In the latest edition of Foreign Policy magazine, Muslim reformer Mona Eltahawy called for a genuine revolution in the Middle East. Unlike the Arab Spring, this one would release women from oppression. "First we stop pretending," she said. "Call out the hate for what it is."
Is misogyny prevalent and gaining traction in the Muslim world and why did most women vote for Islamists in Middle East elections?
Recently, Muhammad Morsi, a leading Egyptian presidential candidate and head of the Islamist Muslim Brotherhood's Freedom and Justice Party, called for instituting sharia law and banning women from running for president.
Even women who observe Islamic dress codes are harassed in Cairo, and during last year's demonstrations for freedom in Tahrir Square, women were molested and subjected to virginity tests.
In Tunisia, where women had the most freedom prior to the uprising, female academics and students have been pressured by Islamists to wear the hijab.
Extremist militants harass Yemeni women for not wearing the veil, and underage marriage is justified under cover of religion in Yemen and elsewhere in the Middle East.
Saudi Arabia, custodian of the Islamic holy sites, provides a relentless global campaign of extremist Wahhabi teaching. Saudi women are denied equal citizenship and punished for being raped, and although their lot has improved under King Abdullah, the next monarch could set the clock back.
When Kuwaiti women won the vote in 2005 and eventually won four seats in 2009, they were supported by the government, although opposed by Islamists, who accused them of being agents of the West and subverting religious, family and sexual values. In this year's poll, no women were elected and the female members lost their seats.
Courageous "suffragettes" in Iran, who opposed discriminatory laws by taking part in peaceful rallies and the One Million Signatures Campaign, have been arrested and detained.
With the drawdown of foreign troops in Afghanistan and the Taliban pressing for victory, human rights for women will be up for barter again. In 2009, President Hamid Karzai brought in oppressive laws that sacrificed Shia women's rights, presumably for his political advantage.
Under coalition pressure, he ordered a review, but no similar restraints will apply after foreign troops leave.
In Turkey, the Justice Ministry figures showed that premeditated homicide against women had risen from 66 in 2002 to 953 in 2009, associated perhaps, with better reporting, but many local authorities have not implemented government reforms for charging perpetrators.
Women in other Muslim lands suffer increasing discrimination and violence. In northern Mali, there have been reports of rape by armed Islamist Tuareg groups, who are attempting to impose the veil and religious law. The Nigerian Islamist movement, Boko Haram, is engaged in a sustained brutal insurgency, with the aim of implementing a full Islamic state. Religious police in Aceh order women to wear headscarves, and they recently caned a couple for having premarital sex.
Fundamentalist governments have used women against women. In Iran, those demonstrating against unfair laws were beaten by a squad of women-only police, and female patrols have arrested young women for clothing violations.
Azza al-Jarf, a female FJP member of Egypt's parliament, has reportedly called for laws to prevent women from seeking a divorce, and for fathers to ensure their daughters are circumcised.
Well-organised Islamists, who appeared more honest and promised jobs and other social improvements, easily appropriated the Arab Spring uprisings and put up women candidates who reflected their views. Their Islamist ideology that romanticises seventh century and misogynist perspectives would push back women's rights in the region and hasten its export into the wider Muslim world.
Veteran Saudi reformer Wajeha al-Huwaider believes Muslim women were oppressed for centuries and imprisoned "in the dungeons incorrectly referred to as 'their homes.'" It is no easy task for captives to release themselves, and then only to confront a society preoccupied with patriarchal control of dress, choice of spouse, fertility, travel, education and so on. Moreover, in rural areas where religion holds sway, many women are illiterate, isolated from reformers, and unaware of any rights they may have.
Reformers attempt to expose cultural practice that cites tradition and religion to justify abuse of women. They also discredit men's claims to honour and elevate women, pointing out the real agenda is a male-dominated society that fears and infantilises women and accords them second-class status.
Reformers demand change to gender discriminatory laws and they have a window of opportunity in the Arab Spring. However, their task will grow increasingly urgent and difficult if they have to face political Islam, expressed in state legislation, police, prisons and paramilitary militias.
