I wrote this yesterday(ish)

So we were talking yesterday in gender class about how literacy and education are the keys to women’s empowerment in the Arab world. Fatima (the teacher) was talking about her research in rural areas and the attitudes of women there. We do a lot of cultural comparisons so we were discussing what education means to people in the U.S. too. My class concluded that pretty much, in the States, people value education for the employment opportunities it creates. That is not meant to sound completely materialistic, although it kind of does. I don’t think it’s just about money, though, but also what kind of job you can have, one that you like, or not, what kind of hours or how hard you have to work, etc. but the main point is that my education is for me, for my life and what I want to do with it. According to Fatima this is very different from Moroccan women. She said that to them, education means three main things; first and most important, educated women are better mothers, second, they are more aware of their rights, and lastly, they have better employment opportunities. What is interesting to me here about the difference in the meaning of education in the two cultures is not as much the patriarchy, but more how American culture focuses so strongly only on the individual and here it is all about the family unit. It’s hard not to feel selfish in Moroccan society sometimes; it’s so different from the U.S. where things are all about you, you, you. Individualism is not all evil, it does have its pros, but it just makes me feel even worse about illiteracy in this country. These women don’t even want to be educated for themselves, but for their children!! Al Hemdu Allah (praise be to God) let’s build some schools!
Fatima mentioned that sometimes she hears people ask if uneducated women are aware of their situation, or if they are content to be as they are. She told us a story from when she was doing research when a rural, illiterate woman she was interviewing pointed to a cow and said, “You see that animal? That cow is better than me because I cannot read. Without education I am nothing.” So, yes, they are aware that there are things they are missing, especially rights they are supposed to have under the new family code, like the right to not be beaten by their husbands or inheritance. Hard to enforce your own rights when you can’t read them.
After the cow story Fatima also told us about how these women were kissing her hands and praising her, saying how high and mighty she was. She said she felt embarrassed because she knew she was no better, no smarter, no different than them- just really freaking lucky. There is no way to know just how close I was to being anyone else, but I think I agree with Fatima that I just picked a long straw. So I live in America and am now enjoying my years of post-secondary education with the possibility of more without being any different than the woman whose straw was a lot shorter. What do I take from all this? Well, first of all, don’t take anything for granted. Your education, the fact that you can read street signs, and restaurant menus, and instructions on forms, the fact that you know you have certain rights, your ability to look up other random rights, your ability to take care of your children, the fact that I know how to write this blog because I can stream together ideas and express them concretely in a manner that others can understand. Thanks long straw. Also, I take from our discussion that things have to change so regardless of gender, people everywhere get to learn to read. In shah Allah, I will find my role in that. In shah Allah everyone will.