MIDDLE EAST: Women's Role in Mideast Unveiled

Many Americans have a certain image of the average Middle Eastern woman. She's subdued, covered from head to foot, keeps her head bowed and knows her (lowly) place.

But media coverage of the recent uprisings in the region has shown women who don't look particularly subservient. They have been on the front lines of the protests against corrupt government in Egypt, Tunisia and, now, Libya.

Anahita Firouz Radjy, an Iranian-born novelist and lecturer and the senior vice president of the Pittsburgh Middle East Institute, says that this is nothing new.

Her grandmother was a leader in the women's rights movement. She's aware of the image of the Middle Eastern woman and says it's quite inaccurate.

What we have seen "flies in the face of stereotypes because of the way the region is portrayed," Firouz said.

The uprisings shatter the idea that anyone there is passive and disconnected.

"The Islamic garb has nothing to do with the literacy rate and empowerment," she said.

Women in the region face the same problems as those around the world. Women who work are exposed to the same pay disparities that exist in the United States.

One of the main problems women have in the region, Firouz says, is that many countries in the Middle East have laws protecting their rights, but not all of them enforce them. That is at the root of the government corruption affecting all citizens that led to the overthrow of Egyptian President Hosni Mubaruk, and Zine El Abidine Ben Ali in Tunisia.

Women also have played a major role in social and political change in the more distant past.

"Women have changed the men into becoming more active. ... It makes the men step up," Firouz said.

That's especially true in Tunisia, a country that succeeded in overthrowing its government. Women are encouraged to seek higher education, and 95 percent of them are literate. Women earned their right to vote in 1957. For some historical context, that happened in Switzerland in 1971.

The country has criminalized domestic abuse against women, meaning they have the right to a divorce, alimony and child custody because of abuse, Firouz points out.

"They have been ahead of the curve," she said.

When Tunisia sought its independence in 1956, women were allowed to fight alongside men for freedom from France. Most recently, women were among the first to use Facebook to encourage their countrymen to protest the corrupt government, Firouz said.

Today, Firouz says women are forming key nongovernmental organizations that are making a difference. She thinks one of them, the Tunisian Association of Democratic Women, might produce some political leaders in the near future. The country named its first female governor in 2004.

Will women's rights continue to progress in the region? Firouz says they will, that they must. Involving women in the uprisings began an irreversible process.

"It's a genie you could not put back in the bottle anymore," Firouz said.