A Comparison of the Status of Women Within Two Ethnic Groups

It is not a secret that throughout the history women suffered an underprivileged social status. This particularly applies to the Muslim society, where even up to this day women are often thought of as having no soul (Kaleem). With the change of American immigration policy, the people of predominantly non-White origins started to pour into this country, thus contributing to the creation of multicultural society that we immensely enjoy nowadays. Yet, it was being noticed that unlike White immigrants, who were willing to become an essential part of American society, the people of different racial background preferred to remain within the boundaries of their cultural niche, often creating a society within the society. Therefore, the social status of women within such closed ethnic enclaves has not changed much from what they were in their native countries. In this paper I will analyze different social status of women of two different races: Muslim and Asian. Nearly one in five people in the world today are Muslim. A diverse community of believers is spread around the globe. More than fifty countries have Muslim-majority populations, while other groups of believers are clustered in minority communities on almost every continent. It is hard to determine the exact figure of the Muslim population in the United States. The reason is that there are three categories of Muslims: immigrants, converts, and those that are born to the first two groups. However, there is an estimate that varies from 5 to 8 million, of which about approximately half are women (Islam 101). There are 5.3 million females in U.S. of Asian background; this comprises 3.7% of American female population (The Health). In Islam, women are expected to get married. It is considered an extremely sacred and important union. The marriages are arranged and are ironically more successful than an average marriage in the United States. Dowry is set according to the financial standing of the

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