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Feminism in the Middle East- Oman as case study- Munira Al Balushi

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 Sultan Qaboos University

College of Economics and Political Science

Department of Political Science

(Pols4949/ 10) Political Thought

Spring Semester 2020

Research paper Title:

Feminism in the Middle East

Oman as case study

Munira Mohammed AL Balushi

S117182@studnet.squ.edu.om
Table of contents

Abstract: ................................................................................................................................................. 2
Introduction............................................................................................................................................. 3
Research Questions: ............................................................................................................................ 4
Hypotheses: ......................................................................................................................................... 4
Research Objectives: ........................................................................................................................... 4
Research Methodology ........................................................................................................................ 5
Data collection .................................................................................................................................... 5
Literature review ................................................................................................................................. 6
The History of Feminism .................................................................................................................. 6
Feminism in International Relation theory ....................................................................................... 7
Feminism in the Middle East ............................................................................................................ 7
Gender Equality and Women empowerment ..................................................................................... 9
Analysis ................................................................................................................................................ 10
Women’s situation in the Middle East and the Role of Culture ......................................................... 10
Case study: Oman .............................................................................................................................. 12
Women in Oman; an overview .......................................................................................................... 12
Women rights in Oman ...................................................................................................................... 13
Feminist Campaign in Oman ............................................................................................................. 14
The Public opinion on the issue of feminist campaign ........................................................................ 16
Critique ............................................................................................................................................. 17
Conclusion ............................................................................................................................................ 18
Appendix: .............................................................................................................................................. 19
References: ........................................................................................................................................... 22

1
Abstract:

Throughout history, women faced different types of discrimination, subordination, and

aggressive actions. Accordingly, numerous political movements were existed to fight against this
discrimination and protecting women rights in society. Therefore, this paper is written to discuss
an important theory that plays an essential role in defending the women rights in society and
empowering the position of the women in the political arena which is feminist theory. The paper
tries to explore the question of how the feminism movements contributed to restoring the women
position in society. The main argument rests in this paper is feminism is good at advocating for
liberalizing women from all kinds of discrimination. However, it is not logic to ask for the same
rights and privileges given to the men since each gender has different characteristics inbuilt with
her/him. The main objective of this paper is to see the practical implementation of the theory in
the Middle East region by focusing on one of the Gulf states which totally impacts by the Islamic
rule and traditions. The paper will take Oman as a case study and tries to identify the main
problems that exist in the country in term of discrimination and subordination. Thus, the data
collection for the case study will based on the primary sources such as survey among random
people from Omani society and interview. The secondary sources like books and e journal article
will be beneficial too to conduct the study. The study applied the critical, descriptive and
qualitative approaches to reach the objectives of the study.

Keywords: Feminism, Patriarchy, subordination, culture, traditions, equality, equity

2
Introduction

Throughout history, women in all parts of the world faced different types of discrimination,
subordination, and aggressive actions. Despite the UN laws and declarations on the rights of
women, they are still struggling to get equal rights with men. The situation of women in most of
European countries enhanced due to the social movement led by numerous women in different
part of European countries under the name of feminist movement. Though women’s situation has
been improved in some of these countries, other women in the other part of the world still
struggling to improve their situation. However, I do strongly believe that feminism can play role
in enhancing the women’s situation but not in providing a pure equality with the men. Women
will never get equal rights with men due to the biological differences between the two genders.
In other words, each gender has their own privileges due to their biological differences.

In fact, feminism is still not clear ideology and many people don’t have enough awareness about
the theory and its main themes. Therefore, this paper is written to discuss this important theory
that plays an essential role in defending the women rights in society and empowering the
position of the women in the political arena. The essay tries to explore the question of how the
feminism movements contributed to restoring the women position in society.

The paper will try to investigate the application of this theory in the middle east countries as this
region witnessed different kind of discrimination against the women. Oman will be the primary
case of this research. This paper will try to see whether the feminist campaign which existed in
Oman is logical or radical and what are the main factors that motivated the feminist campaign.
The paper will try to investigate how does patriarchy system consider as the main reason which
hinder the women’s liberty in Oman.

The argument that rests on this paper is that feminism is good at advocating for liberalizing
women from all kinds of discrimination. However, it is not logic to ask for the same rights and
privileges given to the men since each gender has different characteristics inbuilt with her/him.
So, we believe that each gender might have the rights based on the characteristics that he/she has.

