Why does the myth that Lebanese women are the “freest” in the Middle East persist?

“[…] much of the evidence seems to come from the idea that all Lebanese women walk around wearing short skirts, going to the beach in bikinis, and clubbing until the morning. Within this conception of women’s rights, then, it is the fact that Lebanese women’s bodies are exposed that is the greatest factor for whether they are free or not.

This misogynistic conceptualization of women’s freedom can be traced back to colonial representations of veiled women as oppressed that persist till this day (a topic addressed at length by scholar Leila Ahmed in her work Women and Gender in Islam). Within the colonial framework, Arab women’s status is a determinant of Arab societies’ progress, and the European colonizer’s ability to see the Arab woman’s body is a key measure of this progress. These superficial standards of women’s rights and freedoms continues, and it is no wonder that peddlers of “pseudosexual liberation” like Joumana Haddad (as Angie Nassar brilliantly refers to her) receive acclaim while women’s rights activists are often left out in the dark. […]”

 

- Excerpt from the article “Not Just Decor: The Struggle for Real Women’s Rights in Lebanon” by Alex Shams, posted on January 10, 2012 on KABOBfest