Devon Bennett
Construction and Purpose of Iraqi Feminine Community
The interaction of women in the Middle Eastern social structure is created and sustained to provide a multi-faceted benefit to its diverse members. These women obtain a great amount of influence and stature throughout the community due to this traditional structure. They create a social bond one with another capable of overcoming the emotional drain of desert climate lifestyle and religiously bound sexual segregation. Religion and climate create a strain through their restricting qualities, isolating the community physically and socially. This holds just as true in the community of men, but these are not as affected by religious seclusion as the women. Within this community atmosphere, Iraqi women create a combined workforce through which they are able to maintain the village in order, assisting one another with their personal responsibilities, as a family would assist any of its members.
While the women of Middle Eastern culture have long been judged as the
submissive sex in that land, they retain a great amount of influence, and thus
social position, as they direct a behind-the-scenes approach to community
planning. Iraqi tradition places women as submissive to men, positioning the
latter as the dominant figures in society. This is traditionally accepted by
natives, even though many foreign countries see the women as being oppressed.
Publicly, they are an entirely separate entity from the men, but in the home
become a family unit not unlike those of western civilization. Mothers teach
their children a considerable amount, as the children have only recently begun
attending formalized schools. “At first, she told me, only a few girls,
daughters of merchants and effendis, had come to school” (53). They also hold
a remarkable influence on the future. “Men sometimes considered themselves
victimized by their mothers, who always had the final say in choosing their
sons’ wives” (164). These men are subject to their mothers’ choices in a
way that will permanently affect the rest of their lives. Aside from this social
position and influence, the Iraqi community also offers a considerable amount of
security. These women have no fear of losing their husband to divorce. “If the
sheik were to take another wife, he would still have to take care of all his
present wives and children” (164). This, along with a dowry of gold inherited
at their marriage, and continual gifts of gold thereafter, prepares them for the
comfortable passage of their later years in life. Not all women are positively
affected by this tradition, there are always exceptions. “A woman from an
outlying clan settlement had left her husband, fleeing to the sheik’s harem,
traditional respectable refuge of women in difficulties” (167). Considering
the cases to the contrary, the women of tribal
The women of the El Eshadda tribe, like others throughout
The community built up by the tribal women provides a strong, diversified
workforce, where each can contribute and benefit from the efforts of the
combined group. In a society that does not have access to the technological
wonders simplifying life in other regions of the globe, these women form a task
force equal to the challenge of providing the necessities of life to husbands,
children, and swarms of travelers day in and day out. With the canal as their
central wash station, they converge to wash clothing, clean dishes, and, as
previously discussed, stay informed of the news currently circulating the
village. When not attending to general cleanliness, as in times of celebration,
their resources are pooled to provide meals for up to 800 men. From the senior
wife supervisor to the official butcher, daughters and cousins peel squash, chop
spinach and prepare other needful things for the feast of Ramadan (116-118). As
if a question of tribal pride, all the women know how to take care of themselves
and their family, providing the skills of worth to the family. Should this not
be the case, measures of rectification are taken. Upon hearing that
Throughout Iraq, women organize community structures to assist in everyday living. They achieve status and influence throughout the community based upon how they carry out their duties among the tribe. The society as a whole benefits from elevated spirits as they communicate and entertain one another in a continual family relationship. Working together, these women find an easier method to accomplish the requirements of preserving life in the otherwise barren desert. This community serves to better the lives of all those who take part in it, adding truth to the adage, “The whole is greater than the sum of its parts.”