first few years of her life, her hometown remained a popular tourist spot; however, the area changed as the Taliban began to take control. As a young girl, Malala attended a school her father had founded. After the Taliban began attacking girls' schools in the area, Malala began speaking out and writing about the injustice of girls that were denied an education by the terrorist