3
Research Questions:
The topic of feminism is controversial and arouses many questions especially in the Middle east
region where the political system bounded by the religion of Islam. Therefore, the study will try
to answer the central question:

- What are the major obstacles that faces the feminism in the Middle East?

The paper is also going to answer the following sub questions:

- What are the main reasons of the feminist campaign in Oman?

- How Patriarchy system contributed to unequal privileges between men and women?
- How women in Oman can shape their own version of feminism which differs from
the western version.

Hypotheses:
The major hypotheses that will be tested in this study is :

- Feminism is good in term of advocating the rights and freedom of women from all
types of discrimination. However, it is not logic to call for the exact rights and
privileges given to the men since both men and women have different characteristics.

The paper also assume that:

- The feminist campaign in Oman is radical and it goes against the culture and Islamic
values.

Research Objectives:
The objectives of the study can be divided into main objectives and sub objectives:

Main objectives:

- Study the feminism as a theory and its application in the Middle East region where
women face a high level of discrimination and subordination.
- Examine the case of feminism in Oman to see the major reasons of the feminist
campaign.

4
Sub objectives:

- Find out the positive features that feminism has.

- To see the rights granted to Omani women and the government initiative to remove the
gender inequality.

Research Methodology
The paper will apply the mixed method approaches in its examination of the feminism in the
Middle East. The qualitative approach is needed in describing the features of the feminist
movement in general and in Oman in particular. The quantitative approach will be used in
analyzing the survey which distributed among the random sample from Omani society.

Furthermore, the study will not only depend on the descriptive approach to reach to its
conclusion. The paper will describe feminism as it exists in the west and how it become popular
political ideology. Moreover, the analytical method which based on critical thinking is necessary
in criticizing the patriarchal system that hinders the women from enjoying their equal rights
with men. It also will be used in criticizing some of the demands required by women which
somehow described as illogical demands.

The study design which will be used in analyzing the topic of the feminism is a case study of
one of the Middle East countries which is Oman. Using case study will enable us to see the
reality of the theory and its major imperfections. It will also enable us to see how feminist
campaigns are differed from one society to another.

The political analysis which will be applied in this study is the normative analysis to reach to the
objectives of the study. The normative analysis is used to explain why, when and how the
feminist campaigns are existed in the Middle East in general and in Oman in particular.

Data collection
Both primary and secondary sources will useful in reaching the goals of the study. The primary
sources is distributed survey among random sample from Omani society. Another primary
source is “Twitter” which will be used to see the campaign which is launched by some Omanis
women. Furthermore, structured interview conducted with Omani women who interested in
defending human rights in general and women’s rights in particular named Miss, Buthaina AL-

5
Aliani. In addition, unstructured interview with a man who interested in following the feminist
campaign will be conducted to know his opinion about the campaign in general and the demand
of abolishment of patriarchy system in particular. The books and some articles published in
journals and research paper will be used as secondary sources.

Literature review

The History of Feminism

Feminism is known as a political ideology that aims to defend the women’s rights and achieve
gender equality. This theory attracts the attention of many authors. Different articles, books and
research paper have been written in this topic. For example, Andrew Hood ( 2012) took this topic
as a chapter in his book entitled “ Political ideologies”. The author started the chapter of
feminism by providing the conceptual definitions and the history of this theory. He mentioned
1
that the nineteenth century as the beginning of the first wave of the feminism.

The author also discussed in very detail the core themes of the theory and its different types.

Nikolay Popov is another author who interested in studying the feminism as political ideology.
Popov in one of his research papers which published in 2017 defines the feminism as “ the
desire to acknowledge the women’s rights and equality, as well the different attitude
2
towards the perception of women”

Popov traced the origin of the theory as a production of the French revolution and the
enlightenment era in Europe because of its aims which focusing in changing the values, norms
and the society. According to Popov, the first usage of the term “ Feminism” in English was in
the last period of the ХVІІ century. Women during this period of time witnessed a worst
situation in term of discrimination and bad treatment. They didn’t have the right to participate in
politics and practice the voting right. Furthermore, they are not allowable to have their
educational rights. Certain types of activities are also prohibited and not allowable for women to
practice it. However, this situation is no longer valid by the end of this century since women in
America and Great Britain have been able to gain their political and education rights.

