I arrived in Dubai this afternoon and I was honestly a little nervous about coming here. Not because I do not speak the language or because it is a new place I have never been to, but the fact that I am a woman and I have read in so many magazines and travel guides that woman, especially in their choice of dress, have to be careful not to disregard the rules. No one is to take pictures of them without their permission and the dress is extremely conservative covering most of the body, even in this 100+ degree heat. I guess I never realize how far women have come in America when we compare with the rest of the world. It is crazy to imagine the lack of rights that some women all over the world deal with daily. I came across a photo of a middle-eastern wedding and all of the women were wearing clothing from head to toe covering everything; you were not able to tell who was who. In many countries women are still not allowed to vote or go outside in public and it just boggles my mind to think that in the year 2010 this is the way it is for some people all because of their sex! Tomorrow we are going out to visit and I am apprehensive about doing something wrong or being frowned upon because of my gender role as a woman.
Wednesday, June 9, 2010
blog week 4
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Wow! You left the country and are going to keep up with this class?! And, I am so excited to hear your gendered moments for the remainder of the semester. How does culture change your perception of gender communication? How are the gendered moments different for men and women there?
ReplyDeleteThat is so interesting that you will be immersed in such a different culture. I think we are lucky that in America we are able to have the freedoms that we do as women. I think it is something that we should not take for granted. I would love to be able to see a culture that is so different from ours. We have a lot of stereotypes about how things are in middle-eastern countries and sometimes I think that maybe the women there do not know what they are missing because that is the life they are accustomed to. It will be interesting to hear about your experiences on your trip.
ReplyDeleteAfter spending a few days there, I found out even more about the culture and how gender affects how people are in their society. Not too too long ago, when the man died, the woman was forced to 'die'--was killed, in order to be burried next to her husband and not to live on without him. The culture was certainly different from what I experience in my daily life in Princeton, NJ and at times it bothered me the way that woman and men were seen. Many, if not the majority, of the men and woman in Dubai wear these traditional dress type outfits which cover them shoulder to toe and the woman wear Burka-type dress on their head, many covering their entire face but their eyes. The women dress is black and the man dress is white and when I asked what the reason was, our tour guide said that this was so that the woman did not attract attention to themselves and to more or less 'blend in'. He told me about a woman who had decorated in a color the edges of her dress and she had been brought up by the Emirate of Dubai because she was drawing too much attention to herself. This culture definitely changed my perception of how gender is received and how other societies are much less equal than the one we live in. I do not want to necessarily think that we, as women, take our gender for granted because I don't feel as though it is a priviledge, but a right. As men, they have many more opportunities and the women are regarded as second to the men. The weather is extremely hot, over 100 degrees even at night, and the woman are still required to wear black-which attracts the most heat, in order not to attract attenttion.
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