Women and Politics in the Contemporary Arab World - Term Paper Example

? Women and Politics in the Contemporary Arab World Outline Introduction Situating the Picture Globally Movements, Empowerments and Developments of Women for Gender Equality in the Arab World The Political Participation of Arab Women and Its Challenges Conclusion Abstract Women were situated at a marginalized position because of their gender. They were always seen as lower status than men. These women had experienced different sorts of discrimination. The case of the Arab women was not an exception. In fact, in terms of participation in the parliament, the Arab women ranked lowest worldwide. Given that, this paper had investigated the experiences and situations of Arab women in their struggle to be represented in the political arena in the contemporary Arab world. Through looking at the position of the Arab women at a global scale, of their movements, empowerments and developments in their struggle for gender inequality and at their political participation in their society, this paper found out that Arab women were already making changes of involvement in politics. However, there were still constraints in achieving this entirely. Introduction Women, indeed, were always seen as a status lower than men. Discrimination of different sorts had been experienced by these women in every part of the world for the reason that gender was seen as a factor that would influence women’s position at a disadvantaged position. There were a lot of forms of inequality that had been experienced by these women simply because of the fact that they were born to be women. Meanwhile, the case of the Arab women was not an exception to this gender inequality. In fact, throughout the history and in every part of the world, Arab women had experienced much more varied forms of discrimination than other women. These women had suffered the restrictions of their freedoms and rights. According to Karam (1999), among the reasons of these women being subjected to restriction of their freedoms and rights, to having a low political representation and other forms of inequality was their religion of being an Islam. However, it was not the case that it was only their religion that had added up to making these women be discriminated but their culture in the Arab world also had influenced the inequality. These were main causes that had served as impediments in achieving equality were reflected in their laws on economy, education, criminal justice, health care, political representation and others. Based on the intersectionality theory (Collins, 2000), the Arab women had been undergoing through multiple forms of discrimination because axes of their identity like gender, culture and religion had been interacting at various levels that contribute to their experience of social inequality. Given this, the focus of my study would delve on the experiences and situations of Arab women in their struggle to be represented in the political arena in the contemporary Arab world. This research was of important concern for the very reason that these women had continued to experience intense forms of discrimination in other regions of the world and most especially, in their own nations. In order to gain much understanding of the topic under study, the research paper was divided into following sections: a) Situating the Picture Globally, b) Movements, Empowerments and Developments of Women for Gender Equality in the Arab World, and c) The Political Participation of Arab Women and Its Challenges. This section would first present an overview of the literatures which had aimed at providing a cursory outlook at how to look at this concern. The last part of this paper was the generalization on Arab women and politics on the present times. a) Situating the Picture Globally Women had received a special attention on their concerns regarding the continuity of discrimination against them and their marginalized roles worldwide. The Arab women were not isolated from the debate on discrimination and inequality. In fact, it was the case that according to the Arab Human Development Report by United Nations Development Program (UNPD), the Arab world was categorized as the second – lowest region in the world in terms of Gender Empowerment Measure (2006). There were different factors which had contributed to the hindrance of women empowerment in these twenty – two (22) state – members of the Arab League. Such complicated sets of issues in the delayed efforts of promoting women empowerment had involved the effects of the conflict between Arab and Israeli, the unsteady economic conditions and inequality of the population and resources. In addition to that, the Arab women’s political status was still regarded as an important concern as the Arab region had ranked the lowest regional figure in the world with regards to the participation of women in the parliaments (Inter – Parliamentary Union (IPU), 2011). b) Movements, Empowerments and Developments of Women for Gender Equality in the Arab World Being the marginalized sector of the Arab society, women must be empowered in order to achieve progress and developments in their struggle for equality. For Suliman (2010), one of the main themes of the reform in politics was the concern of empowering women. Some Arab nations had showed their involvement in empowering these women through their participation on the Convention of the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women, Beijing Platform for Action as well as the Millennium Development Goals. They had considered that empowering the women would also develop their nations in terms of politics and economy. In making women as equal status with that of men, Arab countries had invested in education, health, employment and political rights. Meanwhile, in 2003, the Arab Women Organization (AWO) was established under the League of Arab States in Egypt. AWO functioned to look on how women would obtain empowerment through the policies. It strived to incorporate the women’s issues within the sets of priorities of development plans and others. This organization focused on the overall empowerment of women through eradicating illiteracy, promoting health, stopping the negative stereotypes given to Arab women as well as increasing awareness on the issues (Arab Women Organization Policies of the Arab Women Organization). c) The Political Participation of Arab Women and Its Challenges According to Burns (2002), political participation was generally defined in a context of an action which had been aiming for an outcome of influencing, shaping and affecting the government’s control through either ways of direct or indirect. Direct political participation had involved offering an influence in policy – making or even in the implementation process of these policies while the indirect political participation indicated an influence in the selection process of who to create these policies. Along with that, the Arab women, just like the women in other countries, were situated in a position where it was the men who continuously owned the power to control in the political affairs. Based on the International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance (2005), the Millennium Development Goals (MGDs) had focused in the central issue of women’s participation in politics and also to the significance of the women’s role in governance. These were seen as both crucial in empowering women as well as obtaining gender