1
Heywood. A. ( 2012). Feminism. Political Ideologies: An Introduction. 5th Edition, (pp.226-249). London: Palgrave.
2
Popov. N. ( 2018). Feminism as political ideology. International Conference KNOWLEDGE-BASED ORGANIZATION.
South West University, Blagoevgrad, Bulgaria.

6
Feminism in International Relation theory
Despite the fact that feminism is a political theory that have been studied by many theorists, it
doesn’t receive high attention of the international relation theories as the realism, conservatism
and some other theories.

Few literatures have been written in examining the theory in the context of international relation
theory. Sarah Smith ( 2018) argues that the absence of feminism from the field of IR theory is
due to the marginalization of the international political arena for the role of women. women are
absence in the process of decision making and thus, she assumes that men alone unfortunately
are dominated the political game. However, I don’t agree with her in this point , women today
are play essential role in international politics but the absence of this theory from the IR theory
can be due to the modernity of this theory. Sara Smith believes that feminism can add beneficial
contribution to the IR theory especially in term of providing a good understanding of the nature
of each gender and how each gender behaves in the world politics. 3

Another author who tries to enrich the literature in this field was Sandra Whitworth ( 1994) in
her book entitled “Feminist Theories and International Relations”. Whitworth identifies that
there is a strong link between studying the theory of Feminism and the International Relation
Theory as this theory tries to examine the role of women in the period of peace and conflict. It
also tries to analyze the role of governmental organizations and non- governmental
organizations in enhancing the role of women in all over the world.

I agree with the author in this strong connection between the feminism and the field of
international relation theory. However, the author did not shed light the attention on the role of
international actors in utilize the feminism for their own interests.

Feminism in the Middle East

Different studies conducted to examine the emergence of feminism in the region of Middle East
especially in Lebanon, Syria and Egypt. One of these studies was the ethnographic research that
conducted by Catherine K. Kikosk in 2008. She examines Lebanon as a case study and identifies

3
Smith. S. ( 2018). Introducing Feminism in International Relations Theory. n E-IR Foundations beginner’s
textbook. Retrieved from https://www.e-ir.info/2018/01/04/feminism-in-international-relations-theory/

7
that the major factors which motivated the movement in the region such as Patriarchy, tradition
and religious conservatism .

Kikosk aims through this research to find the best and unique version of feminism for the
women in this region which provides the women a high level of freedom and encourage the
women to achieve their goals in their own ways. The author take into consideration the cultural
4
privacy in the designing the unique form of feminism.

Catherine started the paper by analyzing the political system of Lebanon and the impact of the
religion of Islam in shaping the culture inside the country. She recognized that the Islam is the
major obstacle which hinder the women from having equal rights with the men. She mentioned
that regulations of Islam in areas of marriage, divorce, and child are best examples of
discrimination imposed against women.

However, I think the author missed the point of why the Islam differentiate between men and
women in this way. I believe that Islam set different regulations for each men and women based
on the physiological and biological differences of each genders. Thus, even if the Islam doesn’t
provide women the same rights which provided to the men but at least gives the women the right
of equity. Thus, this paper will try to approve that Islam can be the major obstacle but doesn’t
harm the status of the women since the Islam come to protect the women rights and achieve the
equity. So, I think women should advocate not for equality but equity.

Another study that also examined the feminist movement in the Middle East was done by Faith
Alexandra Perkins. She compared the feminist movement in two countries in region; Lebanon
and Israel. The author identified that the twenty century was the beginning of the emergence of
this movement in the region. The French colonialism contributed highly in shaping this
movement in the Lebanon. The author provides the example of women’s union which
established in Lebanon in 1914 as a first step toward enhancing the women’s position in the
country.

4
Kikoski. C. ( 2008). Feminism in the Middle East; Reflections on Ethnographic Research in Lebanon. Journal of
Feminist Family Therapy, 11:4, 131-146, DOI: 10.1300/J086v11n04_10 retrieved from
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1300/J086v11n04_10

8
The work done by this author distinguished from the previous one because it discussed the role
5
of the west and the NGO in shaping the feminism in the region.

Gender Equality and Women empowerment

Gender equality is an important topic that must be discussed in feminism. It is a global issue that
received the attention of international organizations. Diverse literature are conducted by
economists and different institutions as this topic is important in the development process.
Mikkola (2005) reviewed different literature that are written in this topic. Mikkola discussed
different kind of discrimination and unjust treatment including education, the ownership of
wealth, monetary return for their work, financial opportunities and others.

