Deleny Leon DB 5

1) What did you learn from the “Arab and Other Middle Eastern Americans” article? Be specific and provide examples from the reading.

• Based on this week’s article, “Arab and Other Middle Eastern Americans”, provided by the Minority Rights Group International, I have learned about the reasons why many Arabs and Middle Eastern citizens immigrated and about the prejudice they have faced in the past and still to this day. In regards to immigration, I learned, surprisingly, how Armenians fled to the U.S. because of the genocide of 1915-23. Also, I discovered how Iran became the top ten source countries for U.S. immigration, only to see a decrease in the early 1990s as visas were harder to get. Regardless of this, many Irans who were coming into America were Muslims and supporters of the former Shah which prompted them to leave. Although, according to the article, “….many left because they were members of leftist opposition movements, non-islamic faiths or oppressed ethnic groups.” These are interesting points, especially how Islam immigrants faced discrimination in the country they were born in and for them to move to America shows how much they believe it is a safe haven from discrimination as it is the “land of the free” in their eyes, perhaps. Unfortunately, this isn’t true as the article mentions how many Arab and Middle Eastern Americans have been facing discrimination and prejudice with the occurence of certain events such as 9/11 and other attacks conducted by certain terrorist groups originating from the Middle East. With these events, we would see Arabs and Muslims being blamed and attacked violently by the media, government officials, and society for days due to presumingly bombing a federal building in Oklahoma when it would later be concluded that it was caused by a white-anti-government militia. Furthermore, apart from society, citizens identified as Muslim, Arab, South Asian or Sikh would file alleged harrasment and unfair discharge in regards to work as provided by The Equal Emplyment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) and state and local fair employment agencies. According to the EEOC and agencies in these cases, America would see “….a significant increase in the number of charges alleging workplace discrimination based on religion annd/or national origin in the wake of September 2001.” From this, not only do we see the unfortunate experiences Middle Eastern Americans had to face, but how one event, 9/11, led to an inflow of stereotyping Middle Eastern Americans with being connected to terrorists and extremists, leading to the emergence of a non-friendly environment for Middle Easter Americans and their sudden discharges from work. Overall, this article has provided a lot of information about the situation Arab and Middle Eastern Americans faced in the past and today, still, as seen with the 2020 Census which continues to not include Middle Eastern or North African categories and the media continuing to provide false perceptions of the Arab and Middle Eastern communities and their countries. 

2) Discuss something you learned and/ or can relate to from 1-2 of this week’s videos.

• Based on the video, “Misconception of Middle Eastern Culture and Religion”, by Melika Rahmani and produced by Tedx Talks, I have discovered interesting information about Middle Eastern culture and religion which I was unsure about in the past. For instance, I wasn’t sure about the five major languages and twenty minority languages that are within the 18 countries within the Middle East. I knew there was Arabic and Hebrew, but I did not only apply these two language to the entirety of the Middle East as I already know how diverse they are based on my mother’s work as a Paralegal in which consists of her encountering many people from different countries of the Middle East and some of them would be open about their culture and religion to her. My mother making sure she provides good service to people and respects their culture and religion. Thus, after listening to Rahmani, I now know there are twenty minority languages and that the five major languages of the Middle East are: Arabic, Persian, Turkish, Kurdish, and Hebrew. Aside from this, one thing that did take me by surprise was learning how Indonesia had the greatest Muslim population which is in Southeast Asia. The idea of the greatest Muslim population being in a location not a part of the Middle East is a bit confusing, but Rahmani did clear up that confusion for me as, again, Middle Eastern culture and religion is diverse and can be anywhere as seen with the many religions and cultures within the U.S. Apart from this, another thing I learned was how girls can drive, vote, date, and how there are more women enrolled in higher level of education than men, “…especially in the STEM careers.”, as stated by Ragmani. This was a topic I was very unsure about because there have been many articles and the media remarking how women have no right to do anything due to Middle Eastern culture and religion and how there were pushes to reform this. This misconception can happen to anyone and it can prompt the emergence of many stereotypes in which Melika Rahmani tries to combat in her video. Ragmani mentioning how this is such a big issue based on many of her past experiences growing up (being questioned about her culture’s clothing in a poor manner and when will the attacks from the Middle East stop) and how how a study from the Brookings Institute about a poll from 2001 to 2015, asking Americans how they felt about Islams and Muslims and whether they found it favorable or unfavorable, showed 39% of Americans found it unfavorable in 2001 and grew to to 61% in 2015. Rahmani, unfortunately, mentions how this continues to grow as the media continues to fuel false perceptions about Middle Eastern culture and religion. Overall, the video, “Misconception of Middle Eastern Culture and Religion”, by Melika Rahmani and produced by Tedx Talks, helped me clear up some misunderstandings or confusion I had about Middle Eastern culture and religion and I believe it is important for people to learn the diversity of the Middle East as the media does provide information about Middle Eastern culture and religion that many people do get confused and anxious about, leading to wretched prejudice and stereotypes.

. 

3) Discuss the article on “Literacy Reform in the Middle East.” Provide examples from the reading.

