Eye On The Middle East: Women, Not Just Wars, On Arab Media's Minds

According to statistics provided by Arab media, the number of Arab women who do not get married after the age of 25 has been increasing dramatically.

“A’nes” is an Arabic word used in reference to a woman who reaches a certain age without getting married. This term has a negative connotation. Women who are labeled as “a’wanes” (plural of A’nes) generally have considerably fewer chances of getting married.

Social science expert, Hsham Hussein told Al Arabiyah Television Channel that western countries also see the marriage of older women as an odd thing, but labeling women as a’wanes in the Middle East is very harmful. Women are constrained with many social taboos and stigmas and “are not allowed to live their lives normally.”

Hussein added that the reasons behind this phenomenon might vary from one Arab country to another. People living in liberal Arab societies tend to wait longer before getting married, and they consider unmarried women to be a’wanes at a much older age than those of more conservative societies.

Statistics provided by the Ministry of Social Affairs in Lebanon indicated that 83.2 percent of women between the ages of 25-30 and 5 percent of women over 34 are unmarried. In Syria 60 percent of the women between the ages 25-29 and 2.37 percent of women over the age 34 are unmarried.

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