Exploratory Essay (Revised)
Sungin Bhuiyan
Professor Oliver St. John
FIQWIS 10103
October 23, 2019
Abortion in the Middle East
Abortion is a major issue in many parts of the world. Different people have different views and opinions on this topic based on different factors, such as their race, culture, religion and many more. It is accepted in many parts of the world, but in many parts of the world, it is greatly frowned upon. In the Middle East countries, abortion is a controversial topic. In some of the countries, abortion is seen as a crime. Whereas in some other countries, there are laws stating that it is legal, based on certain circumstances. The two articles that I have picked, approach the topic in similar ways. They both analyze the laws that have been passed out for women regarding abortion in these countries.
Abortion is a very controversial topic in the Middle East. In “Abortion in Islam: Policies and Practice in the Middle East and North Africa”, Leila Hessini does an in-depth analysis of Abortion in the Middle East countries. In this article, she provides an overview of factors such as medical, legal and religious beliefs that impact a woman’s access to abortion in the Middle East countries. This is a scholarly article, and she approaches this article unbiased. She focuses on providing hard factual evidence to illustrate the different ways that different countries approach abortion. Throughout the article, she provides percentages, numbers, and tables to show how different countries address abortion. She stays unbiased throughout the article and does not express her own view or opinion on abortion. For example, on page 75, she provides the readers contraceptive prevalence rates and the fertility rates in Mauritania, Sudan, Tunisia, Iran, Morocco, and Saudi Arabia. On the same page, she provides percentages of how much the number of married women ages 15-19 has dropped in Egypt, Tunisia, and United Arab Emirates in the past 20 years. On page 80 she mentions that 13 of the 21 countries in the Middle East have very restrictive laws regarding this topic, they will only allow abortion if the woman’s life is at risk. On the same page, she mentions, “In Iran, abortion was allowed under certain circumstances in the early 20th century and a law was passed in 1977 allowing abortion on request. This law was overturned after the Islamic Revolution in 1979. Today, abortion in Iran is governed by the 1991 Law on Islamic Penalties, based on Shiite Islamic law, in which abortion is prohibited but principles of necessity allow abortion to save the life of the woman.” (Hessini 80). Throughout the article, she provides examples and facts as mentioned above, to provide her readers with a very clear and concise idea of how the concept of abortion is taken in these countries. She provides a lot of specific facts and numbers to really help her readers understand abortion in these countries.
She also uses several rhetorical devices in her article. She uses some strong diction such as “morbidity”, “quality of service”, and “murder” throughout the text. She also uses repetition. The line “This paper provides an overview of legal, religious, medical and social factors that serve to support or hinder women’s access to safe abortion services in the 21 predominantly Muslim countries of the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region, where one in ten pregnancies ends in abortion.” appears three times throughout the text. She also uses powerful and lengthy syntaxes throughout the text. “Efforts are directed towards increasing effective contraceptive use especially among unmarried individuals and integrating sexual and reproductive education in primary and secondary schools” (Hessina, 76). She also uses strong syntax when she says “Laws do not punish the man involved in the unwanted pregnancy unless he tries to perform the abortion himself.” (Hessina, 78). She also provides a lot of details throughout the text. For example, on page 76 she provides a table where the number of abortions and maternal mortality due to unsafe abortion in the Middle East countries are shown. On page 78, she provides a chart where the “Grounds for abortion in MENA countries” are illustrated. The author of this text focuses mainly on providing facts and evidence to clearly illustrate how abortion is viewed in different countries in the Middle East.
The second article that I picked is titled “Framing the Abortion Picture in the Arab World”. This article also discusses abortion laws in the Middle East. Unlike Leila Hessini, the author of this article appears to be more biased. He states that “This process happened secretly because abortion is still illegal in Iraq.” The author also uses strong diction such as “murder” and “termination” throughout the article. He also uses strong and lengthy syntaxes such as “Women always find a way to obtain an abortion. Restrictive laws just make it unsafe, clandestine, lonely and more traumatic for women. These reasons were exactly why such legislations were abandoned in the past, and we should not go back on these laws.” This author also refers to what other people said significantly in this article. He does not provide any charts or numbers to make this article very fact-based. He simply talks about his own perspective on the topic and refers to what other people said regarding abortion in the Middle East.
