Women’s Rights In The Middle East

Brigham Young once said, “You educate a man; you educate a man. You educate women; you educate a generation” (Digital Empowerment Foundation). Education is very important to the young women in the Middle East and religion can cause conflict, it is not just about private faith. There are many titles that a woman can be given such as, a woman’s main job is to take care of their children, they are not allowed to show any hair of skin, and they are required to have an escort at all times outside of the house (Harik). These titles can often drive women to commit suicide by having strict rules on being locked and covered up (Harik). One of the many places that women’s rights are a major problem is in the Middle East and it can be solved by raising awareness to prove that women are equal to men.

There have been significant changes in the history of women’s rights. Women have played leading roles to take action like Tawwakol Karman, who founded a group to raise awareness of the lack of women’s rights. In the last 20 years, the number of organizations for women to gain their sexual rights has notably increased. Commentary: Sexual Health and Human Rights in the Middle East and North Africa: Progress or Backlash states, “Despite this diversity, the region faces common challenges in securing sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR). These challenges include gender inequality, lack of sexuality education, social taboos and restrictions on women’s sexual autonomy, premarital and extramarital sexual activity, sexual orientation and gender identity, and harmful traditional practices including early and forced marriages, honour crimes, and female genital mutilation. All of these jeopardise women’s and girl’s health and violate their basic human rights”(Ilkkaracan). Women have had to go through these horrendous situations for hundreds of years and until a couple of decades ago no one has stood up for these women or tried to help them. Women are not permitted to leave their own house without their husbands and their hijabs on to prevent any skin from being shown.

Our writers can help you with any type of essay. For any subject

Order now

It is believed that to have a well-formatted society than it is important that women remain strictly mothers to their children and wives. Women, Sexuality, and Social Change in the Middle East and the Maghreb states, “At the same time, in the last decade, women around the globe have Joined forces to counter these moves from the conservative and religious right and have engaged in an international struggle against violations of their sexual and reproductive rights a struggle transcending national borders as well as real or constructed North-South and East-West dichotomies”(Ilkkaracan). Women have recently started to voice what they have had to endure and their opinions about their rights as a human and a woman. They are tired of doing what they are told and being controlled by men, women want to have their own rights, live their life how they want to, and not how their strict husband or parents want.

The reason women are being treated so horribly is because they are still under Islamic Law and it is holding them back from having these basic human rights. Under this law women were thrown into marriages without their own consent, forced to be obedient and submissive to any man, paid significantly less than men (if they were able get a job), and had restrictions on contacting anyone outside of the family by her husband. Children as young as thirteen were subjected into marriages with any man who wanted them and the husband could have up to five wives at a time. If women were not obedient or submissive to their husband they would get beaten or killed in extreme cases. If women tried to contact anyone outside their family their husband is entitled to beat them and if they left without permission men could get the police to forcibly bring the women back home. Once a woman was divorced from a man they were paid one-half the amount a man was paid and still had to support their children, which is why the majority of divorced women live in poverty. All of these reasons are wrong because women deserve the right to talk to whoever they want, get married to anyone they please, leave their own home whenever they want, be safe in their own home and not have to worry about getting beat, and to be treated equally compared to men no matter the situation. It is time for a change and some women have begun to realize this and do something about it.

Thousands of woman have participated in demonstrations to show awareness of this sexual harassment. These demonstrations broke many barriers and are now used politically by men (Ilkkaracan). Women in the Middle East are finally getting the recognition they need in able for them to get rights after decades of fighting for them. Commentary: Sexual health and human rights in the Middle East and North Africa states that, “The shattering of taboos on gender equality and sexuality, the mobilisation of women, youth and LGBTQ, and the push from the bottom for democracy have opened spaces for new discourses and movements on SRHR that will continue, even though religious conservatives currently seem to be the ‘winners’ in the short term” (Ilkkaracan). Women are finally able to do more than stay in the house to clean and cook for their family. Women will soon be able to hold a job just as well as a man could, which allows them to leave their house when they want. Women’s Rights in the Middle East states, “Much of the progress made in improving the legal status of women has been made by male-dominated legislatures”(Trofin). Even though they are currently trying to improving the social status of women legally, men are still in charge of the laws.

Women’s rights in the Middle East have significantly progressed over the last couple decades. Laws have been changed to give women more rights then they used to, which is a major step up from previous years. Even though women have gained more and more rights, they are still not respected enough and deemed inferior compared to men. Now, many women in the Middle East have been standing up against the unfair treatment established by men to change the way they can live their life, how they are treated by men, and how they are seen by others. Even though women may face conflicts, they are moving forward as a whole to resolve their struggles.

Requiring The Usage Of Body Cameras In Law Enforcement

Police worn body cameras is a current issue in America today, throughout the nation. Implementing police body cameras, with certain regulations and restrictions, would benefit all parties involved (who are doing the right thing). Suspects who are victims of police brutality would be provided with evidence to take to court, and innocent police officers who have been accused of police brutality can clear their name in court. Research shows that body cameras reduce the amount of excessive force, and it also reduces the amount of claims reporting police for the use of excessive force. Instituting the use of body cameras throughout the nation would provide accountability and affirmation for all parties involved._x000C_

Research Paper

Development in technology has allowed this generation to witness many wonderful and many horrific things. Things such as police officers saving the lives of children, but technology has also shown us some horrific videos of the police. Police officers have started to utilize this technology to disclose the truth of what had occured. There have been many cases of unlawful killings committed by police officers, where the evidence is solely based on the claims of the police officer and the suspect. Video recordings provides an indisputable account of events and provides a level of transparency for all parties involved. For law enforcement, these recordings and technological developments come in the form of body cameras. Of the fifty states in the United States of America, five states have passed laws requiring police officers to wear some form of body camera. Police officers should be required to wear body cameras to provide accountability for officers, and protect the officers from false accusations.

