Egyptian musician Maii Waleed, collaborating here with Zeid Hamdan, a
Lebanese producer, in Hsafeer Ba'aeid
and also Dina elWedidy, another emerging Egyptian musical star,
with her Sokoun (Tranquillity) -
And
if you are not in the mood to read a long and somewhat cantankerous post, you
should stop while the going is feel-good with this music. But if you want to feel hot and
bothered like me, then go right ahead…
Women I keep getting these vibes from non-Arabs about how Arab
women are ‘oppressed,’ ‘not empowered,’ ‘can't access education,’ and somehow
‘forced’ to wear the hijab. Let’s talk some facts and kick the stuffing out of these stereotypes!
Firstly,
Bahrain, where I am now: Bahraini women’s situation in particular is different from their much larger and notorious neighbour Saudi
Arabia. Here’s an excerpt from
a book by a couple of Western authors, one of whom grew up in Bahrain.
Bahrainis
are more politically advanced than elsewhere in the Arabian Gulf because Bahrain
has a longer exposure to Western style institutions. Prior to 1930, the Ruler
of Bahrain appointed a British advisor who introduced elements of British law
into the Bahraini legal system. Bahrain was the first country in the region to
hold parliamentary elections in 1973 and 2002, women were probably the first in
the region to have the right to vote.
Culture Shock! Bahrain: A Survival Guide to
Customs and Etiquette – Harvey Tripp, Margaret Tripp.
According
to the UNDP study on Gender Inequality, Bahrain is second among the GCC
countries in Gender Inequality Index (GII), second to UAE
by a hairsbreadth. Here is a recap:
Country
GII 2016
Global Rank (in 188 countries)
% women’s share of seats in parliament
% female population 25+ with some secondary
education (male)
% women in labour force (15+)
Arab
Libya
0.167
38
16.0
65.7 (44.2)
27.8
UAE
0.232
46
22.5
77.4 (64.5)
41.9
Bahrain
0.233
48
15.0
61.6 (55.6)
39.2
Saudi
Arabia
0.257
50
19.9
63.3 (72.1)
20.1
Oman
0.281
54
8.2
59.8 (57.1)
30.0
Tunisia
0.289
58
31.3
37.5 (49.9)
25.1
Kuwait
0.335
70
1.5
56.8 (58.1)
48.4
Lebanon
0.381
83
3.1
53.0 (55.4)
23.5
Algeria
0.429
94
25.7
34.1 (35.7)
16.8
Jordan
0.478
111
11.6
78.5 (82.7)
14.2
Morocco
0.494
113
15.7
26.7 (33.2)
25.3
Iraq
0.525
123
26.5
35.8 (55.5)
15.1
Qatar
0.542
127
0.0
70.9 (67.8)
53.6
Syria
0.554
133
12.4
34.8 (43.4)
12.2
Egypt
0.565
135
2.2
54.5 (68.2)
22.8
Chart-topper
n benchmarks
Switzerland
0.040
1
28.9
96.1 (97.4)
62.7
UK
0.131
28
26.7
81.3 (84.6)
56.9
USA
0.203
43
19.5
95.4 (95.1)
56.0
It
leaps off the page that in most Gulf countries, more women than men have
secondary education. Bahraini women certainly are not denied schooling! In twenty years, I haven’t met a Bahraini who
was not literate. The overall literacy is 95.7% here, so it figures!
A
greater percentage of women participate too, in the labour force in the Gulf as
compared to other Arab nations. Political participation is a different matter
altogether, but then again, nowhere in the world is it perfect, is it? Not even
in the strongholds of democracy do women have adequate representation, so what of
these here, which are just a few decades into their lives as independent nations?
Now
onto Egypt, where I was just before I came to Bahrain. Egypt is a painful instance of regression over the last few decades,
they started out very differently.
Again, don’t take my word for it, I am an outsider, read what Alaa al Aswany, a famous Egyptian author, essayist, social commentator and a US-trained dentist,
has to say:
In the
aftermath of the 1919 uprising against the British occupation, the pioneering
Hoda Shaarawi took the Turkish burka off her face at a public ceremony as a
sign that the liberation of the country was inseparable from the liberation of
women. Egyptian women were truly the pioneers for women in the Arab world: the
first to be educated and to work in every field, the first to drive cars and
fly planes, and the first to enter parliament and government. But at the end of 1970’s Egyptians fell under
the influence of fundamentalist ideas and the Wahhabi school of thought
proliferated, with the support of oil money, whether through satellite
television or…the Egyptians who worked for years in Saudi Arabia and came back
saturated with fundamentalist ideas.
On the State of Egypt – the Issues that
Caused the Revolution.
Alaa al Aswany.
For
all the depressing figures, there are still many, many educated women working
in every field in Egypt, and across all of Arablands. A quarter of the Egyptian female population
is still more than 10 million.
This is not to claim that women’s situation is not a concern – in Egypt
particularly - Wahhabism, Female Genital Mutilation and sexual molestation
remain major issues. But it is equally
wrong to assume all Egyptian/Arab women are uneducated, powerless, browbeaten, spineless wilting lilies, covered top-to-toe in veils, who don't know their own minds. This attitude is patronising and insulting and frankly, weird. Read about some prominent
Egyptian women here.
And
watch this Saudi video which went viral last year. The lyrics translate to 'Oh God rid us of these men.' :) Times
they are a-changing, even in the final bastion of patriarchy!
Oh
yes, nearly forgot - the misplaced Worry re hijabs. I've known Arab and Muslim women
who wear it, and those who don’t. As a random example, I once knew a young
woman who wore the hijab to work because she didn’t want to “deal with
hair issues at 6 a.m.” and never covered her hair for social
occasions/in the evening. And I have known others, deeply devout, who wore it as a religious duty. Some women
wear it as an identity marker, others as a fashion statement. There's no law that forces women to wear the hijab in Bahrain. Or Egypt, though there has been a spike in veiling as mentioned before.
It seems to me beyond belief that the
hijab is conflated with degree of freedom, or ambition, or education, or anything
else. It's a non-issue, women should be free to make their own choices re attire and not be discriminated against for wearing/not wearing a scarf, or a dupatta, or a certain length of hemline, full stop. People really need to get over this obsession with what women wear, everywhere in the world!
An apology for the length of this post, and thank you for your patience if you've read through till here. It's just one of those topics where word limits get thrown into the wastepaper basket.
