What do MENA Muslims think about the role of women in society? – study

Despite stereotypes and Western misconceptions, the perception of gender roles by Middle Eastern Muslims may be more uniformed than many commonly believe, a study first published in November 2022 found.

The open-access peer-reviewed study, published in the academic journal Gender & Society, surveyed Muslim Facebook users from the Middle East about their perceptions of women’s chastity and marital patriarchy.

The study involved interviewing men and women from Algeria, Egypt, Pakistan, Tunisia, Turkey, and the Palestinian Territories.

The role of women in Muslim societies

In the preliminary data provided by the study, the researchers quantified the role of women within each separate society by looking at indicators of gender equality in education, employment, political life, and law.

Within the Palestinian Territories, women receive 0.98 years of education on average for every one year that a man studies on average. For Pakistan, the ratio for the average amount of women’s years in education compared to men’s is 0.61:1.

In the Palestinian Territories, women make up just 19.9% of the workforce which is the lowest of all the countries included in the study. The country with the highest percentage of women in the workforce is Turkey, at 33%. 

The average age a woman gets married for the first time is the lowest in the Palestinian Territories, at 22.1 years old. The oldest average age for a woman’s first marriage in the included countries is 28.2 years in both Tunisia and Algeria.

State-sanctioned chastity practices 

The study ranked legislative control over chastity practices from 0-3, “Based on a count of the following three items, measured in 2018, whether the government took measures to highly encourage or enforce the hijab; whether government institutions were complicit in virginity testing or nonvirginity was a legal ground for divorce; whether laws were more lenient for honor killings than for other killings.” 

Turkey was given the lowest score of 0, indicating that they have the lowest levels of control of one or more of the aforementioned three factors. Turkey is closely followed by Pakistan and Tunisia with a rating of 1.  The highest level of legislative control over chastity is seen the Palestinian Territories, with a score of 3. 

In explaining why this is an important factor in understanding the perception of gender roles amongst the studied populations, the researchers wrote “women’s chastity, relates to the social control of women’s bodies, including practices aimed at safeguarding young women’s marriageability. Although chastity may also be normative for unmarried Muslim men, young women are subject to much more intense social sanctioning.”

“Chastity and modesty practices are supported by essentialist beliefs in gender difference, specifically the idea that men possess a naturally aggressive sexuality, and that women have power to control men’s sexual access to their bodies, thus protecting their marriage prospects, the family honor, and the interests of the broader community.”

State-sanctioned marital patriarchy practices

The researchers quantified state-sanctioned marital patriarchy practices on a scale of 0-6.

The scale was based on “a count of the following six items, measured in 2018, whether polygamy is permitted; whether talaq (husband’s unilateral right to revocation of marriage) is in force; whether laws give a husband the right to control his wife’s behavior (through a duty to obey, permission required to work or travel); whether laws give lower punishment to men for domestic violence than for other violence; whether laws are more lenient in the case of honor killings of wives by husbands; whether abortion is legal during first 10 gestation weeks.”

Both Tunisia and Turkey were given the lowest score of 0, indicating that there is less state-sanction control of the aforementioned six items. Both the Palestinian Territories and Egypt were given the highest ranking of 6, indicating that the states sanction one or more of the 6 items to a high degree.

In explaining why this is an important factor in understanding the perception of gender roles in the countries included in this study, the researchers wrote “Marital patriarchy, especially when sanctioned by state law or violence, is predicated upon the unequal status and unequal rights of husbands and wives in marriage. 

Results of the survey

Survey respondents were recruited through Facebook banner advertisements. The survey was made available in Arabic, Turkish and Urdu so that non-English speaking respondents could be represented in the study. 

Overall, the researchers collected data from a total of 6592 respondents aged at least 19 years old who all identified themselves as Muslim. 

Facebook users are generally younger, more educated, more likely to be male, and less likely to be married than the corresponding general populations, meaning that the data produced by the survey may be skewed by an overrepresentation of some populations. The researchers added that this may mean that the respondents were less likely to be religious and less likely to support Sharia Law.

In studying the perception of respondents toward the issue of women’s chastity, the researchers asked two questions. Firstly, do you think women should wear the hijab? Secondly, do you think a woman should be a virgin when she marries?

In studying the perception of respondents toward the issue of marital patriarchy, the researchers asked another two questions. Firstly, do you think men should have the right to decide whether their wives work outside the home? Secondly, do you think men have the right to beat their wives if other techniques of persuasion fail?

Respondents were able to answer ‘yes,’ ‘no’ or ‘not sure.

Do you think women should wear the hijab?

Respondents from Pakistan most frequently believed that women should wear the Hijab, although the responses from the Palestinian Territories, Egypt and Algeria indicate similar levels of that belief. The difference across gender was minimal although only women from the Palestinian Territories believed in wearing the hijab more than men did.

Participants from Turkey didn’t believe women should wear the hijab as much as participants from other countries. Only 40% of men and roughly 30% of women respondents from Turkey believed women should wear the hijab.

The researchers found that Quran literalists show nearly quadruple the odds of agreement on the hijab item.

Do you think a woman should be a virgin when she marries? 

The study found that across all the countries, men were more likely to support marital patriarchy. However, perceptions on women’s chastity were viewed largely the same by men and women. 

The Palestinian Territories and Egypt had the highest percentage of people that believed women should be virgins until they are married, while Turkey had the lowest percentage of people with that belief.

In Algeria, Egypt and Pakistan, the belief that women should be virgins until they are married was more widely held by women than men, although the difference in percentage is small. 

The widest gap in gendered belief on the topic is from Turkey, where roughly half as many women agreed with the belief than men. Turkey also had the lowest percentage of men that held the belief, at roughly 60%.

Do you think men should have the right to decide whether their wives work outside the home?

Data from this question showed the greatest discrepancy in belief between men and women. 

Approximately 60% of Algerian and Pakistani male respondents believed that a husband should be allowed to decide if their wife should work. This belief was held by only approximately 20% of female Algerian respondents and nearly 40% of Pakistani female respondents. 

Turkey showed the fewest percentage of respondents supporting the belief that a husband should decide if a wife works at less than 10% of female respondents and roughly 40% of male respondents. 

Do you think men have the right to beat their wives if other techniques of persuasion fail?

Across all countries, the percentage of respondents that believed husbands could beat their wives was lower compared to other questions. 

Algerian respondents had the highest percentage of belief that husbands should be allowed to beat their wives at nearly 40% of male respondents and less than 10% of female respondents. 

Turkey had the lowest percentage of participants that believed husbands had a right to beat their wives, with less than 10% of respondents from both genders believing husbands had the right.

The researchers found that respondents who absorbed a literal translation of the Qu’ran had 60% greater odds of agreeing that a husband has the right to beat his wife.

“The relatively weak affirmation of husbands’ right to physically discipline their wives is at odds with Western stereotypes of unrestrained Islamic patriarchy. Even in countries with the highest levels of religious absolutism and strongest support for marital patriarchy, most men decline to affirm husbands’ right to physical “persuasion” of their wives,” the researchers wrote.