Behind the Veil

Behind the Veil

The media constantly recounts details of conflict in the Middle Eastern region, yet Westerners rarely seem to understand the complexities that natives of the region experience on a day to day basis. The overarching idea about life in this area outlines the severe oppression that women face due to variables including cultural restrictions and Sharia Law. This conception, however, is sometimes incomplete or erroneous. Quality of life and the degree of oppression varies greatly from country to country, and understanding these nuances leads to a more thorough comprehension of the injustice. By analyzing four Middle Eastern countries individually-- Iran, Jordan, Pakistan, and Saudi Arabia-- a spectrum of the degree of oppression in the region reveals itself, replacing the ambiguity observed by many.

In the Islamic Republic of Iran, citizens have been fighting for human rights for decades. The Iranian government holds many Islamic-based laws that tend to restrict the rights of women in the country, though Islam itself is by no means the cause of the oppression. The government, often criticized for its lack of initiative when dealing with human rights, has two main leaders: the Supreme Leader, Ali Khamenei, and the president, Hassan Rouhani. While the Supreme Leader, who functions as the head of state, technically holds more power than the president, President Rouhani is the highest popularly elected official in Iran, and he has played a key role in the current human rights situation in Iran, though many people have attacked him for the recent growth of oppression in the country. In an article published in Bloomberg Business, journalist Sangwon Yoon cites the mass rise in executions in the past year as a product of the Ruhani administration. This fact, coupled with a law that was recently passed, entitled “The Plan to Promote Virtue and Prevent Vice” that “invites and in fact forces the citizenry to promote virtuous acts and prevent forbidden ones,” suggests that human rights in Iran are deteriorating. According to the International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran, there has been a surge in acid attacks on women, with fourteen having been reported since late 2014 in the city of Isfahan, an alarming fact that again implies that oppression in the country is worsening.

Though Iran’s top women's rights official, Shahindokht Molaverdi, asserts the fact that the women’s movement is “still slow and unbalanced,” there is evidence that change is on the horizon. In the wake of the recent nuclear negotiations between Iran and Western countries, a growing political interest has been displayed in Iranian women. For example, Negar Mortazavi, an Iranian-American Journalist comments on the nuclear talks by saying, “Hopefully this will be a stepping-stone for [President Rouhani] to achieve other social and political issues like women’s rights and involvement of youth.” This new hope for political and social change pared with the growing international awareness of women could potentially pave a path for gender equality in Iran.

While Iran has displayed severe oppression in recent years, a more progressive status exists in the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan despite the strong Islamic influence in the country-- the Embassy of the Kingdom of Jordan cites that 92 percent of Jordanians identify as Sunni Muslim. Aside from the religious aspect, the Jordanian government is a constitutional monarchy with a king, currently Abdullah II, who essentially controls the central government in such a way that the people have almost no power, and this could easily lend itself to mild governmental oppression. However, the government has also made strides to modernize including when, in 2008, they passed a law that allows LGBT communities to assemble and form organizations. “Jordan is the only Arab country where homosexual acts are not a crime,” according to Eliran Levy of the German newspaper, Deutsche Welle. Though it seems small, this law shows that Jordan is making important progress.

A relatively forward thinking country in comparison to others in the region, women in Jordan are able to obtain many jobs and hold elective offices, but they also experience a considerable amount of discrimination. In other words, the oppression they experience is mainly cultural rather than political. However, the societal and political aspects of oppression tend to overlap because the cultural history of Jordan lends itself to a governmental atmosphere in which intentionally prejudiced laws exist. For instance, in the fall of 2011 a new article of the constitution was being drafted that barred discrimination “on grounds of race, language or religion” (New York Times). Women and human rights activists demanded including “gender” into the list, but parliament failed to appease their demands, further displaying the subtle but ever-present discrimination that women face in the country. According to Discover the Networks, like many countries in the region, “Social security, inheritance, divorce, and testimony laws all favor men [in Jordan],” and this fact again displays the culture of male dominance in Middle Eastern countries. In order to ultimately achieve equality in Jordan, the antiquated societal constraints placed on women that have plagued the country for centuries need to be lifted, a feat that would require changing thousands of people’s personal ideologies. Though, with the help of strong women and human rights activists, the systemic mistreatment of women is slowly being rectified.

Unlike Iran and Jordan, the Islamic Republic of Pakistan is technically not in the Middle East, but rather directly east of Iran. Pakistan is a country dominated by Islam, and for this among other reasons including military rule and disputes with its neighbor India, the country has experienced a sizable amount of violent conflict since its fight for independence in 1947. Although oppression is at times perpetrated by the government-- similar to many other countries in the region-- much of the most severe oppression is carried out by the Pakistani Taliban, or TTP. Based on information