Patriarchal-ness of Jordan

I'm sure you all would've guessed by now but something that is very obvious is the Patriarchal type of society going on here in the Middle East. There are different levels of this in the Middle East, Jordan is far more liberal than the Taliban's Shari'a Law for example. In the Holy Qur'an, women are equal to men and everyone here says this as well but if you just look at the society, you will notice that the equality is not always there. For example, whenever my host family goes to visit friends or family for mansaaf, the men sit around one dish and eat first while the women serve us drinks, napkins, pickled goods, etc. Afterward, the women sit in a separate room and eat from the same plate as the men have. It's kind of like the women get the leftovers, I've never been very comfortable with this and this only happens when there is a good amount of people (other than that, the men and women always eat together). When I asked if this is done out of respect for the men or women, the men kind of laughed and said of course it's done out of respect for the men. You can see this in the mosques as well, the women are always either behind the men or in a separate room designated for women. They do this both out of respect for the men and so that the men don't get distracted when they are praying.

Even though everything Muslims believe teaches equality and everything they preach is based around gender equality, it is not apparent in everyday society. I found this kind of hypocrisy very interesting. What is also very interesting is despite the fact that many men here cat call, honk at women, creepily flirt with them, etc. (my host dad included), they all say they respect them as equal human beings. Hypocrisy is just a blast, isn't it? This treatment of women is probably one of the more interesting parts of Jordanian/Middle Eastern society, by no means am I saying all men do this but from what I've seen, the definite majority of men here say one thing, but their actions say another; at least from an American stand point. Here, in Jordan, its just another part of daily life.