According to international statistics, some countries in Africa and Asia are the strictest with the treatment of women. Macho attitudes are in all societies. However, from the distance of unawareness we assume that certain cultures in Arab nations get the big prize.

They are realities so distant from ours that it’s difficult for us to understand what have been "enduring" for so long what some consider inhumane women relegated to home, with little opportunity to study, improve or work, with a rigorous way of behaving and dressing, in addition to systems tutoring fees and little freedom of movement.

It's what gets to us from those nations. Sometimes we associate it with religion, but could it be that the sacred books speak of mistreatment and such a level of detail on the clothes? Is there no chance it's just interpretation?

Such customs have an huge history of traditions, and perhaps That’s why many, in situ, may find it completely normal, but it doesn’t stop fostering concerns and rebellions, often silenced. Therefore, condemnable.

It’s not only about behaviors that seem contrary to us, it’s not only an unbalanced perception that by distant we don’t understand.

I think of books as Sold, a testimony from Zana Muhsen. In first person she narrates the horrors the author experienced in Yemen after her father sold her and married her at 15 years of age. A cruel story about constant rapings, humiliation, close to slavery. But this is not the only example, there are many. American writer Jean Sasson, has a trilogy (Sultana) well known for telling the suffering of women in Saudi Arabia, almost always arbitrarily.

So many similar stories can't be wrong. It’s not a distortion of reality In many parts of the Arab world, women are victims of circumstances, of patriarchy.

Unfortunately I don't know it’s just unusual clothing for the Western World. According to reports, with serious bibliography, with reports of those affected, the striking and reprehensible is the oppressive male behavior, which makes women assume submissive postures without batting an eyelash.

It’s hard to accept that such a local and rigid set of rules provide comfort to women. For whatever reason that discrepancy arose between genders, today it seems to us discrimination, machismo, phallocentric authority.

Maybe life in Saudi Arabia is as happy as anywhere else, although it’s not what it seems. However, if criticism to the governments abounds, such as the Taliban in Afghanistan, which prohibits girls and women from access to schools and universities, or traveling without the company of a male; or that the suitability of the Police of Morality, in Iran is often questioned; so it’s not an isolated criterion, without grounds.

If, furthermore, there’s so much related literature, and it’s denounced internationally, even by the mourners themselves, it’s not an exaggeration,

It's not just cultural differences, it really happens.

Meanwhile the world is looking elsewhere, that's a tremendously selfish panorama, and such strict and conservative behavior will never lead to the right path, and at least, it will please few. Perhaps even now, there are some still comfortable like this; others, annoyed in silence; the least, repressed rebels; and those counted with one hand, fighting abroad. But, machismo is a pressure cooker that won’t last forever, it cooks over on low fire, amassing conflicts, finding in injustice what’s necessary to burst. Probably the next revolution will be that of women, wherever it may be, they’ll find themselves united against the patriarchy.

Translated by Amilkal Labañino / CubaSí Translation Staff