Gender, Religion, and Spirituality Edited by Caroline Sweetman Oxfam Focus on Gender The books in Oxfam's Focus on Gender series were originally published as single issues of the journal Gender and Development (formerly Focus on Gender). Gender and Development is published by Oxfam three times a year. It is the only British journal to focus specifically on gender and development issues internationally, to explore the links between gender and development initiatives, and to make the links between theoretical and practical work in this field. For information about subscription rates, please apply to Carfax Publishing Company, PO Box 25, Abingdon, Oxfordshire OX14 3UE, UK; Fax: +44 (0) 1235 401550. In North America, please apply to Carfax Publishing Company, 875-81 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge, MA 02139; Fax: (+1) 617 354 6875. In Australia, please apply to Carfax Publishing Company, PO Box 352, Cammeray, NSW 2062, Australia; Fax: +61 (0) 2 9958 2376. All rights reserved. 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Typeset by Oxfam CSU JB177/98 Oxfam is a registered charity No. 202918 Oxfam GB is a member of Oxfam International ISBN 0 85598 400 7 This book converted to digital file in 2010 Contents Editorial 2 Caroline Sweetman Reconciling Islam and feminism 7 Iman Hashim Christianity, development, and women's liberation 15 Bridget Walker Conflict and compliance: Christianity and the occult in horticultural exporting 23 Catherine S Dolan No time to worship the serpent deities: Women, economic change, and religion in north-western Nepal 31 Rebecca Saul Gender relations, 'Hindu' nationalism, and NGO responses in India 40 Stacey Burlet Religion, male violence, and the control of women: Pakistani Muslim men in Bradford, UK 48 Marie Macey A double-edged sword: Challenging women's oppression within Muslim society in Northern Nigeria 56 Fatima L Adamu Gender and development from a Christian perspective: Experience from World Vision 62 Linda Tripp Islam and development: Opportunities and constraints for Somali women 69 Sadia Ahmed 'The way to do is to be': Exploring the interface between values and research 73 Sharon Harper and Kathleen Clancy Resources 81 Compiled by Sophie Dodgeon Books 81 Video 85 Organisations 85 Web resources 86 Editorial uch development thought has customs, means that the distinction between dismissed religion, its rituals and its these is often overlooked. This blurring of Mcustoms, as at best irrelevant and at terms has led to further confusion in much worst a barrier to economic, social, and politi- development literature, where the terms cal 'progress'. This collection of articles - by 'culture' and 'religion' are used almost writers who live both within, and outside, interchangeably to describe any or all of various religious traditions - explores these these elements (Mukhopadhyay 1995). A key views. Why have considerations of faith and feminist strategy has been to highlight the spirituality been left on the margin of distinction between the two, described by development research, practice, and policy, one writer as the difference between not only by 'mainstream' development, but 'religion' and 'religiosity' (Carroll 1983). by many gender and development workers? Women's position within societies is This marginalisation of a critical area of human regulated by religious institutions at the family activity has had, and continues to have, a and community levels. Custom and tradition, dramatic negative impact on economic, social, often justified on religious grounds, ensure and political development, and the attainment women's conformity to conventional gender of equality for women. roles, which can be the source of power- Moving beyond this, contributors to this lessness and pain. In particular, notions of collection also analyse the complex fatalism which are integral to many religions, relationship between culture, religion, and from Hinduism to Orthodox Christianity, can feminism, and how this is played out in offer comfort to the powerless and an gender and development work in countries explanation for suffering, while at the same of the South. They aim to assess how both time constraining people from seeking change. organised religions, and personal spiritual convictions can shape, challenge, and Religious 'fundamentalism' potentially transform gender relations. and the control of women Religious faith and its The connections between religion, culture, and the control of women are evident institutions throughout the history of human develop- As Bridget Walker states in her article, ment. Women's central role as wives, mothers, religion can have a contradictory status in and transmitters of cultural and religious beliefs women's lives. The close relationship between (Mukhopadhyay 1995) makes it important for core religious beliefs, and religious institu- their behaviour to be regulated, in particular tions with their associated rituals and their sexuality, since the paternity of their Editorial children is of prime concern to patriarchal European ideals of wife- and motherhood societies. 'Most human religions, from tribal accompanied the message of Christianity to world religions, have treated woman's brought by the missionaries (Hansen 1992, body, in its gender-specific sexual functions, referring to Africa). as impure or polluted and thus to be In the post-colonial era, a growing number distanced from sacred spaces and rites domi- of development workers from former colonial nated by males' (Radford Ruether 1990,7). The powers have been anxious to avoid charges need to control women's impure sexuality is of cultural and religious imperialism. linked to male physical and mental violence Accordingly, they have worked 'around' against them, ranging from the sexual these issues, focusing on practical, technical, violence inflicted on child and adult females or material issues (Ver Beek, forthcoming). at home and outside the home, to the policing However, it is increasingly argued that for of women's dress codes and 'modesty'. development agencies to ignore the religious Several articles in this issue, and many of beliefs of the people with whom they work, the resources listed at the end of this or to reject them out of hand as backward or collection, address the threat to women's 'against development', itself amounts to a human rights from religious extremists in the continuation of cultural imperialism which is many politically unstable situations all over promoting secularism. All too frequently, the the world, who use the control of women as a failure of development interventions is symbol of social cohesion. Although often explained by 'blaming the traditionalism of misleadingly associated solely with Islam, the an ill-defined, but convenient, idea of emphasis on a return to 'fundamental' "culture"' (Crewe and Harrison 1999,1). religious laws actually originates in American Southern feminists working in develop- Protestant Christianity. 'Fundamentalists' are ment have been particularly keen to challenge defined by one source as having 'a militant the idea of culture as a separate, backward desire to defend religion against the realm of life which outsiders may respect or onslaughts of modern, secular culture; their denigrate, but in which they should not principal weapon is their insistence on the interfere (Longwe 1995,47). Southern feminists inerrancy of scripture' (Hawley and Proudfoot have argued that such cultural relativity is 1994, 3). Fundamentalism's basic concern is patronising, and potentially allows women's attaining political power through control of rights to be marginalised. However, Southern social structures, rather than an intrinsic feminists risk accusations of betraying their interest in religious truth (ibid.). (For further societies if they criticise the cultural and analysis and information on strategies to religious status of women (Mukhopadhyay eradicate the issue of violence against women, 1995). In view of the complex interplay including violence inflicted in the name of between race, religion, and gender, and in an religion or culture, see Gender and Development atmosphere of accusations and counter- Vol. 6, No. 3, November 1998.) accusations of racism and sexism, you need courage to take action. In her article, Fatima L Adamu discusses how the tensions between Development, culture, and gender and race turn into a 'double-edged feminism sword' for Muslim feminists working in The same complex relationship between Northern Nigeria. As Adamu states, they political and economic power, and the control must not only challenge the prejudices of men of women through culture and religion, could from their own communities regarding their be seen during colonialism, when Western view of 'gender' as a Western imposition, but Christianity was exported to the empires of also circumvent the corresponding prejudice European states. Attempts to 'domesticate' of foreign donors against Islam. Haleh Afshar women in the colonies into nineteenth-century has summed up this hostility as follows: 'just as in the West much of the discussion about world; most religious movements have their Islam and Islamist women is conducted in roots in transformatory visions, which focus terms of simplistic caricatures, so it is in the on the 'inner ethical motivations of the person, case of