DOCSLIB.ORG

Review of Azza Basarudin, Humanizing the Sacred: Sisters in Islam and the Struggle for Gender Justice in Malaysia, Seattle and L

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Review of Azza Basarudin, Humanizing the Sacred: Sisters in Islam and the Struggle for Gender Justice in Malaysia, Seattle and L Vol. 7, no. 2 (2017), 262-264 | DOI: 10.18352/rg.10224 Review of Azza Basarudin, Humanizing the Sacred: Sisters in Islam and the Struggle for Gender Justice in Malaysia, Seattle and London: University of Washington Press, 2016, 330 pp., ISBN 978-0-295- 99531-1 BY ÇAG˘DAS¸ DEDEOG˘LU, UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA, USA Published under the series titled ‘Decolonizing Feminisms’, humanizing the sacred perfectly overcomes the difficulty of linking the movements with the ideas. As the book’s extended title shows, Basarudin invites the reader to think ‘Sisters in Islam and the Struggle for Gender Justice in Malaysia’ together. Each chapter indicates this with a diverse range of insightful analyses supported by feminist ideas, interviews, and histories. The book provides a solid critique of patriarchal discourses dominating Muslim identity politics in Malaysia. Basaru- din’s ethnographical effort mainly deals with two broad subjects: The general picture of Muslim politics in Malaysia and the activism of Sisters in Islam (SIS). However, these themes are not isolated from each other, instead the two are very well collated throughout the book. The author, following the feminist tradition of Lina Abu-Lughod, Lara Deeb, Sherine Hafez, Saba Mahmood, Chandra Mohanty, aims to combine two research paths: One scrutinizes the potential of bridging feminist theory and activism seeking justice – which must be understood differently from legality – in the socio-political realm, the other probes the future of the women in Malaysia’s Muslim politics (p. 5–6). For these aims, in the introduction chapter, the author discusses the link between ‘faith, self and community’ through the concepts such as syariah (literally, the way), fiqh (Islamic jurisprudence), ijtihad (indepen- dent judgment) and argues that feminist intervention to Islamic jurisprudence creates a potential both for the establishment of women’s rights in the society and for the revitalization of faith and piety by challenging the ‘institutionalized religious authority’ (p. 5). Such an intervention seems to be necessary to struggle against ethnicity and gender problems reinforced by the institutional Islamization acts, e.g. reinforc- ing Islamic bureaucracy and the role of ulama (Muslim theologians and schol- ars), generating Islamic banking, establishing the International Islamic University Malasia and the Institute of Islamic Understanding Islamic Family Law (IFL) (p. 9). Therefore, Basarudin explores women’s rights aspect of Malaysian Mus- lim politics through the example of SIS, a nonprofit organization ‘promoting an This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution License (3.0) Religion and Gender | ISSN: 1878-5417 | www.religionandgender.org | Uopen Journals Downloaded from Brill.com09/29/2021 05:50:40AM via free access understanding of Islam that recognizes the principles of justice, equality, free- dom, and dignity within a democratic nation state.’ The organization tries to do this both through education and awareness raising programs, and through legal advocacy (p. 13). In this context, Chapter 1 focuses on the transformation of politics in Malay- sia by the early 1980s, and on its ethnic, religious, gender-based outcomes. The chapter shows how different ideologies speak in chorus about women’s rights. It can be said that patriarchal domination is a definitive characteristic of poli- tics, independent of who is ruling. Furthermore, starting from the era of Maha- thir Mohamad (1981–2003) Islamist modernization has become the desired end result in Malaysian politics. Chapter 2 scrutinizes ‘the politics of the sacred’ in the country and links the issue to the emergence of SIS activism. The author discusses two groups of ulama both seeking socio-political domination through a specific interpretation of Islam: Those ones working as state officers and the ones seeking a syariah-based system – and in this milieu, the remaining few with alternative ideas and ideals are invisible. In others words, the struggle seems to be an exclusive interplay between these two groups both believing in male superiority. And since the majority of Malay Muslims learns ‘the Quran by rote’ (p. 92) within such a judicial structure, SIS can be seen as an organization provid- ing a voice to the voiceless through