Arab-American

The next chapter was “It’s Not an Oxymoron: The Search for an Arab Feminism” written by Susan Muaddi Darraj. The writer writes about how she struggles with finding a way to fit in with other feminist. She is an Arab Christian that is trying to find her place in the world. She struggles with understanding why Western people think about her homeland the way they do. When she talks with them all she sees is the stereotypes they see towards her people. Some of the things they see are the black robes, the sheiks, belly dancers, camels and veiled women. I can see how this is possible through my own life experiences when people ask “Where you are from?” and when you tell them, there is typically a common response or expectation. While she grew up in America she has very different experiences that that of her parents and her other family members from other countries. Her father would not be considered a typical man from his culture in that he was more of a feminist especially when telling her she could do and anything she wanted to do or be. After needing more understanding she saved up her money and went to visit Egypt, Palestine and Jordan. She met different Arab women and learned of their struggles like making it to school, paying for school or even getting to attend school. She talked with veiled women about why they do it. She learned that these women too were feminist in their own way, she learned that even though they maintained their culture by wearing the veil they could still be feminist and fight for women’s rights in other ways. The writer brings to light a very important thing that most don’t think about and are all too often quick to jump to and that is that most see Arab women as being the only women in the world that have gender-oppressive traditions. When in reality women all around the world women face some sort of gender-oppressiveness. I really found this writer interesting.

#ArabAmerican #Veil