Research

Surname 8

Life in the Arab in 20th Century

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After her studies in Beirut, Anbara returned to Lebanon and joined a woman`s movement. This movement geared towards fighting for the rights of women in the Muslim community. She was born in Beirut in a family of twelve children and her father was Salim Ali Salam who was the deputy of Ottoman parliament and he was also a merchant. Her sister was Saeb Salam who was the former prime minister for Lebanon. In addition, two of her brothers served as Lebanon`s cabinet ministers. In her fight for woman freedom, Anbara involved herself in activities that paved way for the voice of a woman in Lebanon. She was the first woman abandon the veil publicly at the University during a lecture. Currently, the population of the Arab world is estimated to be around 150 million. Through the past centuries, this part of the world has undergone through a rapid transformation, therefore impacting the economy of the country hence change in the living standard. (Where is the thesis? It has to be related to Anbara, there is no flow of information )

The rapid change has caused a lot of concern from different sectors the

Country hence education was considered the perfect solution to this change. Various scholars argued that providing education to both men and women was the only means of accomplishing the social, economic and political development. During the 21st century, feminist education was seen as very essential in the building of the new society as opposed to the past centuries where a woman was diminished and only a few got the opportunity to study in the society. Anbara being one of the earliest females in Lebanon to acquire quality education not by pleasure but by the social status her family held in the society. Her father encouraged her to join one of the best schools in Beirut in a period where female education was a very controversial topic. She learned French and even studied in the United Kingdom from 1925 to 1927. This, therefore, was a motivating factor for most women who had a desire for education. (Again, the flow of information is weird and there is no relationship between the ideas)

Modern education for women in Arab countries, therefore, was of recent occurrence in the 21st century where an increase in enrolment was witnessed in various levels of the education system. Therefore the modern Muslim woman in this century had an easy life compared to Anbara. In her time colonial powers dominated the nation and they were totally not interested in improving education especially amongst women hence illiteracy amongst women was high and very few women were educated. Anbara was even prevented from entering the lecture hall by two men and this was even published an article to try explaining the rationality of their behaviour as according to them they were fighting for morality. During this time the school was amongst the few schools that supported education for both female and male students: On the contrary, the 21st century opened avenues for female education. In the years between 1950 and 1975 students enrolment increased from one million to eight million showing a great improvement in the education sector hence an improvement in the economy`s growth over the years.

In her memoirs, Anbara expressed her opinion with regards to equality in the political arena and other sectors of the society. Middle of the 20th century was a crucial time in the fight for women empowerment with many women joining various movements to help fight for their freedom in the society. In this liberal phase, most middle and upper-class women in the social ranking were involved in journalism, philanthropy and fight for political rights in the society hence women recognition in the society. Anbara was then the first woman who translated Homer`s Odyssey into Arab. This motivated more women in the Arab world to continue fighting for their rights. Anbara was ready for this change and was not afraid to support fellow women in any part of the Arab world. In 1920 she returned to Egypt where she attended a memorial gathering for Qasim Amin who was the author of “The Liberation of Women” and “The New Woman”Through reading Amin`s work, she was encouraged on how many women are working hard towards feminism and this even gave her a lot of energy to mobilize many women in the middle of 20th century in her memoirs.

At this tender age and reading under the covers, she developed an attitude and felt her purpose in the women liberation in the Arab world. In Lebanon, women were very insignificant in whatever they did in the society no matter how good it might be. In 1913, Anbara had published an article in a newspaper’s front page with the topic of first Arab Conference. This brought about a lot of mixed reactions among many people with everyone forming their own opinion. Many people believed that the article was not published by a woman while others argued that if it was a woman then she must have sort help from a man. Woman were lesser beings with no regards from the enter society. All the good things were believed to be only achieved by a man.

Her visit to the United Kingdom really shaped her perception about the Arab girl. It was during this time that she dared to take out her veil and the face mask and walked freely. This made her feel like the Arab girl was imprisoned Anbara Salam (2018). According to her, the British society was so polite and very orderly something really impressed her. This made her embark on a serious debate concerning veiling by women. She remembers how her mum had to make the dentist cover all her face and only her mouth left during her treatment yet she was in much pain but all that matters was her not let unveiling her face to the dentist. Therefore felt that the idea of the veil was to prevent them from growing and interacting with the real “world”. It was a freedom block for women and this even motivated her to give a two-hour lecture to her colleagues despite the fact that it was considered immoral. This caused a lot of controversies leading to a lot of hatred and condemnation from many people.

It was considered out of the norm and a beginning to the destruction of the Arab heritage. This caused violence and denouncing of women who have decided to unveil.

