Traditionally, women is Islam occupy a secondary role determined by social and cultural traditions in society. Thus, the status of women has been changed towards greater involvement of women in public and political affairs. The current studies of the role of women in Islam have resulted in a unified impression of the power of women leaders. Individually and through their organized activities, the women leaders of Islamic countries have become a dynamic social force, helping to transform the life of their lands. The growing power of women may be considered as representative of the remarkable forward movement of women in the entire East. Essentially the same currents of change – economic and technological, political and cultural–are transforming the life of the entire East. Thesis Women are vitally affected by the rapidly changing environment and are themselves playing a creative part along many lines in Eastern life.
Jameelah underlines that working and talking with many representative women make it clear that in the diversity of their activities there is a remarkable unity of purpose and sense of direction. They are confronted by the common needs and problems of the East and are working toward a common goal. Women are actively participating in many phases of civic welfare and in the varied collective efforts to build national life on a sound basis. They are concerned primarily with the specific needs of women and girls and are contributing their knowledge and special experience in all areas of life–the home and social welfare, business and professions, political life and public office–to the total advancement of women. “The Muslim woman is spared direct military and political responsibility although in rare cases there have been women warriors” (Jameelah n.d.).
Certain major trends of change and advance may be summed up in general terms applicable to all Islamic countries. Of essential interest are the common problems and needs and common lines of progress. It will be noted that some of the general statements may not be applicable to Afghanistan at the present stage of its advance. However, trends of progress in regard to women are unmistakable in all areas. “Centuries of women’s exclusion from knowledge have resulted in femininity being confused with illiteracy until a few decades ago. But things have progressed so rapidly in our Muslim countries that we women today take literacy and access to schools and universities for granted” (Mernissi 209). The governments of these countries have made great progress in the education of girls, the basis for any advance of women, increasing on all levels the facilities for an enrollment of girls and women in primary, secondary, higher education and university education for professional training, on the basis of equality of access with men; and in social education in terms of literacy and home-making for adult women, a necessity in order to achieve the goal of national literacy. Women leaders, women’s organizations, and other voluntary agencies of these countries have worked steadily and effectively to promote this expansion by establishing many primary and secondary schools for girls, colleges and training institutions for women, and a widespread program of social education–a truly impressive total of voluntary education effort (Jameelah n.d.).
The authors admit that the governments in the East, under the pressure to achieve universal literacy as rapidly as possible and provide educational facilities for their people, have given high priority to quantity rather than quality and have concentrated their efforts on the expansion of education as the immediate goal. Leading educators in each country, while recognizing the continuing necessity for the major emphasis on expansion, realize the importance of special development along a number of lines (Mernissi 210). More adequate provision for vocational education of girls and women is generally recognized as a growing need in each country, in view of the increasing social freedom of women and the economic necessity to work. There is marked disparity between the government provision for the technical training of boys and that of girls. Because of technological pressures the governments are steadily increasing the vocational training of boys–in some countries in a great diversity of skills. For girls, only a meager amount of vocational education is available, limited for the most part to domestic arts–sewing, embroidery and dress making-with very small wage-earning possibility, and with practically no provisions for technical training to meet business requirements for earning a livelihood. An increasing number of young women of the middle class with average education, and not a few of the educated upper classes, also need to earn a livelihood and are eager for the necessary technical training (Jameelah n.d.).
A marked development in the Muslim world has been the increasing number of women students and leaders who have the opportunity for study and training abroad in preparation for their full leadership in various fields. The increase of foreign fellowships for women is especially urgent in order to develop a more balanced Eastern society and provide more trained professional women needed in all fields (Mernissi 210). Foreign influence has long played an important role throughout the East in the development of education. Today the free interplay of educational influence through technical cooperation is shaping a new pattern in education as in other areas of life. Although there is obviously great diversity in the development of the national programs of health, specifically for women and children, there are, as in the field of education, a number of problems and needs common to all these countries. There are similar indications of progress and primarily the same motivation in all countries–to build their nations on modern foundations, of which national health is an obvious essential (Jameelah n.d.). There is a growing demand in government agencies at all levels and in foreign business firms for trained secretarial and clerical service. Yet the entrance of women into this especially favorable field of work is curtailed by lack of training facilities and by the fact that it is traditionally a male occupation. There are a growing number of commercial courses for typing and stenography on the medium standard, i.e., ninth or tenth grade, in girls’ schools and also courses on a commercial basis in large cities. But in each country there is special need for professional secretarial training on a higher level. Coeducation is a possibility since secretarial service is a field both for men and women (Mernissi, p. 210).
In sum, social and political changes in the Muslim countries gave rise to the feminist movement and a new social role of women in society. Various voluntary organizations are actively supporting and helping to promote citizenship education. Many political leaders introduce new programs for women dealing with the daily situations resulting from conflict, parents and youth most vitally involved in the effects of change, men and women leaders in social welfare, and civic affairs, and volunteer agencies.
Works Cited
- Jameelah, M. The Feminist Movement and The Muslim Women.
- Mernissi, F. The New Voices of Islam, pp. 205-211.