Falconer 1

Chloe Falconer
Williams
English 112
25 March 2015
Annotated Bibliography
AbuKhalil, As'ad. "Women in the Middle East." Islamic Research Foundation International.
N.p.,n.d. Web. 27 Mar. 2015. Although there is no gender equality in the Middle East, the
phenomena of sexism and misogyny are global, not peculiar to Islam, or to the Middle
East. The status of women varies widely in the Middle East, and one should not project
the norms in Saudi Arabia, one of the most sexist and oppressive states in the region, onto
the larger Muslim world. Many of the causes for the inferior status of Middle Eastern
women are indigenous, but the West has exacerbated this oppression.
Elizabeth, Ann, and Mayer. "Law and Women in the Middle East." Cultural Survival. N.p., n.d.
Web. 26 Mar. 2015. The legal status of women in the Middle East is currently unstable
and problematic. It is clear that the progress that was made in the area of women's rights
is not irreversible. The situation where a Westernized political group imposed legal
reforms on societies that were still largely very traditional, may now be reversed. In Iran,
some Middle Eastern governments are seeking to reassign legal status to women at a time
when an expanding segment of their societies has been influenced by the women's
liberation movement in the West. Under these circumstances it seems certain that the
legal status of women in the Middle East will remain a greatly contested issue.
Esfandiari, Haleh. "How Will Women in the Middle East Fare in 2015?." Washington Wire.

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N.p., 2 Jan. 2015. Web. 27 Mar. 2015. In the areas of Syria and Iraq where Islamic State
took control, the extremists created a hell on earth for women. ISIS fighters took
women as concubines, forced them into marriages, and sold them in makeshift slave
markets. Women in Yemen and Libya had played a pivotal role in the uprisings against
autocratic and misrule but they were soon marginalized, their voices silenced. Women in
Saudi Arabia continued to be punished for driving, and the country maintains the role of
the male guardian for almost everything a woman wants to do. Awareness of their rights
is rising among Middle Eastern women of all classes, especially among the young. Given
this awareness and the persistent denial of their rights, Middle Eastern women will
continue to fight religious extremists and autocrats and in the end, they will prevail.
Jayachandran, Seema. "Does economic development mean less discrimination against women? If
only it were that simple ..."The Milken Institute Review: A Journal of Economic Policy
Jan. 2015: 35+. Global Issues in Context. Web. 25 Mar. 2015. Women in richer countries
generally have it better than women in poorer ones. In the poorest countries, women
have little power in the home or community. As a country develops, women are
progressively empowered until they reach the state of their counterparts in the West,
where the gender gap has been eliminated in education, if not in salaries. Similar
descending lines would be apparent if we substituted any of a host of measures of female
disempowerment, ranging from the social acceptance of domestic violence to attitudes
toward women in the workplace. Women's health improves along with economic
development, too. While women everywhere generally live longer than men, this
advantage is smaller in poor countries. In short, according to most measures, women do
better in relative terms as countries get richer.

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Kelly, Sanja. "Women's Rights in the Middle East and North Africa." Freedom House. N.p., n.d.
Web. 26 Mar. 2015. The overarching purpose of this study is to facilitate and support
national and international efforts to empower women in the Gulf states. Economic
empowerment continuously grows despite persistent challenges and academic
opportunities expand womens prospects. The protection from domestic violence remains
minimal for women in the Middle East and gender-based legal discrimination is mainly
prominent in Saudi Arabia. Political rights for women rise amid low regional standards
and unless the judicial system of each country becomes more independent, rigorous, and
professional, women of high social standing will continue to have better access to justice
than poor women and domestic workers.