Middle Eastern Women in Sports

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yZ2jYLCloFo

In the video Nada Zeidan is a very involved and popular female athlete, she participates in rallies, and archery. In the video she speaks about how in Arab countries men don't like women to compete with them, especially if you will beat them. Nada Zeidan says that at first she was not being accepted, but slowly over the years people began to be a little more accepting of her being a female participant in "mens" activity. Nada Zeidan said that when she first began archery there were 16 other women, and today she is the only one. Lucky for Nada her father was very accepting of her participating in sports. At her work in the hospital she requested to work in the mens division and they call her "superwomen". Why? Are they trying to say that not all women can do what they do?

Coming from a middle eastern family I can kind of touch base on where Nada Zeidan is coming from. Although my family does not come from an Arab country, they still have those old fashion values. Growing up I was always involved in sports, and my father was okay with it, but my grandfather never thought it was right. He always suggested I just take dance lessons. At family reunions when my male cousins will make teams to play basketball they will never include me or any of my other female cousins. Even if i were great at a certain sports, my family will never allow me to pursue my dreams of becoming a professional athlete.

In the middle eastern culture, men always rule. Even if you are a 20 year old guy you can demand your mother to do things for you. The idea of women not being able to participate in sports is not the only thing that women are held back from, it goes down into our roots, where it has always been patriarchal. Men will work women will stay home and bare their children. There is a very interesting tradition in my culture (Armenian) such as a certain meal. It is called "xash", it takes about 7 hour to prepare, and usually women will prepare the meal. This is popular in the winter season. Men will gather at some ones house on a sunday morning, they will eat the "xash" drink vodka and not allow any females to be there while this is all happening. Although slowly this is vanishing, in my generation this no longer exists, but when my older uncles and grandfathers gather they go by the "rules".

I see that the middle eastern traditions are changing as the generations here in the US expand, but back home, they are still as hard headed as they were 100 years ago.

Liz Avedisian

TTH 9:30-10:45