Wow!
Just got back from my lecture on Women's Rights at the University of Bahrain and it was a major success. My first professional experience as a feminist lecturer in a university - it was like a dream come true!
The college is HUGE and lush and covered in grass and trees, absolutely beautiful.
Even though the lecture was offered during the students two hour break for lunch the turn out was really good, about 30 students, mostly Saudi and Bahraini, 7 or 8 of them were young men and a few Americans, including one Fulbright scholar.
I was a bit nervous to give my lecture because I would be discussing what is a VERY controversial topic in the Middle East: women's rights. Last year a teacher at another Bahraini university was fired and nearly sent to prison for displaying a picture of Prophet Mohammed and here I was about to discuss some very provocative issues. I debated whether or not I should refrain from my more harsher critiques of Saudi Arabia and Bahrain in particular but I decided that I had to be true to myself and display the facts truthfully and academically.
So, after Dr Hillis and Dr Cavell (the two American professors in charge of the American Studies Centre) introduced me, I began my lecture.
I divided my lecture into 4 main sections:
1. The state of women in the world. I discussed statistics such as 70% of people living in poverty are women, 2/3 of all labor hours worked in the world are worked by women but women only make 10% of global wages, 70% of all food is produced by women and yet they own less than 2% of all farmland, 1 out of 3 women in the world will be raped or sexually assaulted in her lifetime and 40% of women will experience domestic violence at some point in their life. I also discussed the growing prevalence of female genital mutilation in Africa and the Middle East. 140 million women live with FGM and 3 million little girls are mutilated every year, usually between the ages of 5 and 10, and is carried out in unhygienic conditions, with no anesthesia without the child's consent, which frequently leads to shock, infection, death, sterility, etc.
2. A very brief introduction and over view of the 3 waves of feminism in the USA. This was the american studies center after all and I wanted the students to have a background of where the modern women's rights movement came from.
3. I then focused my attention of current women's rights movements in the Middle East. I started with Egypt where nearly 50% of women are illiterate and 97% of women have undergone female genital mutilation. I also covered 2 women's rights groups currently working for liberation in Egypt. I then discussed the very vibrant women's rights community in Morrocco and the amazing strides being made by women in that country. Then I discussed the gender apartheid going on in Saudi Arabia. My classroom was filled with several Saudi students, but I did not hold back and I was pleased to see all these young women nodding their heads in agreement to everything I said. I finished by discussing Bahrain which I had been worried would be the most sensitive topic. I discussed how article 353 of the Bahrain penal code says that a man will not be punished for rape if he later marries the woman he raped. I discussed that although Bahrain was making many strides towards women's rights, that there was still a mass epidemic of domestic violence occurring in this country. I cited studies, statistics, etc.
4. Then I concluded by telling the students that women are all powerful, capable, strong individuals who can enact major, life changing revolutions in their own society to make the world a better place and that the possibilities were endless.
THEN CAME THE BEST PART!
For nearly an hour we had a really amazing question and answer session. The kids and the professors really wanted to hear my opinions on a wide variety of topics and they asked the most wonderful, insightful questions. I was very careful to ALWAYS make it clear that when we criticized the way things are currently going in the Middle East that things were very bad for women in the US and in Europe, just in different ways. I wanted to be clear that I wasn't 'a white person with all the answers for the brown people'. I asked THEM questions and got their opinion and admitted candidly when I didn't have the answers they were looking for. Things suck for women here in the Middle East but I wanted to let them know that things in the West are sure not perfect either. I don't have all the answers, they don't have all the answers. Until we are ALL liberated, NONE of us is liberated.
Some of the topics that we discussed were: If it was possible for women to be equal and liberated in an oppressive capitalist system - I said NO of course not! I was asked what I thought about women in Saudi Arabia being brainwashed into supporting the patriarchy - This question brought tears to my eyes because it was from a young saudi woman named Hanna. She was amazing and we are definitely keeping in touch. We discussed the fact that women's bodies are not their own and exist only for men's pleasure and consumption, the abaya here in the ME and sexy dressing in the US. We discussed Title IX and it's implications for supporting a violent society, also the ERA potentially leading to the drafting of women in combat supporting a violent society. We discussed how we could help the Middle East evolve into a culture where women banded together to shame sexist attitudes. That topic was brought up by Dr. Cavell who has taught extensively in Mt. Holyoke in Massachusetts, a hot bed of radical feminism. I was asked about if religion was holding women down or if it could be good and what I thought about women being allowed into the Christian clergy. I was very careful about how I answered that question because if I just told them my real feelings that ALL RELIGION is intrinsically oppressive to women and humanity in general then they would run from the room screaming. So what I told them was that women should have any job that men have but we need to be very careful with religion because it can be used to promote good things like equality and peace and love but also bad things like violence, and degradation.We also discussed the way women are portrayed in the media as mindless sex drones for male consumption. We talked about the othering of middle eastern women in western media and the warped focus on the veil. We talked about affirmative action policies and how some women here in government are just figureheads appointed for PR. We discussed how some of the royal family funds progressive social reforms while others fund regressive oppressive religious nutbags. They asked me how I had handled growing up in Saudi and being constantly harassed by the religious police and how we could change the notion of many saudi /muslim women that they were truly protected in Islam and feminism was US propaganda.