At the age of 12 years, Anbara received a lot of marriage proposals from interested suitors. Although this was not really news as many girls were married off as early as 10 years to older men. Anbara, therefore, refused to marry at a very early age hence only accepted an engagement at the age of 16 years by a young man Ghani who was arrested and hanged for his political ambitions and engaging in certain activities. Girls suffered a lot as they were married off as young children. She was then later married off at the age of 30 to a fellow activist. In addition, her amazement after seeing lifts, cars and street lights in Cairo shows how the Lebanese woman was still lagging behind and she considered Egyptian women as being liberated.

Using her mother as the centre of focus, Anbara recalls how her mother was enslaved to the ways of the Arab world at a time where other women in western countries were advanced and enjoying their freedom. In her articles, she points out issues that not any of the male writers were will to discuss. She explains how her mother was rooted in breastfeeding twelve of her kids yet the American and European women in the same social class only bottle fed their kids and their kids. The children were brought on a fashionable way. They had well-scheduled nap and feeding time which enabled proper development of the infant from the early stage. The children were brought up in a free manner and they were instilled with a sense of independence on an early age: This act on the contrary to what Anbara and other young women experience in the Arab world. Within the 20th century, the plurality of voices was the main idea behind women`s movements in their fight for liberation. Anbara`s memoirs, therefore, provided platforms for women to view their lives in a very different angle. Her journalistic skills provided adequate information for all the women in the Arab world and she could be heard even in other countries.

Zionism was a period when the Jewish fought hard to restore the Jewish sovereignty in Israel. This was to free them from the discrimination and persecution they went through in the phase of Diaspora. During this face, most religionist communities were concerned with how they would continue to uphold their old ways as they struggle to rebuild the new Jewish society in Israel. According to the traditional Judaism, women`s role was associated with family and the husband. Integrating the role of religious women and their involvement in the political scene in reviving Israel was a great challenge. In their fight for freedom, Ahmad was the founder of the Arab College in Palestine. He was a great advocate for the ideologies of politics, religion, and education which made him support Anbara in her fight for gender equality in Lebanon. Anbara attended her first meeting for women revolution a few months after arriving in Palestine which was the late face Zionism. The conference was under the management of Zakiyyah who had been acknowledged by the Palestinian Commissioner. This was vivid evidence of how women were greatly determined to achieve liberation. Her school in Palestine (Arab College) was often under attack by the Zionist. In addition, her father also suffered a lot of persecution from Zionists making him be jailed on several occasions.

In the last years of the World war 1, Anbara involved herself in charity and relief work in helping the less fortunate especially women and children. The war had caused a lot of starvation and suffering in the nation. This led to the end of Turkish rule after she and other people recognized this and were able to speak publicly about it. She witnessed Palestine betrayal by the British when they joined the Zionist which caused much disillusionment and anger. The Arabs continued to fight for their rights for many years.

Nakba of 1984 drove her and her family and 800,000 people out of their homeland something that brought in a lot of pain and suffering for so many people. They were only separated by a little fence which offered minimum to no protection at all.

This made it impossible to sleep and the children travelled to school in unarmed buses which definitely caused a lot of psychological trauma for both the mothers and the kids. The Zionists would open firearms at them during the night leading lose of many lives during the fire exchange between their guards and the Zionists Sasson and Sofer (2007). Anbara and other Palestinians could not understand why other people could be cool about the brutality of the Zionists and even entertained their propaganda. After returning back to Lebanon, she and Ahmad continued with their hard work in building the country. They established a school and a clinic at the border with Palestine to help their community.

Historically, women in the Arab world have suffered a lot of persecution and discrimination from the norms of religion. These have made women to suffer a lot at the hands of their own countrymen who are determined to diminish women and make them feel insignificant. Anbara is amongst the many women in the Arab world who have struggled to liberate women. Joseph (2003).This bad experience has also been a result of political indifferences which caused so much psychological and physical trauma. In addition, some of this discrimination was based on the social-cultural beliefs and the oppressive traditions.

-There are no in-text at the 5 first pages, and this is not the right way of doing an in-text citation. The paper lacks passion and criticality, it needs to be more interesting. I would like you to focus more on her aspect in the Arab world during the 20th century regarding her experience as an Arab feminist. And the thesis should be according to that as well.

Bibliography

Joseph, Suad, and Afsaneh Najmabadi. Encyclopedia of women & Islamic cultures. Leiden Boston, Mass: Brill, 2003.

Khālidī, ʻAnbarah S., and Tarif Khalidi. Memoirs of an early Arab feminist : the life and activism of Anbara Salam Khalidi. London: Pluto Press, 2013.

SALAM, ANBARA. THINGS BRIGHT AND BEAUTIFUL. S.l: FIG TREE, 2018.

Sofer, Sasson. Zionism and the foundations of Israeli diplomacy. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2007.

Talhami, Ghada H. Historical dictionary of women in the Middle East and North Africa. Lanham, Md: Scarecrow Press, 2013.