Checking my own Misconceptions

While watching the documentary “Not Without My Veil; Amongst the Women of Oman” I realized that I have a lot of my own preconceptions about women in the Middle East that practice Islam. Although my preconceptions have changed greatly throughout a project that I did last year about women in the Middle East and in this course, I still have a lot of things that I thought happened to women in the Middle East that is not true. I have always almost had a level of pity for women in the middle east the practice Islam. I used to think that women basically had no rights and that they were very unhappy in marriages that they were forced into. But, this is just not the case and this perception is a very western perception of a place and religion that I just did not know very much about before. Women in Oman that are part of the Islam religion are very empowered and have high up jobs, they have some say in who they marry, and they take great pride in the religion that they follow that the customs that come along with the religion. I found it very interesting when the woman was talking at the beginning about how she felt out of place not wearing the Veil and when she put it on it brought her large amounts of comfort. I always viewed the veil as something that women had to do and did not want to, but for that woman, it was something that brought her comfort and made her feel as she was fitting in. Another misconception that I had was that women do not have “good” jobs in the Middle East and that they were mostly just stay at home mothers. But, when the woman was talking about how she led a team of many males, I was shocked. I had no idea that women have such high roles in jobs in Oman and that my misconception was very off. My past views were not necessarily negative of the Islam religion and women, it was more that I had pity for the women that did not have the same rights as I. But, after viewing this documentary I learned that although our lives are different, many women in the Middle East that practice Islam are happy with their lives and they have many of the same rights that I do.