Wednesday, January 29, 2020
The Current Status of Women in Middle East Countries Essay Example for Free
The Current Status of Women in Middle East Countries Essay Part I: Reasons why women are reaching a stagnant point in the Arab countries and how this could possibly change:            According to feminists, the current status of women in Middle East countries is strongly attributed to state policies. Scholarly information from studies conducted on the status of Middle East women have indicated that the changes that have taken place in the legal status of women and in their social placement in society have very much been determined by the changes taking place in political constitution of various states and regimes. The status of women and gender relations have also been equally determined by other factors like class structure, economic and demographic characteristic Religion can also not be ruled out as it has tremendous influence on the system of governance in many countries in this region. Revolutionary projects carried out in Iran and Afghanistan but which did not yield good results act as a clear guideline on the status of women in Arab countries.            The societies in the Arab world are predominantly patriarchal. The role of a woman as wife and mother is still held with a lot of esteem in these societies. Women are reproducers, educators of children and socialisers whereby they are responsible for implementing societal and cultural values in the young ones. These societies are also predominantly Islamic, a religion that still holds the family as the most fundamental unit of society and places greet responsibility on women about raising devout Muslims as well as transmitting cultural values. Child bearing is therefore the central labor activity for the females while the men are responsible for the general upkeep of the family. The place of the woman in a Muslim society therefore remains the home and the activities surrounding it. Muslim family law also gives the male members of the society extensive control over key decisions affecting the life of the women under their control for example in issues concerning marriage, education, business and mobility. Women in the Arab countries are still subjected to some form of subordination to the males and restrictive codes of behavior that govern their lives. There is sex segregation towards women and family honor is closely associated with female virtue. As a result any attempts to change family virtues or the family structure has often met with a lot of resistance in the Arab world especially from revolutionary groups that have been operating under the concept of defending Islam such as the Taliban in Afghanistan. Tribal-Islamist opposition groups also play a major role in opposing any attempts to change the status of women in these societies.            In the Arab countries, marriage is still predominantly an agreement between families rather than between two individuals who hold equal rights in society. A husband has absolute rights over his wife’s body and such issues as marital rape are not recognized. Women are therefore still under male control and any attempt to achieve in their social status is viewed as resistance to made dominance. The community has tremendous influence over a woman’s life in Arab countries a factor that can be seen in the societies refusal to do away with the veil even at a time when civilization has advanced in these countries. As a result, the veil has widely been viewed as a civilizational threat to the position of the modern woman in society.            Wars that characterize several Arab nations have also been a threat to the status of women. This is because even after their husbands have been recruited and probably died in war, women especially in the poor backgrounds cannot freely venture out to fed for their families and they still have to rely on male members of the family such as the older sons. This has subjected the women and their children to a lot of unnecessary suffering. There has also been a tendency in these nations to limit the political exposure of women, a factor that has resulted from the concept of male dominance in these societies. In such a way, it has been difficult for women to push for change as society still holds views that their position should be in the house.            A lot can be done to assist the women and improve their status in society. Women for example should be given freedom in education.  This is because modernization demands more labor in high profile jobs. Wars should be a great lesson and women should be given a chance of being economically stable to avoid desperate situations in the event of the death of the family’s breadwinner during war. Education will also give women better chances of employment and produce women who are able to strongly advocate for change in society.            Because family law in Arab nations greatly determines state and legal policies relating to gender and family matters,  perhaps these laws should be reviewed to give the women more influence in the family and society. Various Arab governments should also give attention to demands by women on the improvement of their political, civil and social rights. Part II: Authoritative governments and the rise of fundamental Muslim groups            In the Arab world, the main religion is predominantly Islam, a religion that has played a major role in determining the political, social and civil structures in these nations. Religious and state matters are intertwined in such a way that it becomes difficult to make a clear distinction between the two. Islamic law applies to every aspect of life in the Arab nations ranging from matters related to everyday life, to state matters such as the system of governance and even foreign relations.            With modernization, the Muslim world has come into contact with the Western world, an aspect that has led to mixed reactions in different Arab nations. This is as a result of the major economic, political and social-cultural developments that have resulted from this type of contact. In most of the Muslim countries the political systems are based on Islamic laws derived from the Quran and this has resulted in the concept of Islamic States through which Arab countries want to exert their influence and change the Western culture to conform to Islamic way of life. There has also been widespread resistance to Western influence and these factors have led to the rise of Islamic fundamentalism. A strive has risen among the Arabs between those who feel that Islam should determine the political culture of the Arab nations and those who prefer secular governments that have institutions modeled on Western governments. Islamic fundamentalist feel that Arab governments have established state constitutions that are too compliant with other religions or doctrines. It is therefore the ultimate goal of Islamic political fundamentalists to overthrow these secular states in a bid to achieve national dominance in the political system.            