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WOMEN IN THE UAE
Orientals stereotypes of sexist Asian men dominating their women prevail in the western imagination. That is why enlightened European men need to rescue Asian women from their oppression by offering them the chance to join liberated European/Euro-American society as the sex mates of white men. Many European/European American whites, both men and women, believe in the need to rescue women of color from their societies of origin, and particularly from men of color. This gives rise to some white people's attitudes of smiling benignly on unions between white men and women of color while frowning on unions between white women and men of color.
Nowhere is this attitude more obvious than when it comes to the Asian women-white men syndrome. Western fiction such as "Around the World in 80 Days" and "The Far Pavilions" tell tales of the white hero rescuing an oppressed Asian woman from the clutches of Asian men. White-male-produced entertainment depicting Asian-female-white-male couples abound. Sayonara, Miss Saigon, Madame Butterfly are prime examples. There are far fewer films depicting white-woman-Asian-male couples. What Westerners typically fail to mention is that, in Asia, as in Europe and Africa, there is a diverse range of cultures and peoples, and a wide range of attitudes towards women and any other topic for that matter. To think there is a single Asian (or African or European) attitude against women is a gross oversimplification at best. Asian women in many cultures were accorded a status that Western critics do no expect/do not want to acknowledge. In fact, there were many instances of Asian women enjoying liberties that were not available to their European contemporaries. Most Dravidian (the pre-Indo-European peoples of India, now existing as Tamilians, Telugus, Malayali and other South Indian groups) cultures of India worship pantheons which are almost all female. In the Telugu districts, the few male deities are subordinate attendants upon female divinities which hold the supreme power.1 The Nairs, a large, powerful warrior caste of Kerala, practises matrilineal descent and lived in households headed by a woman.2 Men belong solely to their mother's family. Real estate is passed from mothers to daughters, and women are allowed to have multiple sex partners.3 E, a Hindi woman from the North who married into a family in the South, avers, "There is definitely more respect for women in southern India than in northern India. I observe it in everyday situations such as people's behavior on public transportation." The northern cultures of India are Indo-European-derived. In European Jewish synagogues, women are traditionally restricted to women's gallery. The men occupy the main floor while women are crammed into a space smaller than the men's space, and kept far away from the main activities. In contrast, West Asian Jewish women occupy the main synagogue space with the men. A curtain may be drawn down the center of the synagogue to separate men and women, but both men and women of the West Asian Jewish communities occupy an equal space and have equal access to the synagogue service. Among the Ainu people (living mostly in Japan, with some living in China), women "dictate to their husbands and make them fetch and carry".4 The Mingangkabau of Indonesia are a matriarchal culture in which property is passed matrilineally, and both genders have an equal share of power.5 In Malaysia, the women of Negri Sembilan had exclusive inheritance rights to ancestral rice fields.6 The matrilineal culture of Negri Sembilan gave women a scope of influence comparable to that of men.
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