Education, political empowerment and Muslim women in the Middle East – Understanding the paradox

Article 3 of the United Nations’ Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) requires that state parties take all appropriate measures, including legislation, to guarantee women the exercise and enjoyment of human rights and fundamental freedoms on a basis of e...

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Main Authors: Amriah Buang, Ratnawati Yuni Suryandari
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities, UKM,Bangi 2011
Online Access:http://journalarticle.ukm.my/3155/1/7.geografia-2011-4-amriah-middle_east-last1.pdf
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Institution: Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia
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spelling my-ukm.journal.31552016-12-14T06:33:46Z http://journalarticle.ukm.my/3155/ Education, political empowerment and Muslim women in the Middle East – Understanding the paradox Amriah Buang, Ratnawati Yuni Suryandari, Article 3 of the United Nations’ Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) requires that state parties take all appropriate measures, including legislation, to guarantee women the exercise and enjoyment of human rights and fundamental freedoms on a basis of equality with men in all fields of life. The mainstream image of Islam seems to have been one that apparently portrays Islam and its stipulations on women as anathema to those of CEDAW. Curiously, the direct relationship between orthodox Islam or Muslim societies with perceived mistreatment or disempowerment of women does not materialise as clearly or forthrightly as anticipated. This paper demonstrates that recent CEDAW examinations reveal that educational attainment of Muslim women in orthodox Muslim countries in seven orthodox Muslim countries in the Middle East, namely, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Bahrain, Oman, Kuwait and Iran has vastly improved especially with respect to higher education. Yet, the facts also reveal that high education does not generally translate into greater political empowerment of the women. This paper then seeks to understand this apparent paradox with special reference to the Saudi Arabian case. It reasons that orthodox, conservative and negative perspectives and stereotypes of women in Islam are but only part of the answer. The other part would be that the educated Muslim women in orthodox Muslim countries of the Middle East as elsewhere do weigh things together in deciding which careers to pursue; that they deliberately decide in favour of the education and health profession because these are considered religiously more doable than politics and governance. The mainstream Western notions that rather simplistically equate educational with political empowerment does not happen the way it is expected for the Muslim women because of these non-secular considerations that engage them but that were not factored in and recognised in the conventional notions. Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities, UKM,Bangi 2011-11 Article PeerReviewed application/pdf en http://journalarticle.ukm.my/3155/1/7.geografia-2011-4-amriah-middle_east-last1.pdf Amriah Buang, and Ratnawati Yuni Suryandari, (2011) Education, political empowerment and Muslim women in the Middle East – Understanding the paradox. Geografia : Malaysian Journal of Society and Space, 7 (4). pp. 51-64. ISSN 2180-2491 http://www.ukm.my/geografia/v1/index.php
institution Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia
building Perpustakaan Tun Sri Lanang Library
collection Institutional Repository
continent Asia
country Malaysia
content_provider Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia
content_source UKM Journal Article Repository
url_provider http://journalarticle.ukm.my/
language English
description Article 3 of the United Nations’ Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) requires that state parties take all appropriate measures, including legislation, to guarantee women the exercise and enjoyment of human rights and fundamental freedoms on a basis of equality with men in all fields of life. The mainstream image of Islam seems to have been one that apparently portrays Islam and its stipulations on women as anathema to those of CEDAW. Curiously, the direct relationship between orthodox Islam or Muslim societies with perceived mistreatment or disempowerment of women does not materialise as clearly or forthrightly as anticipated. This paper demonstrates that recent CEDAW examinations reveal that educational attainment of Muslim women in orthodox Muslim countries in seven orthodox Muslim countries in the Middle East, namely, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Bahrain, Oman, Kuwait and Iran has vastly improved especially with respect to higher education. Yet, the facts also reveal that high education does not generally translate into greater political empowerment of the women. This paper then seeks to understand this apparent paradox with special reference to the Saudi Arabian case. It reasons that orthodox, conservative and negative perspectives and stereotypes of women in Islam are but only part of the answer. The other part would be that the educated Muslim women in orthodox Muslim countries of the Middle East as elsewhere do weigh things together in deciding which careers to pursue; that they deliberately decide in favour of the education and health profession because these are considered religiously more doable than politics and governance. The mainstream Western notions that rather simplistically equate educational with political empowerment does not happen the way it is expected for the Muslim women because of these non-secular considerations that engage them but that were not factored in and recognised in the conventional notions.
format Article
author Amriah Buang,
Ratnawati Yuni Suryandari,
spellingShingle Amriah Buang,
Ratnawati Yuni Suryandari,
Education, political empowerment and Muslim women in the Middle East – Understanding the paradox
author_facet Amriah Buang,
Ratnawati Yuni Suryandari,
author_sort Amriah Buang,
title Education, political empowerment and Muslim women in the Middle East – Understanding the paradox
title_short Education, political empowerment and Muslim women in the Middle East – Understanding the paradox
title_full Education, political empowerment and Muslim women in the Middle East – Understanding the paradox
title_fullStr Education, political empowerment and Muslim women in the Middle East – Understanding the paradox
title_full_unstemmed Education, political empowerment and Muslim women in the Middle East – Understanding the paradox
title_sort education, political empowerment and muslim women in the middle east – understanding the paradox
publisher Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities, UKM,Bangi
publishDate 2011
url http://journalarticle.ukm.my/3155/1/7.geografia-2011-4-amriah-middle_east-last1.pdf
http://journalarticle.ukm.my/3155/
http://www.ukm.my/geografia/v1/index.php
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