السؤال الذي يهين انسانيتي The question that offends my humanity! !

25.3.2010

سؤال بسيط ويساله البعض بكل براءة ! سؤال ممكن ان يكون عادي عند البعض ولكن بالنسبة لي هو سؤال جارح لانسانيتي وكرامتي! سوف يتساءل البعض ماهو هذا السؤال الذي تتحدث عنه؟! مجرد معرفة البعض انني من بلاد الرافدين يتوافد هذا السؤال على ذهن الناس بدون حتى ان يعرفوا من انا او ماذا احمل افكار او حتى ماذا ادرس! يسألونني هل انت من طائفة (س) ام طائفة (ش)؟! وعندها تكون تعابير المتسائلين جدية وفعلا يريدون معرفة الجواب بكل شغف.. دوري انا بالتساءل الان ماالمغزى من هذا السؤال ومالاستفادة التي سيخرج منها هؤلاء المتساءلين! اتصور لااحد يستطيع الاجابة لان المتسائلين انفسهم لا يعرفون لماذا يسالون هذا السؤال ولكنه مجرد الفضول او السؤال السائد! دائما اسأل نفسي هل بعد الاجابة على هذا السؤال ستتغير نظرة الناس عني او سأوضع بخانة جديدة اذا كنت انتمي لهذه الطائفة او تلك! على علمي الناس تقول ان الدين لله والوطن للجميع! فهل هذه المقولة تكتب على الورق او تقال فقط في الاشعار ولا تطبق على الواقع الذي نعيش به؟! بصراحة انا لااجيب على هذا السؤال
المهين فشعوري عند السؤال مثل زرع خنجر في قلبي و عندها اطالب بالتنفس والعيش بطبيعية!

في رأيي مشكلتنا الكبيرة هي التشبث بالمظاهر وترك ما في داخلنا من افكار واراء ومانؤمن به والاهتمام فقط بالملبس والمظهر او لاي طائفة ننتمي !! وهذه هي مصيبتنا وسبب تأخرنا عن التقدم وسبب تصنيفنا بدول العالم الثالث والله اعلم لاي فئة سنصل في المستقبل القريب ربما للخامسة او حتى العاشرة اذا بقينا نفكر بهذا الاسلوب!! البعض ممكن ان يفكر انني متشاءمة او انني انتقد بلا سبب ولكن بالحقيقة اذا دققنا بفكرة الحكم على الشخص من مظهره او عرقه او اعتقاداته فهي مصيبة واذا لاندرك ذلك فهي مصيبة اكبر! انني فعلا اتعجب من الناس التي تريد تفريق الناس لسبب غير معلوم وعلى التفريق بين طائفة (س) وطائفة (ش) لانني لااحب التلفظ بهم لانني عندها اكون معترفة بهذه التصنيفات!! حسب معلوماتي وعلم الجميع ان حتى في الابجدية العربية حرف السين والشين ياتيان واحد تلو الاخر فعجبي على شعب يتمنى التفريق بينهم وجعل حرف السين يأتي قبل حرف الياء وليس الشين كما هو متعارف !! على الرغم من انني لا احب التكلم بالسياسة او الدين ولكن هذا الموضوع فعلا مؤرق لكثيرين وانا واحدة منهم لان الناس تعتقد ان ابناء بلاد الرافدين لايجمعهم غير التفرقة والكره والبغض!! لا الوم احدا على ذلك ولكن الوم الاعلام الذي انا ادرسه والوم الناس التي تروج لمثل تلك الافكار وتريد فقط زرع الفوارق بين ابناء بلد يسمى بلاد الرافدين وليس بلاد الرافد الواحد! .

The question that offends my humanity!

A simple question that some people innocently ask me! A question that can possibly be normal for some, but for me it is a question of prey to my humanity and my dignity! Some will wonder what question is that I am talking about?!  I just know some of Mesopotamia flock bear this question on their mind without even knowing who I am or what ideas I believe in or even what I am writing on! Are you asking me from what sector range I am? Is it from (S) or from (Sh)?!  And then they show the expressions of serious inquirers and really they want to know the answer “Wholeheartedly.” I want to know the point behind this question and what usefulness is achieved in asking it now for the enquirers?! I imagine nobody can answer because inquirers themselves do not know why they ask this question, but it's just curiosity or the question has become the prevailing question! I always ask myself: will the answer to this question change people's view of me or would I be put in a new line, a front or back, if I will be categorized with this sector or with other?! As far as I know, people always and repeatedly say that “religion is for God and the homeland is for all.” Is this strongly and clear statement just a written ink on a lost piece of paper or just a spoken slogan from ancient times that’s only for remembering but never to be applied in reality we live in?! Frankly, I wonder and speculate much in reaction to this question, frankly, I don’t answer this humiliating question as I feel when asked as if a sharp dagger is unexpectedly planted in my heart, and then I was asked to calmly breathe and unsurprisingly stay alive!

In my opinion, our big problem is clinging to appearances and absconding our ideas, opinions and what we believe inside ourselves. We are interested in just what we wear, what we look like and similarly to which sector we belong to!! This is our mishap and catastrophe, and why we're so back in line towards the marathon progress and prosperity and the reason for our rating as the countries of the Third World and God knows what category our country will reach in the near future. Perhaps we will be categorized as a fifth or even a tenth kind of world ranking if we keep thinking this way!! Some might possibly think I am pessimistic or I just criticize for no reason but if we cautiously keep practicing the idea of ​​judging a person by appearance, race, beliefs, we must admit that we will not progress in a hundred years; the truth is if we are aware that such act is a calamity or unaware, both cases are disastrous.

 I am really surprised by people who just want to categorize people differently for unknown reasons and to differentiate between the sects (S) and sect (Sh). Honestly, I don `t even like pronouncing neither S nor Sh as a filthy tool for categorization and classification of the noble human kind!! It is funny to note that as far as the Arabic alphabet that everyone is familiar with, the consonants “Seine” and “Sheine” are close to each other in sequence and still some are working on purpose to separate between the two letters and make the ‘Seine’ character comes close to the last letter of alphabet “Ya’a” and not the “Shiene”! Even though I do not like to talk politics or religion, but this issue is really disturbing to many, and I am one of them because people think that the sons and daughters of Mesopotamia only common in hatred and loathing!! I do not blame anyone on that but I blame the media, which I learn and I blame the people who promote such ideas. Such are only trying to sow differences between the people of a country called “Mesopotamia” and not the country of” Monopotamy” as it is copied in their sick minds.  

 

how could we design a sociological method to study a phenomenon ?!