its programs. Besides programs, SIS conducts advocacy campaigns. Therefore, Chapter 3 presents how ‘SIS’s strategy of interrogating androcentric [anthropocentric] interpretations of Islam and calling for a reexamination of the sources of Islam’ as an intellectual effort is strengthened by advocacy (p. 105). Reading between the lines, the reader also receives motivation messages indicating that some historical cases exist in which women were active in Islam. For example, the positions and roles of the Prophet’s wives, A’isha and Umm Salama, and the rev- elation of verse Al-Ahzab 33–35 are given as the proof of how men and women are equally treated in Qur’an. What a Muslim woman needs today is to develop a true understanding of this. Chapter 4 addresses the issue of patriarchal domination over legal-political structures. Therefore, the author uses the categories of ‘expert knowledge in Islam; feminism and Western imperialism; and social class and elitism’ (p. 146). It is important to note that this chapter does not only explain the prominent aspects of feminist approaches but it also deciphers religious thoughts of ordi- nary people through the interviews. Additionally, the effects of the dominant patriarchy – an ideology creeping more or less into all other political ideologies – are reflected by some of these interviewees criticizing SIS because of employ- ing reason, not Islam (p. 145). This reminds us the lasting debate within the dualistic understanding of faith and rationality. It is mostly believed that this is an either/or question. Furthermore, the answer of this question is believed to be given by the religious authorities. And such an answer is based on the notion that the gate of ijtihad has been closed (rather than ‘has closed’. This is not something automatically happened but an outcome of political power relations). Under these circumstances, SIS members argue for justice, and their program and advocacy aim to change individuals’ weltanschauung. In Chapter 5, the interviews come more into prominence. In this chapter, the author argues that observing feminism within Islamic discourse is not an easy task but still a necessity for gender justice in Malaysia. Within this scope, she Religion and Gender vol. 7, no. 2 (2017), pp. 262–264 263 Downloaded from Brill.com09/29/2021 05:50:40AM via free access conveys diversified thoughts of Muslim women regarding Islam. Especially, the third interviewee expresses her regret about feeling like ‘the minority of the minority of the minority’ (p. 202) are striking: It is not the same thing to be a Malay, Muslim and male citizen, and to be an Indian, non-Muslim and non-male citizen in Malaysia. In this case, the values of empathy and respect seem to be sacrificed by the hegemonic religiosity serving the political powers. Yet, marginalization is not a local problem but exceeds national boundar- ies. Therefore, Chapter 6 links the local activism of SIS with the international women’s rights movement. By doing so, the author also assesses if the theoreti- cal feminist assertions – e.g. the critiques of polygamy – are compatible with the experiences at local and global levels. And ‘a global movement for equality and justice in the Muslim family’ called Musawah (p. 217) appears in Malaysian experience as the interlocutor between the local and the transnational feminist activist movements. To sum up, this book is all about ‘the distinction between syariah and fiqh’ (p. 22). The author again and again ceaselessly emphasizes that criticizing fiqh does not mean rejecting syariah, and more importantly, a reinterpretation is needed to overcome diverse problems of the post-colonial situation in Malaysia. Flip- ping through the pages, the reader will find out why the title of the book has been written in lower case as humanizing the sacred. Humanizing the sacred is both a strong and a dangerous appeal. Strong, as it implicitly contends that the Truth is eventually a human truth. And dangerous, as the attempt at human- izing the sacred for the sake of the marginalized will always annoy hegemons, whose interests depend upon the continuation of the given structures through Muslims politics. Last but not least, ‘honesty’ might be the most definitive word for the book, and the questions it poses are more important than the answers it attempts to provide. All these questions and potential answers, the book makes apparent, will contribute to our understanding of Muslim identity politics in Malaysia as well as in other countries by comparison. 264 Religion and Gender vol. 7, no. 2 (2017), pp. 262–264 Downloaded from Brill.com09/29/2021 05:50:40AM via free access.