equality. Since the Beijing for Action Platform in 1995, there were observed little developments, though varying in different areas, in the status of Women in the Arab nations. However, Arab women had gone through sets of striving just in order to be involved in the political sphere. Somehow, these women had been represented but only with very much little representation at all levels of politics and leadership. Women were not fairly represented in the parliament, which according to International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance (2005), is a fundamental institutional reform were all laws were formulated. Their voices and issues were not heard and taken into consideration in influencing these policies which were indeed necessary for the developments of gender equality in Arab World. Meanwhile, the case of the Arab legislative branches was categorized as the lowest in the world in terms of average percentage of female participation for only gaining 12.4% despite its increase from 6.5% five (5) years ago (IPU, 2011). Indeed, these women of the Arab nations were still under – represented in the parliament. However, it was good to note their involvement in the political arena had somehow improved. In Kuwait, after several protests of showing their support for the inclusion of women’s rights, women had received not only the grant of the right to vote but also the right to run in the election. And these women had just proven that they could win their struggle of being victorious in the election versus their tough competitions with men. In 1990, there were one to two Arab female ministers in the executive branch of eight states namely Algeria, Comoros, Egypt, Jordan, Sudan, Syria, and Tunisia while it had been expected in 2011 that about 2 – 6 women ministers would represent in the cabinet. Despite the fact that the cases of their inclusion in politics were varying depending on the particular country and that their involvement in the politics was still an on – going debate, undeniably, women’s participation had served as an economic and social concern in the Arab regions. Although there were observed achievements, there were challenges that had impeded the Arab women in making these women be included in the political arena. Arab women had been confronting the challenges of economy, religion, culture, freedom of association, political parties, and the media (Karam, 1999). As Karam (1999) stated, economy was a challenge because still, most of the women were suffering from poverty and illiteracy. For this reason, these women were prevented from their endeavors of making necessary changes that would make their roles as women be strengthened. Their social and political growth was hindered because of this factor. Their religion of being an Islam had also restricted them in achieving equality in terms of political participation and having their freedom and rights. The culture, on the one hand, as stated by Zeid (2005), was a male – dominated and patriarchal by nature. In this regard, the Arab culture itself, through its customs and tradition, had been unwilling for the women’s participation in the politics. The power and control were in the hands of men. As for Karam (1999), given that the Arab nations was a male – dominated and male – oriented culture, there were lots of people whose notion of the place of women had not changed. That was why still lower number of women were only seen in the public and political sphere. Meanwhile, although initiating the optimistic changes was a success in some laws, inequality had existed still. Indeed, the efforts of women’s organizations and NGOs had enabled women to be involved in politics, to strengthen and empower women, and to strive for equality, but these were not enough. In spite of the struggles, freedom of association constituted stumbling blocks for development. The programs by women’s organizations and NGOs were reported to be lacking in promoting awareness and advocacy as well as training women for governance. Political parties also had served as a hindrance to achieving equality especially in the parliament. Just like the larger regimes and bureaucracies, these parties were confronting the same issues. Because of this, these parties were still in need of empowering and strengthening these women. Furthermore, the role of the media was something that had served as an impediment to women’s participation in politics. The media had portrayed the stereotypes given to Arab women in their society. The media had illustrated the discrimination among women. These roles played by the media were unsupportive for they all had contributed pessimistically to women. The portrayals of women had only strengthened the stereotypes associated to them. CONCLUSION As a status, gender itself had been a form of discrimination. Women were always seen lower than men. The case of the Arab women was not an exception. Looking at the global scale, the Arab women had even ranked the lowest in terms of political participation. Various efforts were made just in order to make the voices of Arab women be represented in their society, especially in the parliament where all the laws were formulated. This was indeed necessary to make the women’s concerns be considered and addressed. The involvement of these women in the political arena would serve as a crucial instrument for empowering women and making necessary changes for equality in society. There were institutions and conventions that had discussed the issues of women. In the course of empowering them, one among the developments was establishing Arab World Organization (AWO). The women’s movements were seen to somehow make changes. In some Arab nations, the women’s occupation of position in politics was regarded as major achievements in empowering women. However, despite their achievements of gaining political participation in their society, there were various factors that had stopped them still from totally achieving their goals of gender equality and women empowerment like economy, religion, culture, freedom of association, political parties and the media. References: Arab Women Organization (2003). Arab women organization policies of the Arab Women Organization. Cairo: AWO. Burns, Nancy (2002). Gender: public opinion and political action. In Ira Katznelson & Helen V. Milne., Political science: state of the discipline (pp. 435). London: W.W. Norton & Company. Collins, P.H. (2000). Gender, black feminism, and black political economy. Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, 568, 41–53. Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU). (2011) Inter-Parliamentary Union. Retrieved from http://www.ipu.org/wmn-e/world.htm Karam, Azza. (1999). Strengthening the role of women parliamentarians in the Arab region: challenges and options. Queens University of Belfast: School of Politics. International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance. (2005). Women in parliament: beyond number. Stockholm, Sweden: IDEA. Retrieved from http://www.iiav.nl/epublications/2005/women_in_parliament.pdf Suliman, Nadia Halim. (2010). On political and civil participation of Arab women: an essential constituent in sustainable development. Third Arab Organization Conference in Tunis. Cairo: AWO United Nations Development Program (2005). Arab human development report 2005: creating opportunities for future generations. N.Y: UNDP Zeid, Abu (2005). Arab women: past, present and future. UK: Cambridge University. Read More