The social status of women in the Middle East is an important topic worthy of thorough consideration. Elizabeth Fernea’s (1965) Guests of the Sheik offers an insight into the experience of Iraqi women in the 1950s, and the later scholarly works provide information as well. A comparison reveals there is not much change: jewelry remains a crucial way of securing financial independence, cousin marriage is still prominent, as are housekeeping duties are still.
As described in the book, one characteristic feature of female esurience in the Middle East is the women’s eagerness to get more jewelry from their husbands. During her first meeting with Amina, Fernea (1965) is thoroughly surprised when the former urges her to get as much jewelry from her husband as possible while she is still young and pretty. While surprising for a Westerner, this approach makes perfect sense for Amina. A woman may find herself divorced or fall out of favor when her husband takes another wife, and, in either case, having material possessions of one’s own comes in handy. Research suggests that the situation stays largely the same in the 21st century, as jewelry remains a property type largely reserved for women (Pathy et al., 2021). With this in mind, the strategy of accumulating savings in the form of jewelry most likely lives on.
Another aspect in which the experiences of Middle Eastern women seem to remain similar to those described in the book is the practice of cousin marriage. Fernea (1965) notes that the marriage between Khalil and Salima was an exception in the sense they were unrelated, as locals rarely allowed the young to marry outside their kin. According to her, the preferred type of marriage was between cousins on the father’s side (Fernea, 1965). Research indicates that this practice is still extremely widespread in the Middle East (Edlund, 2018). Admittedly, it would be hard to compare the degree of its spread, as Fernea (1965) does not offer quantitative statistics. Still, the facts of the matter demonstrate it was common in the 1950s and is remains common today.
Finally, yet another aspect of the Middle Eastern female experience that proves to be similar in the book and contemporary accounts is the burden of housekeeping borne entirely by women, in inverse proportion to their age. For example, Salima’s mother’s status as a wise local woman ensures that she has many visitors, and it falls to Salima to take proper care of them. In practical terms, apart from greetings, it means she has to brew and offer copious amounts of tea and coffee (Fernea, 1965). Contemporary research also suggests that Middle Eastern women bear a heavy burden in terms of housekeeping until it becomes one of the most notable causes of hypertension (Abboud & Karam, 2021). As with the cousin marriage above, it would be hard to estimate the degree of the spread of this phenomenon in the 1950s and now, but it certainly remains prominent.
To summarize, women’s experience in the Middle East seems to be similar to Fernea’s (1965) Guests of the Sheik despite the decades separating them. The propensity toward hoarding jewelry to gain financial independence is still prominent. The same is true for the practice of cousin marriage and the women’s exclusive responsibility for housekeeping, although it is hard to estimate the exact extent of both across the two periods compared.
References
Abboud, M., & Karam, S. (2021). Hypertension in the Middle East: current state, human factors, and barriers to control. Journal of Human Hypertension, ahead-of-print.
Edlund, L. (2018). Cousin marriage is not a choice: Muslim marriage and underdevelopment. AEA Papers and Proceedings 2018, 108,.353–357.
Fernea, E. W. (1965). Guests of the sheik: An ethnography of an Iraqi village. Doubleday.
Pathy, G. S, Ramanathan, H. N., & Iyer, E. (2021). Measurement of buying roles in the family decision-making process for gold jewelry using correspondence analysis. Palarch’s Journal Of Archaeology Of Egypt/Egyptology 18(6), 126-146.