Gone to the gap: how are women in the Middle East?
'29.01.2022'
Source: RIA News
The keeper of the home, a devoted wife and a caring mother of many children who walks in the burqa and without her husband is even afraid to show her nose at home — something like this stereotype has developed in the West about Middle Eastern women. Perhaps it once was.
However, now the situation has changed: the girls themselves earn money, go to study in Europe and the USA, and are increasingly emancipated. Many arrange such parties that Western peers envy. About how women in conservative countries have fun - in the material RIA News.
Under the castle
“The fact that men must accompany us everywhere makes my life a real hell. We girls want to hang out with friends, go out and have lunch somewhere in a cafe without asking for any permission, ”wrote a 21-year-old Saudi citizen with the nickname JUJU19 to The New York Times.
Women are required to obtain permission from their husband, father, brother, or even son to study, travel, marry, and simply visit a doctor. The American edition was literally inundated with pitiful messages from the Middle Eastern kingdom. “Once I was in a taxi, and the car got into an accident, so the ambulance refused to take me to the hospital, because there was no accompanying man with me. They agreed only after they were given permission by one of the relatives when he arrived. I've lost a lot of blood. If he didn’t make it in time, I would definitely die, ”a 19-year-old girl with the nickname RULAA from Riyadh is indignant. She is joined by 42-year-old doctor Sarah from Saudi Arabia: “Every time I go on a trip, I, an adult woman, have to ask permission from my teenage son.”
Smoke of change
The position of women in the Middle East seems equally difficult. However, in Saudi Arabia, the wind of change has already blown: girls were allowed to go to the stadiums and drive cars, as well as engage in fighting clubs and behave more relaxed.
In the past five years, the number of female smokers has increased in the kingdom. They especially liked hookah. The stores literally sweep tobacco with melon and strawberry flavor. However, there are those who prefer cigarettes.
“When my husband found out that I smoke, it almost came to a divorce. Then he resigned himself and allowed me to smoke right at home, ”says 30-year-old Aisha. The Ministry of Health of Saudi Arabia published a report: 16 percent of female students in the kingdom have tried smoking, 11 percent of them have become a habit.
There are more and more hookahs in less conservative Jordan, a resident of Amman, a tourist worker, told RIA Novosti. “Palestine, Jordan, Syria, Lebanon are very similar. But the countries of the Persian Gulf are practically a different world. Religious women, of whom we have about forty percent, usually do not go to clubs that sell alcohol. But they calmly visit hookah bars and smoke openly there. Liberal girls, those who do not wear headscarves, go to bars where alcohol flows like water, ”he explains.
Women's Day
In the United Arab Emirates, the term "women's day" has appeared. This means that some beaches (such as Jumeirah and Al Mamzar), national and public parks, fitness clubs, swimming pools and water parks are closed to men on certain days of the week. And everything is fixed at the legislative level.
While some are content with little, others go into complete isolation. Dubai has become truly liberal. “Imagine a skyscraper in Dubai. It seems like a house is like a house, without any signs. Unless there is a man at the entrance. You go up to him, call the desired name or code word. They let you inside, take the elevator. You open the door to the apartment, and there is a huge club with a giant bar and a DJ. Both men hang out here, and Muslim women, "- told RIA Novosti an interlocutor from the UAE, who wished to remain anonymous.
There are, of course, other entertainments in Dubai. Hanan Mazouzi Sobati, together with other lovers of fast driving, organized the Arab Gazelles motorcycle club. Without a veil, in expensive sunglasses, in high heels, in tight jeans or short dresses, the owners of luxurious sports cars go to the track, where they can give odds to any man. The arrow on the speedometer is 200 kilometers per hour - women cut through the roads in the desert.
“Before, men thought that I came with someone to ride. They just didn't notice me. Now their attitude has changed: many husbands are unhappy that I supposedly corrupt their women, ”admits Sobaty. Now there are 80 women in this club, many of them are businesswomen, but there are also housewives.
On a visit to the rakhbar
If the countries of the Persian Gulf have always strictly adhered to conservative traditions, then other Middle Eastern states were not so patriarchal. In some, women in the 1950s and 1960s felt much freer than their granddaughters do today. Then, in the post-colonial period, religion faded into the background, more opportunities for self-expression appeared, and the policy of emancipation was sometimes carried out at the state level. For example, in Tunisia, the leading country of the Maghreb, women were given the right to have an abortion in the middle of the 1979th century, while in the West they could only dream of it. Before the XNUMX revolution, Iranian women wore miniskirts and fashionable European haircuts. After the overthrow of the Shah, the dress code was tightened, and gender segregation was strengthened. However, this did not prevent young people from organizing “closed parties for their own”.
The Iranian authorities are trying with all their might to disperse such underground parties. However, neither high fines nor even the threat of a prison term stop the youth. “We are going to someone's villa, covering the windows with mattresses and turning on the music. We dance. Iranian women are strictly forbidden to do this. Only men can dance. I will say more: girls at such parties drink, smoke, in general, relax. But if someone is caught, prison cannot be avoided. Or threatens 100 lashes. Once we gathered in the town of Shemshak, an hour's drive from Tehran. We nicknamed him Shibitsa (by analogy with Ibiza). The police appeared: women roared and shouted, men begged for mercy. They were beaten and then arrested. Such raids and arrests do not scare us: we even merge photos from hangouts on Instagram, ”a 21-year-old student from Tehran, who introduced herself as Hawar, told RIA Novosti.
In July, a big scandal erupted in the Iranian capital 2016: 150 guys and girls celebrating their birthday were detained at a party. As the birthday boy and the guests of the holiday were punished, it is not specified: this case was subsequently hushed up.
"Monaco of the Arab world"
While the Iranian authorities are struggling with a decline in morality, young Iranians, along with other women from the conservative countries of the Middle East, are searching for adventures in neighboring more liberal states. Most often choose Lebanon.
The capital of the country, Beirut is a real Mecca for nightlife. Bars, strip clubs, casinos - Lebanon is called the “Monaco of the Arab world”, “the pearl of the Middle East”. “Muslim women go to bars, clubs, hang out. The Scorpions recently came here. Metallica was somehow. Citizens of the Middle Eastern countries, where harsher customs reign, gather here, ”one of his compatriots, who spent most of his life in Lebanon, told RIA Novosti.
Saudi Arabian women travel to Bahrain and Lebanon to drive and drink, he said. “Even Syrians, by hook or by crook, are chosen for the weekend: they want to come off in Lebanon, to meet someone. Women in headscarves come in a company: they dance, they drink, they are boundless. Bars dress like this: translucent dresses, high heels. Rich women invite guys who want to earn extra money and order male striptease. Anything beyond the norms of sexual ethics is under great cover. But in general there is even a closed society of swingers here, ”the source shares the details.
In the Middle Eastern countries, the status of women has been very vulnerable throughout the twentieth century. Recently the situation is changing. A new generation is coming - young people can get a good education, including abroad, as well as travel and expand their ideas about what is permissible and normal.
