Women’s Status

The status of women has been researched extensively in the Middle East, relative to other issues of family life. Arab Middle Eastern women, in particular Moslem women, have been viewed as powerless, subservient, and submissive. Moslem culture has been treated as the major barrier to the improvements of women's status in terms of emancipation, educational and occupational attainments, and participation in the decision making process in the family and the broader community. Some studies conducted in developing societies have noted an inverse impact of modernization and contact with agents of modernization on women's status. The ideological system which emphasizes the inferiority of women and the subordination of wives to their husbands may be observed in Shefar-A'm, in particular during the agrarian period. The weakness of women's status in the community is reflected as well in their low involvement in social and political activities.