The US administration has not supported women reformers, opting to deal mainly with Islamists, and Western feminists have also disregarded the dissidents. However, in the absence of real freedom for women, there will be no long-term peace, progress or people power in the region.
Considering their predicament, it is understandable that many women have internalised subjugation, accepted the views of their oppressors, and elected Islamists without critical evaluation.
Shirin Ebadi described the 1979 Islamic revolution as "a revolution of men against women ". Hopefully, the same will not apply to the Arab Spring.
A version of this article was originally published in The Australian.
Follow Ida Lichter, M.D. on Twitter: www.twitter.com/IdaLichter
I, as an American Sufi woman, am very vocal about women's rights and how these rights are violated by what some power hungry tyrants are calling Islamic law.
The virginity tests were atrocious. Nothing in Islam supports this. In reality, it is sexual assault and it was meant to make women feel assaulted. Shame on any Muslim man who thinks he has the right to harm a woman this way. Anyone who claims FGM has anything to do with Islam is completely naive.
When the rights of womens improved in Muhammad's time, it was a great improvement from the pre-islamic tribal misogyny. Many women converted to Islam. If we look at all the teachings about women in Islam, we see it is meant to be a religion of ongoing reform...improving women's rights as time goes on. Somehow this is considered against Islam, but forgetting all the rights Islam gave to the first Muslim women is not happening under tyrannical regimes.
American Muslims will bring down tyrants with their oppressed brothers & sisters. I think its important to empower women vs criticize with a "general sweep across the Muslim world" where generalizing no doubt creates a distorted perspective.
Peace
I do not take that for granted and I do not take credit for it. I was a toddler when women were burning their bras and insisting they had the right to equal opportunities in employment. What matters now is that I help women whose societies have either rejected or renounced the equality of women.
In his time, Muhammad, pbuh, would have been considered a feminist. Muslims and others do not need to look too far to find teachings on equality in Islam. If Muslim misogynists open their Quran to read how Allah swt sees women and men as equals.
http://www.submission.info/perspectives/women/equality.html
How can we patronize and oppress women when Allah says genders are equal? Only when we seek to control a people does this happen. Patriarchy is being weeded out in societies around the globe. I pray I will be a part of it.
I pray I will not be smug about gender equality, but a humanitarian. Peace be with all. Amin.
Peace.
Wikipedia on Muslim women leaders:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Female_political_leaders_in_Islam_and_in_Muslim-majority_countries
Its very important that people learn what Islam really teaches about gender equality. And I mean all of it not just the parts we agree with. It is known that education and knowledge empower people & it enables us to truly fight for reform. Not of Islam itself, but of the ways it is interpreted to support the oppression of a people.
Because women in the west are blessed by equality, we must pay it forward, as they say. May we all forget the insults and elevate ourselves to a place where we are truly empowered to protest and bring needed change.
What is a religion that cannot be discarded?
Is a soul worth saving or a love worth having if I have to use force to do either?
Am I so perfect that I know the exact shape your spirit needs when it meets our maker?
This thing is only of worth if it is of your free will.It is useless otherwise.
It was 85 degrees in the shade.
Some apologists for Muslim dress will tell you that they wear the dress from choice. In a recent interview one such apologist was asked "If you were to come down into the kitchen tomorrow morning wearing a bikini and a towel over your shoulder and told your husband 'I'm going to the beach to swim', what would happen?"
She looked shocked.
"Would your husband not throw you out, your family and friends reject you and you become an outcast in your community?"
Again shocked silence.
"In reality, you don't actually have much of a choice do you?"
Part of the problem, as I think the article itself reveals, is that Muslim women are often co-conspirators in this game of persecution.
In fact, aside from **using** disgruntled women from Muslim countries, like Ayaan Hirsi, as zionist sock puppets strictly for the purposes of political manipulation...to marginalize muslims...the only thing the west does re: muslim women is BOMB them indescriminantly or pay Israel $3.2 billion a year to kill muslim women and children ....
