Originally from India and raised in Kuwait, Arshiah Parween is a Freelance Writer at Your Middle East. Ms. Parween is an Economics graduate of Aligarh Muslim University. She holds a Master’s degree in Globalization and Labour from the Tata Institute of Social Sciences.Her research interest primarily revolves around Quality of Education in the Middle East. In line with this, she interned at the Sheikh Saud Bin Saqr Al Qasimi Foundation for Policy Research (U.A.E), where among other tasks, she designed a survey for the English program conducted by the Foundation, at the Ministry of Education Zone of Ras Al Khaimah. She is fluent in English, Hindi, Urdu, and Arabic.
Since the 1970s oil boom, the Gulf region has been one of the principal destinations for workers from South Asia, with the result that today Indians constitute a large percentage of the non-nationals living in the region. Indeed, at five million out of an estimated 15 million people, the Indian community forms the largest expatriate group in each of the Gulf countries. Most Indian immigrants are from the south Indian state of Kerala, while many of the rest originate from Tamil Nadu, Punjab, Uttar Pradesh, and Bihar.
Challenging Stereotypes: Educational Aspirations of Emirati and Indian Muslim Women
Many Muslim women do not choose to forego education, but rather are unable to access this basic right mainly due to a lack of opportunity and socio-political constraints. The sharply contrasting cases of India and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) are illuminating in this respect. While the Indian case presents a stark picture, the Emirati case presents a bright and more hopeful one.
