According to the Wall Street Journal, about half the women in the Middle East are overweight or obese:
In Bahrain, 83% of women are obese or overweight, according to International Obesity Task Force, a London-based think tank that tries to persuade countries to tackle the problem. In the United Arab Emirates the figure is 74%; in Lebanon it is 75%, the groups says. By comparison, about 62% of American women are overweight or obese. The prevalence of childhood obesity in the Middle East has risen rapidly in recent years and diabetes is spreading across the region, according to WHO.
Even predominantly Arab North African countries without oil wealth are wrestling with the challenge, in part because of a traditional preference for larger women. Half of all women in Tunisia and Morocco are overweight or obese — two standard measures of a person’s weight — according to a 2001 study published in the U.S.-based Journal of Nutrition.
What I found disturbing in this article was the statement:
The belief that rotund women are more desirable as wives helps explain why much of the Arab world — which stretches from the Persian Gulf in the east to Mauritania in North Africa — is experiencing an explosion of obesity.
As an Arab woman myself (who is currently struggling to lose weight) I totally disagree with this faulty statement. The reason there is obesity among Arab women is mainly due to lack of exercise and the lack of awareness about healthy diets. The author’s statement is a generalization, as he (or is it she) began the article discussing the issue of force feeding among women in Mauritania:
Force-feeding is usually done by girls’ mothers or grandmothers; men play little direct role. The girls’ stomachs are sometimes vigorously massaged in order to loosen the skin and make it easier to consume even greater quantities of food. … Local officials say some women are so fat they can barely move. In [a Mauritanian] survey, 15% of the women said their skin split as a result of overeating. One-fifth of women said one of their toes or fingers were broken to make them eat.
Well, If Mauritanian women want to be obese, then that’s their problem. I’m not gonna speak for other Arab women, but I can certainly speak for Jordanian women. In my country, the skinnier the woman is the better she looks! Obesity is never encouraged, in fact it is a turn-off!
Hey,
I’m a Bahraini working in the U.S. I work @ a financial institution where everyone reads the journal EVERYDAY, i mean its like the bible here. but anyway, I had a few colleagues ask me if i cram food down my sister’s throat. i told them to shove it.
Nomadic.
More on Arab Obesity
I don’t mean to dredge up an old post, but I noticed an interesting discussion on the obesity study we referenced earlier on an Arab blog, Mental Mayhem. Interesting discussion includes points on “Arab women is mainly due to lack…
Wendy, I think your right that Jordan went through it even faster. My personal opinion is that it started around 1990.
Hala, wouldn’t you say it has only taken Jordan one decade to make the nutrition transition? A decade ago I saw fit looking 80 year old Bedouin great grandmas carrying large loads. Their more sedentary daughters seem to weigh 15 extra kilos, but their Westernized grand-daughters look anorexic.
As Iyas mentioned in his comment, this is what I have been studying for the last few years. So here is my perspective: (1) Among individuals who are from the older generation and of lower socioeconomic status there is a preference for larger bodies; it is a sign of wealth, health, and fertility. (2) Among those who are younger, of higher economic status and with higher levels of exposure to Western media there is a preference for thinness; which is seen as more beautiful. (3) The increase in obesity rates is largely due to what is termed “nutrition transition”; countries all around the world are experience this transition at different rates. To explain in more depth the nutrition transition is characterized by radical changes in diet composition. Diets shift from traditional foods, which include high levels of grain, fiber, vegetable and fruit consumption to “westernized diets” high in fat, sugar, animal proteins and sodium. What makes countries like North Africa so interesting is that they have gone through this transition in less than 2 decades when it took Americans approximately 100 years to get there. (4) What one needs to remember when looking at this is that the nutrition transition affects several things including body image perceptions(preference shifts from plump to thin), eating styles (intuitive to social and environmental, and eventually emotional), and leads to increases in nutrition-related non-communicable diseases. It is however largely affected by advertising, media, and the fast food industry.
