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.

Chinese Women Rights

In China it had been though that women could only gain power by being a mother. But the twist of that was that it had to be a son, girls were looked down upon. Women have a harder time getting jobs and getting paid equally as men even though it says they are equal.  Some women stay in the home to work so that way they can stay in the home to raise their children. In some places in China young women don't go to school because parents think its a waste of money if the girl is just going to get married and leave. Women have started to take roles in politics but their influence of political situations is still very low. There are also a lot of domestic violence problems for women in China. In china abuse is thought to be a very typical thing. In some parts of China it is even thought to be acceptable to abuse women. The hard part is there aren't many laws to protect women from the abuse. Since it is a typical thing is is hard to get away from. There is no place to turn to for some Chinese women not the cops or shelters. 

Citations and Sources

Paul Halsall. Modern History Sourcebook: The Declaration of Sentiments,
Seneca Falls Conference, 1848 .Aug 1997. halsall@murray.fordham.eduhttp://www.fordham.edu/halsall/mod/senecafalls.asp updated November 1998. May 12^th, 2012

William G. Andrews. The Land and The People of The Soviet Union. Joe LeMonnier. New York, NY: HarperCollins Publisher, 1991

Rhoda Hoff. The Arab Their Heritage and Their Way of Life. H. Z. Walck, 1979

Zoe Kenny. Fighting for women’s rights in Indonesia. March 2011. http://directaction.org.au/issue30/fighting_for_womens_rights_in_indonesia May 14^th 2012

Jone Johnson Lewis. http://womenshistory.about.com/library/ency/blwh_germany_women.htm .Germany- Status of Women. August 1995. May 16^th 2012

Oracle Think Quest. Chinese Women’s Rights. Teja Lincoln. http://library.thinkquest.org/07aug/01579/apsara1.html . May 16th, 2012.

The Fight

The fight for women's rights have been all through out history so there is no real specific time because even now the fight for women's rights are still on going. But the first women's rights convention was organized by Elizabeth Cady Stanton at Seneca Falls in 1848. The fight for women's rights has been on going ever since. That convention was the set off in history. So the time period that this has been going on has been since 1848 till the present day. The movement and conventions have stopped in some countries but in many others still continue so the date that the fight for women's right has ended is not in record yet. The women's rights movement is important because we all were created equal and that should not be an exception with girls. Females all over the world have issues that vary extremely from not voting to being stoned with rocks if they misbehave. Women should get the rights that males do so if they have the right to vote and they can do as they please then so should women.  This is the reason why the women's rights movement right is so important because not in all places any more since the movement began but in some places women still need to get the rights they deserve.

Supporting Women

I chose this topic because reading about women's right I noticed the difference from the United States and other countries. But another huge reason I chose this topic is because wanted to show that yes women have had it hard and still do, but not all countries are like that. Not all countries are hard on women in places like Germany women have their rights and yes they had to work for it but in the end it helped women all around the world to stand up. Seeing women get their freedom makes other women want the same and they can fight to get it. Women in Saudi Arabia are even asking just to let them drive, with the strength they gained from support from others they can make it happen and gain more rights then that too. Fighting to get away from normal stereotypes for women has been a hard challenge but it has worked. Many people throughout the world are concerned that women in other countries don't get the rights they deserve, and with so much support from so many people women all over the world can get their right just like in other countries. The reason I chose this topic is not to state that women having little rights is a terrible thing but to state that it is possible to get out and it has been proven and that women should keep the movement going. There is no need to say rude things about people who are against it. But there is a reason to show women that there are people who support it.

Germany

Not all countries have as bad as issues as others when it comes it rights. In Germany women have the right to vote, they can work outside the home without discrimination, they can marry and divorce. Women in Germany have many rights that some women don't get the chance to have. But the women in Germany only got these rights by fighting for them.  In Germany's history many women only worked outside the home when men went away at war. Other than that when the men came back the women lost their jobs and had to go back working in the home. Many of the females loved working outside the home and realized that it was time to stand up and get the rights that they so badly wanted and deserved. It was a long process but the women of Germany got their rights. The time period when women fought for there rights was a hard struggle to get through but was worth it and that is still shown today. There are still some issues with equality just like in most countries where women are considered equal but German women.

Indonesia Women Right's

Another country with little women rights is Indonesia. In the article "Indonesia: Women's Rights" it talks about how many woman are mistreated in the country and about how they are. "In this culture the government identifies women as first and foremost a wife to her husband, secondly as a mother to her children, and thirdly as a housewife. A woman is never considered to be a human being, an individual, or in her own right; they are often called Pelayan, which in Javanese actually means servant." This quote from the article shows exactly how women in some countries are mistreated. they don't even have rights as a human being. If the woman works outside the home and something goes wrong with the children or with the husband the wife is the one blamed because in that culture her main priority should be working in the home. A woman's average daily wage when working outside the home is  7,000 rupiah which sounds like a lot until you learn that 7,000 rupiah is equal to less than 2 dollars in the US. Women have started taking control though, some women don't marry or have kids which is strange in Indonesia. Even though women in Indonesia try to fight these set backs it is still difficult for a woman to get pass these normal standards. But women right's do seem to be improving everyday.