While women in the west still enjoy more rights than women in the east, the amount of equality women on both sides of the world experience is slowly becoming more balanced.
Women’s equality is one of the first things that comes to mind when you hear the word equality. Then you probably think of the bra burning of the eighties, but feminism is far more than wild public displays. The main focus of feminists for the past few years have been fighting wage inequality and more resembles the insistence of the suffragettes.
One of the biggest differences between the third wave of feminism and the first and second waves is that the third wave is far more accepting of women of all races and classes where the first and second waves were largely just focused on the empowerment of middle and upper class women of white European descent.
Bolstered by the success of women in the west, women in the east have started their own fight for their rights,
which contrary to what we believe here, has nothing to do with the hijab.
which contrary to what we believe here, has nothing to do with the hijab.
Muslim women don’t feel oppressed by wearing the hijab. They feel it gives them freedom from some of the subjection in western culture. They feel free from harassment and objectification. When wearing the hijab they don’t feel the same social pressures to look and dress a certain way that are part of the daily lives of the west.
Besides they have far bigger problems then a head scarf. Such as not being allowed to hold jobs or the killing of female infants. The type of things that we learn about in history class going back as far as the Spartans and most likely further. We look back and think of how crude and archaic those cultures were not fully understanding that those practices still happen in the world today.
Women’s rights in the East are advancing slowly and are usually hard for us in the West to even notice however the 2012 Olympics were a very visible example of equality.
Saudi Arabia who until 2012 only allowed males to compete for their countries team had not one but two female team members competing. Judoka Wojan Shakerkani, a judo competitor and the first Saudi woman to be a part of the Olympics, and Sarah Attar, a California born track athlete, were forced to walk in behind the male competitors of their country.
Even though they were allowed to compete they were still look at as lesser than the men. Both women also had to oblige with the countries strict code of modesty while competing which meant being covered from wrist to ankle and wearing a headscarf. this was a huge drawback for Attar who ran her 800 metre sprint in full jogging gear while all the other women in her heat wore as little as possible for aerodynamics.
Even though both these women came in last in their respective competitions they were a crowd favourite as the very first women of their country and an example of the advancement of women’s rights in the middle East.
Sadly it isn't just that women in the East are getting more rights that is making things more equal between the East and the West, but also that the rights of women in the West are on shaky ground. Anyone who remotely followed the latest US elections know that women’s rights were considered attacked by the Republican Party. Many of the Republican Party members were quoted as saying incredibly sexist or insulting things toward women but the worst would have to be Todd Akin’s “legitimate rape” (Akin) comment.
This comment was in response to question to Akin’s stance against abortions because as far as he knew victims of “legitimate rape” rarely get pregnant and therefore abortions in cases of rape are unneeded. You would have to wonder how you would define whether a rape was legitimate or not.
Akin then went on to insult Claire McCaskill, a Senate nominee for the Democratic Party, when she criticized his words saying that she was “too aggressive and unladylike”.
While the Republican Party has always been vocally against abortions and are constantly trying to have them outlawed, this year they went after birth control as well with a health conference held to discuss whether health care should cover women’s birth control or not.
Now the in itself wouldn't be so bad if it wasn't for the fact that the conference was led by a panel made up of entirely men. And this wasn't just one or two men who after careful screening were the most qualified for the job, but a panel of 10 men. It doesn't seem like it would be that difficult to find one woman who was qualified to lead a discussion on women’s health care.
Although the Democratic Party was inform they were allowed one witness to argue on the behalf of providing birth control.
The Democratic Party then found Sandra Fluke a University Law Student in her twenties. Sandra and many of her friends used birth control and some even for other medical reasons, even so the Conference officials informed Fluke and the Democratic Party that she wasn't qualified enough to testify on women’s health to panel of men.
One would be hard pressed to find a better example of irony.
