Women in the Muslim world taking the fast track to change
3 KEY TAKEAWAYS:
According to the article, there are 1.6 billion populations of Muslims in the world which account for 16% of global GDP. Even though 800 million of them are Muslim women, which are more than combined population of Brazil, Russia, and the United States, they had faced a deprived situation over the years. However, changes are being observed at the present time which had occurred half century ago in the United States.
The widespread education movement has enriched the perspective for millions of Muslim women. The governments of such oil-rich nations have made a heavy investment in education over the decade which led to an increment in primary and secondary education rates. In some cases in Algeria, Bahrain, Oman, etc. the enrollment rate of women in university had even exceeded men’s enrollment rates. In the case of Turkey, women’s enrollment rates are increasing faster. Even in the United Arab Emirates, the women enrollment rate in university is three times to that of men. Thus, such nations are facing accelerating growth in the education sector for women and men which usually go unreported.
The education of Muslim women, after being internalized in the family and society structures, can bring another change for women towards employment. The education movement brought in the wave for 40 millions of women joining the labor force in the past decade. This suggests that the movement broke through the generation old traditions and cultural pressure which resulted in a new segment of the market and greater power among consumers. Despite the march towards a new change, there must be strong efforts to reduce the gap between women and men workforce participation. The improvement of 20% of the Gross Domestic Product can be witnessed if the participation of women escalates to two-thirds to that of men.
Question: Is it likely that education of Muslim women can instigate change in various other fields overcoming the rigid barrier of Muslim religion, culture and traditions?
