The cost of being a woman in the middle East

Some people have so many questions about living in the Middle East, and especially about women, and here are ten things you need to know about them:

1-If you’re a girl in the middle east, then you can’t go out of the home without your father’s permission, and if the father is dead or absent, brother is the replacement. Some of you will think that these oppressive practices only exists in the retroactive and radical families, but you need to know that even ordinary families still stick by this idea, and of course, this makes women always subordinated to the male characters in their family. If the girl decided to rebel and to break this rule by going outside home whereas her father didn’t permit her to do this, then she will be threatened and even physically hurt (if the physical violence was a part of the family culture).

2- Woman can’t make a decision of getting married without her family acceptance, her blood will be plashed (an Arab expression means that if a male from her family killed her, then he will never be punished socially and her killing is permissible). In these cases, the law will judge the killer under the honor killing legal framework which encourages such practices.

3- Most of the women in middle east can’t choose their clothing, because cloths here are “moral thing’’, and even further, most of the Muslim women are forced to wear “Hijab”, because also Hijab isn’t a pure religious aspect, it is a mixture of culture and religion, and it’s more cultural.

4- (This one will certainly surprise you) some girls can’t share their photos on their social media accounts.

5- Most of the girls can’t ride bicycles here (bicycle in Middle Eastern culture is a manly thing), and this prevention mainly relates to two reasons:

· Virginity in Middle Eastern culture is a very sacred aspect, so most of the girls forced to protect their hymen from ripping by any practice, and people think that riding a bicycle is harmful to the hymen safety.

· Girls aren’t allowed to pose in an opened legs poses, in transports, sport, when she set in a public place, and riding bicycle due to Middle Eastern culture is flagrant for girls.

6- Sex: women here can’t make any decision related to any sexual behavior such as (kissing, hugging, cuddling, and of course sex intercourse), and they can’t even express their sexual desire or talk about sex.

7- Study abroad or in a different city is a luxurious thing which is available only to very few girls, and those girls generally have a bad reputation, because they travel by themselves.

8- Smoking and drinking alcohol isn’t a normal thing for women here.

9- Being actress, filmmaker, TV presenter isn’t an available decision for every girl here.

10- The last thing you need to know about women in the Middle East, is that although all the religious and social restrictions that limit their life, decisions, and choices, they are powerful, strong, and they worked so hard in the past to get their freedom, and still working today for their daughters’ future.