Author’s Reaction to a Current Event: Charlotte Perkins Gilman

Although women began to move upwards in the United States in the early twentieth century, and have made a significant move towards equal opportunities with the male gender, there are still many places in the world where women do not have the ability to participate freely in political affairs, or in areas that men see as “unfit” for women. One of these places is in the Middle East, or specifically, Iraq and Libya.

Raheel Raza wrote an article for the Gatestone Institute about the oppression of Middle Eastern women. She made the statement, “I attended a meeting of the United Nations Human Rights Council in March and heard testimony about women's rights being violated across the Middle East. That women's rights continue to be usurped and that women continue to be dehumanized is a reality and a horror.” She continues in the article to elaborate on the subject; “in Syria, women have been abducted by pro-regime forces, to spread fear in the population, and there is a mass of evidence involving rape, arbitrary detention, torture, "disappearances" and summary executions.”

In Raza’s article, she quotes the charity Al-Amal’s (which stands for “hope” in Arabic) head, Hanaa Edwar, who made the statement "Iraqi women suffer marginalization and all kinds of violence, including forced marriages, divorces and harassment, as well as restrictions on their liberty, their education, their choice of clothing, and their social life."

Charlotte Perkins Gilman would undoubtedly been strongly disapproving of this. As an advocate of women’s rights, Gilman most likely would have utter abhorrence for the treatment of women in these countries. Like in previous stories, she may have even written a shocking story identifying the tragic lives and atrocities that these women are forced to succumb to. Although it is not certain as to what exactly Gilman would do in order to bring this treatment to attention, by examining her previous works and attitudes towards women’s rights more than likely she would not stand to merely sit by and watch.

Works Cited

Raza, Racheel. "Middle East: Arab Spring vs. Women's Rights."Http://www.peacewomen.org. N.p., 21 June 2012. Web. 26 Nov. 2012. <http://www.peacewomen.org/news_article.php?id=5051&type=news>.