Arabic Culture Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Arabic Culture - Essay Example he gender division of roles, responsibilities and resources within the household play an important role in shaping what men and women are able to do beyond the household. Islamic texts and traditions lie at the heart of Arab cultural conventions. Critics have seized upon the way that the exact interpretation of religious doctrines varies from state to state, and stress that it is important to reflect on who is making the rules for gender roles and activities, namely men, and how little real choice women have. The definition of what is a matter of culture and religion, and what is a matter of human rights is contentious. Handrahan, for example, compares the human rights offences which occurred in apartheid South Africa with the treatment of women in Arabian culture and describes the Arabian situation as â€Å"gender apartheid† (Handrahan 9) The absence of equal voting rights for women is quite obviously matter of serious discrimination and it attracts condemnation from critics both inside and outside Arabia. A woman’s identity in Arabian culture and society is constructed, in the very first place, on the basis of men’s superiority. Such discriminated gender growth is justified on both cultural and religious basis. In a rigidly religious society, men’s superiority and women’s dependency on men are ratified by the following verse of the Holy Quran: â€Å"Men are the protectors and maintainers of women, because Allah has given the one more (strength) than the other, and because they support them from their means. Therefore the righteous women are devoutly obedient, and guard in (the husbands) absence what Allah would have them guard† (Quran  4:34). Indeed this verse is one of many from the Holy Quran that the clerics of the society manipulate to enact rules, regulations and laws that slaughter women’s equality to men. Some of these rules and regulations are male guardianships, Namus, Purdah, Dress codes, sexual segregation, etc. One of the common aftermaths