We finished the 'Women in the Middle East' with the book Year of the Elephant. We have discovered so much in this section about the struggles that women of the Middle East go through.
What I think is interesting is the comparison of how women in the Middle East are judged vs. how women in America are judged. In America unfortunately most women are judged based on their appearance and how they look. In the Middle East it seems like beauty is not the number one characteristic for judgement. Women are judged more based on their status with their family and community. For example the woman in Year of the Elephant was divorced and the community all judged her based upon that. The woman in the film 'Two Women' was seen as dishonoring the family after her cousin was injured, and she was judged off of that. Most women in America strive to have a decent appearance because they believe that they will be liked more by their communities and peers this way. Women in the Middle East strive to obey their families and act honorable in order for their community to accept them. However all the lead women we have watched and read about have been strong women that go against the norms of society.
I think that this section told us a lot about how women are expected to act in the Middle East, compared to what they actually want to be doing with their lives. Many of these women are strong and independent and just want what any citizen in the world wants, which is to have freedom and be treated respectfully.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment