THERE's been a lot of talk lately about the “new independent” Arab woman, as if she was some exotic species of animal that deserved to be examined in a laboratory. The recent New York Times article published this week about Arab women working as flight attendants for an airline in the United Arab Emirates is a good example of what I'm talking about. The article's tone makes one think that the reporter discovered a rare species of a delicate bird deep in the Amazon jungle! The article focuses on the “new-found freedom” Arab women – mostly Egyptians it seems – have found in the UAE. Since the construction boom, there has been a huge influx of people coming into Dubai and Abu Dhabi. According to the article, female flight attendants live in dormitories and covet long-haul flights to places like Canada and Australia, but dread shorter trips to places like Sudan, which means a one-day turnaround and no overnight stays in luxury hotels. What is silly is the writer's surprise that these “creatures” like to eat Cinnabons (who doesn't?) and watch trashy TV shows like “Desperate Housewives,” as if to imply that they should only be eating dates, drinking tea and watching conservative shows. The writer then classifies the flight attendants' behavior into two categories – good or bad. They either stay indoors during their off-hours or they hit the nightclubs trolling for available men. Oops! No middle ground? Can't there be a woman on her own who is responsible and just has fun with her female friends? Such articles leave me cold, although I suppose they serve well for a Western audience, which only sees Arab women as oppressed and in need of a helping hand. Western media fails to recognize that independence is not new among Arab women, Saudis included. In Western family culture, once a child becomes an adult, he/she usually lives on his/her own. Our families are different. Here, one remains a member of the family forever. His/her obligation towards parents never ceases. Parents remain an integral part of a child's life until their last breath. A woman's independence depends on many factors: Trust between a daughter and her parents; parents' education and attitude towards the outside world; and economic opportunities. A Saudi newspaper recently featured a story about a young Saudi girl attending university in Europe. Young and alone, she is learning for the first time how to hook up her computer to the Internet, pay utility bills, walk down to the local grocery store, and deal with people speaking a foreign language. She may be nervous, but her family trusts her and feels she is capable of facing the challenges that any young woman in the world would face. My circle of female friends in Newcastle are from conservative and liberal families. All their families have trust in their daughters. The important thing I want to highlight is that these girls were already independent in Saudi Arabia, or in the Arab country they come from, and have demonstrated the maturity to handle that independence. What the New York Times spoke about was nothing new. These young women working as flight attendants didn't just decide to pack their bags in Cairo and arrive in Dubai to assert their “new-found independence.” It is more likely that they were already independent and supported by their families. Yes, an American or a British woman can leave her family nest with a simple good-bye or thank you, and establish her own version of an independent life. I think, though, that she will lead a less fulfilling life without the support and love of her parents, brothers and sisters. Independence can be achieved by just about anybody, whether they are from the West or from the Gulf. Just because Arab women are living independent lives doesn't make them different from other women and necessitates their being scrutinized under a microscope. – The writer can be reached at [email protected] and her blog is: www.saudiwriter.blogspot.com. __
