Prior to being enrolled in Arabian Disney Days, I had been very uneducated on the culture of many foreign countries. I am very aware of what is going on in the United States but I didn’t know about other countries now and in the past. Many of my history classes didn’t teach much about other countries alone, and only taught how their actions impacted the US. I was very excited to learn about Arabian Culture, the Middle East and watch Aladdin. 

I am very aware of how women were treated in the US in the past and always thought it was a little different in other countries. I had hoped women were given the respect they deserved but I very early on, learned that was not the case. Men still had all of the power and viewed women as property. There were many negative stereotypes created and encouraged by the men. While reading the Nights, I learned that women were sexualized in Arabian culture. More so than in the United States. I remember hearing about a man who would sleep with a new girl every night and then kill them and it turned out that the Nights explained that exact story. When I thought women had a little freedom and role in the culture, it was disputed with evidence that they were used for sex and killed like they meant nothing in life. They were dehumanized and viewed as equal to animals. Women were for having a fun time and not for a long time. In the United States, women still didn’t have the right to vote during this time and simply cooked, cleaned and stayed home while the men did all the “dirty work.” 

In the Tale of the porter and the 3 ladies, I heavily reconsidered my understanding of the roles of women. This tale supported that women weren’t expected to be viewed as existing for themselves. The man was so confused that the women were carrying food for themselves with no man in sight. Men were the stepping stones of the culture. The man expected them to have linked arms with a male because that would just “make sense.” This tale supported the idea that men kept the women in line while the women did no more than just fulfill their needs. Our close readings of the nights completely changed my expectations of gender roles and any form of a hierarchy. I learned that the men were on top and everyone else was below with no power.