The treatment of religious minorities by the Sunni Muslim Arab majority has continuously alternated between integration and harassment. Smaller Muslim sectors have often faced discrimination as well. Jews are concentrated in Israel, but ancient Jewish communities still exist in most countries of the Middle East. Jews and Christians have faced varying degrees of discrimination, but have found some protection through Islam’s classification of their believers as “people of the book”. Followers of smaller religions often face more harassment and discrimination. Many Islamic clerics decry Baha’i as heretics for believing that other prophets came after Mohammed, and this group faces discrimination across the region, particularly in Iran. Israel’s significant Muslim minority, including most indigenous Palestinians, has faced regular government discrimination in citizenship, property, education, and other rights.
Among the generally poor environment for religious and ethnic minorities throughout the Middle East, women minorities have suffered especially. In addition to ethnic and religious persecution, minority women have been frequent targets for rape and other sexual assault. “According to mainstream, Western, secular discourse, Islam is inherently oppressive to women. This attitude is reflected in rhetoric of those like French President Nicolas Sarkozy, who says that veils oppress women, and the former U.S. First Lady Laura Bush, who calls to free Muslim women from the confines of Islam”. Despite the popular discourse in Western media, politics and even academics, the status of women in Muslim societies is far from being connected to a simple religious issue. It is necessary to look at both the religion and the surrounding cultures in order to understand the status of women in Muslim societies. According to the World Economic Forum’s Gender Gap Index, Saudi Arabia rates 130/134 countries in terms of gender inequality, only Benin, Pakistan, Chad and Yamen were rated worse. “Gender inequality is built into Saudi Arabia’s governmental and social structures, and is integral to the country’s state-supported interpretation of Islam, which is derived from a literal reading of the Koran and Sunna”. According to Saudi law, the woman “…is viewed as being at fault for illegal mixing of genders and is punished along with her attacker.” Furthermore, most rape goes unreported because “…victim[s] faced societal reprisal, diminished marriage opportunities, and possible imprisonment or accusations of adultery”. According to the United Nations Human Rights Council It also indicated that there were discriminatory practices around divorce and child custody, there was an absence of law criminalizing violence against women, and women had difficulties escaping from abusive environments. Across the region, women continue to be subject to varying degrees to personal status laws that are based on Sharia law. Such laws privilege Muslims over non-Muslims, and Muslim men over Muslim and non-Muslim women, for example in marriage and inheritance.
In Iraq, Kurds, Turkmen, Armenians, Circassians, and other ethnic minorities have been targeted by violence, sometimes by Arab authorities, but also at the hands of regional authorities—for example attacks on Turkmen in Kurdish-dominated northern Iraq. Suspicion of Kurdish separatism also has led to state discrimination against them in Syria and Iran.
1.) Women in the Arab World: A Case of Religion or Culture, Desiree Bryan
2.) Doumato
3.) US Department of State, “2009 Human Rights Report: Saudi Arabia,”
4.) Ibid, 9
Among the generally poor environment for religious and ethnic minorities throughout the Middle East, women minorities have suffered especially. In addition to ethnic and religious persecution, minority women have been frequent targets for rape and other sexual assault. “According to mainstream, Western, secular discourse, Islam is inherently oppressive to women. This attitude is reflected in rhetoric of those like French President Nicolas Sarkozy, who says that veils oppress women, and the former U.S. First Lady Laura Bush, who calls to free Muslim women from the confines of Islam”. Despite the popular discourse in Western media, politics and even academics, the status of women in Muslim societies is far from being connected to a simple religious issue. It is necessary to look at both the religion and the surrounding cultures in order to understand the status of women in Muslim societies. According to the World Economic Forum’s Gender Gap Index, Saudi Arabia rates 130/134 countries in terms of gender inequality, only Benin, Pakistan, Chad and Yamen were rated worse. “Gender inequality is built into Saudi Arabia’s governmental and social structures, and is integral to the country’s state-supported interpretation of Islam, which is derived from a literal reading of the Koran and Sunna”. According to Saudi law, the woman “…is viewed as being at fault for illegal mixing of genders and is punished along with her attacker.” Furthermore, most rape goes unreported because “…victim[s] faced societal reprisal, diminished marriage opportunities, and possible imprisonment or accusations of adultery”. According to the United Nations Human Rights Council It also indicated that there were discriminatory practices around divorce and child custody, there was an absence of law criminalizing violence against women, and women had difficulties escaping from abusive environments. Across the region, women continue to be subject to varying degrees to personal status laws that are based on Sharia law. Such laws privilege Muslims over non-Muslims, and Muslim men over Muslim and non-Muslim women, for example in marriage and inheritance.
In Iraq, Kurds, Turkmen, Armenians, Circassians, and other ethnic minorities have been targeted by violence, sometimes by Arab authorities, but also at the hands of regional authorities—for example attacks on Turkmen in Kurdish-dominated northern Iraq. Suspicion of Kurdish separatism also has led to state discrimination against them in Syria and Iran.
1.) Women in the Arab World: A Case of Religion or Culture, Desiree Bryan
2.) Doumato
3.) US Department of State, “2009 Human Rights Report: Saudi Arabia,”
4.) Ibid, 9