The more I read about the characteristics of Arab cultures, the more I believe that they are at root matriarchies, and that all this "male domination" we see is a façade. There is a lot of "stooping to conquer" going on there. Not that individual women are not treated cruelly -- everyone is treated cruelly in those cultures -- but that as a class, women -- or more accurately women's values -- run the place. Go back and look at the behavioral characteristics of the Arab officers. There are a lot of characteristically female strategies employed in dealing with one another, and with us. Arab culture may have the face of a man, but it is a woman. |