Article

Women After the Arab Spring

Posted: 03/16/2012 6:30 pm

The Arab Spring continues to blow winds of change in the Middle East. There is no doubt the direction these countries are heading in will affect Arab societies and personal rights. But recently, the focus has been on women in the aftermath of the Arab Spring.

Women have been visible on the streets in countries like Jordan, where the government scrapped an article in the Public Assembly Law requiring consent to hold rallies. Women have taken to the streets to call for more personal rights -- like the rights of Jordanian women to pass on their citizenship to their non-Jordanian spouses and children.

Women were also involved in protests in Egypt, Yemen and Tunisia. But their efforts and momentum, like the liberal protestors who spent days in Tahrir Square bringing down a regime, have yet to be transferred into leadership roles that are directing the future of countries. Although an internal barrier of fear was partly lifted during the revolutions, political roles have not kept pace. Female representation in parliaments after the Arab Spring has been either absent or obsolete. In Kuwait, the latest Parliamentary electionsresulted in a male-dominated chamber. In Egypt, women only make up 2 percent of the newly formed parliament.

An appointed National Dialogue Committee to overhaul the electoral system in Jordan included only a few women and many assailed a broken promise by the committee to include the word "gender" in Article 6, concerning equality of all Jordanians.

Many women I interviewed across the region spoke to me with some excitement about people finally having a voice. But many women continue to say they fear their individual rights will slowly vanish and economic disintegration will increase crime and chaos.

Last month at The Doha Debates, an initiative by the Qatar Foundation and moderated by Tim Sebastian, the topic revolved around women after the revolutions. Iman Bibars, an Egyptian, working with nonprofit organizations, argued with the motion that women are worse off after the revolutions: "There have been millions of households in low-income urban areas [in Egypt]. They're being harassed. This is where I work. I work with 100,000 of these women, and they're being asked to stay at home..."

Although the overwhelming majority of the audience voted against the motion, there was perhaps a misunderstanding among audience members that the lives of women were 'good' in the Mideast before the revolutions. The truth is dictatorship can't be good- - neither for women or men. Lack of press freedom and debate, education based on rote learning and memorization and the lack of citizenship cannot build nations.

As Arabs attempt to find their voice and in some cases their political identity, social conservatism seems to be on the rise. Mothers, daughters, and sisters in more rural areas are being punished for the way they dress and for their livelihoods. But in countries with authoritarian leaders -- Libya, Tunisia, Egypt -- who ruled and punished their people for decades, unlocking patriarchy and oppression may take years of debate and social democracy -- not only political democracy.

The question remains if women -- who make up half of society -- will transfer their voices from the streets to political positions and concrete actions or be left behind? The answer is blowing in the wind.

Chapter 23

This chapter main focus is on the struggles of independence in South Africa and how it compares to the situation in India gaining independence as well. Nelson Mandela was a significant figure in Africa, he always fought against white domination as well as black domination. Nelson Mandela became South Africa's nationalist leader, his goal was to overthrow the apartheid government of his country. Mandela spent about twenty seven years in prison but once he was released he was able to give out a speech and later on South Africa held their first election in which both whites and blacks were able to vote. That election made Mandela the country's first black African president. Although there were many struggles to gain independence they were capable of going through it.
On the other hand, Ghandi was born in western India and while being in South Africa he experienced racism for the first time and from then became involved in organizing Indians who were mostly muslims to protest for the country's policies of racial segregation. He was also recognized and admired in the global struggle against the colonial rule.

Chapter 22: Global Communism

Global communism seemed to have been inspired by Karl Marx in the nineteenth century. Most of the European socialist believed that they were capable of achieving their goals through the democratic process. Many people during the time would want to be known as “communist” in the late 1900’s but what it led for a revolution. Russia was one of those countries to go into revolution during the communist era. The Soviet Union was united with Russia so they as well went into revolution. There was a point where communism was very high and most of the world’s population was being governed by communist regimes. The most important communist societies was the USSR and China but it also spread to the eastern side of Europe, North Korea, Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, Cuba, Afghanistan. As we can see communism spread in a lot of countries and parties took control in many areas.

