Children in the Muslim Middle East

Rating:
Summary: Children in the Muslim Middle East
Review: Children in the Muslim Middle East successfully aspires to open a whole new topic. Fernea brings together forty-one short pieces that range in area from Morocco to Afghanistan, in subject matter from orphanages to child soldiers, and in genre from scholarship and literature to speeches and lullabies. Over thirty of the book�s contributors hail from the Middle East, and a fair number of chapters have been specially translated from Middle Eastern languages. Together, they put Middle Eastern children on the research map.

Chapter titles signal the children�s bleak status. We learn of �girls� participation in combat� (in Lebanon), of �bodily mutilation of young females� (in Egypt), and of �working children in Cairo.� According to Hassan al-Ebraheem of the Kuwait Society for the Advancement of Arab Children, there are 90 million Arabic-speaking children, of which �half today are threatened in their physical health by the dangers of hunger, poverty, and war.� A majority of them, he reports, live in unsuitable dwellings, and 3,500 of them die each day from treatable diseases.

Then, of course, there is the particularly debased status of girls. A sixteen-year old Turkish girl who does piecework sewing for her father�s business sums up the predicament of her sex: �I work, but I have no value.� Nor are matters improving, for, as Fernea explains, �in general colonialism intensified traditional family patterns, particularly those involving differentials of gender identity,� and matters have changed little since independence. Taking on new roles in society appears not to have helped the status of females.

Middle East Quarterly, March 1996

Rating:
Summary: Children in the Muslim Middle East
Review: Children in the Muslim Middle East successfully aspires to open a whole new topic. Fernea brings together forty-one short pieces that range in area from Morocco to Afghanistan, in subject matter from orphanages to child soldiers, and in genre from scholarship and literature to speeches and lullabies. Over thirty of the book's contributors hail from the Middle East, and a fair number of chapters have been specially translated from Middle Eastern languages. Together, they put Middle Eastern children on the research map.

Chapter titles signal the children's bleak status. We learn of 'girls' participation in combat' (in Lebanon), of 'bodily mutilation of young females' (in Egypt), and of 'working children in Cairo.' According to Hassan al-Ebraheem of the Kuwait Society for the Advancement of Arab Children, there are 90 million Arabic-speaking children, of which 'half today are threatened in their physical health by the dangers of hunger, poverty, and war.' A majority of them, he reports, live in unsuitable dwellings, and 3,500 of them die each day from treatable diseases.

Then, of course, there is the particularly debased status of girls. A sixteen-year old Turkish girl who does piecework sewing for her father's business sums up the predicament of her sex: 'I work, but I have no value.' Nor are matters improving, for, as Fernea explains, 'in general colonialism intensified traditional family patterns, particularly those involving differentials of gender identity,' and matters have changed little since independence. Taking on new roles in society appears not to have helped the status of females.

Middle East Quarterly, March 1996

Rating:
Summary: Encyclopedic
Review: This book consists of a very varied collection of essays about numerous aspects of children's lives in the Middle East, as well as some short fiction and poetry. The book is organized into the following sections: growing up; children's health; children and work; children's education; children, politics, and war; and children and the arts. At times, the book steps beyond its stated theme, describing in some cases situations that have more to do with poverty than Islam or the Middle East (particularly in the health section), or Christian women (at war in Lebanon). But on the whole, every piece is well written and extremely informative. This is an important contribution to Middle Eastern studies; it will also be of interest to those studying families or children across cultures.

Rating:
Summary: Encyclopedic
Review: This book consists of a very varied collection of essays about numerous aspects of children's lives in the Middle East, as well as some short fiction and poetry. The book is organized into the following sections: growing up; children's health; children and work; children's education; children, politics, and war; and children and the arts. At times, the book steps beyond its stated theme, describing in some cases situations that have more to do with poverty than Islam or the Middle East (particularly in the health section), or Christian women (at war in Lebanon). But on the whole, every piece is well written and extremely informative. This is an important contribution to Middle Eastern studies; it will also be of interest to those studying families or children across cultures.