The author argues that the privileges given to the man are due to the demands and requirements
that have to be done by him. The author used the term of feminist economics a new economic
thought which advocating to consider the gender differences in job opportunities. 6

Another study in this topic done by Kulkarni (2017) who focused on the women empowerment
in the current century. The author tries to defend the women’s rights to reach a higher position
and not limit the role of women in specific sectors. The author took the case of India to see the
situation of the women in this country.

The author only provides descriptive study about the situation of the women, brining number of
women in particular sector. Thus, the study lack of a critical views like why women in India
7
faced large number of unemployment and why Indian women received low rate of salary .

5
Pekins.F.(2012). What is a Middle Eastern Feminist Movement: Feminist Movements in Lebanon and Israel. The
Hebrew University of Jerusalem. Retrieved from
https://jewishstudies.indiana.edu/docs/2015_16/Bern%20Essay%202016%20-%20Perkins%20Faith.pdf
6
Mikkola. A. (2005). Role of Gender Equality in Development; a literature review. Discussion Paper No. 84. Helsinki
Center of Economic Research. Retrieved from http://www.huffingtonpost.com/quora/what-are-the-major-
causes_b_12885808.html
7
Kulkarni .S. (2017). Women Empowerment in 21st Century. KCES’s Institute of Management and Research,
Jalgaon. Retrieved from
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/317745427_Women_Empowerment_in_21st_Century

9
Analysis

Women’s situation in the Middle East and the Role of Culture

The political culture of Middle East region inherited from the Arab Islamic culture and it
perceived as a major challenge to the participation of women in the majority of Arab states in the
Middle East. Kuwaiti women for example who live in the most freedom country in the Arab
Gulf region are still challenging with the tribal tradition which create a major obstacles in their
political participation.

The tribal traditions are very clear in the case of Gulf states and most of these traditions are not
establishing the supportive pillars for the women engagement in politics. The way that some
tribes views the women role are the reason behind the passive political participation of the
women. Many tribes believe that women’s role should be restricted to the household activates
not the public affairs and politics. However, this perception about the women role is now going
to diminish. The women are engaging in different parts of public sectors but their role in making
decision is not high compared to the western countries.

Some scholars like Olimat (2009) tried to explain the culture of Arab Gulf countries as male-
oriented society in which the society depends highly on the male because of the patriarchal
system. According to the patriarchal system, the male controlled the power in the family and
therefore, the male become the one who responsible to take care of those who are under his
authority. We also argue that women in Islamic countries have difficulty in achieving equal
opportunities. The Islamic religion, for example, prevents the women from holding the position
of the judge and see the man as suitable one who can hold this position. So, we strongly believe
that the women in the Arab Muslims counties cannot advocate for the same equality that exists in
the west especially if the country strongly apply the Islamic law as basic statute . Nevertheless,
we totally agree that women in the Middle East region witnessed such oppression regardless the
adaption of Islamic rule.

In the Gulf region as an crucial part on the Middle East , the most debatable topic with regard the
women oppression is the women involvement in the political field. The participation of women
in the political making decision is very complicated issue in Gulf Arab states. The fact which
cannot be denied is that the women’s representation in the Arab legislative councils is the lowest

10
in the world ( IPU, 2014). This difficulty derived from the political culture of these countries
which described as tribal countries in which the customs and tradition restricted the freedom of
the women and its ability to participate in all field of life. Accordingly, many feminism
8
movements raised in the region especially during the Arab Spring.

However, we argue that the countries which hold the Islamic religion cannot take the feminism
as it exists in the west since Islamic culture has different traditions and socialization process
which differ from the western culture. The western feminism might not have the same
restrictions that the Muslims Arab countries have since the latter will be forever restricted by the
principles and the rules of Islam. The best example of the restrictions on the freedom of the
women in the Muslims counties would be the inability of women to withdraw the hijab since it
considers as a major symbol of the Muslims women.

