Arab Society
Evil, sinful, lover of Satan and weak are
just a few adjectives to describe
women through history. Nevertheless, women
were not always portrayed as so.
Women once held a strong and dominated
figure within the society. In the ancient
Egyptian society, women were
equal to men in status and prestige. Within the
XVIIIth Dynasty, women
such as Nephertiti and Hatchipsoot reign the country.
"In that period,
Pharaonic women laboured in textile and carpet manufactory,
traded in markets
and shared in hunting side by side with her husband (El
Saadawi. 1980, P.
108-1)." Furthermore, women played sports, drank, held
positions of
government, worked, etc. However, as time past and countries began
to
flourish, there was a shift in the socio-economic status in women.
Women
began reducing in standing. What happened? Nawal El Saadawi, author of
The
Hidden Face of Eve, strongly believes that circumcision is the cause
of
women’s oppression and feeling of powerlessness. However, many within
the
society believe that conditioned oppression is supported due to
religion,
landowership and the patriarchal system and they are utilized as in
instrument
of fear, oppression and exploitation. Circumcision is still
practiced in many
Arab countries because a woman’s virginity and hymen is
extremely important.
"Behind circumcision lies the belief that, by
removing parts of girls’
external genital organs, sexual desire is minimized
(El Saadawi. 1980, p.
33)." This procedure is not performed by a doctor
but someone similar to a
midwife. It is believe that deep incisions must be
done in order to remove all
the remains of the genital. Consequently, this
may result in infection and even
death. Furthermore, "sexual frigidity is one
of the after-effects which is
accentuated by other social and psychological
factors that influence the
personality and mental make-up of females in Arab
societies (El Saadawi. 1980,
p. 33)." Due to Circumcision, girls are
subjected to a series of pain
humiliation because of the notion of how
virginity is valued. Many girls
believed that the genital was a root of all
evil. El Saadawi had many patients,
bleeding from infection but happy to get
rid of the source of their desire. For
example: "I did not know anything
about the operation at the time, except that
it was very simple, and that it
was done to all girls for purposes of
cleanliness and purity and the
preservation of a good reputation. It was said
that a girl who did not
undergo this operation was liable to be talked about by
people, her behavior
would become bad, and she would starting running after men,
with the result
that no one would agree to marry her when the time for marriage
came. My
grandmother told me that the operation had only consisted in the
removal of a
very small piece of flesh from between my thighs, and that the
continued
existence of this small piece of flesh in its place would have made
me
unclean and impure, and would have caused the man whom I would marry to
be
repelled by me." "Did you believe what was said to you?" "Of course
I
did. I was happy the day I recovered from the effects of the operation and
felt
as though I was rid of something which had to be removed and so had
become clean
and pure (El Saadawi. 1980, p. 35)." El Saadawi knew from
experience what many
of these girls are going through because she went
through the same experience.
She could never forget the painful
experience that made her lose her"childhood once and for all, and that deprived
me during my youth and for many
years of married life from enjoying the
fullness of me sexuality and the
completeness of life that can only come from
all round psychological equilibrium
(El Saadawi. 1980, p. 9)." Nawal El
Saadawi believes that religion is used as
an instrument in order to justify
why the girls in the Arab societies are forced
to go through circumcision.
Once religion was formulated as a monotheistic one,
the three main religions
of the world developed Judaism, Christianity and Islam.
The world begins
with ‘Adam and Eve’ and this story is shared within all
three religions. The
story of Adam and Eve is the first sign that women are
portrayed as less than
a man. The Bible takes away a factor that was associated
with women, birth.
