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Last update - 00:00 05/08/2008
Study: Israeli Arab attitudes toward women undergoing change
By Yoav Stern, Haaretz Correspondent
Tags: gender, Israel, patriarchy 

Attitudes regarding gender roles in the Israeli Arab sector are undergoing radical change, a new study has found.

The study, conducted by Israeli Arab organization Women against Violence and unveiled in Nazareth on Tuesday, finds that Arab men's attitudes toward women have become increasingly diverse.

The men surveyed in the research were split up into two groups, which were in turn compared with each other. One group consisted of men who have allegedly "transcended" the traditionally patriarchal stance, while the other held more traditional views.
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They all agreed that the Arab society is predominantly patriarchal, where men are perceived as the decision-makers and women as inferior and ideally subservient. Free-spirited women, it was agreed, are seen as worthy of paying a price ? sometimes their own lives - for their unruliness.

The members of the first group were critical of the current situation, whereas the others said it was "natural" and "impossible to change." Members of both groups said that a man who treats his partner other than the acceptable norm endangers his social standing.

"It's okay to wash the floor at home, where no one can see, but when a man takes out the laundry, it is embarrassing," one of the participants said.

Women against Violence director Aida Toma-Suleiman told Haaretz that they see men as partners for the change the organization strives to instigate.

"There are Arab men who are unhappy with this balance of power, and wish to improve the relations between the genders. They see it as their interest as much as anyone else's," she said.

She said that the progressive and traditional groups in the Arab society have drifted further apart over the past few years, creating more tensions. The conservative lobby is well organized and enjoys a solid religious powerbase, Toma-Suleiman said, and concluded that "our activities will lead to a change."

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