Gender Roles in Morocco and Algeria

Paper Summary:

The paper discusses how, over the past several decades, two neighboring Northern African states, Algeria and Morocco, have taken different paths in their views and treatment of families and genders. The paper examines how, as a result of the specific differences in the treatment of gender, the male and female genders have assumed different roles in each of these countries. In this paper, several books and films are discussed and analyzed in order to better describe the topic of gender roles in Morocco and Algeria.

Outline:
Introduction
Portrayal of the Gender Roles in Books
Common Threads of Gender Roles
Conclusion
Works Cited

From the Paper:

"There are deeper cultural clashes that are depicted in "Year of the Elephant", which is a collection of stories written and compiled by Leila Abouzeid. The "title story", if you will, shares the history of a woman who has been divorced and left with nothing to her name, essentially leaving her trapped within the confines of her village. She goes through a period of depression and recounts her life story, her involvement in the independence movement, her marriage to a young man who becomes seduced by materialism. Through all of these trials, she takes on the viewpoint that the colonization that held Morocco in a powerless position is not over, that it has simply been replaced by ambitious and greedy Moroccans wielding power over the disenfranchised--the poor and women. By presenting such a complex story, Abouzeid takes on several cultural issues- secular versus sacred, materialistic versus personal, the powerful overtaking the weak, and of course the classic struggle for the genders to attain equality and more specifically for women to achieve equal rights in a society that basically refuses to give them those rights."

Sample of Sources Used:

• Abouzeid, L. Year of the Elephant. Austin: Center for Middle Eastern Studies, 1989.
• Bowles, Paul. The Spider's House. 1st ed. New York: Harper Collins, 1955.
• Djebar, A. Children of the New World. n.p.: Feminist P, 2005.
• Mernissi, F. Scheherazde Goes West. n.p.: Washington Square P, 2002.
• Pontecorvo, G. ""Battle of Algiers"-film." 1965

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