Arab Americans represent a wide spectrum of diversity historically and politically as well as religiously, racially, and ethnically. Of 212 million Arabs worldwide, approximately three million live in the United States, nearly half of whom are women. Arab Americans come from small villages and cosmopolitan cities spanning northern Africa and western Asia. They share a common culture and language and in recent years have experienced a growing unity in the face of anti-Arab and anti-Muslim bias in the United States. Arab Americans' entrepreneurial spirit and work ethic have helped them to assimilate culturally and they are now represented in most areas of employment throughout the United States. They are primarily Christian, Muslim, and Druze and are among the most highly educated of America's ethnic groups.
Early Arab American women immigrants faced a particular challenge: to adapt to the United States and maintain their cultural identity while creating a home environment that made this balancing act look effortless. The first wave of Arab immigrants who came in the late 1800s was composed primarily of Christian men who worked as peddlers and found it easier to assimilate than did the Muslims who arrived later. A surprising number of women arrived alone during this period. Among them was Kamila Gibran, the mother of poet Khalil Gibran, who arrived in 1895 with her four children and began peddling in Boston. Women were often successful peddlers; rural dwellers were more comfortable letting women rather than men into their homes to show their merchandise, which included yard goods, needles and thread, ribbons, lace, and toys. Through peddling, the women learned language and values, easing their adaptation to a new society.
Many women came to the United States after World War II to join their families. They were often well educated or seeking to further their education; some came to escape political turmoil after the creation of the state of Israel in 1948. Muslim women immigrants arrived in greater numbers than Christians and had the additional challenge of adjusting to a society that did not understand their religion. Some Muslim women wore the hijab, a head covering, and were perceived as particularly foreign by U.S. society. Newer immigrants (those arriving after 1965) came with a sense of nationalism and pride in their heritage because they had lived in independent Arab states; the generations born in the United States sometimes felt little connection to their Arab roots. Even with divergent ethnic, religious, and political identifications, Arab women worked hard to integrate their heritage into their new lives in America. They organized committees and raised funds to build churches, mosques, and community centers—places that kept their culture alive and created opportunities to socialize. They also joined PTAs, played school sports, and served on local councils as they embraced the wider community.
Women historically preserve tradition, and Arab women were expected to keep Arab culture alive in their homes. The strong bonds of Arab women's friendships were a source of strength during periods of adjustment. In Muslim Families in North America, anthropologist Barbara Aswad writes that "sisterhood is an organizational strategy brought from the Middle East, and it is used extensively to adapt to a new environment."
Even though Arab women were entering the public domain, an area previously reserved exclusively for men, they also remained in charge of the private domain. In Arab culture, a family's honor is judged by how its daughters are raised. Arab girls are expected to be virtuous, to conduct themselves decorously, to be good students, and to help out at home. Arab boys are shown preference and given more freedom than girls since males traditionally hold the dominant role. In some instances the gender inequality is changing as women articulate the need for sexual justice in and out of the home.
The U.S. government's Middle East policy in recent decades has had a profound effect on Arab Americans. Loyal to the United States and proud of their heritage, Arab Americans have sometimes felt alienated by the U.S. government's anti-Arab bias and by a society that seems hostile to their presence. Arabs, especially Muslims, have been disparagingly stereotyped by the U.S. government and media alike. The 1991 bombing of Iraq by the United States generated a patriotic euphoria that discounted the lives of the Arabs who died or were injured. Arab Americans felt marginalized and were left trying to explain this racism to their children.
Arab women are often absent in news coverage. Palestinian women struggling against an occupier as well as gender bias in their own communities have been largely invisible in media reporting. Negative images of Arabs are reinforced on television, in movies, textbooks, comic books, and in the language used to describe them. The Arab as dangerous terrorist or exotic foreigner is an alienating and inaccurate description. Arab women are often perceived as either heavily veiled, austere Muslims or as sexually available belly dancers. Arab women are working to dismantle the stereotypes and to educate Americans about Arab culture and politics. They are writing political analyses and sharing their heritage of poetry. They are writing children's books that portray Arabs in real and interesting ways. Conferences and workshops are held all over the United States, offering educational tools for understanding early and recent Arab contributions to civilization. Arab art, museum displays, theater, and dance are beginning to flourish throughout the country. And perhaps most important, Arab American women are proudly identifying themselves as Arab American.
As Arab women in the Middle East become more prominent politically, get published more often,and talk openly of a feminist agenda, Arab American women become more public with their concerns. Arab American women's groups can be found on college campuses and in many communities. They are discussing and writing about geopolitics, the environment, and how Arab women fit into the American feminist movement. Arab American women are talking about women's status, economics, education, violence against women, lesbian and gay issues, health concerns, family planning, Islamic law, and color, race, and ethnicity. Women understand that their bodies are viewed simultaneously as sacred and profane and that this perception makes it harder for them to be accepted as full members of society. Many believe that sexism, racism, and other forms of oppression must be fought concurrently in order for true liberation to evolve.
Early economic and cultural assimilation of Arabs into U.S. society resulted in a loss of cultural heritage, but Arab American women are now working to incorporate Arab identity and tradition into their lives in the United States. They want to keep the Arab sense of kinship, the value Arabs place on old people, the intimacy of female friendships, and many of the social traditions. They also expect to be valued as participants in the political, social, economic, and cultural life of the United States.
Louise Cainkar, Palestinian Women in the United States: Coping with Tradition, Change, and Alienation" (Ph.D. diss., Northwestern University, 1988); Elsa Marston Harik, The Lebanese in America (Minneapolis: Lerner Publication Company, 1987); Earle H. Waugh, Sharon M. Abu-Laban, and Regula B. Qureshi, Muslim Families in North America (Burlingame: University of Alberta Press, 1991).
Karen Henry
See also
Arab American Feminism.
