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One Thousand and One Nights

May 23, 2014 by LL

One Thousand and One Nights, or The Arabian Nights, is one of the most notable pieces of Arabic and Persian folklore. People around the world recognize the title, but few know the details of this legendary piece of literature.

This piece of work was not written by one person, but rather is an accumulation of tales and folklore from the Middle East, North Africa and South Asia—in particular from the Mesopotamian region that comprises modern-day Iraq.

The stories were put together over the course of several centuries; the first known edition of the text dates back to the 9th century specifically. In the 10th century, Baghdad’s Ibn al-Nadim’s Fihrist directly mentions The Arabian Nights and Scheherazade, although al-Nadim noted just 200 tales rather than 1,001. This goes to illustrate just how many different versions of The Arabian Nights can be found throughout the Arab world.

The Arabian Nights was first translated into English and introduced to the Western world in 1706. The Arabian Nights is primarily written in prose, and interspersed with verse. It is also a classic example of embedded narrative, or a story within a story.

The premise of The Arabian Nights is King Shahryar and his new wife Scheherazade. King Shahryar had killed all of his previous brides, and in order to avoid the same fate, Scheherazade ingeniously decides to tell him a new story each night, always ending with a cliff hanger, so that he allows her to live to tell the end of the story the next night—for 1,001 nights. Eventually the King grows to love her and spares her life. Some of Scheherazade’s stories that many people will find familiar are: Aladdin’s Wonderful Lamp, The Seven Voyages of Sinbad the Sailors, and Ali Baba.

Through Scheherazade’s stories and layered poetry, she touches on many themes, such as forgiveness, Allah, advice, warnings, and critical analysis of life’s many challenges.

 

Women in Iraq: Representation and Rights

May 8, 2014 by LL

This week, Iraq is holding elections. International news may be focused on the violence rocking Baghdad in the days leading up to the elections, but women are focused on their rights and changing roles in Iraqi society.

Gender Equality

The United Nations notes that due to decades of economic sanctions, violence, and repression, women in Iraq have been consistently marginalized both economically and socially. This repression has been in part due to limited access to education and employment opportunities, as well as violence against women and lack of institutional support for gender equality, particularly in rural regions. To break down the numbers, 28.2% of girls and women over the age of 12 are illiterate in Iraq; this is nearly double the percentage of boys and men over the age of 12 that are illiterate. The United Nation also notes that the reason why women do not reach their desired level of education is due to family resistance or refusal.* Lack of education leads to fewer economic opportunity and thus financial independence, further marginalizing women or all age groups.

Advancements

Despite this discouraging fact, women in Iraq have been making significant advancements. One of these advancements comes in the form of microfinance loans, such as through the Private Sector Development Program in Iraq, sponsored by UN Women. Providing women with small loans to start their own at-home businesses to enhance their independence and economic stability has proven successful in recent years. Non-government organizations, such as Daughters of Iraq and Women’s Empowerment Organization (WEO) offer vocational training that enhances women’s confidence, builds economic prospects and their agency and independence.

Women in Politics

Since 2005, the Iraqi constitution has required that a quarter of Iraqi parliament members are female. While it is clear that women’s economic empowerment has a long way to go in terms of gender equality, the fact that there is a required representation of women in the government, even if they are a minority in number, is a positive step. However, although women are represented at the national level by law, they are still underrepresented at the state and rural level of government.

Progress has recently been made by the State Ministry for Women’s Affairs (SMWA), which has promoted a national strategy to promote gender equality in Iraq. SMWA also pushes for women’s issues to become a mainstream concern in Iraqi society, rather than being dismissed as a minor issue by the government.

Clearly, women in Iraq deal with many difficulties on a daily basis, ranging from educational and economic inequalities to overt sexism. However, positive steps are being made both by domestic and international organizations to enhance gender equality and opportunities for women of all ages in Iraq. Given time and continued support by human rights and education advocates, the next generation of Iraqi women will have access to the same opportunities that their counterparts in other areas of the world do.

What can you do? Keep Iraqi women in mind and continue to support the organizations that support them, such as the UN Women. An issue that is seen is not forgotten.

 

*Sources include: http://unami.unmissions.org/LinkClick.aspx?fileticket=xqx9gxy7Isk%3D&tabid=2790&language=en-US

And

 http://www.thenational.ae/world/middle-east/in-iraq-women-fight-to-keep-rights-on-campaign-trail

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