One of the advantages of living in a different culture is being able to notice the subtle differences in imagery and written words which reflect the attitudes and views of the establishment. Attitudes about women here have been changing at a breath-taking clip. But old attitudes still linger unbeknownst to author or creator.
U.A.E. has been the most advanced in the Middle East when it comes to women's rights. They have made great strides in advancing women's causes and freedoms here. Laws have been instigated to protect the "weaker sex". Women can walk freely on city streets with or without headcovering or male family member. Hecklers of swimsuit clad women on beaches have been prosecuted. Colleges with 'manly' majors (like engineering - no, not domestic engineering) are available to women. Women have been elected to minor positions in politics. . . . And yet one reads articles, see signs and realizes they're close but not quite there.
Last month was Women's Month. This banner was all over Abu Dhabi in the malls and on the boulevards. A sweet depiction of femininity encased in a protective cocoon of roses. This graphic was disconcerting to me and it was everywhere I turned. I had this impulse to print out a thousand of the iconic "Rosie the Riveter" posters and tact them up on top "Rosie the Shopper" banners so with that juxtaposition between the two female types, people would start to "get it". Since I want to keep living here, I bit my tongue and stopped the presses.
Articles here are amusing, not so much in what they say, as in what they don't say. An article about more Middle Eastern women who are choosing to stay single approached the issue as a problem of not enough men to 'go around'. One person the author interviewed, said that it was time to encourage men to have more than one wife as Islam allows men to have up to four wives. (The culture here, although changing, is still ingrained with the idea that every female needs to have a protectorate male.) The cartoon illustration for the article depicted a young vibrant couple walking past an old ugly - and supposedly spinster - hag complete with hook nose. Did this drawing imply that these poor spinsters were not able to get hitched because they were lacking in looks or did spinsterhood make them old and ugly before their time? Nothing was mentioned about - maybe - these women were opting for education and independence as opposed to servitude and being second fiddle. Or possibly they had an agenda to which they aspired that did not neccessarily include being a mother and a wife.
But these times are a-changing. A newly elected woman to the Bahrain legislature, despite being ostracized by conservative members of government for not wearing a head/face covering, stuck to her guns and refused to submit to her colleagues harassment. Hang in there lady!