Spring 2009

This project is designed to help the president of the American University in Cairo studying the AUC graduate students after leaving AUC. He would like to study how their attitudes and feelings could be changed after they graduate from AUC. Also, another important point to be investigated is whether their attitudes have been changed or not. In addition, he is interested in discovering if their study in AUC has any influence whether negative or positive over their lives.
The task of this project is to provide the AUC president with the methods and ways to help answering those questions about AUC graduates. As the president chose to use survey to study the attitudes of AUC graduates, our mission is to give an advice about what is the best survey design. The designs suggested by the president’s advisors are panel study, retrospective histories collected from a sample of older AUC graduates or what is called ‘content analysis’ and One-Short Cross Sectional study. There would be an explanation of each and then will decide which method is suitable for this project.
Various designs can serve the purpose of conducting a survey to identify the changes of attitudes among people. The first survey design was suggested by the president’s advisors is panel study. Panel study is one of the survey designs which is based on choosing one specific group of respondents and collect data from the same group over time. For example, if we decide to measure how people change their opinion about an issue such as abortion, we would collect data from a group of people like the students of AUC and then ask them again about the same issue after a period of time. The only difference of the panel study to other survey designs is to examine the same issue on the same group tested before. This can help us classifying the changing of opinion or attitudes of the same group of people such as the AUC seniors’ students.
Every survey design has its own advantages and disadvantages. Regarding the advantages, one advantage of the panel study is that the researchers can identify the changing of behaviors, opinions, attitudes of specific group of people. For example, if we would like to measure whether some AUC students change their opinion about the new move to the Cairo new campus or not, we would question the students of Science School for example; then after two semesters we should re-question the Science School students again to test if their opinion change or not. Some students might stick to their opinion about the move to the new campus in New Cairo while others might change their opinion and feel satisfied after having two semesters. This means the situation is getting better in the new campus and as a result students are changing their opinion.
Talking about the disadvantages of panel study, mainly there are three disadvantages; the first disadvantage is something called panel attrition which means that some respondents refuse to be questioned in the second time. Sometimes, some students might be busy and reject to respond to the questions of the survey; this might be a problem to the researchers who use panel study. For example, some students who were interviewed might transfer to another university and no one can contact them; in this case, the study is useless and meaningless as the same group should be re-interviewed to recognize the changes in the opinion of AUC students about the Cairo new campus move. The second disadvantage of panel study is that the data collected from the panel study is hard to be analyzed. The third and final disadvantage is that panel study is expensive and time consuming; this is because panel study does not depend on some published data as other methods but there should be new data every time researchers interview the same group of people. This might be another problem of panel study.
Those disadvantages mentioned above might be a reason for why panel study is not common used in conducting a survey. Some might argue that panel study is mostly like doing an experiment which the researchers would have a control group and experiment group to compare between. The control group would be the first group and experiment group would be interviewing the same group for the second time. Consequently, panel study is rarely used or would be used in special cases. Regarding any biases, any survey method can be biased in its language so the wording and how to phrase the questions in the questionnaire is important to not be biased. In the same point, pretesting would be the solution to avoid any biases.
The second suggested method to be used in our project is content analysis. Content analysis is mainly based on analyzing date already existed such as papers done years ago about the same topic, government documents and others. In this case, it’s easier to study one topic as the data is available and the researchers do not have to collect the data by themselves.
Content analysis like other survey methods has advantages and disadvantages. One advantage of content analysis is that it provides an organized analysis of materials which make it easier for researcher in their research. Also, content analysis can prevent any biases researchers might create before they conduct their research. For example, in the case of the president and his interest in studying the attitudes of the AUC graduates students towards the educational system of AUC, he might have an idea that all AUC students are satisfied with the AUC educational system. However, the data collected and researchers conducted before might show that some AUC students are not totally satisfied with the educational system. Accordingly, this can give the president a general idea about the truth and change the bias that the president has before conducting the survey using content analysis. On the other hand, content analysis has drawbacks; one of them is that the documents available might be not enough for the research I would like to conduct. For example, the same example of AUC students’ attitudes towards AUC educational system can be applied to this problem as there might not be enough documents that discuss this issue. As a result, this method might not be helpful to the AUC president’s study. The second disadvantage of content analysis is that sometimes the documents might have some comments that are contradicted which researchers can not depend on them.
The third survey method is Random Cross-Sectional. Cross-Sectional Survey is about collecting data at specific time from a specific group to examine or describe larger population. It is like having a representative group of a larger population. It is not just to describe this sample and group of people but to study a relationship between variables. The advantage of cross sectional survey is that it focuses on one specific group and then can be applied to larger population. However, this can be also disadvantage at the same time because researchers might be biased and generalize in their results to the larger population which is not necessary can be applied to larger population. In addition, the opinions of any specific sample collected at one point might be changed later; this is another disadvantage of Cross-Sectional Survey. In the case of the president, he should interview a sample random group of AUC graduates to ask them whether their study in the AUC has any influence on their lives after they graduate. I think this is possible as he can email those who graduated from AUC and question them some questions to determine whether the study in AUC affected them or not. As the AUC has the contact details of graduates, he can use this as a tool to contact them via email or telephone or interview if possible.
After discussing the survey methods and the advantages and disadvantages of each, we should now choose which method is the most appropriate for the AUC president’s project. In my opinion, each survey method has its own strength to be used and weakness to avoid. First, I think panel study is hard to use in the president’s purpose of studying the AUC students after they graduate as it is hard to re-interview the graduate students again as mentioned before they might refuse to respond in the second time due to private reasons. Secondly, about the content analysis, it is also hard to study students’ opinions based on published documents as the president needs to study the opinion of the students not just descriptive study. I think although it has disadvantages, Cross-Sectional survey is the most suitable one to the president’s project as it allows him to interview random students and know their opinion about studying in the AUC. This will prevent personal biases as it is random.
Most of the topics the AUC president would like to study about the graduate students are sensitive. For example, one topic that I think is sensitive is smoking among AUC students and the new policy in the Cairo AUC new campus. The new policy is that students are not allowed to smoke in public and building reigns. As the new AUC campus is open so the regions are open so they are not allowed to smoke in the majority of the buildings. I think many would not like to answer as they think it is a personal thing and a freedom of expression. Wording the questions is very important in this case as to make students respond. I was requested to suggest some ways to avoid some of the problems the president might face conducting his survey. One of the ways is not to be biased in asking the questions or imposing any answer on respondents. For example, if he would like to know the opinion of the students about smoking and whether the AUC policy of not permitting the smoking in closed areas have any influence on their lives after they graduate or not. First of all, he should introduce to the respondents the topic and give instructions. Secondly, he should start asking them general questions to provide some information about the person interviewed such as gender, age, social status, occupation and other stuff. Then, the president can ask some specific questions about the issue. The most important thing to take in consideration is how to ask the question and the wording. I will include a sample of the survey that can help the AUC president conducting his survey on AUC graduate students.





The sample of questionnaire the AUC president can use to conduct his survey
Instructions: The president of the American University in Cairo would like to study the attitudes of AUC graduate students towards some issues. The topic that the president would like to examine is the attitude of AUC students towards sexual harassment.
1. We changed it to what’s your sex?
a) Female
b) Male

2. What is your nationality?
a) Egyptian
b) Foreigner, please specify_______

3. What is your Social status?
a) Single
b) In a relationship
c) Engaged
d) Married
e) Other,______

4. Researches conducted have shown that the phenomenon of sexual harassment has increased in Egypt nowadays. To what extent you support these statistics?
a) Strongly agree
b) Agree
c) Disagree
d) Strongly disagree
e) Do not know

5. When you hear an accident of sexual harassment in Cairo, what can describe your feeling at that time? Please check all that apply.
a) Sad
b) Disappointed
c) Happy
d) Neutral
e) Angry
f) Dissatisfied
g) Others

6. This scale consists of a number of words that describe different feelings and emotions. Please read each item and then circle a number 0, 1, 2, 3 or 4 to indicate the extent to which you have this feeling at the time of knowing that there is an accident of sexual harassment in the new campus.
0=very slightly or not at all
1=A little
2=Moderately
3=Quite a bit
4=Extremely

1 Interested 0 1 2 3 4
2 Distressed 0 1 2 3 4
3 Excited 0 1 2 3 4
4 Upset 0 1 2 3 4
5 Strong 0 1 2 3 4
6 Guilty 0 1 2 3 4
7 Scared 0 1 2 3 4
8 Hostile 0 1 2 3 4
9 Enthusiastic 0 1 2 3 4
10 Proud 0 1 2 3 4
11 Irritable 0 1 2 3 4
12 Alert 0 1 2 3 4
13 Ashamed 0 1 2 3 4
14 Inspired 0 1 2 3 4
15 Nervous 0 1 2 3 4
16 Determined 0 1 2 3 4
17 Attentive 0 1 2 3 4
18 Jittery 0 1 2 3 4
19 Active 0 1 2 3 4
20 Afraid 0 1 2 3 4

7. Some AUC students reported that there are cases of sexual harassment in the AUC new campus. Are you aware of this phenomenon?
a) Fully aware
b) Aware
c) Don’t know
d) Don’t care
e) Unaware

8. Some students are asking for strict security service in the new AUC campus as to prevent the sexual harassment incidents. Do you support such demand?
a) Strongly agree
b) Agree
c) May be
d) Disagree
e) Strongly disagree

9. Have you ever been sexually harassed before?
a) Yes
b) No
c) Prefer not to answer

10. Some students just feel free and secured in the new AUC campus unlike others. In one word, describe your feeling towards the security services in the new AUC campus.

Women’s social movements in Iraq

Women’s social movements in Iraq

Spring 2009

During the last 50 years, Iraq has gone through many struggles, conflicts and wars. Iraqi people witnessed and harshly experienced more than four direct wars during just the last thirty years .To start, a brief review of recent history on Iraq should be mentioned to clarify how bad Iraqi people, in general, have suffered and women, in particular. Iraqi people suffered from dictatorship, wars and nowadays an over added occupation. In 1980, Iraqis found themselves trapped in a fierce war with their neighbor country Iran that went on till 1988 and caused a lot of suffering to the Iraqi people (Wright). The number of Iraqi soldiers who were killed is estimated to fall between 150,000 and 340,000 (Al-Ali and Pratt). In addition, many Iraqi civilians died as a result of this long war. Women have lost their sons, husbands and relatives and were left facing immense emotional and economical challenges (Wright). In less than two years after this bloody war finished, Iraq went through another war with the United States, and 30 of its allies as a result of the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait in 1990. Economic sanction was imposed on Iraq by the United Nations Security Council from 1990 till 2003 which really had awful effects on Iraqi people ("Sanctions on Iraq."). The last dramatic event which Iraq has gone through was the American-led invasion on Iraq in 2003 (Miller and Kenedi). The invasion turned the country upside down because of the chaos, lawlessness and insecurity that accompanied and followed the invasion and continued until present time (Al-Ali and Pratt). All these factors have led Iraq to suffer from un-development in all sectors as wars and ongoing conflicts impede the country’s promising development. Significantly, those factors have led Iraqis to create several social movements to change the bad situations they live in such as insecurity, lack of electricity and water (Al-Ali and Pratt). Also, many Iraqi social movements are created to defend and demand women’s rights.

Women in general and especially Iraqi women have suffered from the above reasons and factors. Iraqi Women’s social movements have a long history of demanding specific rights.

