Women in the Middle East are playing a significant role in popular movements for democratic reform and challenging authoritarian rule, such as the Arab Spring uprisings. While some view Islamic culture as oppressive towards women, the document cites several influential early female figures in Islam. It argues that interpretations of religious texts have been used to both restrict and liberate women, and that women must take the lead in demanding and achieving their own rights and freedoms.

1. Today there is a universal Muslim desire for a political standard that is sympathetic to
Islamicculture, but also embodies democratic rule, which is grounded on the ideologies of
popular sovereignty, communityintegrity, and self-respect. Women are playing a
significant part in the prevalent movements that are currently occupying many parts of
the Middle East commonly referred to as the Arab Spring. The uprising has
challengedcontemporary methods of authoritarian rule and opposedOrthodox Islam
traditions. They are opening the way for new political options of Muslim democracy,
which recognize religion as a need, by incorporating what is held sacred within its secular
framework. They strive for an emerging Muslim democracy that echoes with attitudes of
worldwide humanism and justice.
Despite the Western World’s judgments on Islam’s treatment of women, many highly
regarded and honored women have origins in the practice. Khadeejah Bint Khuwaylid
was the first individual to ever embrace theIslamic faith. Sumayyah bint Khabbab proved
to be the very first martyr of the religion. She was the first Muslim killed by the
polytheists of Mecca.Ayesha was honored with the title of the greatest scholar of Islam.
Khadijah bint Khuwaylid loved the profit Muhammad. Khansaa made the greatest
sacrifice to Allah after her brother’s death by sacrificing her three sons. The Islamic
culture often uses these examples to show their appreciation for the women who follow
the religion.
Men of Islam have different opinions as to whether their women are oppressed, but this is
true of any culture whether it be in the Middle East or in the western world. In the Holy
Bible from the book of Corinthians, Paul says that women should not speak in the church,
nor can they remarry unless they remarry their husband or their husband’s brother in the

2. event of her husband’s death. Most Christian men do not live by this rule, and would
find the ideal to be quite oppressive or even cruel. Yet, there are still Christian men that
will not marry a woman if she has been divorced. Same holds true for the Islamic faith,
while some men draw their treatment from woman strait from certain parts of the Quran,
others are able to put scripture in perspective, and support liberation of women. Those
who argue the movement say that they do not want their women to lose their dignity.
They do not care about their measurements or lipstick. They say those are superficial
things, which have no sustenance, and that beauty comes from within.
In 2009, women in Yemen started to display different forms of fashion on their black
abeya and a headscarves. They decorated the dresses with different rhinestones and
jewels to add a form of style and beauty to the clothes that hide their physical beauty, but
on October 26, 2011, women burnttheir traditional veils during a political demonstration
in Yemen. This occurrence is one that women of the area would not have dreamt of three
years ago. Yemen women led the movement of opposition against the corrupt
government that ruled along with the resistance of anyform of foreign intervention that
would have infringedon the sovereignty of their land. The primary interest of this female
directed effort, had democracy at the forefront. Liberated women expressed a lack of
concern whether or not men demonstrated alongside them. They protested without the
restraints of oppression despite sniper shootings that killed young citizens. These women
showed great endurance for what they believed to be right, and are part of the drastic
change that is happening in the Middle East today.
If the women of Islam want freedom from their husbands today, then they must demand
their rights from those men who resist. Women must practice leadership, and refrain

3. from just following. They should lead by example. If a woman chooses to let her
husband restrict her, then she alone must live with that burden, and she has chosen
imprisonment for herself and for her children. There are not any laws restricting women.
If they choose imprisonment for themselves, then no one else can give them freedom.
Protesting in the streets will not give them freedom. The Western forces cannot give
them freedom. NATO cannot give them freedom. Democracy will not give them
freedom. They must free themselves from the oppression. The Quran says that surely
Allah “does not change the condition of his people until they change their own
conditions”. (Ar-Ra'd, 13:11)