That's how much we care....
End the lies.
The bottom line is what are the Arabs doing to help themselves in this matter?
To really help women in Islamic states, you have to ask women what they need, not look at the situation as a western feminist coming to rescue women victims of Islam. Lots of times the women and men have a bigger issue of life and death, or basic human rights facing all of them, or the biggest issue or the path to liberation is not the one obvious to us. Women in parliament in Afghanistan want rid of puppet Hamid Karzai and foreign occupation, for example.
That is exactly what we need to do. Excellent article -- thank you very much!
The best way to fight the Taliban is to rebuild with the people for the people. And to educate people. This article by Daisy Khan and Fazeela Siddiqui really opened my eyes. I am so quick to judge and that makes me less effective. How effective am I as an activist if I don't educate myself? How can I educate others if I don't educate myself?
May I be a peacemaker. May I bring peace into the world. Ya Allah! Amin
In fact, contemplation polishes hearts. There are too many dirty hearts in the world today and this includes outside of the Islamic world. We neglect the hungry, the homeless, the oppressed. Imagine it reversed. Imagine the golden rule in action. If we were hungry, homeless or oppressed, would we call out to the hearts of humanity for assistance?
Women in the west are worthy of praise when it comes to overcoming misogyny in our country. Many take it for granted and even take the credit for it when they did nothing to make it happen. American women didn't vote until 1920s 19th amendment to the constitution which stated both sexes could vote. In Muhammad's community, women had the right to vote on community matters. To learn all this empowers us to effectively promote change for women today who are oppressed via men of any religion or none.
Peace be with you.
Muhammad brought revolutionary ideas to the people he lived with. Compared to what women are blessed with today in the west, this may not seem true, but in his time he greatly improved the lives of women. It is important to understand Quranic teachings from that perspective.
Muhammad was a feminist and a reformer. People think 4:34 is about the rights men have to beat women. It actually is a command and a test from God who clearly reveals he views gender equally in Quran. It called men to learn patience and acknowledge God is against misogyny.
Because he was a reformer speaking to a certain type of people, the message in Quran came out as commands to that community. Many women became Muslim because they were honored. Islam acknowledges there are always going to be changes. Hence madhabs were created. This means that reform (which is what Islam has been about since day one) is an ongoing process. Women's rights must improve because Islam is a religion of reform that empowers humanity and creates more harmony in all creation.
peace be with you.
I invite you to do the same and join the 21st century.
This is a widely cited statistic that often supports an argument that the gender imbalance makes it more difficult for some women to find a partner.
So is allowing limited polygamy a solution? Would some women accept the position of being a good second wife rather than remaining unmarried for life.
Using Census data, the analysis is only the population who are never married singles between the ages of 20 and 34.
In this subgroup, men outnumber women—742,400 to 729,500.
More interestingly, the ratio varies widely by neighborhood
On the Upper East Side, young single women outnumber young single men nearly 2 to 1. Jackson Heights, Queens is on the other end of the spectrum—where there are 1.7 males for every female.
On a related note, spending at the City’s roughly 1,200 bars is approximately $855 million per year. This works out to $140 per resident age 21 and over, which is 58% higher than in the United States as a whole.
StatsBee is a column featuring interesting statistics about NYC, written by economists at the Economic Research & Analysis department within NYCEDC’s Center for Economic Transformation.
- And likewise as soon as men become more than women then it is ok for one women to have 4 husbands. Imagine a kid having 2-4 fathers and one mother? That should be exciting. Kids at school would ask, which father is picking you up today kodi? And you would be only happy to answer I presume.
How arrogant of you to assume all women want or need to be wives, whether first or second ones. Have you not noticed that women are more emancipated nowadays and have no need to marry at all? The reason women marry now is usually for love, not be be the slave of some misogynistic man. Unfortunately, this still does not apply in the world of Islam which has some catching up to do in the civilization area.
My mother pushed my sister and I to marry. Remember the times when unmarried women were called "old maids"? I'm now an even older old maid and a Muslim, too!