In my opinion, Islamic rules are not the major problem that challenge the women but the wrong
interpretations by the members of society and those who make the decisions is the major
problem. The Islam for example enforce the women to cover their hairs but not the face. Thus,
some people misunderstand this and therefore, the family enforce the women to cover her face
too! Covering the face is not acceptable while you are working outside the house. This can be
one of the obstacle. Also, the Islam for example doesn’t allow the women to hold a higher
decision as leader of state which then reflected on the mind of people that the political
participation is limited to the men not the women.

Therefore, the media should play an important role to correct the misunderstanding. Also, the top
leaders who have influence on the society should also take the initiative to interpret the Islamic
rules. The Islam comes to make the justice and fair between the genders not to make any
discrimination. These discriminations are made by the rigid male in families and then it reflected
in the society. In other words, customs and traditions which made by the people themselves are
the obstacles.

8
Pekins.F.(2012). What is a Middle Eastern Feminist Movement: Feminist Movements in Lebanon and Israel. The
Hebrew University of Jerusalem. Retrieved from
https://jewishstudies.indiana.edu/docs/2015_16/Bern%20Essay%202016%20-%20Perkins%20Faith.pdf

11
Case study: Oman

Women in Oman; an overview

Until the mid of the twenty century, Omani women as majority of the women in the Arab Gulf
states were excluded from the participation in the development process of the country. The role
of Omani women is limited to certain kind of the hard work such as farming, helping the men in
collecting the woods, handicraft industry and other law-salary activities. 9

However, the situation of women subordination is no longer existed in Oman after the
renaissance era in 1970. The Sultan Qaboos took the responsibility of strengthen the position of
the Omani Women to work alongside the men equally in different parts of life. The Sultan notice
that the development cannot be achieved without its integral part of the society. Thus, the first
step that the Sultan did to improve the situation of the women was through education. Education
program was provided equally for both men and women. The Sultan’s strategy was totally right
in empowering women through education to be well educated and sophisticated enough to
participate affectively in different field of life. The right of education, work, vote and run off for
the office are examples of the rights which were given to the women in Oman. Different
institutions in Oman tries to enhance the position of the Omani women and treats them equally
with the men.

Omani government contributed positively in raising the participation of the Omani women in the
society. For example, many associations were established for women to engage effectively in
the societal activities. In 1972, the first Omani Women’s association was established for the
purpose of improving the status of Omani women and provide them with different training
program which enable them to set up their own business. Omani women are not only participate
in the voluntary activities but also participate positively in the labour market. In term of political
participation, Omani women are the first in the Gulf who were allowed to participate in the
10
parliament.

9
Anthony, Z.( 2005).The Gulf Challenges of the Future. The Emirate Center for Strategic Studies and Research: Abu
Dhabi, UAE, P 345
10
Anthony, Ibid, P345

12
Women’s rights in Oman
The membership of the Oman in the UN contributed positively in raising the position of the
women. Protecting the women rights and achieving the equality between the two genders was
one of the primary goal of the UN. Any country cannot achieve high level of prosperity and
development if one of its vital element is not treated well.

Furthermore, the empowerment of Omani women cannot be achieved without a legal protection
of their rights and duties by the state itself. Hence, the protection of Omani women was the first
priority of the new Sultan to enhance the position of the Omani women and open them the
opportunities to participate in the modernization process of the country.

The Omani constitution which was adopted in 1996, ensuring in its articles three principles that
would achieve prosperity for the citizens in Oman. These principle are justice, tranquility and
equality. 11I

In essence, the constitution of Oman was heavily affected by the principles of Islam as the
country adopted Al Sharia law as source of its legislation. Thus, the principles which mentioned
in the constitution are reflection of the principle of Islam. Article 12 of Omani Constitution
confirmed that equality and equal opportunities as well as justice are the major pillars of Omani
society. Furthermore, part three of the Omani constitution confirmed in article 17 that “ all
citizens are equal before the law and share the same public rights and duties”. Thus, Omani’s
law doesn’t allow for the gender discrimination. The constitution of Oman tries to open the
chance for both genders to have the equal opportunity in the development process.

According to Omani law, everybody in the country should be treated equally. The Omani
constitution guarantees the gender equality in the labour market too. It allows all citizens,
regardless their sex, to freely choose their employment ( UNECEF, 2011).

From what we mentioned above, we noticed that women rights is protected by law. So, why
some female young in Oman raised the feminists campaign in social media? What they are
advocating for?

