Women's Rights in the Middle East Essay Example
Brad Thomas
Intro To world Politics
10/19/2011
Frederking
Women’s Rights In The Middle East The question of the ability for the west to promote women’s rights is a central question of the promotion of human rights as a whole. The criticism of the west taking such an action is not an argument against women’s rights but one of the west taking such actions. It is my contention that such an action would be counterproductive to the movement to eliminate patriarchy. Moreover, the problems with patriarchy in the west get worse and only make our efforts ineffective at addressing problems. The thrust of efforts to promote women’s rights is to create equality between males and females. Many of the scholars that support these actions reference things like the inability for Saudi women to receive a driver’s license or the clothing limitations of many women in the Middle East. While these are horrible injustices these countries do not stand alone in their patriarchal actions. In the same way the west is guilty of patriarchy. Many western countries still have businesses that have what has come to be known as the glass ceiling in which women cannot progress in their careers. Even the rhetorical choices of many words like “bitch” or “whore” are obvious indicators of underline sexism in the system. Even the ayatollah of Iran has gone as far as calling out the west for such values, according to a BBC Middle East article. The fact that other countries recognize this means that efforts by the west to influence the Middle East in the area of women’s rights would be ineffective at best. If other countries believe that we have problems with the promotion of women’s rights then the west criticizing the Middle East is on seen as hypocritical in the eyes of leaders there. Attempts at promoting rights in the past have not managed to get anywhere. There have been movements all throughout the world in recent years to attempt to remove structural problems with women’s
Intro To world Politics
10/19/2011
Frederking
Women’s Rights In The Middle East The question of the ability for the west to promote women’s rights is a central question of the promotion of human rights as a whole. The criticism of the west taking such an action is not an argument against women’s rights but one of the west taking such actions. It is my contention that such an action would be counterproductive to the movement to eliminate patriarchy. Moreover, the problems with patriarchy in the west get worse and only make our efforts ineffective at addressing problems. The thrust of efforts to promote women’s rights is to create equality between males and females. Many of the scholars that support these actions reference things like the inability for Saudi women to receive a driver’s license or the clothing limitations of many women in the Middle East. While these are horrible injustices these countries do not stand alone in their patriarchal actions. In the same way the west is guilty of patriarchy. Many western countries still have businesses that have what has come to be known as the glass ceiling in which women cannot progress in their careers. Even the rhetorical choices of many words like “bitch” or “whore” are obvious indicators of underline sexism in the system. Even the ayatollah of Iran has gone as far as calling out the west for such values, according to a BBC Middle East article. The fact that other countries recognize this means that efforts by the west to influence the Middle East in the area of women’s rights would be ineffective at best. If other countries believe that we have problems with the promotion of women’s rights then the west criticizing the Middle East is on seen as hypocritical in the eyes of leaders there. Attempts at promoting rights in the past have not managed to get anywhere. There have been movements all throughout the world in recent years to attempt to remove structural problems with women’s