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Bernard Lewis, focusing on the Middle East, argues in his book What Went Wrong? that a lack of freedom-intellectual, political, economic, religious, cultural—is responsible for the decline of the Muslim world from a major center of global power to an area frequently dominated by outsiders and plagued by social and economic troubles. Furthermore, he says, the Muslim government are focused too much on finding scapegoats—especially Jews, Americans, and imperialists—for its failure to develop, asking “Who did this to us?” rather than, “What did we do wrong?”
The UNDP’s first Arab Human Development Report, issued in 2002, endorsed this view, saying that the Arab world had the lowest indicators of seven world regions on a “freedom” index based on political participation of the population, civil liberties, and unrestricted media. In addition, the report noted that women in the Arab world were not empowered, with fewer political, social, and economic opportunities than Arab men, and fewer than women in other regions.
The 2005 Arab Human Development Report displayed findings of women’s rising roles in the Arab world. While they do not enjoy full equality to men in terms of political, civil, and cultural rights, their status is improving. The Report emphasizes equality between the sexes to be a main staple of human development.
However, the dearth of freedom is not limited to the Arab world, and making that generalization is problematic. Constraints on all freedoms exist in Africa; Eastern Europe; Central, South, and East Asia; Latin America; and even areas of the West.