The Impact of Feminism on the Islamic Upbringing of Children in Bahrain

Abstract

The community residing in Bahrain has deep rooted moral and cultural values which have developed based on their Islamic identity. However, these values are not completely immune to the external social influences upon the community. The influences of the foreign ideologies like feminism pose a number of risks on the upbringing of children in the Bahraini community. To study these effects and counter them, a Questionnaire has been created and distributed amongst respondents and interviews were conducted with anonymous candidates to assess the situation of social structure in the Bahraini community. The results of the responses and the questionnaires were analyzed to see the effects of feminism in the weakness of the family structure and introduction of alien norms into the community. The responses reflected the strong connection between the community and their adherence to their religious values. In the nuclear family structure, the children could be equipped with strong basis in religion and morals by education and through becoming positive role models for them to follow, so they do not bulge or submit to foreign evil influences. The families with separated parents have a much more challenging situation with regards to the upbringing of their children. The conflict between the ex-spouses may create a very toxic environment for the children and impact their growth and healthy upbringing as the studies showed that the custodial parent could limit the access of the non-custodial parent, and this could result in lengthy legal battles between the parties. The feminist thought process supports in the creation of such scenarios. In these cases, it is necessary to educate the parents to set aside their conflicts with regards to their children and to not use them against the non-custodial parent as a tool and cooperate for their benefits with each other. However, some custodial women would refuse to respond to such interventions and would opt to keep complete control on their children to further what they consider as their benefits due to a twisted mentality developed and propagated by feminism amongst women and cooperation would be considered as losing or giving up based on their mindset. Further studies are required in addition to this research to develop methods to aid children divided in this category.