Islamic fundamentalist movements have been modeled upon the Muslim Brotherhood of Egypt began in 1928 that provided such movements with directives on the way forward in achieving political dominance through the implementation of the Sharia law. Even though composed of a minority of Muslims, Islamic fundamentalists have had varied political achievements in various nations. Good examples of such groups are the Wahhabi in Saudi Arabia and the Taliban in Afghanistan where strict Islamic law has been used to eradicate any form of Western influence. In Sudan, the efforts by the Muslim brotherhood to uphold Sharia law since independence in that nation in 1956 has led to a long civil war between the Islamic North and the Christain south.            In Egypt, the Muslim Brotherhood captures 20 percent of the seats in civic elections held in the later part of 2005. Turkey is ruled by an Islamist party that appears to accommodate democratic ideals. But since the September 11 attacks in the United States, growing concern has risen within the international community over the current situation in the Arab countries regarding religious reform and the prospect of Islamist fundamentalists having a share in political power. This is because of extremist groups that have resulted to terrorism as a means of achieving their goals. A good number of the countries in the Middle East are governed by autocratic regimes opposed to these Islamist movements. An attempt by such groups to gain political power has often been suppressed by denying them a popular vote in the governments and by exercising brutality against their leaders and followers. This is because of the tendency by these groups to result to violence as a means of airing their grievances and achieving their goals. Such violence has led to abduction of Western hostages, bomb attacks on the US Embassies in countries like Kenya and Tanzania and the September 11 attack in the US.            Islamic fundamentalists  originally aimed at achieving political goals through peaceful means but the refusal of Islamic governments to recognize their existence and the attempt to suppress these movements is what may have led to the emergence of extremist groups. The Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt has however maintained peaceful means in dealing with the government an aspect that has helped the movement to rise into a political party with a strong following. The future of such groups is however threatened by the fight against terrorism and whether they will achieve in maintaining strict Muslim states is yet to be determined by the course that political events in the Arab world will take and the relations between these Arab nations and the West. Part III The lack of unification between the Arab countries has its benefits in regards to Preservation of culture but it is a hindrance to their potential political force Culture in any community plays a role of utmost importance particularly in preserving the identity of any community. Like everywhere else in the world, the movement of people in and out of the Muslim world has increased cultural integration. Colonial occupation in the Arab countries served to expand these cultural influences bringing in the process of westernization. However the Arab countries have more than any other group of nations succeeded in keeping both external and internal influences at minimal levels. These countries have thus managed to retain their individual cultures to large extent.            From Egypt to Syria, the rise of Arabism was largely as a result of resistance to the colonial occupation mainly the British occupation. This growing force promised to unite Arab nations on the principles of nationalism as well as religion of Islam. This resulted in the expansion of state, missionary and private education (Moaddel, M., 53). However the cultural distance between the components of the Arab world would not allow for significant integration. This has to this day served to retain the cultural composition of the member countries. The lack of unity in the Arab countries has therefore served to preserve culture.            The biggest loss that is as a result of this disunity is however the loss of political forces that would have defined the Arab countries as a force to be reckoned with. The leadership’s radical difference in ideologies has made any meaningful integration difficult. A phenomenon akin to divide and rule has therefore been employed repeatedly by the western powers to further influence the political direction in the Arab World. This has worked against the region since it still remains on the shadows when political force is called for in order to change direction of the world.   Works Cited: Are Knusden. Political Islam in the Middle East R 2003:3 Chr. Michelsen Institute Development Studies and Human Rights Moaddel, Mansoor. Islamic Modernism, Nationalism and Fundamentalism. Chicago. University of Chicago Press.
Tuesday, January 21, 2020
Odyssey Essay -- essays research papers
The Odyssey is an epic composed by Homer, an early Greek storyteller. This epic was the basis for Greek and Roman education. Epics are long poems marked by adventure. The main character in an epic is an epic hero. The epic hero is a figure of great stature and may be a character from history or legend. Epic heroes’ most remarkable traits are usually the ones most valued by the society from which the epic came. The main character in this epic is Odysseus. Odysseus is on a quest to find his home after a war. Odysseus is an epic hero. An epic hero exhibits great leadership qualities. One of these qualities is having aplomb in critical times. This is exemplified when Odysseus is trapped in the cave of the Cyclops, a giant one-eyed monster. The Cyclops puts a stone unmovable by Odysseus and his men in front of the entrance to the cave. While most men would have lost their composure, Odysseus remains calm and rational. He thinks of a brilliant way to escape the cave of the Cyclops in a time of tension. Odysseus, referring to an olive tree, says: â€Å"I hewed it again to make a stake with a pointed end.†He carves an olive tree into a stake as a weapon against the Cyclops. This also demonstrates Odysseus’ resourcefulness, which is another leadership quality. Odysseus comes up with a way to escape the cave with very little available. He hides under the bellies of sheep from the Cyclops as they leave to escape the cave. Odysseus’ resourcefulness helps him escape from the giant Cycl...
