Book Report

THE ARABS

The book The Arabs Their Heritage and Their way of Life was written by Rhoda Hoff describes many things of Arabian Life. The book relates to the topic of Women Right by talking about the way of life. The Arabs are known by many people throughout the world and is now compressed into this book that provides so much information and describes many even little details you would not find in a normal book about a country. Though the book covers a lot of information it starts off with information about their heritage.

            The book talks about how the heritage of the Arabs has been to an extent simple but is a very long line. It also talks about the fact that many rules throughout the Arab’s history has not changed. The way people live has obviously changed because of technology but the way they live is still very similar to the past. The Arabs contain 22 different and very diverse countries. Many Arabs are in the sales and management working fields but there is about 5% of the Arab population that is unemployed. Arab Heritage has played a role in some places today. It plays roles in literature science and many other subjects worldwide. The history of the Arabs is discussed and it shows that there have been many known roles Arabs have played whether it was religiously, warfare, or anything similar. Arabians are well known and their way of life is very different from the ways of life people in America live.

            In this book Rhoda Hoff talks about the Arab way of life. Well in this case this is where my topic comes from. Hoff talks about how the women in the Arab way of life are treated badly. They are treated like they are very unimportant and he talks about the abuse that women go through on a day to day basis. Women also are treated on very strict terms. Women in the Arab culture wear veils and other garments to cover their faces and in some cases can be punished even to the extent of being stones if they do not follow by the rules. Among married women it is also thought to be wrong if they speak to another man if their husband is not present. Arab women who show a lot of skin are also looked down upon. Something similar among countries that have women rights issues is that they are looked at badly if they do not have a son and that is still true when it comes to the Arabs.

            But besides women rights Rhoda talks about traditional things within the culture. One traditional thing is the food Arabs eat, one traditional meal they eat is grilled lamb with spiced and there are many other meals similar to this. Another topic Hoff talks about is their clothing generally the Arab people wear loose fit clothing so that on hot days they are still comfortable without having to show much skin. There are city areas where the way of the Arabs have changed a lot but in rural areas it is different. In rural areas much of the traditional way of doing things still exist and are used constantly. Some people in rural areas even live in tents so they can be nomadic. But one thing that is found to be interesting is that the males of the Arab culture tend to be very friendly, they don’t have space boundaries like most Americans do and they don’t mind a lot of physical contact among others.

            The People of the Arabs are very diverse from Americans today and the book The Arabs Their Heritage and Their Way of Life written by Rhoda Hoff explains much about the Arabs that shows this. Hoff talks about the heritage and the history of Arabs and how they have influenced some things in culture today. But Hoff also talks about the abuse with women and how strict rules for women are in the Arabic countries and goes into detail about what could happen. Rhoda Hoff also talks about the Arab way of life and how the things they do are very traditional and though it may seem abnormal to many Americans the Arab way of life seems normal to them and hasn’t changed much over the years. The book is an interesting book that talks a lot about many important aspects of the Arab life, history and culture. I relates to my topic about women in foreign countries and talks a lot about many other things that was very interesting to learn while reading the book.