Many Western politicians are forever preaching about their desire to see Arab women liberated. The banning of the burqa in some countries has been explained-away as intended to "liberate" Arab women. Mind you, one hasn't heard much from Arab women themselves that they seek liberation or that they feel anything other than comfortable with the burqa or head scarf.
Professor of Sociology at a Madrid's Automomous University, Gema Martin Munoz, writing in The Jordan Times, reports on the rise of feminism in Arab societies and its effect on those societies - a subject rarely publicised in the West.
"In fact, Arab societies are engaged in a process of immense and irreversible change in which women are playing a crucial role. During the last half-century, intense urbanisation and feminisation of the workforce in all Arab countries has propelled women into the public arena on a massive scale.
During this period, differences in schooling levels between boys and girls have lessened everywhere - though at different speeds. Indeed, in many Arab countries, more girls than boys are now in secondary and higher education, which shows that parents consider their daughters’ education to be just as important as that of their sons. And all surveys show that young men and women want to study and have a job before they marry. (Moreover, they increasingly want to choose their own partner.)
At the same time, demographic shifts, along with social and economic factors affecting education and work, are forcing profound change on the traditional model of the Arab family. Higher ages for marriage and declining fertility - resulting directly from widening use of artificial contraception - are reducing family size to something much closer to the “nuclear families” of the West. The Maghreb region may lead in this regard, but the phenomenon is observable throughout the Arab world, even in the most rigidly conservative states.
This new family model has gained so much force that it is imposing itself on rural society, too, where the decline of the agrarian economy is accompanied by a strong shift towards smaller families. This change is occurring at slightly different speeds across the Arab world, but often it is occurring simultaneously in town and country."
Professor of Sociology at a Madrid's Automomous University, Gema Martin Munoz, writing in The Jordan Times, reports on the rise of feminism in Arab societies and its effect on those societies - a subject rarely publicised in the West.
"In fact, Arab societies are engaged in a process of immense and irreversible change in which women are playing a crucial role. During the last half-century, intense urbanisation and feminisation of the workforce in all Arab countries has propelled women into the public arena on a massive scale.
During this period, differences in schooling levels between boys and girls have lessened everywhere - though at different speeds. Indeed, in many Arab countries, more girls than boys are now in secondary and higher education, which shows that parents consider their daughters’ education to be just as important as that of their sons. And all surveys show that young men and women want to study and have a job before they marry. (Moreover, they increasingly want to choose their own partner.)
At the same time, demographic shifts, along with social and economic factors affecting education and work, are forcing profound change on the traditional model of the Arab family. Higher ages for marriage and declining fertility - resulting directly from widening use of artificial contraception - are reducing family size to something much closer to the “nuclear families” of the West. The Maghreb region may lead in this regard, but the phenomenon is observable throughout the Arab world, even in the most rigidly conservative states.
This new family model has gained so much force that it is imposing itself on rural society, too, where the decline of the agrarian economy is accompanied by a strong shift towards smaller families. This change is occurring at slightly different speeds across the Arab world, but often it is occurring simultaneously in town and country."
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