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February 23, 2005
Women at the University
As I was walking to class this morning, I was struck by the number of women I was surrounded by. In fact, there were hardly any men around at all. What was even more striking was the fact that most of the women wore hijab (the head scarf) and a good number were fully covered (including their face).
The first thought I had was suprise as to sheer number of women that are allowed to study in Jordan. I have met several women who are studying to become doctors or engineers and want to have carreers. Most women do end up quitting their jobs when they get married but it is still amazing that they even have the opportunity to study if they want to. I will admit that I assumed there would be considerably more men at the University of Jordan but I have definitely been proven wrong. Even in my Arabic language class there were only a handfull of guys. There, I am working with only international students and I assumed that there would be more guys than girls especially since that is my experience at Brandeis. However, this has also been proved wrong.
My second observation was that altough hijab women cover their hair, the scarf makes up for the lack of hair. Some women stick to the plain black but some wear sparkles and some wear orange or pink or even red. Although to a western, it would seem that not showing your hair would stifle a woman's personality, there are plenty of ways to make up for it. Even the fully covered women carry crazy bags and wear high heels when they go to class. I am impressed with their creativness but I also wonder what the point of the scarf is if they are attracting attention anyways? Do they realize that sparkles are just as flashy as well groomed hair? Or do they not have a problem with that?
Either way, I am very curious about these cultural differences.
Posted by rcollins at February 23, 2005 7:52 AM
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Comments
The question of veiled women is an interesting one... Of course, since I'm not really a part of that culture, I can't be certain of all the reasons and thoughts that go into it. But I think at least there is a difference between a veiled woman and an unveiled one. It isn't a question of attracting attention per se, it's about what kind of attention you're attracting. A guy might notice a flashy scarf just as much as 'well-groomed hair', but the thoughts that arise are quite different. Here in the West, we're not used to thinking of hair having an erotic context, but it can, especially in a society where its display is repressed.
Is this repression a good thing or a bad thing? I couldn't say. For my part, sometimes I wish more women wore veils, because of all the crazy girls out there who show it off while I'm trying to remain pure. It's tough to be a guy...
Posted by: Karl at February 23, 2005 1:03 PM
Just some stats from last year:
UJ Students (total):
Females: 18,893
Males: 13,429
So you're right, there are a lot more women than men on campus...
Posted by: Karl at February 24, 2005 7:24 AM