Monday, January 13, 2020
I Used to Live Here Once by Jean Rhys †Analysis Essay
To what lengths will someone ever remember their home and recognize the things they’ve once known? Stories have been used throughout the ages to not only create a tale that can cause to the reader great imagination and wonders, it is also common for them to hide several meanings and twists to the adventure. Through the portraits of her life, and the perils of her adventures, Jean Rhys’ has incorporated many of the paths of her life into the illustrations she had developed into short stories. These representation of her original life represent the strong and key points of her journey where she had felt abundances of emotions; many of which were transcribed into very short tales such as ‘I Use To Live Here Once’ where you may notice the precision on the details, the excess of description on the author’s view and imagination, as well as the direct correlation with herself. The following story entitled as mentioned, tells the tale of a woman returning back to a distant memory, and finds two mysterious figures that will enlighten her truth. Further opinions will be referred to as a base to the literal analysis of the story, in order to understand the feelings of the author. Jean Rhys’ includes a particular genre and writing style in this short story that is built around her personality, the author’s use of the ending helps to symbolize the connection with her life whilst using specific types of imagery and juxtaposition throughout the story. The story debuts on a quite simple scale with one description leading to another where each receive a thorough scan, to which we may notice several types of similes and metaphors used in order to express the themes and tones of the short story. The gradual increase of the ‘truth’ hidden at the end of the story can be understood as you proceed the reading through the use of these writing techniques; these reverses of ‘meaning’ give away odd particularities throughout the whole story: â€Å"She stopped and looked towards the house that had been added to and painted white. It was strange to see a car standing in front of it. (The New Windmill Book, 1994). In this passage we understand that the main character is familiar with the house to begin with and have noticed several changes, this sets a doubt to the reader where the question is raised on what is the relation between the main character and this house. There have been some interference in her writing due to personal problems work as considered by Castro (2000), these interruptions have caused Jean Rhys’ novels to be highly influenced by her perils, she had reached a period of hiatus in her writing life due to alcoholism and financial status. The story ‘I Used To Live Here Once’ has been written shortly after the author had gone back to Dominica to revisit her home to only find it burnt down and different to what she had once known. Being the only visit she had made back to her hometown, this has affected Jean Rhys’ view of her origin and roots. We understand throughout the story many of the correlation of the story with her life, as in one part where she describes the stepping-stones that the character in the story needed to step on to cross the river (The New Windmill Book, 1994, p. 57). By identifying her events and the ones in the story, we can create a relation between these stones and the several encounters with men that the author had. More relation can be made on the similarities between the main character of the story and Jean Rhys herself, such as the feeling of nostalgia shown throughout the entire narrative, especially when the woman in the story is describing the house and children by the tree. In one piece in the story, the heroin had characterized the sky as â€Å"Glassy†. We may confirm that there are some strong emphasis on this particular part of the story as the description of the sky given by the author releases information on the characters being in between two separate worlds (Brady, 2009); the implications stated behind that gap is her eventual situation as a ghost. Whilst the identification began when the explanation on the magnificent blue day was made, there is a notice on the exaggeration and contradictions between what the women in the story felt as it was immediately followed by the unusual illustration of the sky. Moreover, when identifying the nature of the other descriptions made in the story, this confirms the confrontation with the ‘glassy’ comment of the sky. This interpretation showed very strong emotions released by Jean Rhys as it may reflect some feelings of transparency and a lack of presence to the heroin even though she feels being physically present. Considering her involvement in the tale, many features in the story give up nformation on how does the story reflect on the personality of the author. For instance, by looking at the way she had described the environment surrounding the heroin in this story, we can connect through this some of the descriptions, which are majorly contained of effects of degradation and undetected figures, which have been noticed by the main character. These are several hints in connection to some of the traumas Jean Rhys had experienced in her life, as said by author Maren Linett (2005) â€Å"consider Rhys’s exploration of the dark subject of/in female masochism – not, as has been argued by some critics, as an individual psychological kink from