An important question that needs to be answered here is how could women’s social movements be helpful to improve Iraqi women’s status during the last 40 years? My main goal of this research paper is to answer this question stressing on the following three dimensions: the difficulties that led women to create social movements, the goals of women’s social movement has addressed and finally the difficulties women faced because of their movement.

Women’s social movement is not one of the new social movements (Woodsmall 48). In Iraq, women’s social movement has started its activities to demand women’s rights since the 1920s (Woodsmall). Women participated in the 1920 revolution in Iraq against the British invasion and occupation following the World War I and helped men in this revolution and started their activities since that time (Fernea and Louis). This shows that women are always active and need to actively participate and achieve their goals of freedom and get their rights. Back to the history of women’s social movements in Iraq, in 1923 women created an organization to teach orphan girls but this organization was soon closed (Woodsmall). I think this shows that such organizations faced difficulties and male dominated society opposed and fought such organizations led by women. Although women’s social movements were unstable and depended on male members, women never gave up and started to create other organizations. In 1944, women’s social movements and organizations have started to be independent and created various organizations such as Sisterhood of Freedom which have branches in Baghdad and Basra (Woodsmall). Such organizations were supported by the British aids in the country at that time (Woodsmall). This indicates that because women’s organizations usually face such difficulties from the society, they ask support from foreign aids. Iraqi women’s social movements were motivated to keep going and demanding their rights by the support from other movements and organizations in other Arab countries such as Egypt (Woodsmall). In my opinion, this clearly shows that most of Arab women share similar suffering in the Arab world and that’s why the cooperation between Arab countries does exist in regard to women’s movements issue.

After giving a brief history on the women’s social movements in Iraq, some difficulties, during the Baath and Saddam Hussein’s regime or the occupation, which led Iraqi women to create social movements, should be tackled. Those difficulties would lead women to assign goals of their movements; some of these goals of the women’s social movements will be mentioned .Finally, difficulties women faced during creating their social movements are worth to be addressed.

First, difficulties women faced during the Baath and Saddam Hussein regime must be mentioned first to have an idea of the kind of magnitude of suffering women had before the war in 2003. Iraqi women indeed faced some difficulties from the Baath party and Saddam Hussein regime. Although the Baath and Hussein regime promoted the status of women in the early 1970s and 1980s, Iraqi women later faced many difficulties with the Baath’s strategy of imposing their ideas on people (Al-Ali and Pratt). At the end of the 1970s, the Baath started to change its strategy and opposed everyone who is not Baathi (Al-Ali and Pratt). Women who were not involved in political life were enjoying their lives and rights away from friction and conflicts. However, women who participate in activities against the Baath regime would be harshly fought (Al-Ali 112). However, this clearly shows that women were not fought because they are women but because of their political activities. In my opinion, this is the problem of the previous regime of Saddam Hussein and Baath party to fight people who disagree or do not follow their ideology. For example, Zeynab J, a lab assistant working in one of the universities of Iraq who is a member of the Daawa party, was fought and dismissed from their colleagues and boss in college as she was not a Baathi (Al-Ali 116). Zeynab had to leave Iraq in the 1970s after receiving many threats of killing (Al-Ali 116). The example of Zeynab might indicate that repression of any regime can lead people to create social movements to get their rights of freedom of expression.etc. Zeynab left Iraq and joined the Daawa party and lived in the United Sates trying to participate in the social movement to change the political regime in Iraq (Al-Ali 112). The case of Zeynab also might show that such women who oppose the regime faced two options; whether to leave Iraq by force or to stay in Iraq but agree on the Baath ideology. The political repression prevents many women from creating any social movement in Iraq as it would be repressed as soon as it is created. In fact, women during the Baath and Saddam Hussein regime in the 1980s did enjoy some of their rights such as education, health care and child care. However, women later suffered from wars, economic sanction and other conflicts that forced women to take harsh responsibilities and the burden to raise families in absence of their men (Al-Ali and Pratt). This was even harsher in the 1990s period as of the economic sanctions when women suffered a lot in finding and home making all for the family with sharp shortage of income and fund submission. Also, lack of political opportunities and participation was one of the difficulties that women suffered from.

Second, after discussing the difficulties women faced during the Baath and Saddam Hussein regime, difficulties women faced after the US invasion in 2003 look even more sever and much different. The main sufferings Iraqis in general and Iraqi women faced after the US invasion are the insecurity, chaos, kidnapping and lawlessness (Al-Ali and Pratt). Also, women nowadays are forced to wear Hijab, the veil, as the extremists control the country after the US invasion (Al-Ali and Pratt 128). Although Hijab is claimed to be Islamic nature, the hijab was imposed even on women from other religions such as Christianity. Iraqi women as the majority of Iraqis suffered from lack of electricity and water because of the destructive war (Al-Ali and Pratt 123). Also, one of the difficulties women faced before and after the war was the lack of women’s representatives in the parliament. Consequently, women have started to demand their right to be active in the political life in Iraq after long years of repression.

The various difficulties Iraqi women faced whether during the Baath and Hussein’s regime or the occupation period led women from middle and high class to create social movement (Al-Ali and Pratt). Iraqi women’s social movements have a variety of goals to change some unpleasant situations women suffer from. One of the main goals of women’s social movements in Iraq after the invasion is to improve the disastrous situations such as standard of living, health care, electricity and water (Al-Ali and Pratt 122). Also one of the major goals of women’s social movements in Iraq is girls’ education as after the chaos, kidnapping and insecurity, many families became hesitant and afraid of sending their daughters to schools (Al-Ali and Pratt 122). This led to sharp decline in the percentage of educated girls in the society. Helping those in need in hospitals and poor people is also one of the goals that Iraqi women’s movements were assigned to improve their terrible situation after the invasion (Al-Ali and Pratt). Moreover, women attempted to clean some of the schools in Baghdad to rehabilitate after destruction as a result of the war and bombings (Al-Ali and Pratt).In my opinion, This indicates that women’s social movements do not just care about women’s issues alone but also care about other social issues such as poverty, education and health. Furthermore, the most important goal of women’s movement in Iraq is to teach women and poor people how to depend on themselves and try to improve their situation (Al-Ali and Pratt). For example, some activists in women’s movement organize computer sessions to teach young people something useful for their future career and living (Al-Ali and Pratt). I think this is more useful than providing people directly with food or clothes as it is obvious more useful to teach people something they can benefit from in their life. In addition to helping the poor and widows, women’s social movements tend to fight the sectarianism that became widespread in the Iraqi society nowadays by treating everyone equally (Al-Ali and Pratt). The final and significant goal of women’s social movements is to get gender balance with equal political opportunities in the Iraqi parliament (Al-Ali and Pratt). In this aspect, women enjoy a minimum of 25% representation in all parliament and local council’s membership by law. In addition to the previous demands, new demands have appeared such as the withdrawals of the American and foreign forces from Iraq (Al-Ali and Pratt 128). However, some other women’s movements prefer the US and foreign forces to stay in Iraq because of the fear of the control of the sectarian and extremist religious parties once forces are withdrawals (Al-Ali and Pratt).

The ways and means to achieve the assigned goals mentioned above are various. Women who were living outside Iraq before 2003 started their activities by collecting funds from colleagues and friends and not political parties to create social movement (Al-Ali and Pratt). This shows that not all social movements are necessarily created by political parties. They started with minor stuff such as cleaning schools and offering services for Iraqis. The local organizations were more helpful to the women’s social movements than the foreign organization (Al-Ali and Pratt). This might indicate that Iraqis are in need of social movements and help so they are ready to help anyone who might take the initiative to improve the terrible situations postwar in Iraq. Women were able to help improving dreadful situations of some families who were affected by the war by providing food and medicine. This is considered an achievement to women’s social movement in Iraq as they were able to achieve some of their goals.

As for the political opportunities for women in the Iraqi Parliament, women started to raise awareness among women about the importance of the political participation of women in the Iraqi government as decision makers (Al-Ali and Pratt). After the invasion of Iraq in 2003, many women decided to create social movements to demand their right of equal political opportunities (Al-Ali and Pratt). “We had an equal share of pain and we need an equal share of peace”, quoted Shanes Rashid an Iraqi women activist (Al-Ali and Pratt). Rashid’s quotation shows that the demand of equal opportunities for women is a normal demand and one of women’s rights. As the dominated parties in the Iraqi government are the sectarian ones, women from the secular parties decided to participate in the political ‘war’ as some might call against the sectarians (Al-Ali and Pratt).The Iraqi government in the beginning started to ignore many skilled people and women. As a result, women decided to participate by creating strikes, demonstrations and campaigns demanding their right to be part of decision making in the “New Iraq” (Al-Ali and Pratt). They started to demand that women should have quota in the new government and institution. However, the Americans refused that claiming that they do not believe in quota arrangement (Al-Ali and Pratt). This was puzzling and very surprising to the activists as the Americans used the quota but ethnically and religiously and ignored women (Al-Ali and Pratt). As a result of this unfairness, activists decided to intensify demonstrations, strikes and campaigns to demand their right (Al-Ali and Pratt). Accordingly, the government decided to give women a minimum of 25% quota in the Iraqi parliament and consequently in local councils (Al-Ali and Pratt). This is considered an achievement to the women’s social movement. Women do not just care for having female representatives in the parliament, but they care more about the active women who can fight for Iraqi women’s rights (Al-Ali and Pratt). However, some women argue that quota for women is not the solution to improve women’s status but election of whether women or men should be based on qualifications, experience, education not on gender or ethnicity , quoted an Iraqi activist Samira Mustafa (Al-Ali and Pratt). As when women have quota in the parliament, political parties would nominate the women who might be the daughters, wives or relatives of the political parties’ leaders, Samira added (Al-Ali and Pratt). In my opinion, I might agree with this activist as Iraq has not reached the level of transparent and smooth democracy that people would elect the candidates based on their qualifications or experience but would continue to elect the people that the political parties would nominate. However, at the same time, I might agree with some other activists such as those who argue that this minimum 25% quota is the first step into democratic Iraq (Al-Ali and Pratt). Also, activists who are with the 25% quota believe that they should be present in the parliament to demand women’s rights against the extremists who oppose women’s freedom and at the same time provide women with practical opportunity for training and skills development (Al-Ali and Pratt).

