Re: RC: Re: Where does the UAE stand?

["Linda B. Merims" <lbm@naisp.net>]

At 07:49 AM 9/21/01 -0700, you wrote:
>It is my understanding that Muslim women are looked at in a very different
>manner than we look upon ours in America.  It's a MAN'S world over there,
>not based on capability but on status, which is definitely different.  Don't
>know enough about it to speak with authority.  I couldn't really adapt to
>their view of women; I'm much too independent and believe too strongly in
>the equality of people (including sexes).  I was raised in a family in which
>my parents were a TEAM, not a superior and a subordinate.  Same with my
>marriage, and I've been married for 51 years to the same man.

Well, you can't really generalize across the entire Islamic world.
Nor is what is true one year necessarily true 30 years later.

One big issue is:  does the country in question have a *CIVIL* legal
code, or are they strictly shariya (Islamic law).  Countries like
Egypt and Turkey have a *CIVIL* legal code that gives women, to
one degree or another, *civil* rights.  Iran did, but doesn't
anymore.  The more traditionalist societies like Saudi Arabiya
use shariya.  Then you have to start asking which of many *schools*
of shariya does the local country practise?

In general, it is my impression that the standing of women in
Islamic countries has kind of been undergoing retrograde motion,
at least in the outward symbolism involved in veiling.
My understanding is that 20 years ago it was becoming rarer
and rarer to see women in countries like Egypt, Iran, Iraq, Jordan,
Lebanon, and Syria wearing any kind of a hair covering at all.
They, at least the upper and middle classes, were becoming more
emancipated and travelled about bare-headed in occidental
dress at will.  Now, many women feel that they at least have
to cover their hair and dress conservatively to avoid flak.

The Saudis, with their Wahabi fundamentalist base of power,
have always been very, very traditional.  My understanding is
that the UAE, while Sunni, is *not* Wahabi.  Neither is Bahrain
or Kuwait.  (Qatar is.)  So, I kinda don't get whether they think
they are being religious or just traditionalist in their treatment
of women.

Incidentally, in the wider Islamic world, the central Arabian
plateau has *never* been considered "holy ground."  Mecca
and Medina and the Hedjaz inland from Jeddah, yes.  Non-Muslims
definitely *unwelcome*!  But only a Wahabi like Bin Laden would
claim that the central Arabian plateau and the coast of the Persian
Gulf was "holy ground" that could be "defiled" by the presence
of foreigners.  Yankee imperialist go home, sure, but not
an affront to God.  But then I'm probably making the usual
western mistake of automatically distinguishing between civil
and religious in a way no Muslim does.

Linda B. Merims
lbm@naisp.net
Massachusetts, USA