...Women of the United States vs. Women of Egypt: Rough Draft Marina P. Youssef Elements of University Composition and Communication I October 10, 2012 Professor Hope Umansky University of Phoenix Women of Egypt vs. Women of the United States The similarities between the women of Egypt and the women of the United States (U.S.) are almost non-existent but for the fact that they equally want freedom and women’s rights. The differences are almost tenfold greater. Although there are many differences between the women of Egypt and the women of the U.S., the most outstanding distinctions are in their manner of dress, their role in society, and in their treatment by men. One of the common distinctions in women living in the United States and women living in Egypt is in their styles of clothing. Most Muslim women in Egypt veil themselves, covering everything from their head down to their toes, sometimes even wearing gloves to cover their hands and heavy veils over the eyes. By law, the Christian women and “modern Muslim” women are required to dress modestly, whether it be summer or winter. They wear long, loose skirts or pants, and shirts with sleeves no shorter than a few inches above the elbows. It is a daily struggle for these women, risking being harassed or molested in the streets. The veiled women in particular have victoriously won the freedom of painting the nails on their exposed fingers, and wearing open-toe shoes or sandals. Conversely, women of the United...
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...“Loss of Innocence” Innocence is like a tiny flower that fills the eye with their beauty and uniqueness, but in turn, can be destroyed with a simple gust of wind. Strong social problems like racism and rape are among the causes of the destruction of the absence of evil, innocence. Myop is a girl who plays the protagonist role in the story The Flowers. This story was written by Alice Walker. This story is a vivid example of the consequences of racism and how it can affect the life of an innocent girl. In addition to racism, rape is another compelling reason that destroys innocence and leaves marked the history of any person subject to this abuse (White). The story "The Answer Is No" by Naguib Mahfouz tells how a rape victim can be marked forever. Children are the first victims when we speak of racism and rape because they lack the means to defend themselves. They are easy prey for people without a soul with any clear sense of decency and humanity (Crosson-Tower). Racism has become the flagship of empires and nations, to justify their anger against those who are different. The changes we have recently experienced worldwide, this new era of globalization has meant that entire towns revive feelings of nationalism, unfortunately the wrong way. Because of its ambitious leaders with power, these feelings of nationalism have been driven by anger, hatred, intolerance and violence (Dain). The Flowers story is about a girl who is a victim of racism indirectly. Myop is a happy girl, who...
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...Giza has watched the rising sun for thousands of years. its position on the Giza plateau has earned it a special place in our hearts and minds, as its origin and meaning have become lost to us. The head-dress, beard and cobra on the forehead are traditionally associated with royalty. It was suggested that the image of a half lion, half woman aspect symbolized the junctions of the constellations Leo and Virgo which occurred at a summer solstice in the fourth millennium B.C.E. The Great Sphinx The Great Sphinx of Giza, commonly referred to as the Sphinx, is a limestone statue of a reclining or couchant sphinx (a mythical creature with a lion's body and a human head) that stands on the Giza Plateau on the west bank of the Nile in Giza, Egypt. It is the largest monolith statue in the world, standing 73.5 meters (241 feet) long, 19.3 meters (63 feet) wide, and 20.22 m (66.34 feet) high. It is the oldest known monumental full-round sculpture, and is commonly believed to have been built by ancient Egyptians of the Old Kingdom during the reign of the Pharaoh Khafra (c. 2558–2532 B.C.E.). [5] Origin and identity The Great Sphinx is one of the world's largest and oldest statues but, basic facts about it, such as when it was built, and by whom, are still debated. These questions have...
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...Why Nations Fail In this essay, I am reviewing a book entitled Why Nations Fail written by Daron Acemoglu, and James Robinson. The book was written in 2012, and the authors mention the ongoing Arab Spring as they were putting together their ideas in writing. This coincidence makes me wonder if these authors were also impacted by the information revolution or the information outburst as Nye (2013) often chooses to call. In fact, the authors did not mention the term ‘information revolution’ in the book; they simply state that Egyptians are on the street not because they are poor, as many scholars and political analysts suggest, but because power has resided in the hands of a few elites, and these elites have used political power to amass personal wealth at the expense of the bigger mass. But why the Egyptian revolution took place at this particular time, instead of a decade ago, for example? As far as I understand political theories, the answer lies behind globalization and information revolution which opened a new gate to information. That is, since billions of people around the globe are capable of reaching the internet (about 1.7 million according to Nye), many are able to read online news, or even watch them live as they are being broadcasted. Thus, it is possible to associate the Egyptian revolution or the Arab Spring to globalization and information revolution. Acemoglu et al, (2012) also indicate that Egypt’s ex-president, Hosni Mubarak gathered a huge amount of...
