ASSIGNMENT

Patriarchal Culture

Patriarchal Culture

Introduction

This paper intends to explore the Patriarchal Culture. Main focus of the paper is on the patriarchal culture in Islam and that how males are dominant in the society. Further, reference is made to the book “Palace Walk”, which discusses about the response of Egyptians to the British colonial power. However it must be noted here that Islamic core values do not promote patriarchal culture, rather it talks about the equality between men and women in the society. Women have equal importance as men in Islam.

Discussion

Male dominance has been seen in the world since thousands of years. Although, now is the beginning of feminine era but however, women are still not treated the same. Women have never been treated at an equal position like men. This is not it; women have always been the victim of harassment. For instance, in an ambient where obscenities are frequent; women are more exposed to be sexually harassed than in an ambient where such conversations are not tolerated. On the other hand men make the majority in occupying the most important supervisory posts, and they are the ones who approve or reject if a sexual harassment complaint is justified or not.

Since the founding of the United Nations (UN) in 1945, had put in effort in promoting women's empowerment, gender equality, and women's rights have been at the foundation of several key conventions agreed upon and ratified by UN member states. While they are often referred to as “soft laws,” conventions are international treaties of sorts; they are negotiated norms, setting global standards for state behaviors, and when protocols are attached, rules for monitoring and compliance may apply.

In regard to women's global status and human rights, most UN member states have voluntarily agreed to the following international conventions that eliminate various discriminations against women and protect their bodily integrity; Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (1979); Declaration on the Elimination of Violence Against Women (1994) and many more. Although UN member states sign international conventions voluntarily and often attach reservations and interpretations that strictly limit the conventions' effectiveness in order to preserve state sovereignty and prerogatives, conventions are treaties with contractual force and are major standard-setting documents. Over the years that the UN has existed, member states have increasingly recognized and supported an international women's rights agenda through progressively broader and more inclusive conventions that often have begun as less-comprehensive “declarations” that, nonetheless, also have some moral power.

Patriarchy

Patriarchy is a concept used in the social sciences, particularly in anthropology and in feminist studies. Refers to an unequal distribution of power between men and women in which men have preeminence in one or more aspects, such as the determination of the lines of descent (parentage exclusively patrilineal descent and carrying the last name), the rights of birthright , personal autonomy in social relationships, participation in public and political or religious status or attribution of the different occupations of men and women determined by the sexual division of labor ...