However, "Eve was born of Adam’s rib (El Saadawi. 1980,
P. 102)." In the
Judaism religion, arose the notion that "women was sinful
and that sex was
sin (El Saadawi. 1980, p. 95). According to El Saadawi (1980)
this story
"shows clearly the injustice suffered by women, and the attempt to
mask her
situation by religious sanctification aimed at smothering all doubt,
all
discussion and all resistance (p. 102)." In other words, within this
male
dominated society, women are being circumcised not because it is being
enforced
by men, but the Bible dictates it to be so. That is what they like
everyone to
believe, however, who wrote the Bible? Men! As El Saadawi points
out (1980), God
exalts man in His Bible as one of high intelligence and on if
thought, where as
a woman is just a body without a head (p. 103). Fir
example, in Christianity
"God had created man in his own image, and God
was spirit. Woman on the hand
was the body, and the body was sex (El Saadawi.
1980, p. 95)" In other words,
men is the depiction of God, where as women are
just a deviation of men. Women
are born without an essential factor, a head
and therefore, she is not complete
because a head is the center of thought,
which distinguishes humans from animal.
It is based on this fact that it
is believed that women should be circumcised.
Since a woman is of the
flesh, she must be rid of anything that will give her
sexual pleasure. With
the Sudan culture, girls are forced to undergo an
amputation of her whole
external organs. This includes cutting off her"clitoris, the two outer lips and
the two minor inner lips. The wound is
repaired. The outer opening of the
vagina is the only portion left intact, not
however without ensured that,
during the process of repairing, some narrowing of
the opening is carried out
with a few extra stitches (El Saadawi. 1980, p.
9)." El Saadawi believes
(1980) that religion is used as a shackle upon the
mind of patriarchal
society in order to oppress, dictate, dominate and
domesticate women (p. 98).
Religion has led people to believe that women are the
roots of all evil. They
are filled with lustful behaviors and they are filled
with evil and Satan. In
a way, women are seen as disciples of Satan. It is a
ma’s job to control
them. The male dominated society reinforces the idea that
women must be pure,
chaste and virginal in order to be worthy of a man. These
puritanical values
are utilized "to build on oppression and are still part of
the arsenal of
heavy weapons which maintains a continuous barrage in the war
against
revolutionary struggles of women, colored races and the exploited
classes
living under the semi-feudal or imperialism and neo-colonialism
(El
Saadawi. 1980, p. 98)." The monotheistic religion, in enunciating
the
principles relating to the role and position of women in life, as we have
seen,
drew inspiration and guidance from the value of the patriarchal and
class
societies prevalent at the time. Nawal El Saadawi focuses on the
patriarchal
system as a major condition for the oppression of women. The
shift between man
and woman began when men realized the importance of
landowership. Man recognized
the association between land and having wealth
and power. Landownership places
them in a higher social, economic and
political arena. In acquiring land, man
must have someone to cultivate it
since it demeans their status within the
society to do. The oppression of a
slave and women became apparent. "Wives
were a source of wealth since they
shouldered many heavy tasks in birth field
and home without expecting any
payment in return apart from their keep. Their
lot was that of unpaid
labourers no better off than slaves (El Saadawi. 1980, p.
111)." As much
as we want to fault religion for such dehumanizing acts, this
is not the
case. Yes, religion does devalue women, but it does not state that
women
should not have any pleasure nor should she be circumcised. These are
organs
and flash that God has created in women. In a sense, "religion is most
often
used as an instrument in the hands of economic and political forces, as
an
institution utilized by those who rule to keep down those who are ruled
(El
Saadawi. 1980, p. 4)." Women were seen no better than cattle as they
brought
and sold as such. Fathers sold their daughters to the highest bidder.
In a way,
women don’t really care who they are sold off too, sexually they
feel nothing.
Once these females were sold into marriage, the husband had
full control over
them. How were women to object to such oppression within a
male dominated
society? It is quite evident that they could not fight back.
The idea that they
are the weak, useless, sinful and most incomplete gender
has been a constant
reminder to them that they live in a dictatorship of men.
From the time that
they are young girls, the fact that sex is sinful is
drummed into them. "The
child therefore is trained to suppress her own
desires to empty herself of
authentic, original wants and wishes linked to
her own self, and to fill the
vacuum that results with the desires of others
(El Saadawi. 1980, p. 13)."
