The existence of patriarchy is widely observed in various countries across diverse regions of the world. Within distinct societies, there will exist certain practices that are particularly troublesome. Regardless of the extent to which these practices are widespread, they can be either authorized or not reinforced by the legal system. Occasionally, these practices may still be legally approved and may sometimes be exploited until sufficient attention is drawn to them, resulting in their formal abolition. However, in the case of the Middle East, there appears to be a prevailing assumption that the region is significantly more repressive and misogynistic than other parts of the world. According to Lila Abu-Lughod, a Palestinian-American scholar, this generalization is a result of the long-standing efforts of orientalism and Islamophobia which depict the Middle East as a homogeneous and “traditional” land that is inherently barbaric and misogynistic (Abu-Lughod 7). In this paper, I argue that the western media has weaponized the domestic and familial violence experienced by some Muslim Jordanian women to further Islamophobia by portraying them as helpless victims of their own culture, and misleadingly attributing their individual negative experiences to Islam, as a result of a western perspective that upholds an orientalist view on Islam and the Middle East.
The news article, titled "‘I am a prisoner’: Women fight Middle Eastern laws that keep them trapped at home" by Sarah Little and Tom Levitt, is a report published under the renowned British newspaper that focuses on the struggles faced by Muslim Jordanian women (Little and Levitt). Upon initial reading, one may perceive the article as an exposé on the harshness and limitations imposed by what the editors refer to as "Middle Eastern laws" (Little and Levitt). However, upon closer examination, it becomes evident that the article employs orientalist and Islamophobic themes, using the experiences of individual Muslim Jordanian women to portray all Muslim women in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region as victims of Islam. Furthermore, when it was highlighted that Jordanian women occupy over 62 percent of managerial positions within the country, this statistic was cautioned and critiqued for being inconclusive (International Labour Organization). According to Edward Said, the institutional and systemic construction have historically depicted the Middle East as inferior, thereby justifying the dominance and authority of the “Western” powers in the region by positioning the West as the expert on the region and asserting control over the 'Orient' (Said 3). This intrinsic attitude of enforcing and implying the low status of Muslim Jordanian women in their society and using it as a blanket statement to describe all women in the MENA region, reflects the orientalist tropes that designate customs and people in the Middle East as inherently undeveloped. As a result, it positions the region as an ongoing site of scrutiny for the Western audience.
Relatedly, the chapter, “Do Muslim Women (Still) Need Saving?”, written by Lila Abu-Lughod, discusses the history and consequence of the colonial and imperialist belief that see Muslim women as passive victims of their own culture (Abu-Lughod 47). According to the author, the Western media's selective and obsessive focus on Muslim women and their veil as an oppression from Islam has provided a justification for the U.S military expansion in the Middle East as part of the 'War on Terror', where the U.S imperialist regime's looting of resources and annihilation of Afghanistan was presented as an attempt to liberate Afghan women from so-called violent and extremist Muslim men (Abu-Lughod 32-33). To this day, the narrative of the War on Terror continues to be utilized as a pretext for furthering Western imperialist interests in the region. The news article from The Guardian perpetuates the same imperialist, colonial and paternalistic views about the Middle East and Muslim culture by describing instances of domestic and familial abuse and violence faced by some Muslim Jordanian women, as a part of a made-up “Middle Eastern law” which purposely distort Arab and Muslim culture to maintain the need for western imperialist intervention.
Finally, the removal of Israel from the list of countries in the region that oppress women in the news article is a clear and significant indication of the authors' orientalist and Islamophobic attitudes. The article was revised with the authors’ note stating that oppressive laws towards women in Israel are limited to certain religious courts and therefore cannot be considered representative of the overall experiences of Israeli women there (Little and Levitt). This act of maintaining Israel’s exceptionality is not a coincidence. In fact, according to Said, Orientalism has historically discredited Islam and Arab cultures by portraying the settler colonial state of Israel as the sole exceptionally progressive country in the region (Said 27). For this reason, the exclusion of Israel was a deliberate attempt to defend the country’s reputation to contrast its Muslim-majority neighbors. This differential treatment in the news article reinforces the orientalist dichotomy that places Israel as the singular democratic nation in the MENA region and designates its neighboring Arab countries as barbaric and authoritarian.
The article published by The Guardian is rooted in orientalist and Islamophobic narratives by exploiting the struggles of some Muslim Jordanian women to vilify the reputation of the Middle East and Islam. Moreover, this orientalist and Islamophobic depiction also functions as an element of the wider socio-political structure which helps to promote Western imperialist military conquest in the MENA region. For this reason, this perspective is deeply entrenched in every aspect of our contemporary society and necessitates a critical analysis and caution.
The image that I have selected for this assignment depicts a protest against the illegal Israeli occupation in Palestine. It features Ahed Tamimi, a Palestinian activist, along with other Palestinians residing in occupied Palestinian territories. The rationale behind my selection of this image is to underscore the social and political participation that Muslim women in the MENA region have contributed towards their liberation. It is significant to acknowledge that this does not diminish the obstacles these women may encounter due to the presence of patriarchal and capitalist social orders, which exsist everywhere. However, considering the prevalence of orientalist stereotypes that depict the Middle East in a negative light, this image serves as a significant reminder and a form of resistance against colonial and imperialist intervention.
About the image: The image is found in the Wikimedia commons with free sharing and adaptation license (Haim Schwarczenberg).
Works Cited
Abu-Lughod, Lila. "Introduction. Feminist Longings and Postcolonial Conditions". Remaking Women: Feminism and Modernity in the Middle East, edited by Lila Abu-Lughod, Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1998, pp. 1-32. https://doi.org/10.1515/9781400831203-003
Abu-Lughod, Lila. “Do Muslim Women (Still) Need Saving?” Do Muslim Women Need Saving?, Harvard University Press, 2013, pp. 27–53. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt6wpmnc.4. Accessed 10 Feb. 2024.
International Labour Organization. Women Managers in Jordan: ILO Cautions against Taking Data out of Context, 7 Mar. 2021, www.ilo.org/beirut/media-centre/news/WCMS_774849/lang--en/index.htm.
Little, Sarah, and Tom Levitt. “‘I Am a Prisoner’: Women Fight Middle Eastern Laws That Keep Them Trapped at Home.” The Guardian, 18 July 2023, www.theguardian.com/global-development/2023/jul/18/i-am-a-prisoner-women-fight-middle-eastern-laws-that-keep-them-trapped-at-home#:~:text=Aya’s%20story%20is%20common%20across,at%20home%2C%E2%80%9D%20says%20Aya.
Said, Edward W. Orientalism. London.: Penguin books, 1995.
Schwarczenberg, Haim. “عهد التميمي.” Wikimedia Commons, 25 March 2016, https://schwarczenberg.com. Accessed 9 February 2024
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