“Belly Dancing”

“Belly Dancing” Before this semester began in August I was somewhat clueless when it came to foreign culture and I like many naive Americans when someone said the Middle East the first couple things that pop into my head were hummus, war, and belly dancing. Belly dancing is a common type of dance in the […]

Like a Girl

The socialization of young women in our culture occurs through many institutions and by means of numerous materialistic items. The familial institution is crucial to how a young woman perceives herself and the world, but her peer group, school, and toys all play a role into her view of what is right and wrong, and […]

The Slave Market

ISIS. This is a name we have all come to know while researching and learning about the Middle East. ISIS stands for Islamic State in Iraq and Syria but has become more recently known as ISIL, which stands for Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant. They are an extremist group that started as an […]

All About them Babies: Part 2

Today, we will continue the discussion on differences between the U.S. and the Middle East. However, there are many more differences in infancy than pregnancy in each region, because there is no universal way to raise a child in our world. The other major idea to keep in mind is that there is no universal […]

All About them Babies: Part 1

Childbirth is a woman’s issue. Childbirth is a woman’s issue. Childbirth is a woman’s issue . . . I’ve seen this phrase countless times during my research for this post, and maybe it’s just me, but something about these five words put together in this order is extremely unsettling. My first response to this sentence […]

Saudi Arabia and Higher Education

Saudi Arabia is in an eon of transformation. In the last 50 years it has obliterated its previous rate of illiteracy down to near-zero. Education for women has also become a marked investment for the country, as demonstrated in the King Abdullah Scholarship program, the largest scholarship program in the history of Saudi Arabia, that […]

The Dead Sea Brings Life

What is the first place that comes to mind when thinking of destinations to travel to? I’m sure for many people the Middle East does not jump out at them as a beautiful, relaxing place to vacation. The Middle East is often directly associated with turmoil and war, but in reality there are several breath-taking […]

Obesity in Middle Eastern Women: One of the most extreme cases in the world

In recent years, obesity has been a major part of the health discussion around the world. Statistics stating how obese many kids, women, men, middle-aged, school-aged, and any other category you can think of have been floating around and are highly discussed especially when it comes to the United States. However, more articles have been […]

Saving Muslim Women?

We are always told never to judge a book by its cover, but I find it very hard not to jump to conclusions when I see certain pictures. There are specific images that work really well on covers to help them sell (of course there are others that do not sell). An example that comes […]

No Women Allowed

Being a female student who participated in three different sports in high school, I find it astounding that females are not allowed to participate in sports in the Middle East. Girls receive no physical education in state schools and many private schools rarely even offer it to them. So why are women banned from playing […]

Are We Painting Everyone With the Same Brush?

Female Genital Mutilation On Monday, October 29th, Reza Aslan took an interesting spin on the issue of Female Genital Mutilation when going against the comedian Bill Maher’s perspective of violence and oppression against women. Maher stated that this is a problem in “Muslim countries” that occurs in extreme forms. According to Aslan, the argument was […]

The Ongoing Fight for Women’s Rights

In the United States, I wake up daily to rights I didn’t even realize I had been granted…because I never thought someone would take them away. As an unmarried American woman, rights like driving, going places unattended, and hanging out with guy friends are just everyday moments for me, not preposterous acts that could be […]

I’d-Buy-A Abaya

‘Single in the City’ columnist Rym Tina Ghazel once said, “Every country’s national dress is symbolic and should be worn with respect, given its history and its nationalistic, as well as patriotic, connotations.” In this case, she was talking about the internationally known Abaya, which is worn by most Muslim women. What is the […]

Video shows discrimination against Islam

A video has lately spread on youtube, showing a veiled young girl walking down the street, and then gets hit by a man passing by. The man knocks her down to the ground, and then runs away. Now the reason he did it is obviously the religious difference he could spot, as she was veiled […]

Female Violence on the Rise

Current reports have surfaced of a group being called the ‘Burkha Brigade”, which is a women’s clan that is being taught military strategies and fighting skills by extremist organizations. A recent YouTube video on the web shows the training of these women, which has sparked much concern from leaders around the world. Al-Qaeda and the […]