Response
Very few Colonies were present in the Middle East during the twentieth century. This comprises of the British, French and the Italian. Colonial’s state comprised of patterns and regulatory mechanisms that dictated what happened in the political landscape as well as providing the ways of exercising power in countries that were dominated by the Europeans. In the Middle East, the setting up of the modern state features was the sole responsibility of the major colonial authority. Administrative logic most often was used to subdivide areas of control, for instance Jerusalem.
On the completion of a territorial state, mechanisms were laid down that provided for enumeration and identification of specific persons who would reside in the demarcated regions. One of the mechanisms involved a census arrangement that gave way to laws which defined the means of attaining nationality of any particular country. Bordering countries signed treaties which provided for rights and mechanisms of extraditing law breakers across those states.
In the case of Egypt, the population of Europeans majorly involved the Italians and the Greeks. These groups did not enjoy adequate support from the Britons that had already established in the country. The situation was further made difficult by introduction of local officials and politicians into matters of governance and official posts. Provision of resources by the colonizers introduced yet another struggle among the local groups who fiercely competed for the scarce resources.
Centralization in Iran and turkey comprised a number of important features that were common. Both were rooted on the dynastic empire ruins that faced challenge from constitutional groups and reformers at the beginning of the 20th century. Both got rebranded through national armies and creation of secular judicial systems. Main institutions in turkey were created in the time when Mustafa’s Kemal was arranging resistance to invasion by foreigners in Ankara. The second stage involved establishment of a system of one party that sought to maintain order during the Kurdish revolt of 1925.
The 20th century reveals a significantly heavy participation of the women in movements that fought for independence in the Middle East. For instance, the women are said to have played a great role in Tunisian independence movement but soon after independence their roles became marginalized. In Cairo’s Tahrir square demonstrations, women were upfront. In comparison to their role at the time of the Arab spring, the participation of women in politics and decision- making and state affairs, has become almost non-existent in the modern Arab world. Women were beaten, chased out of positions of public and harassed. The representation of women in the Arabian political arena is very low even today.
Noting the fact that traditionalists and Islamists have dominated roles in new government formations of the Arab countries, women rights developments will be more on patriarchy and conservative norms. Arab women have to consider this as they seek to widen their scope of rights in these environments.
Works cited
Laqueur, Walter. Communism and Nationalism in the Middle East. London: Rouledge & K. Paul, 1961. Print.
Schmidt, Dana A. Armageddon in the Middle East. New York: John Day Co, 1974. Print.
Spyer, Jonathan, and Cameron Brown. The Rise of Nationalism: The Arab World, Turkey, and Iran. Philadelphia: Mason Crest Publishers, 2008. Print.
Suleiman, Camelia. Language and Identity in the Israel-Palestine Conflict: The Politics of Self-Perception in the Middle East. London: I.B. Tauris, 2011. Print.