11
The Basic Law of the Sultanate of Oman, Article 10(4)
13
In an interview conducted with Omani young women who interested in defending the human
rights named Buthaina Al Almani, she mentioned that rights of women are not fully recognized
by the state and the society itself doesn’t help women to take the advantageous of some of the
existed rights and to allow them to enjoy these rights which already existed.

Thus, the feminist campaign as we will discuss latter aims to aware the society about the
women’s rights and try to correct the misunderstanding about the women’s role in the society. It
also try to improve and enhance the women situation in the country.

Feminist Campaign in Oman

Group of Omani women expressed their dissatisfaction about the women’s situation in Oman
through launching a social media campaign in Twitter under the name of “Omanis Feminists”.

According to what we have seen in this campaign, the major issue of these women is the
patriarchy system which is considered as the root of the problem. This patriarchy system is the
factor which shapes the rules, customs and tradition in the country.

From the perspective of these feminists, the patriarchy system makes privileges for the men at
the expense of the women’s liberty and increases the authority of the men to use the violence
against women. Therefore, they are advocating for abolishment of this system. However, I think
the patriarchy system is one of the pillars of Omani society which cannot be easily removed. In
my opinion, feminists can advocate for best treatment from those who have the privileges but not
the abolish of the whole system. According to the survey which I distributed in Twitter, one of
the male participants mentioned that women should not ask for liberty as the women in the west.
He asked the women to leave the country if they are looking for the same liberty which existed in
the west. Therefore, this participant consider the feminist movement as radical. We will discuss
the survey and its results latter.

There is another issue which raised by the feminist on their account in the Twitter. The issue of
nationality of the children of those Omani women who married to non- Omani man.

According to the nationality law of Oman, the children of Omani men married to non-Omani
women are granted citizenship but children of Omani women married to non-Omanis are not
entitled to Omani citizenship.

14
Thus, nationality law is clearly raised the discrimination against Omani women. The Basic Law
of Oman gives equal rights to all men as well as women and therefore, the feminists raised the
question of why the Omani law discriminate when it comes to giving nationality to children born
to one Omani parent?

In my point of view, I am totally agree with the feminists in this point because the supreme law
of Oman should be respected by all other laws and therefore, I see that the nationality law should
not be conflicted with basic law. Thus, the nationality law should be modified to remove this
type of discrimination and the conflict with the supreme law.

The third important issue raised by Omani feminists is the issue of the Omani women students
who live in the campus of Sultan Qaboos University and their dissatisfaction with the system of
12
permissions.

According to the regulations of this University, the women cannot go outside the university
without getting a permission from their guardian. The feminists see this system as oppressed
system which suppressed the liberty of women. Feminists - in response to this concern- launched
a hashtag in twitter entitled “rejection of the permissions”

Feminists argue that women reached the legal age and therefore, they have the right to take their
decisions by themselves. From their point of view, the system of permissions is worthless and
against the liberty that the constitution grants it to them.

Miss Buthaina believed that permissions system is a clear violation of the Omani law since the
Omani law allow the women who reached the legal age to take their own decisions without the
system of guardianship. In other words, she argued that the system of guardianship is not existed
in Oman and therefore why the university does apply it to their students?

So we can notice that this system is a clear violation of the freedom of choice and liberty which
supposed to be given to any human in the world.

12
Permission system is a system in which women cannot go outside the campus without authorization of the
father or the guardian and therefore the daughter become dependent on the father’s decision.

15
The Public opinion on the issue of feminist campaign
To achieve the purpose of the study and to make my own contribution to this research, I
distributed a survey consisted of 8 questions to measure the public opinion on the feminist
campaign in Oman. The survey distributed online by using the Survey monkey for random
sample from Omani society. 100 persons response to this survey, 33 are male and the rest are
female.

The first question aims to see whether people are satisfy with the situation of Omani women.
thus, I started the survey with the following statement to see if they agree with or not : “Omani
Women's position is better than the rest of other Gulf states”. 36 persons says disagree and see
that women’s situation in Oman is not better than the rest of the Gulf while 32 person agree with
the statement. The other 32 person are not sure about the situation.

With regard the rights of women in Oman, 36 % of the people who answered the survey agree
that the women’s rights are fully recognized by the state while the majority of 56 rejecting the
statement. Moreover, the survey tried to see what the major obstacle with regards the women’s
liberty in Oman and it found that 83% of people believe that traditions are the major obstacle.

