Freedom of Women in the Arab World

 

Are you being chased? Monitored? Captured? Do you feel the restraints of eyes and ears directed towards you at home? And do you suffer when you find no one to believe you and trust your words? This is the situation for many girls who aspire to freedom and the ability to live their lives in the Arab World. 

Unfortunately, a girl often finds herself within the walls of a prison of doubt and the constraints of a family that surrounds her on all sides. Interrogation begins with her actions, her comings and goings, as if a conspiracy is being woven against her. Often, the girl describes her family with various traits, such as being uncivilized, unjust, or having a mindset from the past. This raises several questions for us to consider:

 

Is there something that drives the family to impose such a siege and confiscate your freedom?

Does the girl play a role in reinforcing such behavior?

 

Parents usually exhibit such behaviors as a way to protect the girl’s reputation and shield her from harm and from anyone who might try to exploit or hurt her. There are certain behaviors that the girl might exhibit unintentionally, but they raise suspicion and doubt among the family.

 

Here are some of them:

- Surrounding yourself with an aura of silence and mystery, not being open with your family, making yourself a vault of secrets that is difficult to approach.

- Emotional distraction and mood swings, transitioning from joy to sadness and depression without discussing it with your family, which might make them think a disaster has befallen you that they cannot help solve.

- Being extremely attached to your phone, speaking quietly in a secluded spot, which can arouse suspicion in your family and make them want to eavesdrop and follow your news from afar, rather than confronting you openly.

- Avoiding spending enjoyable time with your family and only being with your friends, which leads to breaking down the bridges of communication with your family, resulting in mutual feelings of estrangement.

- Lying about small things, especially when leaving the house with false excuses, can lead them to distrust you, even when you are telling the truth.

- Hearing about negative incidents and stories involving girls of your age in impulsive romantic relationships can make parents more cautious about protecting you from such situations.

 

Emotional distance and poor communication lead to a loss of trust between the girl and her family. When trust is absent, doubt replaces trust and openness, and the parents become a surveillance tower over the girl without realizing it, but this becomes an inevitable result of the type of relationship between them.

 

The advice to help you escape this predicament is to build bridges of honesty, trust, and understanding. Find practical ways to communicate correctly with them, which might require special effort from you at the beginning. But how can parents allow room for freedom without testing your responsibility towards that freedom and your proper use of it? Making the right decisions and continuous consultation with your parents grants you credibility, and thus you will find that the freedom given to you increases day by day. You might be surprised to find your parents treating you as mature, even if you are young. So, your freedom is in your hands.

 

 Start with small matters and climb the ladder of your freedom step by step because your freedom is made by your own hands.