Professor Bernard Lewis, the pre-eminent orientalist and historian, argues that the three factors which could be most helpful in transforming the Middle East are Turkey, Israel, and women. In his book on the Middle East he explains that Turkey always distinguished itself from others in the region, Israel was always boycotted and women were always repressed.
A report published last month (in April) by a justice ministry team investigating the exclusion of women in Israel, as well as the publicized struggle of "the Women of the Wall" for the right to don Jewish prayer shawls [tallit] by the Western Wall, reminded me that in his various writings and public pronouncements, Lewis contends that of the three potential sources of change, women are the most crucial to the region. He believes that if only they were allowed to do so, women could play a central role in moving the Middle East into a new era of material development, scientific progress and political-social liberation. On the other hand, as long as the Muslim states prevent half their population from realizing and implementing their potential, they can never hope to catch up with the developed world, he says.