which Rhys suffered†¦Ã¢â‚¬ these traumas has therefore raise more questions on Jean Rhys’ writing influence. Furthermore, her incorporation of the two kids in front of the house shows a lot on what and how the author thinks. As stated by herself in the biography, she finds the color black warm and gay whereas she finds the color white cold and sad (The New Windmill Book, 1994, p. 156) considering that she had lived in Dominica and that this story is taking place there, we can identify some forms of irony as she observes and desribes the skin of the children (Brady, 2009) as most of the Europeans who had been born in there had similar skin. Whilst reading the story once, the ending of the story generates a shock to the reader. There is some is some sort of a build up in this narrative, from one description to another, the descriptions that the woman makes creates images to which can imply on beauty of the day. This implies to the lecturer to reconsider the whole journey that the author had used to create symbolisms with her life. Considering the involvement of Jean Rhys’ life in the story, her point of view is revealed through the use of symbolism, to which readers can interpret the types of feelings that she is having in addition to the ones of the character in the story. From this, the sudden appearance of her death helps the reader understand the different implications of what the heroin felt, thus relaying to the connection with Jean Rhys life. As said by Myranda Grencinger (2012) the use of symbolism in this tale allows the emphasis on the ending, which had transported the theme of the narrative to the eyes of the reader; in addition, it had not only showed but also set the tone of the story. All in all, considering the author’s use of her writing style and techniques, genre and personality, we may conclude that the short story â€Å"I Used To Live Here Once†holds many secrets upon the feelings of the character. She had succeeded to include her particular techniques so that the reader can attempt to understand and reevaluate their view on a story. Whilst using specific types of imagery and juxtaposition throughout the story, Jean Rhys has been able to symbolize the connections with her life, thus showing more to the reader of the correlation between the woman and the author. However, none of these writings would create much sense and order to the story without the use of the ending revealing the true nature of the tale. Therefore, many understandings can be made on the life of the author through reading this narrative – but to which extent can an author always create portraits of their life in stories, and how clear these can be understand will eventually depend on the imagination, styles and adventures of writers such as Jean Rhys.
Sunday, January 5, 2020
Essay about Discerning Truth from Falsehood - 910 Words
Paradise Lost and Tartuffe are similar works, both exploring the subjects of truth and falsehood. As such, Miltons Paradise Lost portrays the continuous battle between good and evil. In Paradise Lost, Eve falls from the safety of the prelapsarian state into the insecure, sinful postlapsarian world because she is unable to distinguish truth from falsehood. Likewise, Moli#232;res Tartuffe exemplifies the problem of hypocrisy. Tartuffe explores the concept of how easy it is to deceive another person, while displaying how hard it can be to distinguish the truth. Thus, these works are similar in that they strive to reveal the difficulties in determining truth from falsehood and the problems that result from being unsuccessful in this†¦show more content†¦Surely, her creator would have answered her prayers and saved her from Satans tempting words. Furthermore, Eve could have been less hasty in her actions, and she could have discussed the situation with Adam before eating the fruit. In fact, sometimes the best way to deal with a problem is to discuss the state of affairs with another person, such as a friend or family member. However, Eve fails to discuss her choices at hand with anyone. Thus, Eves failure to acquire further advice regarding her situation and her contentment with accepting the serpents word as the truth lead to her banishment. Similarly, Tartuffe reveals that it is sometimes hard to discern the truth and reveals the negative consequences that exist if truth is not distinguished successfully. Orgon is blinded by Tartuffes false piousness. In fact, Orgon is so blinded by the truth that he disinherits his own son, Damis, when he tries to tell Orgon that Tartuffe professed his love to Elmire. Orgon exclaims, Well, go quickly, then. / I disinherit you; an empty purse/ Is all youll get from me--except my curse! (III.xi.67-9). Orgon is too blind to the truth to even recognize it when Tartuffe tells him that he is a fraud: Yes Brother, Im a wicked man, I fear: / A wretched sinner, all depraved and twisted, / The greatest villain that has ever existed (III.xi.2-4). Ironically, Orgon is still willing to alienate his entire family, the ones who truly care for him, for theShow MoreRelatedThis Clavicula Of Arte Magical, Surpassing Modern Confused1532 Words  | 7 PagesThis Clavicula of Arte Magical, surpassin g modern confused pen-folds that contain nothing other than mere dedicatory offerings to mundane tapestries and xoanon, shall impart unto thee an understanding of Witchcraft, in truth, from the horse s mouth. 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