Although both articles are about the same topic, both authors approach the articles in slightly different, yet similar ways. Both authors use a number of rhetorical devices such as diction, syntax, and repetition. They also both repeatedly mention that Turkey and Tunisia are the only countries among the Middle East countries that allow for early abortion. These articles have their differences as well. While the author of the scholarly article stays unbiased throughout the text and mainly focuses on providing evidence and facts regarding abortion in these countries, talking about numbers and percentages, the author of the second article seems biased does not provide as much evidence regarding this topic. The first article is a lot more detailed, containing a lot of numbers and hard facts whereas the author of the second article speaks mainly from his own perspective and expresses his own opinion on the topic. The two articles also differ regarding their audiences. The first article that I have used for this essay is intended for a more scholarly audience. It is longer, uses lengthy sentences and complex vocabulary. It is also a lot more informative than the second article. It provides numbers of charts and facts regarding the topic. This article is meant for individuals who are doing their own research on this specific topic and are looking for more data and information. The second article is meant for a more general audience. It is meant to simply present an argument and convince the audience that abortion is not accepted in Middle East. The article is very short and uses simple vocabulary so that anybody can read it and understand what the author is saying.
The texts are also different in terms of the design and how they are presented. The first article is completely black and white, whereas the second article’s website is a lot more colorful. It also contains some pictures, and the first article does not have any. The first article has two charts that contain data to illustrate abortion rates and such, the second article does not contain any such charts. Additionally, the first article has much longer and more detailed paragraphs than the second article. And the overall article is much longer as well. The first article is ten pages in total and the second article is much shorter in length, which is also why I had so much less to say about the second article.
According to Jason Carabelli, sometimes sources speak to each other. Meaning in their work, the authors will often refer to what another person has said before to support their statement or their own research. “Other times, though, some sources will discuss the same topic and have never heard of each other. This happens often in large conversations where many different discourse communities with many different values all talk about the same thing.” (Carabelli). In both of the articles that I have picked, the authors have referred to other people. For example, the author of the second article states, “Islam has some different ideas regarding abortion,” Zhiman Hussein, a project manager at Nujeen, told The Media Line. “[In Iraq], only unsafe abortions are available. There are no service providers for abortions except [for] those women and girls who were released from Islamic State’s rule.” The author of the first article refers to an Islamic book, the Quran, “Support for abortion and the belief that life begins at ensoulment is based primarily on the following Qur’anic verse, which discusses the different stages (semen, blood clot, bones, and flesh) of fetal development: “Man, We did create from a quintessence (of clay); then We placed him as (a drop of) sperm in a place of rest, firmly fixed…”. This also correlates to what Bazerman states in his book, “anyone attempting to advance a new argument with any hope of credibility, even in an oral forum, must take into account a canon of prior authors that have puzzled over the question at hand”. Both of the authors have referred to what another person has said in the past.
Abortion is a very controversial topic in the Middle East countries and authors of both the texts approach the topic in a similar yet different ways. They both discuss the text in a similar way, using several same rhetorical devices, but still containing their differences.
Works Cited
Hessini, Leila. “Abortion and Islam: Policies and Practice in the Middle East and North Africa.” Shibboleth Authentication Request, May 2007, www-jstor-org.ccny-proxy1.libr.ccny.cuny.edu/stable/25475294?seq=6#metadata_info_tab_contents.
Carabelli, Jason. “Identifying a Conversation.” Writing Commons, writingcommons.org/open-text/information-literacy/critical-reading-practices/identifying-a-conversation/783-identifying-a-conversation.
Bazerman, Charles. “The World of Texts: Intertextuality.” A Rhetoric of Literate Action: Literate Action, ebook, The WAC Clearinghouse and Parlor Press, 2013, pp. 59-64.
Margit , Maya. “Framing the Abortion Picture in the Arab World.” The Jerusalem Post | JPost.com, The Media Line , 22 May 2019, www.jpost.com/Middle-East/Framing-the-Abortion-Picture-in-the-Arab-World-590346.
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Islmb9931hdzy42NUlhdqf1n288RrpWhUaSLOZVp1mc/edit
