Arab Women in the Middle East and Diaspora (Essay Sample)

Arab Women in the Middle East and Diaspora Name Institution Anthropology: Arab women in the Middle East and Diaspora Introduction The world comprises of a rich mixture of people from different cultural backgrounds. The comparative study of the different human societies, their cultures, and their development process over time is the general scope of this paper, under the broad topic, anthropology. The paper narrows down to the anthropology of Arab women in the Middle East and Diaspora. Further, three concepts have been chosen for discussion in this essay in regard to the Arab women. The concepts are gender, ethnography, and feminism. Gender Gender is defined as the social and cultural characteristics that distinguish men and women ("Gender”, 2016). The roles that men and women play vary from one society to another (Naber, 2012). Some societies regard women as inferior to men when it comes to political matters. Women are therefore denied an opportunity to participate fully in politics that shape their societies. The issue of gender inequality arises from the basic structure of a social setting, the family. In some societies, the girl-child is not educated but rather left to do home chores while the boys go to school. The lack of education among girls denies them equal opportunities with the boys when it comes to employment. Education is thus a necessary tool to bridge the gap of gender empowerment. Ethnography One of the aspects of anthropology is ethnography. The term refers to the practice of researchers spending a relatively long time within a culture in order to study it ("Ethnography”, 2016). Unlike research methods such as interviews, ethnographers take their time to gather first-hand information about a particular culture. The study of cultures is important as it helps ethnographers and different people to understand how other cultures live, how they interact, and why they live the way they do. A good understanding of different cultural structures is essential in minimizing the tendency to stereotype people from other cultures based on their practices and beliefs. Feminism Feminism is the belief that women should be given the same rights, power, and opportunities as men ("Feminism”, 2016). The concept of feminism is correlated to the issue of gender balance. As advocated for in the gender concept, the female gender needs empowerment in order to compete fairly with the male gender. The social structure has numerous opportunities that women can exploit. The only way to turn the concept of feminism into reality is by empowering women and giving them the platform to exercise their potential. Gender, ethnography, and feminism The three concepts are related and are closely observed in any given society. When ethnographers set out to study the culture of a society, the focus is only how men and women handle different affairs. Therefore, ethnography covers the gender concept. In cases where the role of women and their position in the socio-cultural and political structure is reviewed, the concept of feminism comes in. Gender, ethnography, and feminism in the ethnography of Arab women in the Middle East and Diaspora One of the most popular female ethnographers, Lila Abu-Lughod, spent time studying the everyday lives of individual families living in Egypt’s North West coast. In her book, Writing Women’s Worlds, Abu-Lughod challenges public misconception against women of the Muslim Middle East. Further, the ethnographer seeks to prove the Western feminists wrong in their assumption that defining patriarchy is a simple matter (Abu-Lughod, 1999). In summary, her study gathers evidence that there is an existing misconception towards work by women, in particular, feminist ethnographies. Women of the Middle East are often sidelined in matters politics. The sentiment is borrowed from the book: Women and Power in the Middle East, written by ethnographers Joseph and Slyomovics. The ethnographers note that there is apparent gender domination of women by men in the Middle East and North Africa. Not only do women get controlled by men, but also by their respective families, communities, and the state. However, the rise of capitalism has reduced the intensity of control over women (Joseph & Slyomovics, 2011). Muslim women need deliverance from societies which limit their freedom regarding mode of dressing. Most Middle East countries enforce the compulsory custom of covering their heads, commonly known as veiling. Abu-Lughod (2013), notes that there are different ways of marking a woman’s propriety other than a particular mode of dressing. However, the mode of dressing ...