After women got their political opportunities to be part of the Iraqi parliament and got 25% quota by the help of social movements, women in the parliament started to discuss some issues directly related to women (Al-Ali and Pratt). Some extremists in the Iraqi parliament proposed changing the Iraqi personal status code, which is based on civil rights and was endorsed early 1960s, to a more conservative one (Al-Ali and Pratt). For example, Abd al Aziz Al Hakeem, the head of a conservative Islamic party, proposed to link the Iraqi personal status code to conservative Islamic laws and Sharea which might minimize the role of women in society (Al-Ali and Pratt). Many women and secular men stood firm against this proposal. Women in particular started to organize social movement against that notion and backward movement. In my opinion, because Iraq consists of various ethnic and religious groups, the Iraqi personal code should include all Iraqis and not to be linked to one specific religion. Activists in women’s social movements tried to contact international organizations to put pressure on the government and about any attempt to apply this change proposed by Al Hakeem (Al-Ali and Pratt). This action is called the Boomerang Model or theory which is based on seeking support of international organizations or governments to put pressure on local government if the activists fail to affect the local government (David, Soule, and Kriesi ). Women asked the human rights organizations to put pressure on the Iraqi government to refuse this proposal (Al-Ali and Pratt). Consequently, The Iraqi government refused the proposal of Al Hakeem to change the Iraqi personal status code because of the pressure on them from international organizations and women’s social movements (Al-Ali and Pratt).

Creating a social movement is not something easy. As a result, Iraqi women have faced many difficulties in creating their social movements. The first difficulty is the violence used against the activists during the chaotic atmosphere after the invasion in 2003 (Al-Ali and Pratt). Many activists were in danger of kidnapping and violence as there is no effective police or government to protect them (Al-Ali and Pratt). Women kept working to improve the bad situations in Iraq and to make any differences in people’s lives (Al-Ali and Pratt). Secular women who fight for their rights in the new Iraqi government were fought by the sectarian groups (Al-Ali and Pratt), Despite that, secular women keep fighting for their rights and for new democratic Iraq facing all these difficulties (Al-Ali and Pratt). Also, such women are at risk of random shooting from occupation and religious groups who oppose such movements (Al-Ali and Pratt).

In conclusion, Iraqi social movements have a significant role in demanding Iraqi women’s rights. To conclude this broad topic on women’s social movement, we should first identify who are the ones that women fight against? In my opinion, Iraqi women in their social movements fight the sectarian people and most of them are men who do not care about women’s rights and status. However, women also fight other groups of women who have backward and sectarian ideas who are usually working within the sectarian parties (Al-Ali and Pratt). As a result, women’s social movement is not just to oppose men in general but to fight groups of men and women who limiting women of their natural freedom. Another question that should be answered is how successful women’s social movements were in Iraq? I think these movements were successful to some extent as they still face difficulties in a male dominated society. This does not mean that social movements did not achieve some of their goals. Some goals were achieved such as the 25% quota and other goals. As for the suffering of women in the last 40 years, Iraqi women have suffered a lot during the Baath and Saddam Hussein’s regime and that is continually nowadays under- occupation. In my opinion, during the Baath and Hussein’s regime, there was only one group that women were fighting against government while nowadays there are various groups who oppose women’s freedom. As a result, women’s social movements have a long way to go to get all their assigned goals to promote women’s status in society.


Works Cited
Al-Ali, Nadje, and Nicola Pratt. What kind of liberation?. 2009
Al-Ali, Nadje. IRAQI WOMEN . 2007
Fernea , Robert , and Roger Louis. The Iraqi Revolution of 1958. 1991
Miller, John, and Aaron Kenedi. INSIDE IRAQ. 2002
"Sanctions on Iraq." Economist 326.7804 (1993): 15-6. .
Snow, David, Sarah A. Soule, and Hanspeter Kriesi. The Blackwell Companion to Social Movements. 2007
Woodsmall, Ruth F. The role of women in Lebanon ,Egypt, Iraq, Jordan and Syria. 1956.
Wright, Claudia. "Implications of the Iraq-Iran War." Foreign Affairs 59.2 (1980): 275-303. .

Cairo’s Metro: an observation of people’s behavior at rush hour

Cairo’s Metro: an observation of people’s behavior at rush hour
Spring 2009

First of all, metro service in Egypt is very popular among the lower and middle class as I noticed. People can be classified as lower or middle class from their appearance and behavior. What I mean by their appearance is that women wear unsuitable clothes for work time. For example one woman wears bright shirt with lots of accessories which might show that she does not differentiate between morning or work and night clothes. Also, one woman was selling some stuff like make up and socks by just one pound. As a result, many women bought from this woman because it is cheap and the price is suitable for them. Moreover, what might indicate that some riders are from the lower class is that they push people without even saying sorry. One lady tried to push me when I was standing as to find a place to stand. Also, one boy played with my bag and when I shouted on him, his mother told him, stop it as it is inappropriate. Another lady kept staring at me without any obvious reason.

When I first reached the station of Alzahraa, I booked a ticket to ride the metro and it is for just one pound and this can be another reason why people from lower class prefer riding the metro. The metro service is fast as I rode it at 2 pm and reached the Helmeyat al Zaitoon station at 2.30. The metro passed by different 12 stations. In every station, new people join and others left but some stations are more crowed than the others. For example, the Saddat and Mubarak stations are more crowded than the rest as they link stations with each other. The metro was very crowded as you can not breathe of stand properly. Furthermore, the metro service is accurate as every five minute people can catch the metro. The air in the metro was very limited as there are many people with no enough air. Light is good in the metro when the metro goes underground.

Although the metro is crowded, the place is clean as nobody through anything on the floor. In every metro station, there are separate carriages for women and the rest are mixed. I and my friends ride the separate carriage for women. One guy entered the women’s carriage by mistake so women shouted on and pushed him away and the door was closed on his legs. There was a foreign woman who was reading a book about Egypt and trying to sit in her seat as the carriage is very crowded.

Though there is a note saying that some seats are for old and disabled people, some old women were standing while young girls sit down. Also, one observation I got in the metro is in the rush hour there is always a bad smell. In addition, there are beggars in the metro who beg and try to get money from the people. Beggars and sellers are started pushing to get space to sell or beg. What I noticed before I get to the metro carriage is that there are some boys cross the railway from one side to another while this is illegal. A policeman started shouting on those boys but could not catch them.

What amazed me is that there are some people who read Quran with lowed voice that everybody can hear. Also, I noticed that one lady was a sleep and later she missed the station she wants to go to. Another lady who was a sleep was wakened up by some women to catch the next station. Cooperation is nice among people who ride the metro.

In conclusion, my friends warned me from the thefts in the metro as my friend told me many thefts wait for the new riders who seldom take the metro to steal them. I did not experience that but friends told me stories about stealing mobiles and wallets. In general, the experience of riding the metro might be a hard one but at the same time it is an enjoyable experience. It is a new experience for me as this is the first time I ride the metro in Egypt. The metro service is very good and fast but in my opinion; it needs some organization and regulations. Also, in the metro station, you might meet different people from different classes which are considered an important thing to be mixed with different kind of people.

New reproduction technologies and Sexuality

March 2010
New reproduction technology and Sexuality

A pregnant Man”, does this statement grab your attention? I wonder why? Is it just because it is something unusual or just because we are not used to such statement? This statement has been the headline of many newspapers, magazines and TV programs for a long time. Again, does this statement make you feel surprised, shocked or abnormal? I also wonder if people are going to change their views about sexuality because of this statement. All these questions could lead to the main topic of this essay which is to find out how could new reproduction technology change people’s perspectives about sexuality. There is an ongoing debate about sexuality and whether it is biologically or culturally constructed. In this essay, the biological and social debates are going to be discussed to examine how these social factors might change people’s view of sexuality.

