Guests of the Sheik

Elizabeth Warnock Fernea provides an overview of the ethnography of an Iraqi village in her work, The Guests of the Sheik. Within her book, Fernea considers the element of gender and its impact on the roles of women in Iraq, as well as the expectations based within the gender-specific social constructs, Fernea, who the women of the harem call Beeja, presents experiential information about the life for both women and men, and her role within …

…Iraqi village and accepted an almost unbelievable level of female subjugation. There was a considerable double standard within this culture, and few of the expectations of women were also expected of the men. Instead, the account provided by Fernea, known as Beeja to the women of the harem, demonstrates the way in which ancient cultures have supported the subjugation of women and the differences that are inherently created when comparing these constructs against western culture.