Item Detail
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Abbot, Nabia
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Woman
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1956
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1956
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156
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212
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This chapter explains the present status of Middle Eastern women through historical description. The pre-Islamic woman, Aryan, enjoyed a measure of basic freedom and equality. Her movements were not restricted. She accompanied men to war and played a role in the major literary activity of the time, poetry. Her loss of political power was greater in the northern Christianized Arab kingdoms bordering on Persia and Byzantium than in the loose oligarchies of Arabia proper. Throughout the Middle Ages the theoretic position of women either remained static or regressed. The transition from the social freedom of pre-Islamic days to the Muslim harem system was gradual. Middle Eastern society has come a long way on the road to modernization. The notion of male superiority has been balanced with the emancipation of women. It is woman's movement which is the most significant single factor in the cha
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Anshen, ed Ruth Nanda
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Mid-East: World Center Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow
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New York: Harper and Brothers Publishers