Our writers can help you with any type of essay. For any subject

Order now

A police officer’s job is to ensure the safety of citizens, preserve law and order, and investigate crimes. In recent years, police have had growing accusations of not carrying out their duties in a professional and proper manner, and police brutality and cruelty claims has risen exponentially. By requiring police officers to wear body cameras people can verify the truth, without uncertainty and sayso, of what really happens when police are on duty. The public could review an event and dictate whether or not a transgression has occurred. This would also ensure that police officers carry out their job professionally and properly. It would no longer be the word of a law enforcement agent against a citizen, criminal, or deceased subject, who would not be able to tell their side of the story. Gregg Morton, the judge who helped determine whether body cameras are a management right or are they a state’s right, claimed that body cameras are “standards of service as increasing transparency, enhancing accountability, helping to define proper training, and enhancing professionalism. He noted that it will also identify criminal behavior and collect evidence” (Meck 2018).This documentation of evidence could prove whether or not a law enforcement officer was corrupt, and with that evidence law enforcement can weed out the bad apples and improve the overall quality of officers.

Police officers who use excessive force are the root cause of the more recent surge of hate towards law enforcement. Excessive force has a large gray area, and can boil down to a judgement call, solely on the police officer’s part. Exactly when force turns into excessive force depends on the complete circumstances surrounding the event in questions, including all of the factors. Some circumstances may be arguable on whether excessive force was implemented, but other situations may be obvious in whether the officer in question used excessive force. Despite this, the supreme court has ruled that force must stop once force is no longer required. Body worn cameras are able to help people and the court determine where the force became excessive if it ever did. Complaints against police for the use of force is not a new thing and is quite common. Ariel (2016) stated that “the Denver Police Department has shown that deploying BWCs” (body worn cameras) “in one police district caused a significant 35% lower odds for citizens’ complaints against the police use of force,” even though this study can not be an exact representation for the nation as a whole, because the culture in Denver is not the same as the rest of the nation’s culture. Nevertheless, this statistic allows people to grasp the importance and impact of body cameras.

Some citizens are concerned that the usage of police worn body cameras can potentially impeach their fourth amendment right. The argument has been made that if police body cameras are recording during the execution of a search warrant it could be seen as a violation of the suspects privacy, under the fourth amendment and against the U.S. Supreme Court case (in Wilson v. Layne, 526 U.S. 603(1999)). The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) is an organization dedicated “…to defend and preserve the individual rights and liberties guaranteed by the Constitution and laws of the United States” (aclu.org). Nielsen (2016) expounds on ACLU’s viewpoints on police body cameras,

“For example, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), while advocating the use of body cameras and acknowledging their use may be helpful in providing evidence of police encounters with the public, also made suggest ons to limit “the ability of the police to edit footage . . . limit the use of recordings, and establish good technological controls.” The theory for these controls is to ensure the body cameras remain a tool for monitoring the actions of the police and not a tool for monitoring the public.”

By putting certain rules and regulations in place, concerning the use of the footage obtained from police body cameras, people can ensure that their fourth amendment rights are not being violated. Newell (2017) shares that “…limits to public disclosure would protect individuals from interference and domination by states or private agents, as well as from the prying eyes of neighbors and the voyeuristic tendencies of strangers.”

There are police officers who are wary of body cameras. Some officers are fearful that the body cameras will not be able to capture the whole encounter and may leave cracks in the evidence, which can leave room for doubt and debate. There are also officers who do not want the body camera to record them while they are not interacting with civilians. These police officers are concerned with their personal lives being recorded and available for the public. For example, if an officer is talking about family matters with another office while they are filing paperwork or patroling, some feel that this information and material should not be available to the public. Times like those make it important that police officers have the option to turn off their body cameras at appropriate times, where there would be no need to collect evidence. Meck (2018) covers the threat the body cameras can possible have to the officers,

“…the men and women to whose bodies the cameras will actually be attached know well that whatever the stated policy reasons for the cameras, management, and citizens will demand that these records of their citizen contacts be used to assess their job performance toward that end, to provide evidence for their discipline and criminal prosecutions.”

If police officers are carrying out their duties in a professional manner, and there is no private material in the footage, they have no reason to be apprehensive of what citizens may see if the information is public. “Public disclosure is essential for those programs to live up to their promise of improving police forces and their interactions with society, whether through a protected government speaker or a right to know claim,” (De Statsio 2018).

Relying on the claims of suspects/convicted criminals and police officers is not an effective or practical way to handle law enforcement. Body cameras should be a requirement for police officers to wear while on duty. These cameras should be recording while the officer has even the potential of coming into contact with a civilian, and the recordings should stay private unless granted by the court to be made public in order to respect the suspect’s privacy under the fourth amendment. Body worn cameras solidify the truth and are not easily arguable, which eliminates having to rely on the claims from either side. Body worn cameras will provide the truth to many cases to come, and even prevent many cases from happening.

Leave a Comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

× How can I help you?