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...Executive Summary The aim of the research was to answer the main research question: ‘What caused the Arab Spring’ In order to tackle this question; desk research, case studies and an interview with Mr Farrid Benkaddour have been conducted. Farrid Benkaddour is a Moroccan sociologist, he started his career in Morocco after obtaining his baccalaureate in 1984. Since then he has been a teacher in Morocco, afterwards he went to the Netherlands to teach Dutch people about Moroccan culture. He currently works for Arabika, a company that specializes in legal assistance, translations, language trainings and intercultural communications. The desk research revealed the opinions of the Arab spring’s countries inhabitants. Inflation, unemployment and poor housing conditions prevailed as a direct consequence of insufficient dictatorial regimes. Freshly graduated youth was left jobless with no sign of improvement in the near future. People became more and more aware of the lack of political influence they had and started idealizing the western political democratic models. The interview and case studies showed there have been negative thoughts about the dictatorial regimes ever since their instalment. Protests have been seen throughout the history of the Arab world. The difference, however, between those protests and the Arab Spring is the modern age. Where earlier protests failed due to lack of support, the modern age tools such as (social-)media carried the Arab spring’s unfolding...
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...MTV Networks: The Arabian Challenge 1. Question 1 Experts felt that one of the biggest challenges faced by MTV while launching MTV Arabia was the prevalent culture in the Arab world. Discuss the Arab culture. How is it expected to pose a challenge to MTV? First of all, it is impossible to talk about groups of people without generalizing. At this point it must be emphasized that there is not just “one” Arab culture or society. The Arab world is full of rich and diverse communities, groups and cultures. Each of the Arab countries has different perspectives. That’s why differences exist not only among coun- tries, but within countries as well. With 22 countries formed, the Arab region has in some parts the same religious, politics and ethical views and some are totally different Some people would say that it is known for reacting, and some think over reacting nega- tively to controversial content. For example, within the Arab’s there are three types of religions, Judaism, Islam and Christianity; so these make some things acceptable in some countries and in others not. Furthermore the Middle East offered a huge population of youth with a rich and diverse culture. And exactly these young people can be seen as the target group of MTV. But you also have to be aware in which parts of the Arabian world you are, because religion, for example, is one of the most important aspects on Arabs’ lifestyle, and has something to do in almost every decision Arabs’ take. Not only political...
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...Museum Paper Art 101 Starting my visit to the Smithsonian’s Natural History Museum I was unsure of the artifact that I would choose to write this paper about. I have been to the Smithsonian museums countless times in my life strolling about taking the exhibits for granted like the many other people raised in the Washington metropolitan area having virtiously unlimited access to them. I was prepared for another mundane visit to the museums, however this visit was different I saw many exhibits that I have studied recently in this class such as the Lascaux caves and other prehistoric art. I found myself engaged as never before as I searched the old halls for what would be subject of this paper an ancient artifact of my very own choosing. I decided on the Cypruss crossroads of civilizations exhibit located on the museums second floor. I was drawn to this exhibit mainly due to the two large stone statues at opposing ends of it’s narrow entrance doors. Upon entry I was amazed at all of the ancient original pieces most of which I can recall learning about in this class. I decided that I would pick a piece and snap a quick picture of myself proudly standing next to it, get the dimensions and backround and be on my way to an A paper in no time. I pulled out my digital camera and began to power it up when I was immediately advised by the museum security guard that I was not authorized to take pictures inside the exhibit due to the delicate nature of the artifacts. I...
