Advancement of Middle Eastern Women
The advancement of women is a concept that can be difficult to coneptualize. Women in the Middle East tend to lag behind when it comes to gender equity. This is not because of Islam, but because of deeply rooted patriarchial cultural values and a long history of colonialism. Indicators of womens advancement can be seen and measured through economic autonomy, physical autonomy, and autonomy in decision-making.
Indictators of Physical Autonomy
Fertility rates indicate general advancement of women. There is a negative correaltion between fertility rates and education, access to contraception, and GDP. This means that when fertility rates decrease womens participation in the public sphere tends to increase.
source: Götmark, F., Andersson, M. Human fertility in relation to education, economy, religion, contraception, and family planning programs. BMC Public Health 20, 265 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1186/s12889-020-8331-7
Half of women who die by homicide are
murdered by their intimate partners. source:https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2017/07/21/538518569/cdc-half-of-all-female-murder-victims-are-killed-by-intimate-partners
Intimate partner violence includes, physical violence, sexual violence, stalking and psychological aggression.
Intimate partner violence also known as domestic violence is occuring at alarming rates. So much so that many major health organizations like WHO and the CDC consider it a public health issue.
source: https://www.cdc.gov/violenceprevention/intimatepartnerviolence/fastfact.html
Source: https://ssrsreports.congress.gov/product/pdf/R/R46423 Congressional Research Service
Womens participation in the workforce is integral to equality. When women are taking part in the workforce it points to more women being financially independent from male guardians. In the Middle East this is especially important as culturally women are expected and pressured to stay home.