The biological debate about sexuality is that the main purpose of sexuality is reproduction which humans share that with all species (Bancroft 2002, p.15). However, among humans, other than biological factors, social and cultural purposes have been developed gradually due to technology (Bancroft 2002, p.15). Cultural factors are different such as having sex for pleasure, having sex in the age when reproduction is not possible for women and of course new reproduction techniques such as IVF (Bancroft 2002, p.15). Most biologists ignore the fact that sexuality can also be for non reproductive purposes as mentioned above (Weeks 1986, p.20). Researches on sexuality topic have shown that biological factors are still the dominant and the most powerful even with the existence of these cultural and social factors (Bancroft 2002, p.15). This shows that there has been a controversial debate around the purposes of sexuality. Freud (1898) supported the idea of separating sex and reproduction as he viewed them as separate because of cultural, philosophical and religious factors (Benagiano, Carrara and Filippi 2010, p.97).

All these factors mentioned above have led people to think differently about sexuality. Technology has interfered everything in people’s lives even sexuality (Goren 2003, p. 488). Nowadays, the reproduction and sexuality concepts are almost independent and consequently many people have changed their idea about sexuality (Benagiano, Carrara and Filippi 2010, p.96). As a result, the main focus of this paper is that how people have changed their biological views about sexuality due to some cultural factors and technology (Benagiano, Carrara and Filippi 2010, p.97). The phenomenon of gay and lesbian relationships and then parenthood has led many people to reconsider what sexuality and reproduction is (Erwin 2007, p.100). Furthermore, new reproduction technology such as, IVF, contraception and deciding the sex of the baby are the main reasons for changing people’s viewpoints towards sexuality (Benagiano, Carrara and Filippi 2010, p.99). Each of these factors would be separately discussed to examine both sides of sexuality and reproduction debate.
First of all, a background of how people view sexuality in the past is very important to mention to compare between the viewpoints in the past and nowadays. In the past, the western societies such as the Christian culture believe that the main purpose of having sex is to reproduce (Weeks 1986, p.26). This shows that people before were only concerned about the biological side of sexuality and ignoring the other factors related to sexuality. However, nowadays, the link between sexuality and reproduction is no longer very relevant thanks to new technology (Benagiano, Carrara and Filippi 2010, p.98). A century ago, to have a baby without having sex was almost impossible (Benagiano, Carrara and Filippi 2010, p.98). For example, in the United Kingdom, a new sociological shift of understanding sexuality away from the biological basis has evolved in the 1960s and 1970s (Richardson 2007, p.460). New reproductive techniques such as Assisted Reproduction Technology (ART) and In Vitro Fertilization (IVF), have been introduced by doctors, scientists and professionals in the 20th and 21st century (Benagiano, Carrara and Filippi 2010, p.99). These new technological techniques have led people to think differently about the whole process of sexuality and reproduction. People have started to believe that sex is not only for procreation because of social changes. The first social change is that more women nowadays enter the workplace so they need to control their fertility by using the new technique, contraception (Abramson and Pinkerton 2002, p.158). The second social change is Gay and Lesbian movement which has led people to rethink about sexuality in general (Abramson and Pinkerton 2002, p.158).
Talking about historical background, religious facts should be mentioned to view how religions view new reproduction technologies. Almost all religions were against the notion of changing the viewpoint of sexuality because of the notion of reproduction is a gift from God which is not negotiable (Benagiano, Carrara and Filippi 2010, p.97). I think this is really relevant as some religious countries allow new technology such as IVF but limiting it to only the wife and husband (Schenker 2000, p. 72). However, all these facts were in the last decade while nowadays religions have changed this notion and promoting using reproduction technology to have babies. For example, Islam encourages medical treatment if procreation fails to produce babies (Schenker 2002 b, p. 409). This shows how some followers of a specific religion would be encouraged to seek medical help and use new reproduction technology as to satisfy their religious beliefs.
After listing some historical facts about sexuality and reproduction, I am going to discuss some examples of technological ways to enhance sexuality and also some social changes.

The first reproduction technology that has led people to change their views about sexuality is the introduction of In Vitro Fertilization, IVF technique (Benagiano, Carrara and Filippi 2010, p.99). The idea of IVF was introduced by Dr. Roberts Edwards, the IVF pioneer (Edwards: The IVF pioneer 24 July 2003). The notion of IVF was rejected in the beginning by most scientists and some even described it as condoning murder (Benagiano, Carrara and Filippi 2010, p.99). However, after the birth of Louise Brown, the first IVF baby in 1978 in Oldham, many have changed their notion about IVF (Infertility 'could be wiped out’ 25 July 2003). This shows that the idea is successful and people have started to have faith on it as Louise was the proof of this success. Edwards discovered that having a baby can be done without any sexual activity after putting sperm and eggs together under the microscope and eventually a new human life can be developed (Edwards: The IVF pioneer 24 July 2003). As a result, nowadays most men and women who have fertility problems can become parents because of the new technology IVF (Infertility 'could be wiped out’ 25 July 2003). This new and great discovery shows that having a baby can be separate from sexuality as many believe and as a challenge to nature. “It was amazing, and then I knew that the whole field was opening up before my eyes, Dr Edwards said. (Edwards: The IVF pioneer 24 July 2003).

Another aspect of IVF is that it has been like an industry for some (Rogers 2010, p.1). For example, a fertility clinic in London offers eggs of women to those who cannot have a baby naturally. The first British woman to receive egg donation is called Ceila, 38, businesswoman and her pregnancy is now normal but her request is not telling family and even the children in the future about this process (Rogers 2010, p.1). This simply shows how some people are still not comfortable with the idea of IVF. At the same time, the whole process of offering human eggs for sale shows that IVF has become tourism as described in The Sunday Times (Rogers 2010, p.2). Moreover, the winner of the egg prize would choose the donor according to race, background and education (Rogers 2010, p.1). This illustrates that people nowadays are using the idea of IVF as a way of gaining money (Rogers 2010, p.1).
On the other hand, some such as Feminists oppose the idea of IVF for some reasons (Steinberg 1997, p.34). One of these reasons is that IVF might be harmful for women’s health and social status (Steinberg 1997, p.34). To illustrate, for the social status, this might be true as society might view infertile women negatively (Steinberg 1997, p.34). Concerning health problems feminists argue that IVF might cause more fertility problems to women (Rogers 2010, p.2).

The second phenomenon which encourages people to change their viewpoint about sexuality with the new technology help is Gay and Lesbian parenthood. The increase number of gay and lesbian parents who have children has raised some questions about what family and sexuality really mean (Erwin 2007, p.100). The ideal image of any family is a man and a woman who have sex and then produce children as media portrays (Erwin 2007, p.100). However, as the number of gay and lesbian families has increased in the United States, people have started to rethink about the ideal image of the American Family (Erwin 2007, p.100). According to the 2000 US census Bureau report, 103,252 of lesbian couples raise children and this is almost 34% (Erwin 2007, p.101). This shows that the number of lesbian and gay couples who raise children is increasing. As a result, this affects how people think about the whole process of sexuality and family image in their mind. In addition, this also indicates that not only heterosexual couples can have babies by having sex but homosexual couples can have babies as well thanks to new reproductive technology (Erwin 2007, p.101).

On the other hand, Gay and Lesbian face some difficulties using IVF which is one of the most famous reproduction technologies nowadays (Steinberg 1997, p.34). First, some professionals and doctors just refuse to treat gay and lesbian couples for some reasons (Steinberg 1997, p.34). Moreover, some clinicians expressed in Warnock Report that they prefer doing IVF on heterosexual couples not lesbian or gay couples (Steinberg 1997, p.34). “I would personally have reservations about doing for Lesbians – I feel a child should much preferably have a father as well as a mother in their formative years and this also applies to divorced women”, one of the medical professionals said. This quote shows how some people, especially medical professionals, are still concerned about the use of IVF among Gay/Lesbian couples and how this might affect children in the future. In my opinion, I kind of agree with medical professionals about children’s future as the babies of Gay/lesbian families would grow up having either two fathers or two mothers which is really confusing. Also, I think those children would be viewed by society as weird or just different and this might have a negative impact on children. However, this might take years for people to normalize this phenomenon as people simply are not used to such thing (Steinberg 1997, p.34). For example, people just couldn’t accept the idea of marriage among homosexual couples a century ago but nowadays some countries allow homosexual marriage such as Canada (Erwin 2007, p. 100). Putting restrictions to who should receive IVF treatment and who should not is absolutely up to the medical professionals’ perspectives as what’s the appropriate family (Steinberg 1997, p.37). This is the reason why Gay and Lesbian couples might defend their human rights (Steinberg 1997, p.37). Additionally, this shows how clinicians are powerful as they could be selective to whom they might use IVF for (Steinberg 1997, p.37). Moreover, Legislative policies such as children act (1989) define the proper family is the heterosexual one while the government act (1988) described Lesbian and Gay families as pretended families (Steinberg 1997, p.37). In my opinion, this might be true as Gay/Lesbian families might be unhealthy environment for children. To sum up, although people have changed the way they think of sexuality, family and reproduction, people still struggle to fully accept homosexual families with children. Time would be the only solution for people to accept such new type of families.