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...(President of Egypt from June 23, 1956 – Sept 28, 1970) took presidency, he overlooked the nationalization of the Suez Canal by issuing Law No. 285 of 1956 (Nationalization of the Universal Company of the Suez Maritime Canal). The Suez Canal connects the Mediterranean Sea and the Red Sea, which in turn also provides access to the Indian Ocean and the Arabian Sea. The Suez Canal greatly shortens the travel distance between Africa and Asia. This made it extremely important for the export of goods, especially oil. France and Britain had invested a lot in the Suez Canal Company and when Nasser had wanted to take over control, they saw it as a threat against them by the Egyptian Regime. Nasser knew fully well that nationalizing the Suez Canal would cause a mighty disruption in the oil industry as the Suez Canal was and is the only connection between Asian and Africa that ships could access. Nationalization of the canal affected most of the oil exporting countries in the area. However, his assumption that Egypt was impervious to attack from Britain, France and Israel however was completely amiss. The UK, France and Israel had an agreement to overtake control of the canal back and prevent Nasser from expanding his territory over Sudan. Nasser’s ploy of using the Suez Canal as a power play shows his dominance and leadership ability. Moreover he used the abrupt retraction of funding for the Aswan dam project by the UK and the US to get the public of Egypt to see the reasoning...
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...What is the Racial Project in Egypt? Introduction: Our research paper will be based on the racial project in Egypt, and how people are acting upon this racial project without even realizing it. A lot of people don’t usually realize when and how they are being racist against an Egyptian person who is considered one of their own. Egyptians tend to think they are the nicest and least racists of all people around the world, but after conducting our research we will begin to discover whether or not this is the case. After conducting research and observations, we came across the fact that the Egyptian people differentiate each other under the categories of religion. There are only two types of religions identified by the Egyptian government and are written in ID cards, those two religions are Islam and Christianity. Even though, there are some Egyptians who believe in other types of religions, the government does not recognize these religions, so they cannot be identified with what they believe in. So, what happens is that they are forced to be identified as either a Muslim or a Christian in their ID’s whether they believe in either form of religion because the Egyptian government and its people base religion as one of the main pillars of society and life and refuse to accept other forms found in Egypt such as Judaism, Baha’i, Atheism and Agnosticism. The question here lies within the context of the people and the government. Why would the government and its people...
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...725 Book Reviews The New Silk Road: How a Rising Arab World is Turning Away from the West and Rediscovering China BEN SIMPFENDORFER Basingstoke, Hampshire, and New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2009 201 pp. $42.00 ISBN 978-0-230-58026 doi:10.1017/S030574101000072X The New Silk Road is an insightful, concise (173 pages of text), and thoroughly readable book. The focus is not on energy investments and flows or on government policy, but on business and cultural strands of the Sino-Arab relationship. As a China economist for both JP Morgan and RBS in Hong Kong, and with years of residence in the Arab world, Simpfendorfer has written a book which is rich in detail and cogent in diverse interesting arguments. It is a pleasure to read. The thesis is that we are witnessing the re-emergence of an old but long-lapsed economic and cultural relationship between China and the Arab world. Prior to about 1600 the “silk road” was a major axis of the global economy. Now it is reviving and that revival is an important part of the “global re-balancing” that is underway. Global re-balancing is defined to mean a diminution of the relative economic and cultural role of the West (Europe and the US) and growth of non-Western areas, like China and the Arab lands. The major manifestation of Arab rise, according to Simpfendorfer, has been the massive transfer of wealth to Arab oil producers in the 2000s as oil prices rose due, in large part, to increased demand by China and India. Simpfendorfer believes...
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...Saudi Arabia and the United States Awkward relations The American president and the Saudi king will have an unusually edgy meeting Mar 29th 2014 | CAIRO | From the print edition BARACK OBAMA may recall a tricky moment when he first met King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia five years ago. Bending to shake hands with the octogenarian monarch, the taller American appeared to bow deeply. Republican snipers in America gleefully blasted the president for “kowtowing” to rich Arabs. Such protocols should run more smoothly when Mr Obama heads to Saudi Arabia on March 28th for his second time in office. Unfortunately, however, relations between the two countries have seldom been more awkward. Their close alliance dates to the end of the second world war, when an ailing Franklin Roosevelt met Saudi Arabia’s founding king, Abdul Aziz, aboard the cruiser Quincy in the Suez Canal. Then, and for decades after, the equation was simple: America would provide security, the Saudis oil. Those shared interests, cemented by a mutual loathing of communism (and a more recently shared hatred of Iran’s Shia theocracy and of al-Qaeda terrorists), papered over inevitable differences between a hermetic autocracy, backed by fearsomely puritanical Wahhabist clerics, and an ebullient, proselytising democracy. Such differences have inexorably widened since the end of the cold war, a process that has accelerated since Mr Obama took office. The reasons are not hard to find. For a start, surging oil production...
