north african women

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Abstract
The progress of women in certain non-Western communities has been thwarted by the patriarchal set up that is favored in those societies. These societies see more value in educating the boy child and no value in educating the girl child. Most of these societies view the girl child as a source of wealth to her nuclear family. In some region, a family that has many female children are considered wealthy as these daughters would someday be married off at some price. Poverty also plays a significant role in inhibiting the progress of ladies in most of these societies. If poor parents are offered a high enough bride price, they highly likely to give away their daughter to a man she has never even met before. It is also possible that the men from such societies feel superior to the women because they get the women at a price. Therefore, once the women are given to them, they feel like the women are their personal property which have no right to speak up against their owners. The works of Rached, Mernissi, and Soueif give a first-hand narration of the plight of women in the patriarchal societies of North Africa.
North African Women Education versus Marriage
Globally, different aspects unique to a particular set-up in the community have thwarted the progress of women in the society. The situation of African women in most developing nations is much worse than those in developed countries. The twenty-first century has seen women get out of the cocoon of oppression and rise into influential positions.

This century has also seen an increase in movements that champion for the rights of women. Feminist agendas have cropped up in different levels of government with much focus directed towards elevating the status of the girl child.
The vulnerability of women in various societies is generational, and the primary cause is denying them a chance to explore the opportunities pursuing education presents. Only a small percentage of women, especially in marginalized communities, have been able to pursue higher education successfully. This statistic partly explains why many men dominate in most leadership positions. The stereotypical belief that some careers are usually isolated specifically for men might not be very accurate after all. The paper will examine the plight of women, with a particular focus on the experiences of North African women, in terms of the association between education and marriage, and any other factors that promote the relationship between the two variables.
Education is an important social aspect that each parent endeavors to give his/her children. High exposure to the school system increases the chances of individuals getting into honest employment as a way of earning a living. An educated society is more likely to have improved standards of living and a lower number of people who engage in delinquents than an uneducated society. A sad state of affairs in the Northern part of Africa is that education is viewed as a reserve for men. Women who have managed to go through the education system narrate their ordeals and mention the numerous obstacles that they had to endure in their pursuance of a brighter future for themselves, and that of the generations to come. Most of these women admit that climbing the career ladder in areas that are primarily dominated by men is difficult because of the resistance from both the society and the male professionals in those areas. These women argue that the society views their progress as an act of defiance to some prescribed societal rules. An educated woman is an enlightened woman; as a result, she is likely to stand up and fight against any forces trying to demean her status in the society. This enlightenment does not please the male chauvinists and makes them see such women as rebellious.
A film bringing together four Women born during the colonial times in Egypt assists in identifying the challenges faced in their journey to the coveted positions they hold politically (Rached n.pag.). Each one of them was lucky to get an opportunity to go through formal education. Formal education gave them more exposure and expanded their capacity to fight for women’s rights; a role which binds them together. Their liberalism is impressive and does not let their religious differences affect how they associate with each other. In the group, Safynaz Kazem, a journalist is the only practicing Muslim. Kazem believes in Islamic governance (Rached n.pag.). Despite her belief in Islam and its kind of governance, she still shares the common goal fo fighting for the rights of women with the other two. Her passion is driven by the thoughts of how women in her society are usually tossed into prisons like inanimate objects for simple mistakes of going against some of the oppressive rules of her community.
Wedad Mitry, the second of the four, is a Christian who began her campaign for women rights as a student leader at the Fouad University. She also managed to become the head of the Popular Resistance Committee; a feminist movement for the protection of women’s rights (Rached n.pag.). Amina Rashid was yet another member of the group. She was lucky to hail from an affluent family that was able to pay for her to be educated abroad. After completing her studies, Amina returned to Egypt to continue with her political commitment. The last of the four was known as Shahenda Maklad. Shahenda’s political star started shining in college where she was a student leader. She came to meet Wedad during a revolt in the 1950s. The four women have played a significant role in the fight for women’s rights in Egypt even though they represented only a small portion of the elite women from that region. It is the duty of such elite women from any society to promote unity, respect, and gender equity within their communities and countries at large.
Marrying off young girls instead of educating them is the easier option, and many non-Western societies settle for this option. Proponents of this practice make women look like commodities that can be bought and owned by men. The wife is expected to obey all her husband’s rules and conform to his lifestyle without raising any issues. Certain cultures have made this practice so common that their women have accepted it as their fate. The lack of enthusiasm in educating women is based on the premise that they will get married into a new family, assume their identity, and cease to be members of their nuclear family. The nuclear family, therefore, views education as a worthless investment that will only benefit another family. With this notion imprinted in their heads, some women just decide to drop out of school and get into early marriages. In essence, marriage for some women is a solution of sorts to their hardships; like those who drop out of school, some opt for marriage to get some solace when they feel that life has been too hard on them.