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Islamic Feminism, a Public Lecture By
    SUDANWORKINGPAPER Islamic Feminism, a public lecture by Liv Tønnessen, Regional Institute of Gender, Rights, Peace & Diversity, Ahfad University for Women, Sudan SWP 2014: 1 Islamic Feminism Public lecture by Liv Tønnessen, Ahfad University for Women, Sudan SVP 2014 : 1 CMI SWP ISLAMIC FEMINISM 2014: 1 In the words of Pakistani-American Asma Barlas, “I came to the realization that women and men are equal as a result not of reading feminist texts, but of reading the Quran.”1 This position has come to be known as Islamic feminism. The term has been heatedly debated and both feminists and Muslims have rejected it as two fundamentally incompatible ideas. Secular feminists reject it because they argue religion generally and Islam in particular is oppressive to women2 and many Muslim women reject it because they feel ‘feminism’ is a secular invention imposed on them from outside, from the West. Islamic feminism is indeed highly contested, but it has also been widely embraced by both activists and scholars. As Margot Badran’s article from 2002 asks, What's in a name? What's behind a name? What is Islamic feminism?3 I will in a humble way attempt to address these questions in this talk. Let me first start by saying that this is a research paper on Islamic feminism. I am not a Muslim, but I find myself fascinated and genuinely interested in the question of women and Islam. I do not under any circumstances start my engagement with the topic from a position which neither reduces Islam to be monolithic and anti-women nor a position which states that secularism is the only route to women’s empowerment.
    [Show full text]
  • Muslim Women-Led Networks and the Women's Movement in India
    Journal of International Women's Studies Volume 11 Article 6 Issue 1 Gender and Islam in Asia Nov-2009 Claiming Their pS ace: Muslim Women-led Networks and the Women’s Movement in India Nida Kirmani Follow this and additional works at: http://vc.bridgew.edu/jiws Part of the Women's Studies Commons Recommended Citation Kirmani, Nida (2009). Claiming Their pS ace: Muslim Women-led Networks and the Women’s Movement in India. Journal of International Women's Studies, 11(1), 72-85. Available at: http://vc.bridgew.edu/jiws/vol11/iss1/6 This item is available as part of Virtual Commons, the open-access institutional repository of Bridgewater State University, Bridgewater, Massachusetts. This journal and its contents may be used for research, teaching and private study purposes. Any substantial or systematic reproduction, re-distribution, re-selling, loan or sub-licensing, systematic supply or distribution in any form to anyone is expressly forbidden. ©2009 Journal of International Women’s Studies. Claiming Their Space: Muslim Women-led Networks and the Women’s Movement in India By Nida Kirmani1 Abstract The Shah Bano case of the 1980s was a landmark in the discourse on ‘Muslim women’s rights’ in India. At this time, however, few Muslim women actually participated in the debates, which were dominated by male religious leaders and politicians or by ‘secular’ women’s groups, which had scant Muslim representation. Since the 1980s several Muslim-women led organisations have emerged in urban areas across the country, some of which have formed networks to advocate for Muslim women’s rights.
