Study Of Middle East Countries, Women's Political Status

March 8, 2010 is the 100th anniversary of International Women's Day. Compared with women's conditions 100 years ago, women's level of education, work and treatment, or the status to participate in national political and social life has greatly improved worldwide. However, compared with other countries, women's status in Middle East, especially their political status lags behind. Therefore, the topic of this paper is to talk on women's political status in the Middle East, and to tell the reasons why women's political rights are so lacking in this region. The source is the strong influence of the Koran and the Shari'a, and they are four groups of contradictory relationship"public spheres versus private spheres","feminism versus patriarchy","conservatism versus reformism"and"nationalism versus democracy"in Middle Eastern political life. Due to the existence of the four pairs, the political status of women in Middle Eastern countries generally has been at a very low position. Even these countries'Constitutions, relevant laws and regulations regulate the status and role of women in political life, and also give them some political rights. However, it is still very difficult for women to enter the core of political life of their countries in practice, but only at a very marginal position.In the section of case study, the author selects three important countries in the Middle East (Egypt, Iran and Saudi Arabia) which compare women's political status in the early 20th century to the early 21st century in these countries, and show the changes of women's political status in the region through the 100 years. The main reason to choose the three countries is that all these three countries have significant political influences, are the most representative in the Middle East region, and are implementing very different political systems: as a secular state, Egypt is a presidential implementation of the national polity; after the Islamic revolution in 1979, Iran is a theocratic state, and in their political life, the supreme leader of Iran is actually their religious and spiritual leader; Saudi Arabia has ruled by Aziz Suad and his male relatives as the highest leader of the absolute monarchy since 1932. Therefore, to study on these three countries can make a more comprehensive and universal judgment of the political status of women in the Middle East.In this paper, some suggestions have been made to improve the political status of women in the Middle East: through the progressive domestic reforms, to strengthen the guiding role of international organizations including United Nations to the Middle East countries, and enhancing the cooperation between international women's non-governmental organizations and the Middle East counterparts to realize the truly improvement of women's political status in this region.