Ghadbian, Najib."Islamists and Women ain the Arab World."American Journal of Islamic Social Sciences;1995,12,1,spring,19-35. Sociolagical abstracts.
This article is about the changes within the Islamic communinity today and its effects on women. Islamists have been known to be the most opressive with their women and their laws and traditions. Generally in the past the women can not show any part of their bodies accept for their eyes in public, they have pretty much no rights at all, and were denied access to religious knowledge. Recently in the last five to ten years women have been getting more rights and the traditional "Islamic Woman" is disappearing. They have more access to the public domain, and their ideas and voices are now being acknowledged. "Women's particepation in higher decision making in Islamist organizations has been very limited, ...Islamists see education & literacy, equal access to religious knkowledge, some marital rights, & an independent economic identity for women , but they still need to escape from the falso public/private dichotomy & intergrate women at more levels."(Pflum,M) With these focuses in mind for the future Islamic Women have no chance but to start recieving more and more rights with time.
This article is applicable to our topics because it gives a new a new perspective to traditionalism and feminism through the eyes of a different culture and area in the world. We do not realize how lucky we are to some women in comparison to where we are with our rights and privalages compared to where they are right now in the 21st century. We can only stay active and affirmative within our own sociaty and culture and branch out to help other women in need using our skills that we have attained over time as well.
Papoport, Tamar; Yanay, Niza. "Adolescents Complex Represantations of the Maternal and Parental Roles." International Journal of Sociology of the Family, 1989,19,1,spring,95-112. Sociology Abstracts.
This article is very good because it shows the progression of traditionalism and feminism in the postmodern era. They studied the perceptions of 95 middle-class male and female Israel adolescents in the study of their meanings of "systems complex social messages pertaining to continuity and change in materal and paternal roles."Their responses were supprising because within such a strict culture they live in with male and female roles their views came out very contemporary and moved away from stereo typical gender roles. Their responses show that the mother and father should take equal participation with the child raising as well as income providers and household chores. They also did not view the mother and father figures as icons, gods, or mythological but as normal humans with the responsibility to raise another human being.
I believe that our generation is an unique one around the whole world and it does not matter what class, sex, race, religion, or culture you come from that lets you share this changing view of sex oriented roles within relationships. All cultures are wanting to change to a more equal role division within relation ship and it is not just the women who are pushing it. In sociaty today more men are willing to do half the work, not be intimidated if the women is the sole breadwinner of the family, and taking half the responsibilty for the child rearing. Overall I believe that it is a positive change for the future and that this type of reform will have nothing but positive effects.