Contemporary Issues On Youth And Gender In The Middle East - Essay.

Write about the youth and equality among genders.

Challenges facing the youth and the female population in the Middle East

The word youth is used in reference to people of ages between childhoods and thirty five year old (Kurtipek, Çelik, Gümü? & Yilmaz, 2017).  Other authors choose to refer to the group as young people while others use the phrase ‘young adults’. The young people in the Middle East, the youth face challenges ranging for unemployment, inadequate education, exposure to violence and extremist groups and disruption of live hoods due to refugee situations. Gender on the other had is the social cultural and biological differences that define a human being as male or female (Okorodudu, 2018). Gender equality is currently a universal debate with a number or countries especially in Europe championing for the empowerment of the female to achieve gender equality in the society. However, in the Middle East, gender equality debates still do not have space in most of the countries in the Middle East. This paper analyses the contemporary issues on youth and gender in the Middle East and further provides recommendations and suggestions to the Governments of the Middle East Countries to help in solving the current issues on gender equality and youth.

The issues affecting the young people in Middles East range from radicalism to poor education systems, unemployment and economic and social exclusion. Violent extremism, especially in the countries like Yemen should not be taken lightly as it has a great impact on the life of the young people of the Middle East (Zaalouk, 2014). Majority of people involved in the wars are young individuals who have been radicalized to fight for believes that do not benefit them as individuals or the society but create havoc in the community. However, that is not the only war the youth in the Middle East are currently fighting. A good number of other youth have tough wars to fight. They have to face poor education system that is tuned towards preparing them to take up office jobs (Hashemi, 2017). The education system in the Middle Eastern countries is based on provision of knowledge and skills to help the youth land government jobs or office jobs, commonly referred to as white collar jobs. The system does very little in giving the youth skills that they can use for income generation without having to be employed. Accompanying the giant of poor education system is the reality of high unemployment rates. While the world’ average unemployment rates are between 10% to 20%, the unemployment rates are between 20% to 40% in the Middle East (Dunn, M. dunn, & Blank, A. blank (2018). Furthermore the cost of living is also relatively high in both the oil producing countries and non- oil producing countries. To the youth, it simply means that they have to remain both economically and socially excluded as they are unable to afford proper housing, a contributing factor to late marriages and dependency.

While the world is starting to have debates and implementing always that enhance gender equality. The Middle East countries seem to have a long way to go. In the recent research , it was found out that in a majority of households, the male are the major decision makers and  that there are roles that are assigned to the female in the household. The notion is not only held among the men in the Middle East but some of the women have accepted to abide by the norms and dare not to challenge the status quo (Auletto, Kim, & Marias, 2017). The cases of domestic violence against women are also rampant in the middles east and some of the ladies find it normal for their husbands to physically abuse them once in a while. Due to the position that the society in the Middle East has set aside for the women in the society, it is not easy for a woman to hold any leadership position.

Unemployment, poor education system, high dependency levels, and social and economic exclusion faced by the youth

The governments in the Middle East should step up and develop policies that address issues affecting the youth and women in the society. Some of the short falls that the women and the youth face in The Middle East are as a result of inadequate or poorly set policies. The government should protect the women against gender based violence and other cultural practices that violets the international human rights of the women. Even though most of the issues affecting the women in the Middle East are majorly based on societal norms, there is need for government intervention in terms of affirmative action policies in favor of the female population (Hideg & Ferris, 2017). The affirmative action policies should address issues of equal educational opportunities for both male and female children in Middle East, Leadership capacity building among women, and strict laws against domestic violence against women. To address issues on youth, there is need for sensitization of the youth against radicalism. This can be achieved by creating purpose for the youth and making efforts to remove them from misery and continuous state of dependency. The governments should consider a change in the educational curriculum as well to come up with a curriculum that helps the youth develop skills that they can use in income generation without necessarily waiting for employment (Palermo, Gibson, Meiklejohn, Courtney & Dart, 2017). While some governments would want to come up with affordable housing projects to accommodate the low income youths, it is advisable to economically empower the youth to rise their income so that they can become economically competitive. Skills based education system will help the future generation to become self reliant at very early stages of their youth hens tackling the problems of unemployment, economic and social exclusion by eliminating dependency.

Conclusion

There exist a number of challenges facing the youth and the female population in the Middle East. Some of the issues touching on the youth are high unemployment rate, poor education system, high dependency levels and social and economic exclusion. On the other hand, the issues affecting the female gender in the same context range from domestic violence to education isolation and social and economic limitations. The governments of the Middle East countries can solve these problems though adequate policies and laws in place. To address issues pertaining the youth, it is vital for the Governments to consider sensitization programs among the youth against radicalization. Furthermore, the nations should consider changing their education system to a skills based education system to help solve the problem of unemployment and dependency among the youth. Through the development of skills the youths will be economically empowered and therefore also solving the economic segregation problem. Economically empowered youths will then be able accomplish their societal ambitions. The change in the education system therefore solves a number of issues relating to the youth currently. However, it should be noted that the skills based education system is not a quick fix for the current problems but a long term gradual process of change. The impact of the implementation of such an educational system will only be visible in the long run.

References

Auletto, A., Kim, T., & Marias, R. (2017). Educational Attainment and Egalitarian Attitudes Toward Women in the MENA Region: Insights from the Arab Barometer. Current Issues in Comparative Education, 20(1), 45–67. Retrieved from https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=eft&AN=130217647&site=ehost-live

Dunn, M. dunn, & Blank, A. blank (2018). Job market continued to improve in 2017 as the unemployment rate declined to a 17-year low. Monthly Labor Review, 1–33. Retrieved from https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=eft&AN=129471156&site=ehost-live

Hashemi, M. (2017). Aspirations, Poverty and Behavior Among Youth in the Middle East: Some Theoretical Considerations. Muslim World, 107(1), 83–99. https://doi.org/10.1111/muwo.12179

Hideg, I., & Ferris, D. L. (2017). Dialectical thinking and fairness-based perspectives of affirmative action. Journal of Applied Psychology, 102(5), 782–801. https://doi.org/10.1037/apl0000207

Kurtipek, S., Çelik, O. B., Gümü?, H., & Yilmaz, B. (2017). Metaphorical Perceptions of Camp Leaders Working under the Ministry of Youth and Sports on the Concept of Youth. Ovidius University Annals, Series Physical Education & Sport/Science, Movement & Health, 17(2), 359–367. Retrieved from https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=s3h&AN=126246926&site=ehost-live

Okorodudu, C. (2018). United Nations international conventions and changes in women’s roles. In APA handbook of the psychology of women: Perspectives on women’s private and public lives., Vol. 2. (pp. 499–520). Washington, DC: American Psychological Association. https://doi.org/10.1037/0000060-027

Palermo, C., Gibson, S., Meiklejohn, S., Courtney, J., & Dart, J. (2017). Taking a systems-thinking approach to competency-based assessment for dietetics. Nutrition & Dietetics, 74(4), 428–429. Retrieved from https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=s3h&AN=125131356&site=ehost-live

Zaalouk, M. (2014). A human economy: A “third way” for the future of young people in the Middle East and North Africa. International Review of Education / Internationale Zeitschrift Für Erziehungswissenschaft, 60(3), 339–359. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11159-013-9370-4