    [Show full text]
  • Musawah Thematic Report on Article 16: Kuwait and Oman
    Musawah Thematic Report on Article 16: Kuwait and Oman 50th CEDAW Session Geneva, Switzerland October 2011 Musawah c/o Sisters in Islam (SIS Forum Malaysia) No. 7, Jalan 6/10, 46000 Petaling Jaya Selangor, Malaysia Tel: +603 7785 6121 Fax: +603 7785 8737 Email: [email protected] Website: http://www.musawah.org Musawah Thematic Report on Article 16: Kuwait and Oman 50th CEDAW Session Geneva, Switzerland October 2011 TABLE OF CONTENTS I. Introduction 1 II. The CEDAW Committee and Article 16 3 III. Kuwait 4 IV. Oman 7 V. The Musawah Framework for Action 9 VI. Recommendations and Rights-Based Examples 11 VII. Vision 17 Annexe 1: Glossary of Terms 18 I. Introduction This Musawah report takes a critical look at the status of marriage and family relations, as encapsulated in Article 16 of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (‘CEDAW’ or ‘CEDAW Convention’), in Kuwait and Oman, two of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) member states reporting before the 50th Session of the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women (‘CEDAW Committee’). Musawah, the global movement for equality and justice in the Muslim family, seeks to advance human rights for women in Muslim contexts, in both their public and private lives. Musawah’s objectives are: 1. To build and share knowledge that supports equality and justice in the Muslim family using a holistic approach that combines Islamic teachings, international human rights standards, national laws and constitutional guarantees of equality and non-discrimination, and the lived realities of women and men. 2.
    [Show full text]
  • Child Marriage: Its Relationship with Religion, Culture and Patriarchy
    NATIONAL REPORT: Malaysia Child Marriage: Its Relationship with Religion, Culture and Patriarchy Building New Constituencies for Women’s Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights (SRHR): Religious Fundamentalism and SRHR Sisters in Islam (SIS) NATIONAL REPORT Child Marriage: Its Relationship with Religion, Published by: Culture and Patriarchy Sisters in Islam (SIS) Sisters in Islam (SIS) No. 4 Lorong 11/8E, 46200 Petaling Jaya, Asian-Pacific Resource and Research Centre for Women Selangor Darul Ehsan, Malaysia (ARROW) Telephone: +603-7960 3357/ 7960 5121/ 7960 6733 Fax: +603-7960 8737 ISBN: 978-983-2622-36-9 Email: [email protected] 2018 Website: www.sistersinislam.org.my Facebook: Sisters In Islam Twitter: @SistersInIslam Youtube: youtube.com/SistersInIslamMYS This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial 4.0 International License. To Asian-Pacific Resource and Research Centre for Women view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons. (ARROW) org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/. 1 & 2 Jalan Scott, Brickfields, 50470 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia Telephone: +603 22739913/9914 Any part of the text of the publication may be photocopied, Fax: +603 22739916 reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted Email: [email protected] in any form by any means, or adapted and translated to Website: www.arrow.org.my meet local needs, for non-commercial and non-profit Facebook: The Asian-Pacific Resource and Research Centre purposes. However, the copyright for images used for Women (ARROW) remains with the respective copyright holders. All forms Twitter: @ARROW_Women of copies, reproductions, adaptations, and translations YouTube: youtube.com/user/ARROWomen through mechanical, electrical, or electronic means should acknowledge ARROW as the source.
    [Show full text]
  • Islamic Feminism Transnational and National Reflections
    MULKI AL-SHARMANI Islamic Feminism Transnational and national reflections his article focuses on contemporary interpretive being produced predominantly by Muslim female knowledge projects that engage critically with scholars (and some male Muslim scholars) from dif- TIslamic religious sciences, and which are driven ferent disciplines and countries. The new scholarship by the question of gender justice. These projects, which has been called Islamic feminism. have been loosely termed as Islamic Feminism, are Some of the scholars who have been studying or undertaken by Muslim women scholars from different engaging in Islamic feminism see a great epistemic countries who are committed to their religious faith and political value in it, not only for Muslim women and who are working towards the production of alter- but also for the reform of religious tradition (Abou- native, gender-sensitive religious knowledge. The paper Bakr 2012, Barlas 2002, Badran 2005, Mir-Hosseini has three aims: 1) to review the contestations about 2006). Other scholars have critiqued Islamic femi- the definition, categorization, goals, and significance of nism as being an unsystematic and heterogeneous what has been termed Islamic feminism, 2) to provide body of knowledge, as having weak methodological an alternative description of these knowledge projects links to classical religious sciences and being politic- and identify some hermeneutical characteristics that ally insignificant, or even counterproductive, for link them and which perhaps could be the basis for de- women (Moghissi 1999, Moghadam 2002, Tohidi lineating them as a new field of knowledge, 3) to map 2003). out the trajectory of building new religion-based femi- Some of the women scholars undertaking such nist knowledge in Egypt, shedding light on light on cur- projects have also linked their production of knowl- rent knowledge projects that can be labelled as Islamic edge to building a global Muslim movement for feminism.
