The Depiction of Muslim Men and Muslim Women in an Orientalist Society - Coursework Example

Political Science The depiction of Muslim men and Muslim women in an orientalist society To properly comprehend the purpose of this essay, it must first be cleared as to what orientalism or oriental actually means. It can be simply defined as a term that has been used for a long time to refer to the Asian society. The term is actually used more often as a prefix, which makes the object it is being attached with to belong to the asian cultures. The term is quite vast as it includes east asia and south asia and also has been used for the middle eastern societies. For instance, a painting depicting the culture and practices of Asian societies will be called an orientalist painting. Now that the meaning of the orientalism has been clearly established, we must now move on to the topic of this essay. In simple words, the topic can be described as the comparison of men and woman, their similarities and differences in character with regard to the Asian societies. Throughout this essay, the elements that would be discussed are vague idea of equality of men and women in Orientalist societies and the interpretation of that equality by women, the distinct efforts by the women to remove the discrimination, the present day situation compared with the situation from a few decades ago and most importantly, what is the way in which it should be. (Auboyer, J., & Goepper, R. (1967). ) In the day to day affairs, the Muslim men and Muslim women are considered to be equal when speaking in an idealist oriental society. By the looks of it in practicality, this idea is quite accurate. Women are able to contest elections, they are employed in different organizations, they are earning a living, they have the right to vote, they have the right to owner ship of property, they have the right in inheritance, and they are having all the basic fundamental rights. All in a nutshell, by the looks of it, men and women are equal in the region. But deeper observation shows that the practicality of the situation is quite different. The basic mindset of the male gender in the oriental society is that of a dominating one, that is in all departments of life without an exception. Some might call this a stereotype but this is what the society thinks as a whole. The reasons behind the male being the dominating factors in the society are various. Some people think that this is not a reasonable thought and it needs to be amended. However there is logic behind this thought and when one rationalizes both the arguments that whether in the oriental societies, male should be the dominating figure or not, the former argument is on stronger basis and has strong grounds behind it. With the evolution of the society, one observes that a matriarchal society has been predominant for a long period of time. In fact, the matriarchal society was one of the very first stages of the evolution of the state. But there is a reason why it evolved in the patriarchal society. The male, generally, is comparatively strong emotionally by nature and therefore as a head of the society or family, the male is able to make such decisions which are of serious nature and which require a great deal of emotional confidence. Females, contrary to that are not able to do this. Therefore the idea of men and women being equal in the oriental societies is vague. (Beale, T. W., & Keene, H. G., 1894) One of the most predominant religions of the oriental region is Islam. It has a great influence on the development of the thinking of the people of the region regarding the differences between men and women. For the sake of an example, let us examine what are the differences between men and women in Islam. The financial responsibilities of men and women are of different nature. Similarly, the men’s share in the inheritance of a property is greater than that of the female’s share in most cases. The ratio of the inheritance of the male to the female when talking about the succession of the property to the sons and daughters is 2:1 respectively. The reason behind this is that males have greater financial responsibilities as compared to the females and in order to fulfill their financial responsibilities the males have been given the double amount of share in inheritance. The custodian of the family in Islam is the man and not the woman. Naturally, when a person is solely responsible for the finances of the family, he is the custodian. The law of evidence relating to men and women is also different in Islam. The testimony of male is considered to be strong and that of woman is considered to be weak. In fact, in rather serious matters, the testimony of a female has no value for instance, in the case of adultery the law does not convict an accused based on the testimony of a woman. The logic behind that is that woman is by nature emotionally soft and polite. That is the reason why she can be easily influenced and the testimony or other legal matters relating to her would be made under coercion. The last argument regarding the provisions of Islam which differentiates between the med and woman is the right of divorce. This topic has been the centre of criticism for a very long time and by almost all other parts of the world, even the other orientalists. The right of divorce, in Islam, lies with the man and not the woman. The reason for the criticism on this provision is the lack of knowledge of the critics or the misinterpretation of the clause. The religion of Islam is a divine religion that has been exactly surviving as it was for centuries. The biggest proof of that is the Quran, the holy book, is in the exact same form as it was when it was revealed. (Poole, E., 2002) Now the next argument that is going to be discussed is the existence of certain movements which tend to prove women equal to men. By the virtue of these movements they wish to ensure the same rights to women which have been awarded to men which allegedly are not given to women. In the present era, the Muslim women have started to participate and appreciate these movements too. Their mindset is slowly changing from the orthodox orientalist to a little liberal and secular area. The main reason as to why the Muslim females are resorting to these movements and change of mindsets is due to the lack of knowledge and illiteracy in the department of their religious studies. Same is the case with the males. Most of them cannot stop the females from going towards the secular ideas of the western societies because they themselves have a very limited scope of knowledge regarding the provisions of their religion. The religion of Islam does not treat men and women equally, but as a matter of fact, when one looks towards the rights and responsibilities of the males and females in a comparative perspective, the females are treated as superiors to mean. The men are given most of the responsibilities of the family while the females are awarded with many eases and concessions from responsibilities. Why are these movements and the individuals who have the same thinking as the movements unreasonable? This question can be answered with the help of a couple of examples. The basic aim of these movements is to treat men and women equally and remove all sorts of discrimination. Well, when talking about equality, being the dominant factor in the society comes with its pains. For instance, a woman is walking in a dark alley. Two strangers are also crossing the alley; who are men. She is off the impression that they are following her. What does the society call these strangers? Potential rapists. Similarly if the condition is reversed and the females are following a man, would they be accepted to be even referred to as potential rapists? Similarly, in the oriental societies, there is a separate queue in the banks and other alike places for women so that they might not have to wait. The question arises, would they be willing to stand surrounded by men for several hours to get their work done? (Hawting, G. R., 2005) To conclude the essay, the oriental Muslim society is a society where the females are supposed to be given more rights and respect than the men. But the fact of the matter is that they are neither treated well nor are they given rights. This is because the men of the society have neglected their religious values and have ceased to study them. Not only is this the fault of men but also of the females that they have failed to recognize their rights. As a result of this mess, the females and the males both have started to dwell away from the path prescribed by the religion in terms of the both their correlative rights. All in a nutshell, the oriental Muslim women have neglected their rights and moved towards a path which will provide them rights, which are inferior to the rights they have failed to recognize in the first place. (Walford, G., & Daun, H., 2004).  References Top of Form Auboyer, J., & Goepper, R. (1967). The Oriental world: India and South-East Asia. New York: McGraw-Hill. Beale, T. W., & Keene, H. G. (1894). An oriental biographical dictionary. London: W.H. Allen & Co., Limited. Hawting, G. R. (2005). Muslims, Mongols and crusaders: An anthology of articles published in the Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies. London: RoutledgeCurzon. Walford, G., & Daun, H. (2004). Educational strategies among Muslims in the context of globalization: Some national case studies. Leiden: Brill. Poole, E. (2002). Reporting Islam: Media representations of British Muslims. London: I.B. Tauris. Bottom of Form Read More