Theocratic Governments
• Afghanistan, Iran, Pakistan, Algeria
You tell me the story of Women’s
rights in the Middle East.
Kabul Stadium
Public Execution:
Adulteress
Which one is
grandmother?
Russian Vs Taliban Rule
Gender Roles
• Saudi Arabia- pertaining to women
– Women need a male relative to escort to
supermarket
– No allowed to enter parliament
– NO media attention
• Iran
– Chador- covering for women
The Story of Men
Shiite celebration of Ashura self-flagellation. Ashura is a ten
day mourning of the martyrdom of Mohammed’s grandson
Hussein.
Male sports- can identify religion?
Ethnicity, language?
Mesopotamia
The “land
between the
rivers”
Home to
Sumer,
Babylonia,
Assyria, and
Chaldea
Empires
Fertile soil =
easy crops
Rivers = easy
trade
Abraham was
born here!
Kurds- Kurdistana stateless nation
Who are the Kurds?
Ethnic group that has occupied “Kurdistan”
for 1000s of years
Kurdistan = Iran, Iraq, Turkey
Stateless Nation – people without a land to
legally occupy
Kurds resist control of countries they inhabit
Oasis
Dates- Date Palm Tree
How could a city in the
middle of a desert
support a large
population?
Bedouins- use the pics to tell me
about them.
That’s a woman
Bedouins
Traditional culture
Nomadic
Fighters/Warriors
Strong Family Ties
Spread Islam
Mix of Traditional and Modern way of life
Organization of Petroleum
Exporting Countries (OPEC)
Goals:
- coordinate policies on selling petroleum products
- help member countries control worldwide oil
prices
Members:
Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Qatar, Iraq, Iran, UAE
(our personal neighbor Mexico and Venezuela)
OPEC
Why is Oil so important to
Middle East?
Money from this export is being used to build a more diverse
economy
Modernizing Infrastructure
–
Roads,desalinization, irrigation, airports, malls, IT
Developing Other Resources
–
Agriculture (arid region)- building dams/wells
–
Developing water sources
–
Minerals
Human Resources (skills and talents of people)
–
education/technology training
Suez Canal
oasis, irrigation, man-made
modification, adaptation
What does the Suez Canal connect?
Drip IrrigationThis is a sugar beet farm in Turkey
Desalinization Plants
The removal of salt
from ocean water
- expensive
-can't produce
enough water to
meet needs
How has desalinization capacity changed since 1960?
Pirates –
Which picture above shows a Somalian pirate who plague the
Arabian Sea?
-Funded by terrorist groups
-Somalia is poor – Taliban can infiltrate (extension of terrorism)
-High jacking oil tankers
Languages of the Middle East
Who speaks Arabic, Turkish, Hebrew, and Farsi?
What do you call the Islamic
fundamentalist group in
Afghanistan?
Moors- remember them? They
were a mix of Berber and N. Africa
Muslim people who invaded Spain
around 700?and ruled till 1492.
Extra credit: show the cultural
diffusion evidence of this time in
today’s world. Gotta look… you’re
on your own.