• Based on the week’s article, “Literacy Reform in the Middle East”, provided by the Washington Institute, I agree with the the belief that the revision of the Greater Middle East Initiative has a lot of potential in establishing the importance of literacy within the Arab world, as promoted within this article. The Greater Middle East Initiative is, according to the article, “…a plan designed to support political, economic, and social reform throught the Arab and Muslim worlds.” In 2004, it would a revised version of it would be pushed to be passed and it was seen as a “neo-imperial intervention” by the Arab World due to its proclaimed “limits” which consist of five objective it called to be established which are: a democracy foundation, a democracy assistance group, a literacy corps, a microfinance initiative, and a “forum for the future.” While these objectives may appear to go beyond what the Arab world may feel comfortable or used to, the benefits of these establishments for the economy, health, and prosperity of the Arab world should be taken into account. Especially, the idea of establishing a literacy corps to promote the idea of literacy as “….literacy is an important step toward a more politically informed citizenry and a platform upon which to build other reforms.”, as stated within the article. After hearing this, you or others may be thinking why would a literacy corps or even the idea of promoting literacy first within a society before other reforms meant to combat poverty or health within certain parts of the Middle East. There is nothing wrong with these worries and these situations have been taken into account as literacy combats concerns over health, poverty, and political openness within the Middle East. According to the article, “With regard to public health, literate mothers are better able to access resources related to nutrition, contraception, and medicine, thereby decreasing child mortality.” From this excerpt, it is clear how literacy can provide future mothers the knowledge they need for the future. Also, promoting the establishment and importance of literacy can benefit the economy by creating new jobs and political awareness and freedom to break the cycle of “conspiracy theory” reasoning. These focal points or challenges for literacy to overcome came from 2020 statistics pointed out within the article which surprised me upon reading. The data showed an outstanding report which is stated within the article as follows in regards to the correlation between literacy levels within the Middle East and health and prosperity, “…the overall level of literacy in Arab is low …the literacy rates of smaller and wealthier Arab countries is generally higher than those of more heavily populated Arab countries.” This situation can better be seen when the article compared the low rates of literacy in the Middle East to the high rates of literacy in Australia, which has a similar population, and the benefits that come with it. For instance, in Yemen, a Middle East country, adult literacy rate was 49% in 2002 and the life expectancy was only 57 years and the infant mortality rate was 8.3% while Australia had a higher literacy rate with a life expectancy of 79% and an infant mortality rate of 0.6%. With high literacy rate, citizens within Australia were able to gain more information on how to care for oneself and others as seen with their rates unlike Yemen which faced issues gaining important information to care for oneself and others due to low literacy rates. This idea is terrifying as many lives do depend on information at times to handle certain situations or it can lead to an early death as seen with Yemen which is the number one thing that made me agree with this article about the importance of the Greater Middle East Initiative.To provide the best for the Arab world, as said within the article, “Literacy programs must employ the curricula that meet the practical needs of their pupils.” This is an essential idea, in my opinion, to promote the idea of literacy within the media as the citizens’ needs are being met, instead of being ignored and leading to valid claims of neo-imperial intervention. Overall, I believe what should be taken from this article is the importance of recognizing the perspective of the Middle East and their needs when it comes to not only providing support using various ideas, but for establishing literacy programs most importantly.

4) Share your source on this topic–let us know what it is, why you selected it, and why it matters. 

• An important source for discussing about the importance of literacy within Middle East countries would be the 2019 study, “Growth of health literacy research activity in three Middle Eastern countries”, by Soheila Bazm (School of Public Health, Shahid Sadoughi University of Medical Sciences and Health Services, Yazd, Iran), Reihaneh Bazm (Department of Accounting, Islamic Azad University, Yazd, Iran,), and Farzaneh Sardari (Department of Medical Information and Librarianship, School of Management & Information Science, Iran; University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran). The purpose of this article is to review the growth rate of scientific production in the field of health literacy in Middle Eastern countries during 2005–2014. The definition of health literacy for this study is provided and defined as “the capacity to obtain, interpret and understand basic health information”, according to the article. Based on this goal, I decided to share this article as it connects with this week’s material, “Literacy Reform in the Middle East”, as both provide focus on the levels of literacy within the Middle East and how it correlates with the health of the citizens of different countries. This study provides further information on the potential of Middle Eastern countries to grow through literacy, specifically health literacy. As for what methods were used for this study, a cross-method study was used as the research used the PubMed database and took 839 papers in the field of health literacy from three productive countries in the Middle East: Iran, Saudi Arabia and Turkey. Applying a bibliometric indicator of Price’s Law to review the increase of scientific literature as health literacy within the countries sees an increase in rates. The correlation or relationship between bibliometric data and some health indicators (gross domestic product and population) being seen. As for the conclusion of the study, the researchers believe that while “…present data show promising increase and good start in research productivity from countries in Middle East, they have a trivial sharing in publishing scientific papers in the field of health literacy through 2005–2014.” Overall, it is a great study to see the potential of literacy once applied to health and its growth through health literature within Middle Eastern countries to show an increase in understanding the ideas within the field of health.