The Republican Party feels that contraception and abortions go against their Christian religion. Say things such as America being a Christian nation. While Christianity may be the most prominent religion in America at this time, the Republican Party conveniently forgets the first Amendment “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.”(U.S Constitution) Which was first paraphrased as the “separation of Church and State” by Thomas Jefferson and has continued to be used as such in the years since.
As a country so proud of their Constitution perhaps they should take the time to look over it.
The Republican Party also feels as though they have to right to force their Christian ideals on the rest of the country, many of whom are not Christians.
Forcing the religious ideals of a single group on everyone else? Sounds familiar. Seems that is just what the Taliban did and the United States went in there to stop it. Remove the religious element and links could be drawn back to Nazi Germany and the whole world stepped in to stop that.
The state of Women’s rights around the world is changing for the better and possibly the worse
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I really appreciate your point of view and I'm very interested to hear what a young person in the West thinks of this topic. Even though it may appear that the discrepancies between gender are lessening, there is still much work to be done. I'm starting to question why gender comes into any equation at all. Why is there gender in sports? Why is there a perpetual glass ceiling that Canadian women execs can't break? http://www.vancouversun.com/business/workplace/Women+execs+believe+glass+ceiling+still+impediment/7684710/story.html When will our ability to create life stop being the thing that defines the word 'woman'? Let's keep the discussion going.
ReplyDeleteThank you for that link. It is almost scary how far back the pay equality slipped from the 1980s.
DeleteI found your blog post to be very intersting and I learned several things about womens rights that I did not previously know. I agreed with several of your views on the topic but I did disagree on the view of women on the hijab. How could these women have this view on the hijab if they were brought up to think this way? They could not have a different opinion when from day one they were told that the hijab allows for freedom from subjection. Also do you not think that some of these might see the hijab as a limitation of their personal freedoms? Each year in the middle east women are killed over religous beleifs. In 2006 around 133 women were killed in Iraq with 79 being about violating Islamic teachings (Wikipedia,2012).I also thought that it was funny when you talked about ligimate rape and about the conference for womens health with a panel of men. This suprised me because the US is one of the more developed countries so you would think that they would have a better outlook of women being equal to the rest of society. I believe that to be truly equal in society women will have to first get past the restrictions and views of some religous groups. I liked how you were able to show problems with womens rights both in the west (US) and the middle east. Overall I enjoyed your topic and I thought you voiced your opinion on several points very well.
ReplyDeleteIt seems like something most Americans over look, the fact that is was founded on separation of church and state. However, republicans still use the bible as a resource to advocate their opinions. We have come along way from women only allowed to work at home, and treated as less than people. A women's right to her own body should not be a government issue. Especially one decided by men, and a select few females. We have the benefit in the western world to know and recognise when we are being repressed, but in periphery countries they do not. I have read on your blog, and in the past that women enjoy wearing the hinjab. That is mostly because they have been raised to except it. Wearing a hinjab is not a bad thing, but it is not the only thing that women are passive on. Many women are subjected to abuse, but do not report it because they have been taught that it is a normal and okay occurrence. I came across an anti feminist blog, written by an ignorant man for England. He was under the impression that men have it worse than females and always had. Well men may have never of been treated like a lesser member of society, not given the privilege to vote, have their personal body turned into an object, or paid less just because of their gender, they still did and do have unfair biased of their own. Genital mutilation is legal in America for males, but not females. During custody cases the child almost always goes to the mother. Women aren't, and should not try to gain power over men. The best thing to achieve is equality. Its to bad that not everyone sees it as that, and feel threatened when ever it is attempted to be achieved.
ReplyDeleteMelody, you clearly brought up key points surrounding women's rights in the United States and the Middle East. I also think that it is important that you discussed how women in the Middle East are gaining rights, but at the same time, there is a "war on women" in the United States. I find it rather frightening that the government is so interested in what women do with their bodies. I also hope that this interest doesn't influence Canada. Why did you use the Naomi Wolf clip? How did it support your message?
ReplyDelete