I also, through this survey tried to see what type of feminism should Omanis have and therefor I
presented the following statement: Women in Oman should have same liberty that existed in the
western countries" . The results show that 60% agree with the statement while 40% are
disagreeing.

In fact, I don’t expect that people will agree with this statement and I can guess from this
question that the feminism that we have it here in Oman is tend to be radical since they don’t
care about the cultural differences as it showed in the survey. In my opinion, feminism should
take into consideration the cultural differences and consider the privacy of each culture. In
addition , I ask them if they support the feminist movement in Oman and the majority say yes
regardless if it conflict with the Islamic values

With regards the patriarchy system , 58% of those who answered the survey tend to ask for the
abolishment of this system while small number of those who did the survey believe that the
patriarchy system should not be abolished. Again, this result proved that the feminists have
radical demands with regard the patriarchy system.

16
By the end of the survey, I asked them about the view on the feminist movement whether it is
radical or normal and I found that majority of 62% believe that the feminist campaign is normal
and asking for their normal rights.
I can assume that Omani feminists are right in asking for eliminating such type of
discrimination. However, I believe that they have to aware that they should only ask for equity
and achieve justice not to ask for liberty that exists in the west. According to the survey, I found
that majority of those who conducted the survey says the liberty should be as it existed in the
west which is not acceptable in our culture. So, feminist should be more rationale when they
advocating for the liberty.

Critique
Despite the importance of feminist campaign that led by Omani woman especially in
empowering the women position in societies , there are many criticisms directed to this
campaign . The first one is that feminism doesn’t have a sound basis and their advocating for
equality doesn’t have a logical argument. The feminist argues that women should be equal to the
men because both genders share the same human nature and both were existed at the same time
by nature. We respond to their argument by saying that even animals share the feature of
existence by nature. So, could animals ask for the right of equality since they share the same
feature with the human. Thus, feminism doesn’t provide us a strong reason for the question of
why both genders should be treated equally? We disagree with the feminism in their advocating
of being equal with the men. We think that the men have more ability to have such jobs that the
women cannot do it and even if the women can do it, we are sure that the women will not do it in
the same way that the men would do.

We also argue that women should not ask for the equality but instead, they supposed to ask for
equity since the men and women have different characteristics, and each gender should works in
their field based on the characterizes that they born with. Asking for more rights and privileges
could increase the responsibilities and duties of the women. For example, women could
contributed to pay the marriage payment since they have the same rights with men, they should
equal duties too. Thus, this equality could harm women indirectly.

With regard with the abolishment of patriarchy system, I think the abolishment of patriarchy
system is not something easy to ask for. In other words, I think this demand is kind of dream in a

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society like Oman which classified as conservative society in some of its aspects. In an
unstructured interview conducted with Omani person who interested in following the feminist
movement in Oman named Muhammad Bin Dahhi, he talked about the patriarchy system and
how it is important to have this system and the impossibility to remove it overnight.

He believe that patriarchy system become more and more important to protect the women from
the risks of life. From his perspective, life nowadays become more complicated and risky and
society is change. How the man is looking to the women is differed from the past. The principles
are changed and strange man would never try to save the strange women as before. That is why,
patriarchy system with its commitments to not let the girl for example to go outside home freely
without the guardian. So, the patriarchy system is existed to protect the women from any
possible threat.

Furthermore, Bin Dahhi added that feminists can ask to reduce such commitments imposed by
the patriarchy system but not removing the whole system since the idea of removing whole
system is not easy. It considered not easy because of the fact that this system is a result of a long
heritage, culture and customs. All these factors cannot be changed or removed overnight.

Conclusion

In conclusion, feminism is a political ideology that tries to achieve the equality of women to the
men. We believe that women should be treated based on the principle of equity not based on
equality since each gender has different characteristics and each gender supposed to completing
the other not competing each other. I think feminism failed to prove their argument of men and
women are same and they should be treated equal. I strongly believed that men and women never
become the same since they differ in the physical and mental ability. Until now, I don’t know
why women still struggling for being independence and what are the problem of having a man
who takes responsibility on their life. The women should change their mind and looking to the
authority of men as form of responsibility not as a king of domination. I believe that the women
should accept the primary responsibility that the nature designed for them. Nevertheless,
feminism can be logic in term of asking for equity, empowerment of women, removing the
subordination.

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Appendix:

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