This post comes after
Hala’s post on the cooking classes in Le Royal. I’m not criticising but just giving my point of view in this issue. and I succeeded once in linking a word here with a website .. but I couldn't this time link "Hala's post" to her blog so I only highlited it!
Women keep complaining but they never change. All the work sectors are open for the woman but she’s the one who insist to limit herself in what she call “feminine job” and “feminie category”.
I used to have long talks with girls in the engineering college, of course all of them are architects and very few are in chemical or computer eng. departments and you can imagine why! and I used to ask why haven’t you chosen mechanical or electrical or civil eng ? they all had the same answer: “those are not feminine fields!” , or “ mechanical? Do you want me to work with engines?!” or “ civil? do you think it’s a good idea to be a woman directing workers in construction sites?!” .. some girl shocked me because she was very serious saying “ you know, at the end I’m gonna marry, I can’t select to work in a tough environment”!!.
And as for those who actually selected to study mechanical and industrial engineering I met three of them in one factory I worked in, and during that time I never saw one out the office! There was a team work requiring one female engineer to inspect for finished goods in the warehouses, she refused to go because she finds it inappropriate to be in the warehouse in the middle of workers! Later this girl married and disappeared, the other 2 resigned and found an office work in the city, far from factories!
4 or 5 years ago I was in the 8th circle awaiting a taxi, a female driver stopped by me, when I recognized that she’s a woman I hesitated only for a second just to think if I should sit in the front seat or back seat :) but then I made my decision and rapidly approached my hand to the back door. So she said: ma tetla3 goddam shu khawaja 7adertak?! And she moved away! Since then I have never seen a female taxi driver.
I am just giving this example to show that they start brave but they do not continue. And they lack organization and team working to achieve what they target … women are being elected in the parliament but they forget that they represent other women voices in achieving open society for both gender .. they form female committees to serve female issues but not to get involved in real system of men and women. They publish women magazines and broadcast women channels .. all discuss topics like food and beauty and whatever!
I sometimes enjoy cooking , I don’t claim that it’s a feminine issue as might other people do, and some times watch the girls movie night on channel 2 ( what a silly title) … I even worked in the most feminine industry in the world … I worked in Victoria’s Secret factory ( that was a nice experiment by the way with that huge collection of lingerie :) ) . and I do believe that women must work in all sectors … not specifying themselves narrow domains like teaching, nursing and secretary. But it needs a group work … needs continuation .. and strong welling to fight the residual thoughts about women’s domain. Because the society here can accept the woman as she was accepted in Europe, but the woman needs to pay more effort indeed.