Stereotypes Arab Women

Arab women are "imprisoned behind a veil of powerlessness,” is one of the few stereotypes people especially in the west hold against Arab women. People all over the world from different countries and different religions stereotype Arab women. People of the American and European nationality are unaware and don’t have the right information causing Arab women to unfortunately be victims of the stereotyping process. Nouha al-Helegan, a law graduate in Damascus, since her arrival in the U.S in 1979, has spoken about the issue of women in the Arab world stating that “The injury is magnified by the added assumption that the Arab woman began her struggle yesterday-as if she was somehow born whole out of a newly tapped oil well-a veiled, uncivilized

The existent of the stereotype itself makes it worse on Arab women. Why? Because of the situational threat of being judged by the negative stereotype and/or, fulfilling the stereotypic expectancies. The result of this self-threat is usually described as a motivational effect. Arab women living abroad will continue to suffer from labels and the more they face these stereotypes and are called names like available, oppressed, conservative, trapped, and etc., the more they begin to believe the stereotype and behave in line of those beliefs. So, for example in a study, Spencer, Steele, & Quinn (1999), men and women were tested among the stereotype that men outperform women in mathematics in standardized tests. So, under these circumstances the men and women were given the exams to prove the stereotype were the men outperformed the women .This demonstrated how much our behavior can be affected by the stereotype because the manipulation of thought that leads to action. There is a clear maintenance of stereotype. For Arab women, if they are perceived as sexually available or oppressed, being put under the pressure of those stereotypes might cause them to actually act in the way they are perceived. if members of the group believe in the stereotype, the Stereotype threat can affect members of any cultural or social group, it can play with their performance. Therefore, of Arab women believed in such stereotypes that

However, the process to suppress stereotypes takes a lot of energy. Using consciousness and with effort trying to individuate a person and suppress the stereotype can backfire with the person they deal with after because they will have information already activated and fewer resources to control. In a study, Macrae et al. (1994), participants were asked to describe day of skinhead’s life. They suppressed their stereotype in that process. However, when writing the second passage with another photo, they stereotyped more than they normally would because they had suppressed their stereotypes in the first passage. That is what happens when westerners try to suppress their existent stereotypes when dealing with Arab women. One might meet a veiled Arab woman and convince themselves: no! They are not oppressed; they might be open-minded and cool! The stereotype decreases and an attempt of being rational and individuating works the first time. Then, comes in another Arab woman, well now the stereotype of “oppression” is primed! The information is easier to access! It is much easier to stereotype the second time the Arab woman walks in. So, it is quite difficult to eradicate certain feelings or attitudes about certain groups, but it is possible to lessen the stereotype with moderate suppression, not extreme because that will backfire and lead to the rebound effect where