What constitutes Conflict

Very interesting discussion in class today. I really wanted to be able to give some input, but because I have never taken a conflicts class I pretty much just sat back today and listened to what everyone else had to say so I can get a better understanding before I formulated my own opinions.

I'm still a little bit lost on the whole conflict thing. I am seeming to get out of this that conflict is more put on people by the outside. Like ok, sure you have conflicts like wars and all that, but aside from ones that are obvious, who's to say what is and isn't a conflict. I think for there to be a conflict, both parties (or multiple depending of course) have to realize that there is a conflict. In other words, just cause an outside party may think they see a conflict, is there really a conflict? A perfect example is the "liberation" of women in the Middle East. Obviously from our perspective, women over there are oppressed. But do they view themselves as oppressed? Do they think that having to wear the headress and long garments and concealing themselves all the time is oppression or do they view it as how it should be? Do they look at Western Culture and think to themselves, "wow these women over there are really in conflict with the men and that's not what we want.." Kind of thing? I don't know their position on this even but I just wanted to raise the point that I think that in order for there to be conflict, everyone involved in the conflict has to be aware of it.