|
|
    
Before they are married, women, regardless of age, must live with their parents or a male relative if their parents are deceased. They are usually not allowed to leave their homes without the company of a married woman or male relative. They are not allowed to drive their own cars or visit friends. For this reason, many young women spend a large amount of their time on the phone, if they are allowed to use it. Phone conversations can be monitored by parents at liberty. Most girls and young U.A.E. women today are allowed to go to school, but some are taken out before completing their education in order to get married. Many colleges and universities exist, mostly segregated, but some are co-educational, such as the American University of Sharjah. Women attend these colleges if their families allow it, and that depends on whether a family is "liberal" or "religious." Education at the university level is designed to give students skills they can use in the workplace, and students are not exposed to a wide or broad education. Most of the time, acquiring knowledge consists of rote memorization. Religions other than Islam are not taught and philosophy may be taught in high school if it is censored by teachers and the Ministry of Education. Young women listen to Arabic and sometimes English music and watch satellite television, which consists of many Arabic channels and sometimes English ones. Mexican soap operas are popular among women of all ages. Scenes that are considered to be against Islamic values, such as romantic scenes or scenes that involve nudity, are censored by the government. Going to the the theater to watch movies is usually allowed only if a male relative is present or if the family is highly liberal or educated. Some families allow movies to be rented and watched inside the house, but some young women watch in fear of a father's or brother's anger. Very few young women take up reading. It is often not encouraged in schools or by parents, especially if they are illiterate. Libraries, which are open in most residential areas, hold limited numbers of books. After a woman is married, she has more freedom to leave her house, even though she needs her husband's permission to do so. A married woman may go to malls on her own or with others, visit her friends and relatives and even drive a car. She can watch movies with her husband and read any magazines she wishes to read. Birthdays are not celebrated, but Eid is a celebration for all. It is a religious holiday for which women and men buy new clothes, shoes and accessories. Lots of visiting occurs between family members and feasts are held during Eid. Money is given to younger family members by all elders, especially men. Women collect hundreds of dirhams and usually invest that money in jewelery made of gold. At that time, women also get their hands and sometimes feet decorated in henna (picture above). Going to the mosque is generally not taken up by women in the U.A.E., married or unmarried. Some occasions, however, allow a woman to appear in the women-only part of the mosque, such as tarawih prayers in Ramadan, the holy month of fasting. The reason that the religious duty of going to the mosque is only expected of men, religious scholars say, is to allow women to remain at home and take care of their children. U.A.E. women lead lavish lives. They have servants to clean their rooms every morning, cooks to prepare their meals and drivers to take them where they need to go (Gulf News, Reliance on maids reaches staggering proportions). Married women are expected to teach the housekeepers to do their duties and to supervise them. Unmarried women have this as a luxury, but are still expected to learn to cook and to manage a home to be marriagable. An opinion piece published in the July 2000 issue of Reality Bytes and Kicks, a bi-monthly e-mail newsletter, shows an aspect of young U.A.E. women's lives: Yackers Sackers. |
     |
