Islamic Feminism in Kuwait Islamic Feminism in Kuwait The Politics and Paradoxes A l e s s a n d r a L . G o n z á l e z ISLAMIC FEMINISM IN KUWAIT Copyright © Alessandra L. González, 2013. Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 2013 978-1-137-30473-5 All rights reserved. First published in 2013 by PALGRAVE MACMILLAN® in the United States— a division of St. Martin’s Press LLC, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10010. Where this book is distributed in the UK, Europe and the rest of the world, this is by Palgrave Macmillan, a division of Macmillan Publishers Limited, registered in England, company number 785998, of Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire RG21 6XS. Palgrave Macmillan is the global academic imprint of the above companies and has companies and representatives throughout the world. Palgrave® and Macmillan® are registered trademarks in the United States, the United Kingdom, Europe and other countries. ISBN 978-1-349-45457-0 ISBN 978-1-137-30474-2 (eBook) DOI 10.1057/9781137304742 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available from the Library of Congress. A catalogue record of the book is available from the British Library. Design by Newgen Imaging Systems (P) Ltd., Chennai, India. First edition: February 2013 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 Transferred to Digital Printing in 2013 Contents List of Figures and Tables vii Introduction 1 1 Western Feminism Has Not Taken Root in Muslim Hearts and Minds 23 2 Islamists Are Winning Elections 45 3 Veiled Women Are Leading 81 4 Men Are Enabling Islamic Feminism 111 5 Arab Youth Are Both Modern and Traditional 143 Conclusion: Legitimate Authorities in Balance 175 Appendix 1: Islamic Social Attitudes Survey (ISAS) Methodology 209 Appendix 2: Summary of Interview Responses to Select Interview Questions 221 Notes 229 Glossary 245 Selected Bibliography 249 Index 253 Figures and Tables Figures 2.1 Most Frequent Responses to How Islam Supports Women’s Rights by Political Affi liation 53 3.1 Primary Reason for Wearing Hijab 88 3.2 “It Is Important for a Woman to Wear Hijab in Public” by Country 89 3.3 Determining Factors 92 4.1 Most Listed Obstacles for Addressing Women’s Rights in Kuwait 127 4.2 Perceptions of Mosque Networks by Gender 130 5.1 Primary Group Affi liation by Gender 159 C.1 Most Important Women’s Issues by Gender 176 C.2 Most Important Women’s Issues by Political Affi liation 180 Table 5.1 Kuwaiti Parliament Dissolutions by the Ruling Emir 155 Introduction Many people, particularly since September 11, 2001, seem to think that Islam is inherently oppressive to women. But what do Muslim women in majority Muslim countries think about these issues? Do they consider themselves oppressed by their religion? And why do so many of them still wear the veil? This book tackles and untangles sev- eral commonly misunderstood paradoxes current in majority Muslim countries today. A case study of Kuwaiti elites and college students illustrates these paradoxes at the cutting edge of a contemporary women’s suffrage movement. Using data from in-depth interviews with Kuwaiti cultural elites, we begin to unravel the logic that makes Islamic feminism a thriving approach to understanding the sociologi- cal importance of community, politics, and religion in majority Muslim countries. This book is a sociological window into Islamic feminism and serves as a model to understand social reform for women’s rights in other majority Muslim contexts. It explores the subject of women’s political participation in Kuwait as a means to understanding larger social reform issues. It is an updated search for examples of a recon- ciliation between Islam and feminism that comes out of an in-depth look at the evolving political roles for women in Kuwait.1 One of the distinctive theoretical contributions of this study is to highlight the idea of a feminism rooted in sources of authority that are legitimate to the actors involved and to the societies with which they interact. In the case of politically active Kuwaiti Muslim women, the dynamics and boundaries for their version of an indigenous women’s rights movement are situated amongst a variety of schools of Islamic thought, particularly those of the Muslim Brotherhood, the Salafis, the Shia sources, and a variety of Liberal secular references from women’s political participation in the United States and Europe. Through ethnographic interviews and survey research of Kuwaiti elites and college students, one finds several interesting paradoxes about Islam, women, and politics in Kuwait: • Muslim women are not jealous of Western feminists. • Islamists are winning elections—with the help of women. 