In the midst of working on my research paper on gender division through space, I have come to wonder as my date of departure becomes more and more real, how this division will affect women in their day to day lives, and how it will affect me, as a female traveler…not a tourist of course.
Before beginning my research paper I had just assumed that religion is the reason that the people of Islamic countries are brought up to believe that men have different rights than women. As I picked my paper topic because I myself had so many misconceptions about this issue, I have come across so many interesting arguments as to why males and females are not viewed as “equal.” With ideas ranging from of course, religion, to social class, to location, to external influences, the one thing I have learned through all these different arguments is that there is no straight forward answer saying “this is the GRAND reason why women and men have different roles”…and believe me this would be extremely nice to have for my research paper! All these different factors in a way truly create a melting pot in the way social division is seen.
And as I and my other female classmates have been forewarned about the importance of traveling in groups, to tying our hair back so men won’t touch our hair, to just how to ignore catcalls; I have become a little anxious as to how I will adjust to this way of life for three weeks. But after these three weeks I will go home and everything will be back to normal. I won’t have to worry about these issues that Moroccan women face on a day to day basis. And although many Moroccans don’t see their gendered differences to be an issue like we would in America, I want to remind myself to be an open traveler and not judge so much when I am feeling frustrated, but rather try to learn and take something new from their cultural ways.
27 days to go!
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