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...MTV Networks: The Arabian Challenge Introduction The MTV Network (Music Television) is a global brand which introduced the concept of a cable music channel. It was launched in America in 1981 and quickly its popularity spread to other similar channels across the world. Over the years MTV developed a reputation for providing programmes with a localized content without diluting down what MTV stood for. MTV using its open western culture and sometimes controversial content was known to air sexually explicit and provocative programmes to a youthful audience. The Middle East is highly individual and religiously and politically sensitive region with no fewer than 35 Arabic regional dialects. However with a cash rich oil industry and a population of some 120 million people under 25, it is no wonder MTV joined forces with Arabia Media Group (largest media group in UAE) to launch the Arabic version of MTV in November 2007. As a free to air music television channel, it was launched and rebranded as MTV Middle East. MTV Arabia shows Arabic music videos and locally produced programmes as well as popular US programmes such as the “The Hills” and “Jackass.” There are approx. 370 other free to air channels in the region. The market is reported to be worth 2.5bn to 3bn US dollars and is growing at a rate of approximately 30%. Another important factor is that there is no established TV rating system which means advertisement slots are being sold against shows that the ruling families...
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...Universal Declaration of Human Rights written up by the United Nations, its states that, “Whereas disregard and contempt for human rights have resulted in barbarous acts which have outraged the conscience of mankind, and the advent of a world in which human beings shall enjoy freedom of speech and belief and freedom from fear and want has been proclaimed as the highest aspiration of the common people” (UN, 1948). Articles 19 to 21 specifically target the freedom of thought, conscience and belief of human rights that a Democratic government must abide by and Egypt is no exception. Arab Spring Turmoil has been brewing in Egypt, causing great pain to its inhabitants, destroying homes and families and creating complete mayhem in the process. The first marked incident according to The Guardian is on the 1st of January 2011; a suicide bombing attempt took place outside a Coptic Church in Alexandria. By the 25th of January Egypt finally joined the Arab Spring alongside Tunisia, Yemen and Algeria. The ‘Arab Spring’ was an activist movement by several Middle-Eastern countries in an attempt at freedom from political and religious oppression and authoritarian governments. A major role in political and social affairs, which had been in play over the years, is media. From the traditional forms such as newspapers and radio to the modern day social platforms, it is very clear how influential such resources are and how influential controlling them can get an entity. It can be said that almost...
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...Gamal Abdel Nasser is an Arabic leader not only an Egyptian leader who made a lot of achievements for Egypt, the Middle East and Africa. Nasser was an important figure in the recent history of Egypt and had a great role in 23 July revolution; he was one of the leaders of the free officers’ movement. Gamal Adel Nasser was a brave solider who fought against Israel. Nasser was a significant leader who had revolutionary ideas that supported the free officers’ movement. Nasser was the most popular Arabic leader in his era and had a big role in all Arabs’ revolutions and also made an Arabian nationalism, which included a short period of unity between Egypt and Syria (The painful presidency of Egypt's Nasser, 1969). Nasser also encouraged a number of revolutions in the Arab countries and a number of other countries. Nasser as a magnificent leader had an affective role in the political and social life during his judgment and after his death. (Nowaira, 2010) In July 26 1956 Gamal Abdel Nasser took a great political decision. Nasser announced nationalizing the Suez Canal Company SAE to finance the Aswan high dam after the World Bank refused to finance the construction of the high dam. Nasser took that decision several years before the end of Britain’s contract of benefiting from the canal, which led to tension and escalation and bring hostility to Egypt. Nasser also increased tensions with France due to his support for the Algerian revolution. Meanwhile...
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...Palestine and an absence of one formal representative of the people. Such occurrences led to a reaction and a will to reunite and regain the people’s dignity through the idea of Arab Nationalism. Examples of notable early nationalist thinkers include Sate’ al Husari, Michel Aflaq who were greatly influenced by prominent 19th century European thinkers. One of the earliest forms of Arab Nationalism was embodied in the Syrian Socialist National Party that was founded in 1932 by Antoun Saadeh, which started off by fighting French colonialism from Lebanon and was to later on actively take part in the resistance against the Israeli invasion. Following World War II, Egypt had rejected a form of Arab nationalism while Sate’ argued that “the individual has no real existence outside it” and insisted that Egypt was a major part of Arab Nationalism. After the Arab revolt of the late 1930s, however, the Arab case against Zionism had...
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