Furthermore, before she reaches the stage of
becoming a woman, she is succumbed
with the fact that she will go through the
process of circumcision. "A girl
who has lost her personality, her capacity
to think independently, and to use
her own mind, will do what others have
told her and will become a toy in their
hands and a victim of their
decisions. Religion, therefore, is interwoven with
the patriarchal system and
landownership. It provided laws and regulation solely
upon women that was
reinforced by man. Women were obligated to be chaste,
virginal, obedient and
faithful to their husband. "The development of private
property which
reinforces the ‘ passions of acquisitiveness and ownership’
and the
development of the patriarchal society, the husband began to demand
complete
fidelity of his wife (El Saadawi. 1980, p. 117)." This is a long age
double
standard throughout history. Males coerce these rules upon women, yet
they do
not have to abide by the same rules. They are set free of these
puritan
standards because they are the authoritative figure within society
and they are"enslave the sexual code of chastity and sexual rectitude for the
females (El
Saadawi. 1980, p. 111)." Those women who are believed to be
guilty of breaking
these codes could be subjected to numerous consequences,
such as death and
torture. The immediate consequence of circumcision causes
the oppression of
women that get a sense of powerlessness. They have no power
to governor their
own lives. They must live under the direct rule the male
dominated society. They
have no sense of who they are and what they can
accomplish because they are
brainwashed by the religious and patriarchal
figures. They see themselves as the
weaker sex filled with great evil, and
evil that will always be imbedded within
her. She is also seen as incomplete
and lacking without her male counterpart.
This leaves a long and grave
affected on the morale, mental, physical, emotional
as well as the
spiritually factors of a woman. She is forever seen as an object,
a thing no
better than an animal. In turn, these ideas are handed down
throughout
generations, to every female born. It is a never-ending cycle
that
dehumanizes women into believing that God made them sinful and
incomplete.
Furthermore, it is made to believe that with the divinity of
God, for males who
are made in His image, to have total control over them,
for their well being. In
many ways, women (mothers and wives) are exploited.
They are to carry numerous
vital functions, such as to clean, wash, cook,
give birth (preferable to male
children), nurse, teach and satisfy their
husbands’ sexually appetites for
which she is not paid. "She is therefore the
lowest paid labourer in existence
and therefore man pays her the lowest wage
known for any category of human being
of burden (El Saadawi. 1980, p. 143)."
The long-term effect of this oppression
is a sense of powerlessness. Women go
on to believe that there is no difference
between themselves and cattle. They
have neither say in the political, social,
economic nor the religious
spectrum of society. Women are not given the choice
to feel anything
sexually. Many of them are fighting for emancipation, which is
a right that
women established in the United States in the early 1900s.
Furthermore,
women are trying to break away from tradition; however, they are
finding it
extremely difficult. How can they succeed, when their society
strongly
dominated by religion, tradition, and customs and managed by a
male
dictatorial environment? Men still have the belief that such as break
from
tradition would only lead to women losing their chastity and honor.
According to
El Saadawi (1980), as a result of this confined view of
women, women only
construed 9% of the labor force in 1976 (p. 185). Overall,
"the oppression of
women in any society is in its turn an expression of an
economic structure built
on landownership, systems of inheritance and
parenthood, and the patriarchal
family as an in built social unit (El
Saadawi. 1980, p. 4)." Times are
changing and we are in a new millennium.
Many would assume that equality within
the sexes and races would exist
already. However, that is not the case. There is
such a great amount of
tradition and customs that is quite difficult to break
away from. We need
more people I m the world that are willing to take a stand
for what they
believe in such as Rosa Parks, Martin Luther King, Ghandi, Mother
Teresa,
etc.
Bibliography
El Saadawi, Nawal. (1980). The Hidden Face Of
Eve; Women in the Arab World.
New York; St Martin Press, Inc