Today, in modern day Iraq, it is thought that woman have gained arespectable amount of rights. It is shocking to know that under
Saddam Hussein's regime, women actually had more rights than they do today. Under the old regime, women had the rights to freely expressthemselves, whether in appearance, the choice of getting an education, or even choice of marital status, with very liberal rights pertaining todivorce.
One of the effects of this war has been a decline of women's rights.This government has followed a path of combining politics withreligion--each contradicting each other. The religious "right" believesthat the country should follow a system of theology, thus eliminatingthe few rights women had been granted. If they were to follow religion as indicated by extreme interpretation of the religious text, women would have about the same percentage of the rights granted to American women let alone woman of the west. The other half of the government believes in governance by law. They have been targeted by outside forces as being too liberal. These two opposing factions have only caused thedecline of women’s rights.
Culture has had a great influence over women's rights. The Arabmentality has always dictated that women are inferior. There have been recorded cases of extreme abuse to Arab women, such as honorkillings. The culture encourages no changes to the status quo. It can be said that men may fear the stature of women's rights in Islam. On the contrary, while the Quran (Islamic Holy Book) is a God-sent text, cultural rules are dictated by men. According to Islam, the Quran should not be changed, yet in contrast a culture is always open to be changed.
In Islam, education is valued at a high importance, regardless ofgender, yet such a matter has been attacked by culture and has beenmisinterpreted to the best interest of males. In Arab society’s, males oppress the females, which prevents women from acquiringeducation or their voices from being heard. In regards to women’s education, it is the society's fault, the government for not puttingharsh laws towards education, and culture for not progressing with advanced cultures of other nations.
Arab culture has its own set of beliefs to the issue of marriage anddivorce. Culture has enforced arranged marriages in some cases, which
is one of the reasons causing higher rates of divorce in the Arab peninsula. Islam on the other hand, gives a woman a right to choosewho to marry, and the right to a divorce when it is needed. In orderto better their lives, the Islamic text gives females full rights toask for a divorce. Culture on the other hand condemns divorce, and treats a divorced female very harshly; they provide no educationin order to prevent such a catastrophe.
Suppression has been served to females of the Arab culture, and in Islamiccountries due to foisting upon them of chauvinistic and often literal interpretations of religious doctrine. One needs to point out that Islam has granted humanity much freedom, especially when it comes to females' freedom of life, education, marriage, and happiness. Unfortunately culture has a great impact on Arab society, and the minority thathold women's rights in accordance to Islam are over-powered by the extremists.
