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1. Women in the Middle East: Common Threads and
Diversity of Experience
2. Common Threads Fewer women than men in public life
Fewer women than men in the public workforce
Higher rates of female illiteracy
Lower rates of female education
Patriarchal system in the home and in public life
3. Female Illiteracy
4. Women’s Participation in the Formal Work Force & Politics About 80 percent of men participate in the formal workforce; only about 33 percent of women (in the MENA region)
About 3.5 % of parliamentary seats are occupied by women (lowest % in the world)
5. Patriarchy: a system that privileges males and elders, giving males legal and economic power over his family members. In broader terms, the extension of male dominance over women in society in general.
6. Patriarchal system Public:
Public office
Court testimony
Dress codes
Segregated work spaces
Limitations on movement
Private:
Last names
Child custody
Divorce/marriage laws
Freedom of movement & employment
7. Variations in Experience
8. Differences National
Legal
Employment
In Turkey, one in three doctors & lawyers is a woman; about 40% of Istanbul Stock Exchange traders are women
Literacy
Regional
Class and status
Cultural
11. Regional Diversity – a Turkish case
12. Regional diversity Literacy:
78 % literacy for women in Turkey overall (92 % men);
Southeast Turkey, only 55 % women literate.
Education:
92% girls in elementary school in Turkey overall;
only 75% in the Southeast
Marriage:
in the Southeast, 20% girls marry before age 15 (highly uncommon in the rest of Turkey)
13. Class differences: Jobs and status
14. Diversity in Dress: “Veiling” and the headscarf Veiling and exclusion from work NOT synonymous
Full-body covering not specifically required in the Quran
Historically, veiling primarily an upper-class luxury
15. What do we mean by “veiling”?
16. Types of head and body cover
17. Types of body covering cont.
18. Head and body fashion, images
19. Hijab Fashion
21. Why do women veil? What does it mean for them?
22. Other perspectives? Covering as empowerment
Assertion of women’s rights
“Post-modern” reaction
Local custom
Peer or family pressure
23. Clothing and the Quran "Say to the believing man that they should lower their gaze and guard their modesty; that will make for greater purity for them; and Allah is well acquainted with all that they do. And say to the believing women that they should lower their gaze and guard their modesty; and that they should not display their beauty and ornaments except what must ordinarily appear thereof; that they should draw their veils over their bosoms and not display their beauty except to their husbands..."
(Qur'an 24:30-31)