The third social factor that has helped people to change their idea about sexuality is some women have sex in menopause period. Menopause period for women, 40 years and above, is the period when women cannot produce any eggs then cannot have babies (Benagiano, Carrara and Filippi 2010, p.99). Most people think that women during menopause are asexual persons (Benagiano, Carrara and Filippi 2010, p.99). This means that women do not have sex because they cannot get pregnant. However, recent studies have shown that women and men can be sexually active until the end of life (Benagiano, Carrara and Filippi 2010, p.99). This illustrates that having sex is not only for reproducing especially for women (Benagiano, Carrara and Filippi 2010, p.99). According to a study conducted on undergraduate students in various American and British universities, the results have shown that most students think pleasure is the main purpose of having sex (Pinkerton, Cecil, Bogart and Abramson 2003, p. 341).This shows that most people especially new generation believe the desire for having sex is for pleasure and not only for reproduction (Pinkerton, Cecil, Bogart and Abramson 2003, p.341). Again, this is another proof that people are reconsidering their perspectives about sexuality gradually (Benagiano, Carrara and Filippi 2010, p.99).

There are other factors which have affected people and then led to reconsider their thinking about sexuality. One of these factors is the new technology that can decide the sex of the baby (Schenker 2002 b, p. 401). An example of the new technology is infertility treatment called Ericsson’s liquid albumin method (Glass and Ericsson, p.381). Ericsson’s liquid albumin method allows any couple to have male babies (Glass and Ericsson, p.381). This shows that new technology not only helps any couple to get pregnant but select the sex of the baby as well. This also indicates that people are no longer dependent on nature to have a baby because of technology (Schenker 2002 b, p. 401).

All these factors mentioned above will lead me to talk about the case study of Thomas Beatie, the pregnant man. First of all, the most common fact among all societies worldwide is that women are the ones who get pregnant and give birth to babies (Maher 2008, p. 279). However, this fact has been changed in the Western Societies in the 1980s and 1990s due to new fertility technology (Maher 2008, p. 279). Moreover, this fact does not apply to Thomas Beatie , 34, who was born as a girl called Tracy and then transferred to a man in 2002 (ABC News 2008). Thomas met his wife, Nancy, before the transferring operation and then got married (Channel 4 report 2008). What is interesting about Thomas’s case is that he kept the female reproductive organs and that’s why he could get pregnant as his wife cannot have a baby because her womb was removed (Channel 4 report 2008). The whole debate about Thomas is that some people consider him a woman as he still has female organs while others consider him a miracle as he is a man and pregnant (Channel 4 report 2008). In my opinion, Thomas is in between as he has both male and female organs. Many doctors refused to treat Thomas to get pregnant and give birth (Channel 4 report 2008). This shows that doctors cannot believe the idea that a man is pregnant so they refused to treat Thomas. Eventually Thomas gave birth to a baby girl and naturally not by cesarean in 2008 (ABC News 2008). This shows that Thomas is fully female as his reproductive organs are still female. As a result, the whole debate about Thomas is that is Thomas a man or a woman? Also, are people really going to change their views about reproduction and its relation to women and men? Many questions cannot be answered as people are different in their points of view. When Thomas was asked about the reasons why people consider him a phenomenon, he said “people are just not used to see ‘a pregnant man’ and I just used my female organs to become a father” (ABC News 2008). This proves the idea that Thomas’s case is just abnormal and unusual. “We are a woman, a man and a child and it is ironic that we are so different but yet, we are just a family just the same as anyone else”, Thomas said (ABC News 2008). This quote concludes Thomas case as he expresses his situation as normal while others just cannot accept the fact that a man can give birth!

In addition to Thomas Beatie case, Mr. Lee Mingwei is a Taiwanese American artist who got pregnant as well thanks to new medical technology (Associated Press 2001). "With the success of delivering ectopic pregnancies in women, it has become clear that a uterus is not essential to childbirth. We have proven that within the proper biochemical environment, an embryo can indeed implant itself within a male abdominal cavity and thrive’, Dr. Elizabeth Preatner said, a prenatal geneticist and embryologist at RYT Hospital (Associated Press 2001). This shows that men can get pregnant and Mr. Lee is an example of that. Many people are seeking such treatment for men to get pregnant around the world such as India which one Indian woman asked experts in RYT Hospital to treat her husband who really wants to carry their second child (Associated Press 2001). One of the questions raised in this case is whether this is the first stage of gender equality as mentioned in the article or it’s just a revolution that leads all people to rethink about their perspectives about reproduction (Associated Press 2001).

In conclusion, sex and reproduction and technology are related and cannot be separate (Weeks 1986, p.25). “Sexuality is not given, it is a product of negotiation, struggle and human agency”, Weeks said (Weeks 1986, p.26). This quote is really a good conclusion to this topic as sexuality cannot be separate from all other factors but they interrelate and create. Societies worldwide are changing due to new medical discoveries. Technology has a big impact on people’s lives nowadays as it makes people’s lives easier. Obviously new reproduction technology has started to change people’s thoughts about sexuality by making almost everything possible and accessible in that field. . More questions need to be asked such as is the new technology going to change everybody’s opinion or people would stick to some cultural, social and religious perspectives?




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Steinberg, D.L. (1997), "A MOST SELECTIVE PRACTICE The Eugenic Logics of IVF", Women's Studies International Forum, vol. 20, no. 1, pp. 33-48.

Media and women's body image

December 2009

“How media shapes womens’s body image and its effects on women and society in general”,

The topic of media and it’s representation of women’s body image is controversial. There are many assumptions about women’s body image which media portray through various programs and ads. One of those assumptions is that women are more viewed through their physical appearance as beautiful objects than men (Unger, and Crawford, 127). As a result, women’s bodies are the target of sexual desires especially for men (Butcher, Coward, Evaristi, Garber, and Harrison, 27). Also, several researches have shown that women are more likely to care for losing weight and the fear of being “fat” (Kitzinger and Wilkinson 33).The rate of dissatisfaction of body image among women is high especially in the developed countries (Swami, Steadman, and Tove´e, 609). The dissatisfaction is high among specific groups such as high class, non-feminist women comparing to the ones who believe in feminist movement (Swami, Steadman, and Tove´e 609). A Psychology Today survey has shown that 56% of women are dissatisfied with their body image (Swami, Steadman, and Tove´e, 609). Also, women are more likely to be judged according to their physical appearance than men (Unger, and Crawford, 127).

Many researchers have reached the notion that the main cause of such assumptions about women’s body image is due to media representation (Wilkinson, and Kitzinger, 33). It is true that there are other reasons for such assumptions but many argue that media representation is the main cause. This paper concentrates on showing how media represents women’s body and its effects on women and girls. Moreover, I will try to illustrate the other factors that might shape women’s body image in addition to media. Finally, the concentration will be on the study case of Dove campaign that shows the other side of media and its representation and to shape another image of women’s bodies; others argue that this campaign is to make profits more than changing women’s body image.

One of the questions that would be dealt with is how could media shape women’s body image and by which ways? Another question is does media have negative or positive effects on women’s body image? All these questions and issues would be addressed trying to reach a conclusion about the topic of media representation and women’s body image.

First of all, Walter Lippman, a famous journalist in 1992, defines stereotype as individuals are classified by others due to common and shared things (Unger, and Crawford, 107). According to this definition, people might categorize all women as being slim and beautiful because media promotes such image. However, women are different and can not be typical (Unger, and Crawford, 113). This is another assumption and whether to be refuted or proved. This might be clear in the next paragraphs.

Advertisements on TV, radio and newspapers represent women as sexual objects (Butcher, Coward, Evaristi, Garber, and Harrison, 26). Ads use women’s bodies as attractiveness to men. Such ads show women’s bodies as skinny bodies which attracts men. Consequently, women and girls might be affected by such ads and would like to be attractive in men’s eyes (Butcher, Coward, Evaristi, Garber, and Harrison, 26). The images on ads about women’s body represent unrealistic image and do not reflect the real women as mothers, wives and sisters (Butcher, Coward, Evaristi, Garber, and Harrison, 27). Media has started to reflect the unrealistic image of women’s body on children’s programs, story books, movies and magazines (Unger, and Crawford, 113). In my opinion, this shows that media’s target has started with children to promote the stereotypical image of women’s body as children are easily affected.
Moreover, talking about news, women are more likely to be viewed or be mentioned by their physical appearance and their clothes than their abilities (Unger, and Crawford, 115). A study conducted on 221 characters from the most famous TV programs to examine their weight and age; the results were that 69.1% of women working in these programs are thin comparing to only 17.5% of men; also, only 5% of women were recorded as heavy comparing to 25.5% of men (Unger, and Crawford, 116). I think this shows that women are required to be thin to work on TV as it is favorable to hire thin women (Unger, and Crawford, 116). As this study has shown, men do not necessary have to be thin to work on TV but women should as TV producers are interested more in women’s physical appearance than their qualifications (Unger, and Crawford, 116). In addition, fat women are viewed as having unpleasant characteristics and then might be discriminated in the market labor (Kitzinger and Wilkinson 33). I think, this causes problems for women occupying several jobs even if they have the qualifications (Unger, and Crawford, 116). This is also an indication that women suffer from such perceptions and assumptions and always under pressure of such beliefs. Some researches have argued that people who watch many stereotyped programs tend to think more stereotypically about women’s body image (Unger, and Crawford, 117). However, in my opinion, nowadays almost everyone watch TV programs and ads which are full of stereotyped images and some might be affected and others not. Therefore, it is not just about watching stereotyped programs. This illustrates that TV has a big influence on people whether men or women.
Theoretically, the first theory is called “objectification theory” which is mainly about women caring about the external view of body rather than the inside view (Daniels ). Accordingly, this leads women to treat their bodies as objects to satisfy the society (Daniels ). Secondly, the symbolic annihilation is used by Gaye Tuchmna in 1978 to describe how media targets women (Unger, and Crawford, 120). Again, it means to represent women’s body image as beautiful objects rather than useful which is in favor of patriarchal societies (Daniels).