2 ISLAMIC FEMINISM IN KUWAIT • Intelligent Muslim women are choosing to wear the veil. • Veiled women are succeeding in fields of business, education, and politics. • Men are not opposed to, but in fact enabling, Islamic feminism. • Arab youth support both modern standards for gender equality and respect their traditional religious culture. • Islamic feminists are finding ways to negotiate for progressive women’s rights within the conservative constraints of their culture. Far from being standardized to an antiquated text or interpretation, Kuwaiti elites are reconciling feminism with Islam in a variety of ways. Their ability to negotiate between traditional values and mod- ern realities is a contextual process—and one that illustrates the pos- sibilities for an indigenous resolution to global problems of gender inequality and economic disparity in the Middle East. A key sociologi- cal approach presented in this book is to understand the sociological sources of legitimate authority within Islamic contexts, namely, reli- gious texts, the community, and authority figures. Islamic feminists are most successful when they present their arguments for women’s rights as legitimately sanctioned from these indigenous and religious sources. The chapters in this book are divided to address each of these paradoxes in further detail. A Sociological Theory of Legitimate Authority The sociological theory of legitimate authority put forward in this book acknowledges the influence of authority figures to maintain social control and the logic of optimizing one’s benefit and minimiz- ing negative sanctions. 2 An extensive history of the important sources of legitimate authority in Islamic tradition includes religious texts (including the Sharia and Hadith ), the Muslim community (ummah ), and authority figures (including imam preachers, Islamic scholars, and the political head of state). However, a historical and juridical focus on legitimate sources of authority in Islam is not the main focus of this book. Instead, a sociological theory of legitimate authority acknowledges the importance of multiple sources and dimensions of authority distilled into these three nodes of authority (texts, com- munity, and religious or political leaders) but focuses on the logic and argument of Islamic feminists working within conservative cul- tural constraints to fight for progressive women’s social and political INTRODUCTION 3 rights. A theory of legitimate authority explains the seeming paradox of Islamic feminism. The theory states that for marginalized agents in traditional, conservative, and sacralized societies, change must be legitimated by an indigenous source of authority if it is to be accepted and effectual in the local community. In the next few chapters, we will see this theory come to life through the experiences of women’s rights activists in Kuwait. There are two points to this theory: one involves the standard for what or who is an authority and the other the standard for who or what is defined as legitimate . The standard for the two parts of the theory are culturally specific and can be redefined to the particu- lar conditions of the social phenomenon under study. In this book, the social phenomenon of an inherently traditional, conservative, and religion-based progressive feminist movement is encapsulated by Muslim elites in the majority Muslim context of Kuwaiti society. Islamic feminists argue for the expansion of women’s rights in the public sphere by appealing to indigenous sources of authority, namely, sacred texts, theological arguments based on the life of the Prophet Mohammed, and the rulings of contemporary religious leaders, as well as the nonreligious Kuwaiti source of political legitimacy—their national Constitution. By equating the Constitution with sacred texts as a source of political authority, Islamic feminists have touch points to work with both secular women’s rights activists as well as non- progressive Islamists who limit their sources of authority to religious sources. The sociological theory of legitimate authority is discussed and reengaged throughout the book. Unique Findings in This Study The findings of this study have much to say not only to the aca- demic literature but also to the broader audience of readers interested in the topic of Islamic feminism. Among some of the more unique findings are: • Women’s rights activists in Kuwait who are deeply concerned about social inequalities (for example, unequal access to gov- ernment benefits and discrimination in the judicial system) are divided by their religious and ideological approaches. • Ideological differences are indeed about secular versus theo- cratic worldviews, but when it comes to women’s political rights, they are more salient to political process and supporter mobilization. 4 ISLAMIC FEMINISM IN KUWAIT • Through academic research, personal narratives, interviews, and field observation, this study provides deeper insights and nuances to understand the gendered differences of approach and incor- poration of political ideologies with regard to women’s political rights in a majority Muslim context. Finally, this book is about men and women in a majority Muslim society who operate within communal norms and restrictions and at the same time rise above averages—what I will refer to as Muslim “elites.” One of the purposes of this book is to demonstrate the pos- sibilities for the empowerment of men and women in developing con- texts within their respective cultural constraints.