[Cet article est extrait de notre numéro spécial “Nous les femmes”, dédié à des paroles d’autrices sur la condition des femmes à travers le monde.]
MUWATIN: The society (Lebanese and Arab) has a habit of dividing women into two groups, those who are beautiful but stupid and those who are intelligent but neglect their appearance. What do you think ?
JOUMANA HADDAD : This dichotomous perception is one of the things that “resists” in our societies. Neither the evolutions around us, nor the openness to the world, nor the knowledge revolution, nor the feminist-humanist struggles have succeeded in getting the better of it. This link that has been established between form and substance is one of the innumerable forms of machismo which aim to dominate women, everywhere in the world but particularly in our region.
The most deplorable is that these stereotypes are still transmitted to a lot of children. Both boys and girls grow up with these unjust mystifications, from which they can hardly escape.
It takes a lot of time, a lot of successive stages, a lot of will and strength of character, to lead the tough battle against ignorance. We are still mostly “robots” subjected to a formatting suffered at home, at school, through religious education, television, social networks. All this stands against the individual conscience and restricts the ability to ask questions and decide for oneself.
In the same register, women are labeled “saint” or “prostitute”. Why this reductive opposition?
Both men and women must stop pitting the sensual woman against the virtuous woman. Such “holy” opposition vs prostitute” does not exist. It spoils the