I HAD SO MUCH FUN! Spring break starts next week and I'm going to go back when it is over and give a detailed presentation about the way women are portrayed in western media and how that is starting to be the norm in middle eastern media too and how it is leading to changing beauty standards here, increase in anorexia and plastic surgery, etc.
Anyway, today was SUCH A SUCCESS! I was SO impressed with these students because there is NO women's studies program in the entire middle east, no classes on feminism what so ever, so they were all completely self taught and they were all, men and women, just so passionate on the subject. I had initially been hesitant to scandalize them, to say something that would take it too far, but they didn't bat an eye no matter what I said and just nodded and agreed and added even more interesting facts to the discussion.
So now I'm working on trying to get the video uploaded to youtube, once I do you can go watch it!
YAY!
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I would LOVE to see the video and this sounds amazing. I'm very interested in traveling around the middle east to help women who are doing feminist work in their countries and am trying to find out more about the grass roots stuff going on there and how I can get involved. This is not easy though. I also am trying to just research information about the women's movements in certain places which is hard as well. I am very interested in Egypt, Morocco, Iran and Turkey at the moment but am open to other places also.
I would love to talk with someone who has more knowledge and experience about the movements there. If you don't mind, can we talk via email? If not, any way you can point me in the right direction would be helpful. I'm considering a career in international social work with a focus on women's issues. Hope to hear from you! Keep up the good work!
Thank you both, it was really a special day. Francesca, of course we can talk via email. You can reach me at natashaburge@yahoo.com I look forward to hearing from you and I hope I can help answer some of your questions.
Thanks for reporting back. Glad to hear that it went well! You are doing awesome work; I look forward to future updates.
Fascinating post - please keep us posted about further developments.
One question: how did you get to go there?
It sounds like you had a really interesting experience.
I live here in Bahrain. I am an American but I was born in Saudi Arabia, as were both of my parents. I have lived in Saudi Arabia and Bahrain for my entire life except when I attended university and graduate school in the USA.
Thanks everyone!
"statistics such as 70% of people living in poverty are women, 2/3 of all labor hours worked in the world are worked by women but women only make 10% of global wages, 70% of all food is produced by women and yet they own less than 2% of all farmland"
These are pretty strong claims, and I honestly don't find them believable. What is your source?
There is not a single country in the world where women make up more than 51% of the workforce (and in most countries, they are a minority by quite a bit), so im not sure how it can be that they work 2/3 of all the hours.
These are very common statistics (that still don't even begin to cover just how impoverished and oppressed women are around the globe) that I have been learning since my very first fem 101 class in university and I'm saddened that they are not widely known. They need to be or else people will never realize there is a problem worth fighting against!
I'm sure a quick search on-line will help you find some sources.
I am not at home for a few days so I can't give you my citation list but I did a quick search online just now and found these links that might help:
Here is the best one:
http://www.care.org/newsroom/publications/whitepapers/woman_and_empowerment.pdf
Some others:
http://poverty.suite101.com/article.cfm/feminization_of_poverty
http://www.fao.org/sd/fsdirect/fbdirect/FSP001.htm
http://changingthepresent.org/women/facts
http://www.workofwomen.org/issue_briefs.php
http://wrc.dos.cornell.edu/iwd/index.html
The working 2/3 of all hours which you particularly seemed to disbelieve came from the United Nations Millennium Campaign. Please remember that working hours are not just 'going to the office and getting a paycheck', they include going to the well to pump water, taking care of elderly parents, cleaning the house, working the land, tending to the farm animals, running the kids back and forth to daycare, etc. Work doesn't need to be rewarded with a paycheck to qualify as 'work'.
These are very common statistics (that still don't even begin to cover just how impoverished and oppressed women are around the globe) that I have been learning since my very first fem 101 class in university and I'm saddened that they are not widely known. They need to be or else people will never realize there is a problem worth fighting against!
I'm sure a quick search on-line will help you find some sources.
I am not at home for a few days so I can't give you my citation list but I did a quick search online just now and found these links that might help:
Here is the best one:
http://www.care.org/newsroom/publications/whitepapers/woman_and_empowerment.pdf
Some others:
http://poverty.suite101.com/article.cfm/feminization_of_poverty
http://www.fao.org/sd/fsdirect/fbdirect/FSP001.htm
http://changingthepresent.org/women/facts
http://www.workofwomen.org/issue_briefs.php
http://wrc.dos.cornell.edu/iwd/index.html
Hope this helps.
The working 2/3 of all hours which you particularly seemed to disbelieve came from the United Nations Millennium Campaign. Please remember that working hours are not just 'going to the office and getting a paycheck', they include going to the well to pump water, taking care of elderly parents, cleaning the house, working the land, tending to the farm animals, running the kids back and forth to daycare, etc. Work doesn't need to be rewarded with a paycheck to qualify as 'work'.