This last and previous point about male dominated culture leads to the effects of other factors on shaping the stereotyped view of women’s bodies. In addition to media, social and cultural factors have a role in shaping those images such as businessmen (Butcher, Coward, Evaristi, Garber, and Harrison, 27). For example, the focus of slimming industries, dominated by men, on women and diet by promoting slimming products for personal benefits shows how women are the target of businessmen to make profits. As a result, women would be under focus and stress to be like what images industries draw (Kitzinger and Wilkinson, 33). Again, such industries cooperate with media to promote such products and so the correlation between business world and media is very strong.

Another social and cultural factor that puts pressure on women is health experts. Doctors are more likely to treat and advise fat women than men (Kitzinger and Wilkinson,33). This point might prove the notion that men are less likely to ask for medical advice (Annandale, and Hunt, 25). One reason for that is that men are less caring for their appearance and secondly men rarely seek medical consultation as not to be viewed as “weak” (Annandale, and Hunt, 25). As a result, men might get more diseases than women and live shorter than women (Nettleton, and Watson).
It is always the case that being fat according to women is a negative way but for men sometimes it’s something positive. To illustrate more, some societies consider fatness among men is a sign of wealth (Annandale, and Hunt). Consequently, women are more likely to care for being fat or not as many societies expect women to meet the standards of beauty in their point of view (Kitzinger and Wilkinson, 33). During pregnancy period, women are expected to gain weight so this is the only time that fat women would not be viewed negatively by people and society (Kitzinger and Wilkinson, 34). In addition, pregnant women view themselves less negatively (Kitzinger and Wilkinson, 34). However, during pregnancy doctors advise women not to gain lots of weight because of health risks on the mother and baby’s health (Kitzinger and Wilkinson, 34). I think this is good as such diet during pregnancy is beneficial for the health of women. There is nothing wrong with following a healthy diet and keep fit but not just to be slim and unhealthy as some girls do in order to be like the models on TV (Annandale, and Hunt).

This might lead to the point that some fat women face difficulties because of the body image. ‘I do not dress the way I want to any more because of my weight”, one woman expressed in the book of women and health (Kitzinger and Wilkinson, 38). This quote shows that some fat women are not satisfied with their body size and do not dress and not dressing like women on TV (Kitzinger and Wilkinson, 38). This quote has raised the issue of fashion and fat women. Most fashionable clothes are not available on large sizes (Kitzinger and Wilkinson, 39). This might encourage women to lose weight to be fashionable. However, this also indicates that fashion designers concentrate on thin women ignoring fat women and their needs (Kitzinger and Wilkinson, 39). Large sizes are not always available locally only in specific shops such as Ann Harvey ("Ann Harvey London"). Ann Harvey branches are limited and available in big cities like London, Cardif, Cambridge and Brighton ("Ann Harvey London"). Sizes available in this shop are ranged from 16 till 32 ("Ann Harvey London"). However, prices are expensive even on sale ("Ann Harvey London"). This is another problem for women as it is not easily accessible and expensive ("Ann Harvey London").

On the other hand, some argue that media is trying to deliver the true women’s body image. One example of this argument is Dove campaign (“Dove campaign for real beauty”). In 2004, a campaign for real beauty was launched by Dove Company to show real beauty of women (“Dove campaign for real beauty”). Dove used billboards, TV ads and magazines to advertise for such campaign (Johnston, and LastTaylor).This campaign was conducted on real women who are from different ages, races and sizes (Johnston, and LastTaylor). In fact, this campaign was successful as it attracted media attention, gender experts, professionals, media celebrities such as Oprah Winfrey (Johnston, and LastTaylor). Also, Dove achieved commercial success by selling many of lotion products (Johnston, and LastTaylor). As a result, Dove campaign which was entitled as “Fat or Fabulous” achieved some of personal benefits (Johnston, and LastTaylor). However, some experts criticize Dove campaign as the main goal of such campaign is just to gain money and make profits (Johnston, and LastTaylor). Such assumption might be true as Dove experts are interested in making profits. However, I think it is not wrong to raise the point of stereotype against women’s body image via such campaign. I think, the notion of “lets make peace with our bodies” Dove has raised is a brilliant idea as it encourages women to love their bodies as they are ; also to refute what media is trying to convince the public about women’s ideal body image (Johnston, and LastTaylor). Actually, this really promotes women and girls to believe in this idea as Dove pronounced that 138,000 girls aged from 8 to 14 created their own projects such as “Uniquely Me” and “Body Talk” (Johnston, and LastTaylor). The dove campaign illustrates that the media image of women’s bodies is unrealistic and fake ("Dove's Campaign for Real Beauty").

In conclusion, 68% of women believe that media and advertising create unrealistic women’s body image which normal women can not achieve ("Dove's Campaign for Real Beauty"). This proves the idea that media has a big role in shaping what women’s bodies should look like. Additionally, 75% of women wish that media portray the real women’s body image and concentrate on other ages not just the young age ("Dove's Campaign for Real Beauty"). In reality, we can not deny the role of socio-cultural factors in shaping this body image. However, media is the main reason for that image and affects various cultures and societies. To conclude, Women’s body image is influenced by media, men, beauty industries and fashion (Kitzinger and Wilkinson).



.


Bibliography
Annandale, Ellen, and Kate Hunt. Gender inequalities in health: research at the crossroads. 2000
"Ann Harvey Women are a Fablous Size 16 to 32." Ann Harvey London. Web. 6 Dec 2009. .
Butcher, Helen, Ros Coward, Marcella Evaristi, Jenny Garber, and Rachel Harrison. Images of Women in the Media. 1999.
"Dove's Campaign for Real Beauty." Media Awareness Network. Web. 6 Dec 2009. .
Johnston, Josée, and Judith LastTaylor. "Feminist Consumerism and Fat Activists: A Comparative Study of Grassroots Activism and the Dove Real Beauty Campaign." Journal of Women in Culture and Society (2008): n. pag. Web. 7 Dec 2009. .
Nettleton, S, and J Watson. The Body in Everyday Life. 1998
Daniels, Elizabeth. "How Media Representations of Women Athletes Can Impact Adolescent Girls and College Women." Journal of Adolescent. (2009)
Swami, Viren, Laura Steadman, and Martin Tove´e. "A comparison of body size ideals, body dissatisfaction, and media influence." Psychology of Sport and Exercise. (2009).
Unger, Rhoda, and Mary Crawford. Women and Gender A Feminist Psychology. 1992.
Wilkinson, Sue, and Celia Kitzinger. Women and Health Feminist Perspectives. 1994.

Israeli war on Gaza in 2008 and media coverage

November 2009

Israeli war on Gaza in 2008 and media coverage

The Israeli and Palestinian conflict has been the focus of media, politicians and many people around the world for a long time .The recent event that drags the attention of the whole world is the Israeli war on Gaza in 2008 (Zuhur 2009, p.41). The war has started in December 2008 when everyone worldwide was celebrating the 2009 New Year (Dumont 2009, p.610). This war is considered the most bloody and severe war since 1967 (Zuhur 2009, p.41). Gaza’s population is approximately 1.5 million Palestinians which show how small Gaza is (Zuhur 2009, p.51). This essay focuses on the various media coverage of the 2008 Israeli war on Gaza and how the cultural factors might shape the news.

First of all, Journalists have faced many difficulties covering the war on Gaza (Bauer 2009, p.5). In fact, Israel did not give journalists the permission to cover the war on Gaza except for specific news agencies such as Al-Jazeera and some others (Bauer 2009, p.5). Israel did that to hide the human crisis that Palestinians suffered from (Bauer 2009, p.5). I agree with this as Israel would be controlled by media if it lets media cover the war freely as media has a great influence on audience. This has a consequence on Americans who have limited access to world news channels (Bauer 2009, p.5). As a result, Americans would not be able to be aware of the situation in Gaza (Bauer 2009, p.5). The unbiased media coverage of war on Gaza was not possible as journalists were not allowed to cover all news in Gaza (Zuhur 2009, p.41). Consequently, these limited media sources might hide the whole truth and be biased to one side of the conflict according to the ideologies and cultural determinism (Dunsky 2009, p.10). To understand more about the media coverage of Gaza war in 2008, a close analysis of Western and Arab media coverage and the points of view of each would be discussed to examine the reliability of both media coverage.

