Women and empowerment in the Arab world

Arab Studies Quarterly (ASQ), Fall, 2003 by Sherifa Zuhur

Feminists--Arab and Western--understand that transformative change must occur in many areas of women's lives. Gains in one area may not be matched by incremental advances in other areas. Thus simply gaining access to educational rights does not necessarily lead to a stronger female presence in politics--perhaps wholesale changes of public perceptions of women, changes in constitutional rights, women's networking and special training for political leadership are required. Changing the laws that pertain to women's bodily integrity--as in the illegalization of FGM (female genital mutilation, or female circumcision) in public facilities cannot realize their intent if medical personnel are unconvinced of the merit of the law, and continue performing circumcisions in their private clinics.

I will now highlight aspects of certain trends mentioned above in order to explain their relevance to the processes of empowerment and the potential of social welfare policies for women.

ISSUES OF PUBLIC SPACE

In the Arab world, a large and highly differentiated region, women unaccompanied by men (sometimes even when they are accompanied!) experience harassment from men in public places as they do in other parts of the world. This harassment heightened when specific historical practices created to ensure the modesty and chastity of women resulting in the harem system passed into disuse. States promoted the employment of women in the public and private sectors and the gandering of public and private spaces changed. Laurence Michalak commented on the gendering of public space in Tunisia. On a recent visit, he reflected on the changes in the gendered space of Tunisian cities over the last two decades (Michalak, 2001). Couples walking hand in hand and young women walking unveiled may be seen in many cities of the region. Obviously, this is not the case in the Gulf States, or in the Sudan.

One of the latest fashions, which demonstrate women's ability to mirror men in public space, is the craze for smoking shisha (or water pipes) in Cairo and Beirut in outdoor (sometimes indoor) cafes, an environment and activity that have always been heavily male. But even in areas where "mingling" is now permitted, harassment of women who walk alone, with each other, or sometimes with family members occurs. One theory is that the changes in the gendering of public spaces, and the appearance of women in service occupations has "shocked" society and men, or often boys, act out their aggression and hostility toward women by annoying them in public--to demean them, and make them understand they are inferior to men.

Dress codes created to protect the modesty of women in public space were dropped in some areas, but continued to be imposed in other areas (the Gulf States) or self-imposed (by urban lower class, Islamist and other women). An Islamic revival that ensued in the 1970s brought about new debates over covering, modesty and modes of dress. The hijab was voluntarily adopted by millions of Muslim women in Egypt, Gaza, the West Bank, Lebanon, Syria, and other Arab nations, and we will never be able to ascertain precisely how many other women adopted it as a result of peer or family pressure. Disputes over this modern version of Islamic covering has ensued in Tunisia and elsewhere where and when it is associated with Islamism or opposition to the state and secularism. Although women who adopted the hijab sometimes asserted that it prevented them from harassment, this is not in point of fact, strictly true. Others argue that the increasing popularity of Islamic dress served to increase male teasing and taunting of unveiled women. Indeed street harassment appears to be endemic throughout the region (Rim Zabra, "The High Price of Walking," in Ilkkaracan, ed. 2000) and with the exception of the UAE where penalties have included posting of men's pictures in the press in addition to a fine, little has been done. Beyond the matter of covering, which has been so exoticized by the West, and which may involve religious or political ideas there are other measures of women's use of public space.