To answer Jeff’s comment about seeing less overweight and obese people in countries such as Jordan compared with the US, is that I would suspect that you are being exposed to a certain socioeconomic status in these countries. The vast majority on the other hand does have a problem with obesity, and from my own data analysis of Jordan it is still not as high as the US, but getting there very fast.
Jeff,
I think there is a “generation gap” when it comes to the image of the female body. It seems that older generation do not mind (on in some cases prefer) a chubby, for example, wife for their sons. It is regarded as “healthy”. It may have to do with the idea that food was scarce in certain areas at certain times and that a well-fed image corresponded with a higher socio-economic status. On the other hand, those who were exposed to modern “western” standards of beauty seem to value thinness more. Which makes me think of the change in the image of females in the media over the past 80 years; compare 1920s movie stars with today’s Liz Hurley or Julia Roberts?
As for the “chunky men” you refer to, I think the idea of higher socio-economic status is more relevant. Even in a every day colloquy, you may hear that the “karsh” is “wajaha” (a belly is a sign of elitism).
The “westernization” of the diet in many countries is referred to as the “Nutrition Transition” and is a whole area of study which my wife is involved and has published in. I am sure she will write a comment here if I bring this discussion to her attention.
All of these things may be true, but I’m curious how the activities in N. Africa have slanted the realities in the Levant and perhaps the Gulf so much. I was asking the wife the bigger question for me: How on earth did they perform this study?
It is difficult enough for most M. East countries to conduct an accurate census. How did they produce a sample accurate enough to make this kind of announcement. I’ve no doubt that there are cultures within the region that value obesity. But are they so prevalent? I’m no expert on N. Africa but my, purely anecdotal, observation of the levant and Gulf is that few girls feel that the “chubby look” is in and the local adverts are not pushing such a trend. Most women are stick thin. The number the study gives for Lebanon beggars belief.
But more to the point, they seem to be doing this for comparison to the US, saying Arab women are fatter. I just can’t buy that, having been around both. I think Natasha’s contention that women in the region are less aware of nutrition and are less prone to exercise is dead on. But they are also eating a far healthier diet.
Those in the Levant are following what has been regarded by many nutritionists to be the healthiest diet on the planet: the Mediterranean diet.
I see a few chubby ladies but the vast majority of those seen in: Lebanon, Egypt, Jordan, Qatar and Dubai are thin — far from obese. Where are these countries hiding all these fat women that they interviewed for this study? That’s what I want to know.
On the other hand, in Qatar at least, there does seem to be a heaping helping of chunky men, many of whom can be found chowing down at the local “western” eatery (McD’s, BK or those fat favs: KFC and Hardee’s). Combine that consumption with low exercise and you’ve got some pretty fat fellows. The wife has noticed the propensity of this segment of society’s derrières. This situation, as far as I could tell :), did not exist in Jordan — where men work hard and eat real la7meh 🙂
I’ll posty a link to the abstract instead of taking half a page to compy it here.
Diet Culture and Obesity in Northern Africa
Journal of Nutrition. 2001;131:887S-892S.
Najat Mokhtar*, Jalila Elati{dagger}, Rachida Chabir*, Abdelatif Bour*, Khalid Elkari*, Nina P. Schlossman**, Benjamin Caballero{ddagger} and Hassan Aguenaou*
* Laboratory of Physiology and Nutrition, Ibn Tofaïl University, Kenitra, Morocco, {dagger} National Institute of Nutrition, Tunis, Tunisia, ** Global Food & Nutrition Inc., Silver Spring, MD and {ddagger} Johns Hopkins University, School of Hygiene and Public Health, Center of Human Nutrition, Baltimore, MD
And in many African countries plump females with wide hips are considered to be more “fertile.” In fact, many women tie layers of garment around their waists and hips to achieve that llok and make themselves more marriageable.
I will post the abstract of the study referenced in your post separately. A PDF of the full article is available if anybody is interested.
In Iran, there is a stereotype that the wealthy traditional/religious bazaaries prefer chubby women.