Status of women in the Arab World

The status of women in the Arab world has remained virtually unchanged for the past century. Whereas Western women benefitted from a liberation movement in the twentieth century that elevated their status in the home and society, the Arabic culture continues to encourage the oppression of women. Arab society is largely patriarchal, which means whether it be government or the family, women's discrimination begins in the home and continues throughout school and marriage. Unfortunately, only a few women find the courage to fight back against a society that punishes them for the simple fact of being a woman. The main impediment to Arab women's progress is Islam; religious law governs the most important aspects of women's lives. Although there is a great degree of diversity of social conditions in the Arab world, the experience of Iranian and Palestinian women illustrates the extent of gender discrimination and mistreatment in this culture.

The foundation of the religion of Islam is the Holy Qur'an. A connection exists between religious doctrine and social ethics in the Holy Qur'an because one of the goals of Islam is the establishment of a holy, organized society. Ideally, this society would be based on eternal principles of righteousness and fair dealing, cleanliness and sobriety, honesty and helpfulness. The moral code in the Qur'an is an attempt to put these principles into concrete form, to create a complete system of religion that suits the times and circumstances

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iod as one hour. (These marriages essentially allow men and women to have sexual relations and still be in conformance with Islamic law.) The woman is paid money for her services and men can have an unlimited number of such marriages, terminating them at will. Women have no similar privileges ("Status" 67). Marriage is an institution that has been employed throughout the ages in various cultures to subjugate women, and Iran is no exception. As oppressive as Iran's marriage laws are, its divorce and custody laws are even more unfair to women. Until recently, a man could obtain a divorce automatically while paying a nominal amount of alimony ("Our Veils" 27). Even with the relative liberalization of divorce laws, women still have virtually no rights. The father automatically gets legal custody of male children after the age of two and female children after the age of seven. If a woman remarries before her children reach these respective ages, custody reverts to the father. Abused women cannot divorce their husbands because the subject of spousal abuse is not covered in Iranian civil law: "Survivors of domestic violence have no recourse in the courts, and no support for leaving a violent husband" ("Status" 67). Women

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