In the novel, The Map of Love, the lives of two women who were generations apart revolve around finding love and contentment in their marriage (Soueif 13). The first woman is Anna Winterbourne. She leaves for Egypt from England and falls in love with Sharif Pasha Al-Baroudi. After a period of almost a century, Isabel Parkman, a descendant of Anna, follows the same path after divorcing her husband and finding new love in an Egyptian-American called Omar. She finds love in Omar, and the two develop a strong connection that makes them feel “like they had known each other in another life” (Soueif 15). The lives of the two women, in the story, revolved around taking care of their homesteads and their husbands. The narrative reveals, through Isabel’s divorce, that unhappy marriages can exist even in societies where the women are enlightened. She experienced a troubled marriage due to her interest in another man (Soueif 18). The marriages of the two women restrict their adventurous spirits and deny them exposure to the world. Anna grieves for a long time after the death of her husband, but eventually learns to be independent in making her decisions, and starts to enjoy the freedoms that come with independence.
The extreme relevance that certain societies attach to women getting married does not always yield desirable results, because when the marriages break due to discontent, the innocent children also suffer. Apart from Isabel, who divorces her husband, Amal (Omar’s sister) also experiences some gender segregation in her marriage (Soueif 80). They two agree that children suffer from the alienation that exists in broken relationships. The novel reveals the sorry situation that some married women are subjected to, and how their lives just revolve around caring for their husband and children. The monotony of activities and the realization that getting married was a misconstrued move, leads to the emergence of many divorced families, complicating the lives of women even more. Therefore, it is important for parents and relatives to allow their daughters to freely choose the men they want to get married to without any undue influence. These improper influences, in most cases, force the woman to marry men that who they do not like at a very young age, condemning them to a future of sadness and spiritual slavery.
In particular cultural contexts, the leadership system in many households is patriarchal; men are assumed to occupy a superior position in the society. Thus, they are the center of consultation and the ultimate decision makers on many matters. The patriarchal system uplifts the men, making their wants superior to the desires of women. A memoir written by Mernissi exposes the negativity of a society headed by men. She describes the contempt with which women regard to gender discrimination. Since she was born in a Harem, she explains the desperation that runs through the minds of women when they are locked inside the Harems out of touch with the outside world, and their views suppressed whenever they raise them. In her society, jut like many non-western societies of that time, only men had a right to access education. As a result, most women were illiterate and had almost no clue of how to survive away from the harems were they to be set free.
The moment the women, led by Mernissi’s mother, started to realize how biased and senselessly oppressive some of the religious rules were to women, the Moroccan society slowly began to change. These women played a significant role in informing Mernissi about the oppressive nature of her culture early enough (Mernissi 63). Her mother, grandmother, and aunts tried to ensured that she would not be resigned to the same fate as theirs. They always encouraged her to go for formal education and any other activity that would raise her standard in the Moroccan society. In the Harems, women were given very little importance. Both the women and men would work hard on various tasks, but only the men would receive the payment. The rebellious nature of her mother is what afforded Mernissi the privilege to get a formal education. As a result, she grew up as an educated woman, acutely aware of the unequal treatment that women had to contend with. This background prepared her for her later role as an advocate for gender equity.
Many homesteads in North Africa still suffer from abject poverty, and family members struggle to make ends meet. However, in the region, a family with many girls is considered wealthy. This notion is based on the idea that when they get married, their parents will receive the dowry which will help uplift their living standards. A portion of the groom’s wealth is transferred to the wife’s family in exchange for the woman’s hand. This gesture is an ancient custom which continues to be demanded by many families as a condition for marrying their daughter. This act of attaching material things to the worth of a girl child might be one of the reasons why the men see them as their subordinates. The woman is seen as the sacrifice necessary to end the family’s sufferings. Finally, some jurisdictions make it difficult for women to receive justice through the courts. Some of them are seen as traitors for reporting their men. As a result, some women decide to suffer in silence.
In conclusion, the narratives about the North African women and how marriage relates to their education reveals an interesting pattern. Ladies who are educated, are less likely to be victims of forced early marriages. The forced early marriages also take away the ability of the women to get an education. Once they are married off, it is up to their husband to determine whether or not they want to give them formal education. Therefore, both marriage and education suppress each other in some way Although the number of liberal women who fight for women’s rights is on the rise, the input of men is also important. Breaking restrictive and retrogressive cultural practices and beliefs remain the preliminary step to empower women. Unless this is accomplished, their status in the patriarchal societies might never experience any significant improvements.
Works Cited
Four women of Egypt. Dir. Tahani Rached. National Film Board of Canada. 1997.
Mernissi, Fatima. Dreams of trespass: Tales of a harem girlhood. Basic Books, 1995.
Soueif, Ahdaf. The map of love. Bloomsbury Publishing, 2012.