Ethnographer's Perspective

The upheaval in the middle east has been amongst the top news stories for weeks now.  In the midst of protesting populations and falling regimes, some of us, myself included, have been wondering about the women.  What is their role in this? Will the possibility of new governments include them? Is their safety compromised?  We have learned by example.  Mobs can be dangerous. Women do not always benefit from revolution.

In trying to sort out the truth about this, I have had difficulty finding solid information about how the women in these middle eastern states have been faring lately.  There is plenty of opinion.  To use Egypt as an example, it ranges from "women are always risking unwanted sexual advances walking down the street" to "women had safe and meaningful participation in the protests." I suspect the truth involves both ends of the opinion spectrum in some form.

We Westerners are known to cluck our tongues and start getting on our "you oppress women" high horse, to name a few of the horses we climb upon, when the winds of change blow in the middle east. We might be able to admit that our opinions about the middle east are loaded with all kinds of baggage.

I would like to recommend a book.

This book was required reading in an anthropology/women's studies class, but it was so good I kept it.  It reads like a novel.  It is written by an anthropologist's wife, who at the time was not originally setting out to do anything but accompany her husband in his work.  It turned out that she had access to the sequestered lives of women in a conservative, rural Shi'ite village in Iran.  She learned their way of life, she became friends with them, and lived as one of them.  Then she wrote a fascinating book.

My anthropology professor (who pronounced "sheik" like "shake", not "sheek," in case you are verbally discussing this) brought to us several thought-provoking questions that always come to my mind now when the welfare of women in other countries comes up.  What is the line between protecting human rights and invading someone's culture?  I would say that most would agree that "honor killing" crosses the line and is categorically a breach.  But what about the rule about wearing an abayah? Personally, I think it is sexist and oppressive to require only women to cover themselves up and be restricted in their movement. But when is it acceptable for us to push something upon another group of people? What do I know about the meaning one's way of life brings them? 

I respect the women in Egypt who had the courage to take to the streets and make their voices heard.  I admire the women who find a way to cast their influence and find significance in cultures where women are not considered full citizens.  It is much easier for me to scrutinize from afar than for them to live out their brave choices.  


 Ethnographers are supposed to write in a way that provides the picture devoid of as much personal opinion as possible.  It's a difficult thing to do, approaching life from a stance of questioning not influenced by your own version of "the way it's supposed to be." Whenever I find myself floundering for a position on something, I find it valuable to start thinking like an anthropologist.  Which, by the way, rarely provides answers, but does afford some perspective. I don't think it justifies shopping at Anthropologie, unfortunately.