Chapter 21: The Collapse and Recovery of Europe

This chapter focuses on the First World War and the crisis it caused mainly in Europe. The reason for this war was because Europe was beginning to get challenged by other countries. The war began with the triple alliance that was Germany, Italy and Austria then the triple Ettente who was Brittain, Russia, and France.  The war caused weak industrialism, nationalism, and not a defensive military. Other than focusing on World War One throughout the chapter Strayer reveals the marks of a crisis in the modern society politically and economically during these big events. 

Chapter 20- Colonial Encounters

In the beginning of this chapter Strayer begins with a short story of his experience in Kenya along with his friends. As years passed by while he was gathering information for Ph.D. research about the British missionaries, he saw a letter that argued about the teachings of English to the Africans.The reasons given in that letter were "the danger in which such a course would place our white women and girls" and "the danger of organizing against the government and Europeans". Here we are able to see that there is this fear that the natives will go against the government and they imply that there is a need to protect white women, there is still an existence of racial boundaries by the Africans. Because of this issue there was an intense colonial concern to maintain distance and difference between the whites and blacks.
The chapter focuses on the two waves of colonialism and it's consequences from it. The first wave took place in the Americas and its perpetrators were England, France, Spain, and Portugal. The first wave caused a major and permanent demographic change especially because racial blends of people were taken place in the Americas. Most of these peoples' intentions were to live in the Americas, they would take their women and families. The second wave took place in Africa and Asia and their perpetrators were Germany, Japan, Belgium, and England. The second wave didn't cause much of a demographic change. The people isolated racially and worked with local authorities. These people weren't settlers like the ones who stayed in the Americas.

Chapter 18: Revolutions of Industrialization

The industrial revolution became a great impact for all societies with an increase of goods and services for the people. The industrial revolution did have its' consequences but this is what helped people become more aware and understanding of what they were expected to go through. The industrial revolution first began in Britain and it helped in an influential way. Britain's political life encouraged commercialization and economic change. Britain already had a good amount of coal and iron and became an easier reach of major industrial centers. The revolution changed the country completely such as their city life, social class structure, and Britain's power amongst other countries as well as their production of machinery.  The industrial revolution was a positive era to have occurred in Britain. Although in the beginning it appeared to bring no benefits at all for the country as time went by the negative effects of the revolution helped them improve day by day. In the end Britain grew to become the most powerful manufacturing nation and economically they were the strongest country in all Europe.

Chapter 17- Atlantic Revolutions and Their Echoes

This chapter mainly focuses on the Atlantic Revolutions. What was interesting to know was that the Atlantic Revolutionaries shared a set of common ideas. As we know the atlantic became a useful resource for cultural exchange but the ideas that were going across the ocean were in newspapers, books, and pamphlets. Ideas weren't only sent through these sources but there were also new ideas of liberty, equality, free trade, religious tolerance, republicanism, and human rationality. As we can see a little bit of everything was shared during the time. Many of these ideas seem to generate controversial amongst the people. Throughout the chapter we learn about the American Revolution, the French Revolution, the Haitian Revolution, and lastly about the Spanish American Revolutions and what were the causes of them. As we read through the book we are able to see that the American Revolution as a conflict between the united thirteen colonies and Great Britain. The French Revolution had conflicts within their own society and offended many of them and it lead into being a more violent than the American Revolution. The Haitian revolution was a conflict with the French colony of Saint Domingue and lastly the Spanish American Revolutions which took place in spanish and portuguese colonies and their revolutions took place in events in North America. Overall, by the end of the chapter we learn that these revolutions benefited from them and supported themselves as well especially because in the end it was a representation to the new world.

What is Enlightenment?

I personally thought this reading was extremely difficult to understand but once you start reading the confusing parts, you start understanding some of the ideas Kant portrays. Overall I thought this reading was very interesting especially because what is said throughout the reading does relate to many people and what they go through. The passage that really caught my attention was the one we did in class and it said, "for himself(only for a short time) a man may postpone enlightenment in what he ought  to know, but to renounce it for posterity is to injure and trample on the rights of mankind. And what people may not decree for itself can even less be decreed for them by a monarch, for his lawgiving authority rests on his uniting the civl order, he can leave it to his subjects to do what they find necessary for their spiritual welfare".(Kant) I believed that Kant was referring to here is that we should always follow what we want to do and not what others would want us to do. Follow our own enlightenment especially because in the end it'll benefit ourselves and not those around us. There will be people who want to hold us back but it is our decision to move on and learn from our own mistakes and experiences.

