Diaspora Anthropology

Anthropology: Arab Women in the Middle East and Diaspora

Introduction

The world comprises of a rich mixture of people from different cultural backgrounds. The comparative study of the different human societies, their cultures, and their development process over time is the general scope of this paper, under the broad topic, anthropology. The paper narrows down to the anthropology of Arab women in the Middle East and Diaspora. Further, three concepts have been chosen for discussion in this essay in regard to the Arab women. The concepts are gender, ethnography, and feminism.

Gender

Gender is defined as the social and cultural characteristics that distinguish men and women (“Gender”, 2016). The roles that men and women play vary from one society

The concept of feminism is correlated to the issue of gender balance. As advocated for in the gender concept, the female gender needs empowerment in order to compete fairly with the male gender. The social structure has numerous opportunities that women can exploit. The only way to turn the concept of feminism into reality is by empowering women and giving them the platform to exercise their potential.

Gender, Ethnography, and Feminism

The three concepts are related and are closely observed in any given society. When ethnographers set out to study the culture of a society, the focus is only how men and women handle different affairs. Therefore, ethnography covers the gender concept. In cases where the role of women and their position in the socio-cultural and political structure is reviewed, the concept of feminism comes in.

Gender, Ethnography, and Feminism in the Ethnography of Arab Women in the Middle East and

In her book, Writing Women’s Worlds, Abu-Lughod challenges public misconception against women of the Muslim Middle East. Further, the ethnographer seeks to prove the Western feminists wrong in their assumption that defining patriarchy is a simple matter (Abu-Lughod, 1999). In summary, her study gathers evidence that there is an existing misconception towards work by women, in particular, feminist ethnographies.

Women of the Middle East are often sidelined in matters politics. The sentiment is borrowed from the book: Women and Power in the Middle East, written by ethnographers Joseph and Slyomovics. The ethnographers note that there is apparent gender domination of women by men in the Middle East and North Africa. Not only do women get controlled by men, but also by their respective families, communities, and the state. However, the rise of capitalism has reduced the intensity of control over women (Joseph & Slyomovics,