Gender Discrimination: The regional religious clerics and their influence over the governments have created broad problems for women, and thereby restricting their integration and involvement into society and profession. Although the females have secured permission to vote, and fight elections, but they are subjected to difficult terms and conditions. The employment of females in MENA has improved, however it is still 15% lower than East Asian countries.
Growing pressures on young men and women in the Middle East and North Africa to immigrate to Europe and the U.S. To find jobs and economic opportunities -- a process that inevitably creates new tensions and adjustment problems' (Strategic Insights: Globalization has eluded the Middle East).
Regional trade of lower magnitude:. All the countries of the region have so far failed to progress over economic and trade agreements. The countries have the region have evolved long-term bilateral trade agreements with countries outside the region. No regional forum has been developed to achieve sufficient trade and economic progress of the region. 'Furthermore increased intraregional trade offers little or no comparative advantage'(Middle East: World Bank Report). The trade and economic activities have been under critical observation due to the persistence of disharmony between foreign and religious policies of the regional countries.
Scarcity of Water: The regional countries including Jordan and Egypt have failed to provide water facilities to their citizens. The region imports such utilities.
The regional authorities has failed to provide basic amenities to their citizens, the populations still settled in impoverished settlements...
Recently seismic activities are observed along Zagros-Bitlis suture, the activities are result of the collision between the Arabian plate and Eurasia. 'The main large-scale feature in the tomographical model is a low shear wave velocity (less than 4.5 km/sec) anomaly in the uppermost mantle (approx. 100 km depth) beneath the Plateau. This low velocity feature correlates with a long-wavelength free-air gravity anomaly and with recent volcanism whose geochemistry has a lower lithospheric mantle signature' (A. Maggi, K. Priestley Surface waveform tomography of the Turkish-Iranian Plateau).The recent seismic reports revealed that there exists thin lithosphere and layer of hot upper mantle beneath Turkish -- Iranian plateau. 'The upper mantle low shear-wave velocity zone, the high free-air gravity and deep lithospheric source depth for the basaltic volcanism are all consistent with a partial delamination of the lithosphere due to earlier lithospheric thickening resulting from the continental collision'(Surface waveform tomography of the Turkish-Iranian Plateau).
References
S. Mujahid, WTO, Globalization and Pakistan: Dreaming for Global Living Standards Pakistan and Gulf Economist, May 20, 2002.
Cf. Jeffrey Sachs, Globalization and Patterns of Economic Development
A. Sen, If It's Fair It's Good: 10 Truths About Globalization," International Herald Tribune, July 14, 2001
A.T. Kearney Corp, Measuring Globalization, Foreign Policy