Chapter 16- Religion and Science

In this chapter it mainly focuses on the globalization of Christianity and also the start of the Protestant Reformation which began in 1517. Christianity was limited to Europe in the beginning of the early modern era. But as years went by during the fifteen hundreds it started spreading to Spain and England in the wet to Russia in the east, with small communities in Egypt, Ethiopia, southern India, and lastly Central Asia. Christianity was seen as the center of trouble for these countries but following christianity came along the Protestant Reformation. The Protestant Reformation began when Martin Luther declared a debate about abuses within the Roman Catholic Church by posting up a document, know as Ninety-five theses on the door of a church. This document wasn't really knew to anybody because people were already aware of the corruption of clergy men and church life during the time. Martin Luther's protest became revolutionary during the time but it did lead a challenge for the church authority which questioned the postion of a clergy and also the pope. This protest not only challenged the Catholic church but also the world of Catholic Christendom especially because it created tensions politically, economically, and lastly religious differences. Overall, Christianity motivated Europe politically and economically by expanding and became beneficial for them too. Christianity became a religion which many countries around the world somehow had to adapt too even through the revolutionary problems that occurred. 

Chapter 15

This chapter mainly focuses on the different trade routes that were being used throughout the world by different continents, trading their resources from one country to another. Commerce came along for the empires and became a big movement for globalization. Commerce between countries allowed new relationships to occur among the people, enriched some, disrupted old patterns empires had, and some countries even enslaved people. Vasco de Gama and his Portugese successors sailed the arena of Indian Ocean commerce, the portuguese believed that trading would be peaceful and valuable between other countries but the reality was that the European trade goods were raw and unattractive in Asian markets. As we can see Vasco de Gama and his followers didn't care the situation they were going to put themselves while looking for the right trade routes,  as long as they were in search of trading what they had that's all they would care about especially because for them it was an experience going on a journey and were brave enough to do it.  The most important trading source that became very significant was trading silver especially because it gave birth to a global network of exchange. Spanish america produced about 85% of the world's silver during the modern era, I found this very interesting. Overall, the idea of this chapter is how commerce worked within the countries during the time.

Chapter Four: Sugar and Origins of the Modern World

As empires were expanding the world became more and more industrialized. The main focus in order to for these empires to expand to different parts of the world was to take what they thought was valuable and useful. Many people aren't aware that this world is all about commodities. Everything we use have been produced by those who are far away from us. Even if we dont realize it, there is a connection to the global market especially from what we consume everyday in our lives. Empires in Western Europe would find resources and export them back to their country. Exchanging goods became very popular for these empires, it led people to start trading without the need of money. 

Sugar became a very important commodity. Sugar became a symbol of luxury. The Greeks who were conquering across India came across this resource which became very significant. Sugar was a resource that wasn't known for being wealthy but once the Europeans founded sugar and became more accustomed to it. Overall, we are able to see how the littles resources made a difference for everyone especially because it was known as an important resource which was seen as gold. What really caught my attention was that sugar today in America isn't really seen as something worth so big like it was back then. 

Empires and Encounters

Throughout this chapter we learn about the expansion of both the Russian and Asian empires while expanding in the Americas as well. In the beginning of the chapter it is said that the European empires in the Americas were not alone. The Russians were known as an empire that constructed the world's largest territorial empire, which made Russia an Asian and gaining European power. The Quin dynasty went deep into Inner Asia, while it helped the country double its size. Meanwhile, millions of non-Chinese people were being brought into China practicing religion throughout the country such as Islam, Buddhism, and animistic religions. On the other hand the Mughal empire brought the Hindus and Muslims to a closer relationship than what they had before even though there were good and bad issues between the two. The Ottomon empire put together the political unity of Islam and gave them the opportunity to obtain military and religious threats. Overall, throughout this chapter we are able to see the European expansion, although everything wasn't as smooth as it could have been for the Europeans and empires.