Women's Rights Across the Middle East

In our post on March 4th, 2010, we had discussed the campaign to give Lebanese women the right to transfer their Lebanese citizenship to their children when they marry a non-Lebanese.

The issue is an old one in Lebanon, and the reasoning behind denying Lebanese women that right mostly stems from the fact that their is a fear of naturalizing Palestinians married to Lebanese women.

That however, as far as I'm concerned, is a cop-out. I think women should get full rights and equal rights under the law.

Regardless, it looks like the UAE is moving closer to adopting measures guaranteeing more women rights.

Here's the story.

It would be a very great day for women across the Middle East if said proposed changes are put in place. And it would be a sad day for Lebanon, long considered as a beacon of freedom and rights in the Middle East, if and when other neighboring countries give their women more rights than is accorded to Lebanese women.

BG

Human Rights in the UAE

I'm having a hard time conciliating these two seemingly very far apart stories coming out of Dubai.

Great job for the woman trying to tackle the issue of pedophilia in her country. Please keep at it.
Here's the story.

Yet, this is the same country that accused a woman of having extra-marital sex and jailed for it, when in fact she was raped, and had to drop charges as part of a plea bargain. Really shameful and disgusting.
Here's that story.

BG

Excuse me I am a girl

Recently I came across a bunch of articles that caught my attention.
The first article was from BBC and it was about the UAE government targeting "masculine women". The government's entire explanation for this is to "help women avoid what is seen as delinquent behavior", otherwise known to the rest of the civilized world as homosexuality.

This is the link:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/7940501.stm

The other "gem" I found online was an interview by the NYTimes Magazine with Jehan Sadat, the widow of the late Anwar Sadat. Upon being asked as to the status of gays in Islam or Egypt, she answered the following: "Homosexuality is against Islam. Here in Egypt, there are not many homosexuals, not like the United States. There are some. We’ve had them since the Pharaohs."

My usual attitude in life is: to each his/her own.

But I find it weird that she really believes that there are more homosexuals in the US than Egypt. Now to be fair, she goes on to say that it is "more or less closet gay" that they have in Egypt, but still. A weird answer to a weird question anyway, I really did not see how this question connected with the rest of the interview anyhow.

Here's the link:
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/15/magazine/15wwln-q4-t.html


Oh, and as an aside: my friend (who is also gay) and I were talking the other night and we decided to start using the word faggot extensively in our daily conversations and interactions with other people. Just use it for everything and to everything, thus rendering it part of the mainstream and by doing so, make it an overused, banal, non-offensive part of the English vocab.

PS: This idea is not based on any scientific background or on any previously successful similar experiment. Oh, and I was drunk when I came up with it. I'm keeping my fingers crossed, but chances of success are pretty close to zero.

BG