Sheilas in shelas and impressions on oppression

Australian Sheila in dress-ups

In Australia, "Sheila" is a term for a woman. It's fairly archaic now - generally only used by rusty old bogans (tasteless morons) from the outback (countryside), and rarely comes without the obligatory sexist smack on the bottom and a demand for a "frosty one from the icebox" (beer from the fridge). In the Middle East, a sheila is a head covering, pronounced with an "ay" vowel sound rather than "ee", and also spelled shaila, shela and shayla. You will see plenty of "Sheelas" in Australia, but "shaylas" are few and far between.

In countries like Australia, France and the USA, any dress that covers more than what they deem “normal” is seen by some as a form of cruelty or domination. The first thing most Australians would think upon seeing a woman in traditional Arabic dress is "she's from a different world", followed by "that poor thing, her husband/father makes her dress like that" and "she must have a terrible life." And it's little surprise. Australia's Muslim minority only takes up about 1.5% of the total population, and many have assimilated to the point where conservative dress has been abandoned. The only time we see any traditional arabic dress is on TV, when we see Iraqi women wailing with grief over their son's bloodied bodies, or rows of Taliban-governed Afghan women in blue burqas with only a gauze for vision. Of course we associate it with misery and oppression.

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Saudi woman flouts driving ban on YouTube

A Saudi woman activist marked this year's International Women's Day by defying a ban on women driving in the ultra-conservative kingdom and posted a video of her act on YouTube.




"In September, more than 1,100 Saudi men and women signed a petition to King Abdullah urging him to lift the controversial ban on women driving in the oil-rich kingdom, which applies a strict form of Sharia (Islamic law).

The petition - a brainchild of Huwaidar and other activists - stressed that Islam does not put constraints on women such as the driving ban and points out that women already "drive in villages and remote rural areas."

A group of 47 women defied the ban on driving by roaming the streets of the capital Riyadh in 15 cars in November 1990. They were swiftly rounded up by police and penalised, while their male guardians were reprimanded.

The following year, a fatwa (religious edict) was issued by the then mufti of Saudi Arabia, Sheikh Abdul Aziz bin Baz, prohibiting women from driving cars. "
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Muslim Women In Charge

Forbes

Despite the barriers, 10 women executives from the Middle East made the World's 100 Most Powerful Women in Forbes Magazine ranking this year.
How are they managing to break through the glass ceiling?

Good old-fashioned capitalism has played a role. The economic liberalization of several Muslim countries in recent years, and the privatization of large chunks of government-run companies, have helped Muslim businesswomen get a greater foothold.

In the government sector, Muslim women are also winning posts. Sheikha Lubna Al-Qasimi (No. 99), minister of the economy in the United Arab Emirates, has cracked down on stock market shenanigans with tougher rules, transparency and corporate governance.

None of this means that the going is easy for Muslim professional women as a group. In 2002, the first Arab Human Development Report, issued by the United Nations Development Programme, found that women occupied an average of only 4% of all seats in the parliaments of Arab countries, compared with 11% in sub-Saharan Africa and 13% in Latin America and Caribbean countries. The report blamed these figures in part on women's inequality under the law, and also noted that just one in every two Arab women can read and write.

By delivering the bad news, though, the report may have had a galvanizing effect. It "really shocked everyone in the Arab world because it came from within," says Dr. Nailah Hamdy, assistant professor of mass communication at the American University in Cairo. That meant that the report's criticism of women's second-class status "could no longer be perceived as a foreign idea," she says.

For a lucky and determined few, opportunities do exist. "Just being a woman in our part of the world is quite difficult," says El-Sallab of Egypt's Commercial International Bank. "But if you have the proper education, credibility and integrity in the way you handle your job, intelligent men will always give you your due."