The Western media coverage is a very important element that should be discussed to discover its reliability and bias. Marda Dunsky, (2009, p.10) expresses in her article ,The Rest of the story, how Hamas is the only side that should be blamed for the war in Gaza .The White house spokesman, Gordon Johndroe, in the second day of the war has officially blamed Hamas for leading Israel to attack Gaza (Dunsky 2009, p.10). “The rocket attacks are completely unacceptable and Israel is going to defend its people against terrorists like Hamas “, Johndroe added (Dunsky 2009, p.10). In my opinion, this obviously shows that the Western media point of view is in favor of Israel and its decision of going to war against Hamas. Various Western newspapers such as, The Los Angles Times, New York Times and Washington Post, wrote about the right of Israel to attack Gaza and defend its people and stop Hamas’s rockets (Dunsky 2009, p.10). CNN coverage of the war on Gaza has somehow indicated that its biased and controlled by its cultural aspects as in the second week of the war , the CNN correspondent Ben Wedeman, reported that’s Israel withdrew from Gaza in 2005 (Dunsky 2009, p.10). This might illustrate that the American media coverage is trying to justify what Israel is doing in Gaza. To illustrate, the report has pointed out that Hamas has no any excuse to attack Israel as the withdrawal of Israeli troops from Gaza was done in 2005 (Dershwitz 2009, p.2). In addition, western media has criticized Hamas of refusing building shelters to protect its civilians (Dershwitz 2009, p.2). As a result, Israel has to defend its people and kill Palestinians so it is a self-defense war (Dershwitz 2009, p.2). I think this clearly shows the ideology of western media to prompt the image that Israel was in a self-defense position. This also indicates that it is Hamas which forced Israel to launch the war on Gaza and kill Palestinians (Dershwitz 2009, p.2). In reality, the makeshift projects and rockets that Hamas used against Israeli towns are rarely caused threaten to people’s lives (Dunsky 2009, p.11). However, the western media is always trying to show that Israeli people are always under threat and risk and can not live peacefully (Dunsky 2009, p.11). As a result, this has led people to believe just one side of the story without referring to the other side and this is enforced by media (Dunsky 2009, p.11).

The previous point might prove the argument that is discussed in the article “Why does it happen” about the notion of lack of Palestinian public relation (Philo and Berry 2004, p.246). The Palestinian public relation is not that active and uneasily accessible and this hide the whole truth (Philo and Berry 2004, p.246). On the other hand, the Israeli public relation is active and can be easily reached by journalists (Philo and Berry 2004, p.246). As a result, the flow of information might come from one side, Israel, while the Palestinian side is difficult to reach (Philo and Berry 2004, p.246). Indeed, this is a huge problem for the Palestinian position as their opinion is hardly expressed especially in the western media. For example, the UN spokesman once expressed to the CNN correspondent about the Israeli sanction on Gaza which lasted for a year and half which Gaza people suffer from (Dunsky 2009, p.10). As a result, people do not know about this sanction as there is no good Palestinian public relation with media to express this (Philo and Berry 2004, p.246). In fact, even if the western media, CNN, has an access to such information, it has been ignored so as not to blame Israel (Dunsky 2009, p.11). In addition, talking about the tunnels that the Palestinian officials said that it is used by Palestinians to survive while Israeli army argue that these tunnels are used to transfer weapons (Dunsky 2009, p.10). In this point, which side should people believe?

The second topic about the Western media coverage is the using of words that show how much the western media is in favor of Israel. One of these words that are commonly used to describe Hamas is “terrorist organization” (Dunsky 2009, p.10). For example, ABC news used it to show that Israel attacked Gaza to defend Israeli people from this ‘terrorist’ group (Dunsky 2009, p.10). Wording can be effective and especially when leaving a negative effect on audience about Palestinians. This leads to another point about the image that the Western people create in their minds about the Arabs (Dunsky 2009, p.10). Because of media, the world nowadays is viewing the Arabs and Muslims as terrorists especially after 9/11 in the US (Zuhur 2009, p.40). Additionally, some journalists might write that Hamas is hiding behind its own Palestinians when killing civilian Israelis (Dershwitz 2009, p.2). This statement shows that Hamas is using its people especially children to fight Israel and they are heartless (Dershwitz 2009, p.2). Accordingly, Israel has to fight back and kill some innocent Palestinians as Hamas forced them to do that. As a result, the media coverage on Gaza war of western media has been biased (Zuhur 2009, p.40).

The Western media has always criticized the relationship between Hamas and media. The Financial post (Canada), for example, criticizes the way Hamas used the Arab media by providing ready cameras to broadcast the images of dead Palestinian children to affect the audiences emotionally (Dershwitz 2009, p.2). Actually, I think this might show that Hamas useed the media effectively to affect the public opinion.

On the other hand, some Israelis criticize the media in general as being biased against Israel this time. Israelis argue that the bias in media is rooted from the Anti-Semitism theory which based that the world is against the Jews (Philo and Berry 2004, p.249). For example, many Arab and Muslim groups kill each other in Iraq when a woman blew herself in a mosque and killed 40 people, no media coverage of that (Dershwitz 2009, p.2). This supports the theory of anti-Semitism as media pays more attention to what Israel is doing than others. Moreover, killing just 100 by Israel in a war of self-defense is much less than the numbers killed by Arabs and Muslims for no reason (Dershwitz 2009, p.2). This statement shows extreme bias against Palestinians and Muslims explaining that the killing of Arabs of Israelis is not reasonable while killing the Palestinians by Israelis is acceptable. The world seems not to care when Arabs and Muslims kill each other but cares when Israelis kill some Palestinians as self defense (Dershwitz 2009, p.2). To illustrate,, the writer has provided the readers with an example of Hamas killing two Palestinians girls by mistake when targeting Israeli civilians with no media attention (Dershwitz 2009, p.2). Furthermore, some argue that the protesters in London, San Francesco and Paris were not covered by media when Israeli children were killed by Palestinian terrorists (Dershwitz 2009, p.2). This is another example which shows how Israelis feel they are treated unfairly by media. Also, some Israelis blame media for the exaggeration of the number of people killed by Israel in Palestine ignoring the fact that Hamas use women and children as fighters and then Israel has to fight such fighters (Dershwitz 2009, p.2). This indicates again that Israelis feel they are not in position to be blamed for killing innocent people but in a self defense position. To sum up this point, this is a quote from the writer of the article in Financial Post, ‘ every human shield that is killed by Israeli self-defense measures is the responsibility of Hamas, but you would not know that from watching media coverage’ (Dershwitz 2009, p.2).

The Arab media coverage should be addressed to compare with the western media coverage. Al-Jazeera channel was the significant Arab media coverage with 53% of Arab audience and nearly 40 million viewers around the world (Dunsky 2009, p.11). Al-Jazeera has many correspondences in Jerusalem, Gaza and other Arab capitals to cover the various points of view (Dunsky 2009, p.11). Al-Jazeera has been successful in covering the Arab points of view by interviewing Arab experts and Israeli experts to express the others point of view as well (Dunsky 2009, p.11). Only Al-Jazeera’s viewers were able to see the live images of dead children and how Gaza is being destroyed by Israeli forces (Dunsky 2009, p.11). Al-Jazeera was the channel that Arabs know part of the truth as some other Arab channels hid the truth as they follow the governments will (Dunsky 2009, p.11). Al-Jazeera kept itself away from calling Israel the enemy or occupation and interviewed Israeli figures such as Livini Benjamin and Shimon Peres as representatives of Israeli army (Dunsky 2009, p.10). I think this is good as to show the point of view of both sides and not just take one stand of the conflict. Some Arab journalists claim that the goal of Israel is to stop Hamas rockets but many think its nonsense and the real goal is to destroy Hamas (Zuhur 2009, p.41). ‘Opening fire on five people daring to venture out to the market in Gaza city does not make the market a Hamas missile launcher’, Zuhur said. This quote shows that Israel is fighting just to end Hamas as it’s a threat for their Jewish state (Zuhur 2009, p.41). Also, the aim of war is to destroy Hamas as it is a threat to the whole region not just Israel (A bloody new year in Gaza, 2009).

In conclusion,’ news is sometimes described as a constructed reality that is a product of the interests of those who report it and those who consume it’, Dunsky said. This is a good quote to conclude this whole issue as it shows that news is shaped by the interests of people who control the media. An important question that should be asked is did Israel end Hamas in this war? ( Zuhur 2009, p.51). Were the strategies of Western and Arab media successful in this war? (A war of words and images 2009). Also, can Hamas target the West and that’s why Israel had to fight it? (Levitt 2007, p.926). All these questions are hard to answer as for the various media ideologies. The media is supposed to be neutral and unbiased in spite of the organization or country it belongs to (Philo and Berry 2004, p.248). However, many newspapers take a stand and support one part of the conflict which contradicts what journalists should do.




































Bibliography
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