    [Show full text]
  • Women in Islamic Societies: a Selected Review of Social Scientific Literature
    WOMEN IN ISLAMIC SOCIETIES: A SELECTED REVIEW OF SOCIAL SCIENTIFIC LITERATURE A Report Prepared by the Federal Research Division, Library of Congress under an Interagency Agreement with the Office of the Director of National Intelligence/National Intelligence Council (ODNI/ADDNIA/NIC) and Central Intelligence Agency/Directorate of Science & Technology November 2005 Author: Priscilla Offenhauer Project Manager: Alice Buchalter Federal Research Division Library of Congress Washington, D.C. 20540−4840 Tel: 202−707−3900 Fax:202 −707 − 3920 E-Mail: [email protected] Homepage: http://www.loc.gov/rr/frd p 57 Years of Service to the Federal Government p 1948 – 2005 Library of Congress – Federal Research Division Women in Islamic Societies PREFACE Half a billion Muslim women inhabit some 45 Muslim-majority countries, and another 30 or more countries have significant Muslim minorities, including, increasingly, countries in the developed West. This study provides a literature review of recent empirical social science scholarship that addresses the actualities of women’s lives in Muslim societies across multiple geographic regions. The study seeks simultaneously to orient the reader in the available social scientific literature on the major dimensions of women’s lives and to present analyses of empirical findings that emerge from these bodies of literature. Because the scholarly literature on Muslim women has grown voluminous in the past two decades, this study is necessarily selective in its coverage. It highlights major works and representative studies in each of several subject areas and alerts the reader to additional significant research in lengthy footnotes. In order to handle a literature that has grown voluminous in the past two decades, the study includes an “Introduction” and a section on “The Scholarship on Women in Islamic Societies” that offer general observations⎯bird’s eye views⎯of the literature as a whole.
    [Show full text]
  • 438 Azza Basarudin Humanizing the Sacred: Sisters in Islam And
    438 Islamic Law and Society 23 (2016) 438-440 book reviews Azza Basarudin Humanizing the Sacred: Sisters in Islam and the Struggle for Gender Justice in Malaysia. Seattle and London: University of Washington Press, 2016. ISBN: 978-0295995328. Pp. vii+330. $30/$80. Perhaps the most consequential and fraught fault-line in contemporary Ma- laysia is the question of what role Islam should play in national identity and political life, including who should be the arbiter of appropriate Muslim ideas and praxis. A numerically small but important voice in those debates for over twenty years has been Sisters in Islam (SIS), the Malaysian non-governmental organization at the center of Azza Basarudin’s cogent, insightful account. SIS falls within a global tradition of Islamic feminist analysis combining schol- arship and activism to improve the status of women under Islam, with the central premise that the guiding texts of Islam itself are not the problem; patri- archal human interpretations are. The activists Basarudin profiles are “Muslim women who live under the increasing politicization of Islam, who are excluded from interpretive communities and who are in search of equality and justice” (p. 190). Their activism serves to animate their faith and open space for public debate, however acrimonious or dismissive, while modeling possibilities for Malay Muslim women’s leadership and agency; SIS (and its newer transnation- al counterpart, Musawah) facilitates transformation at both the individual and the community level. SIS began in the late 1980s among a group of Malay Muslim women – law- yers and other professionals – concerned over issues related to women’s status under Islamic family law.
    [Show full text]
  • CHAPTER TWO SISTERS in ISLAM 2.0. INTRODUCTION in This Chapter
    CHAPTER TWO SISTERS IN ISLAM 2.0. INTRODUCTION In this chapter, the researcher will explore the history of the organization known as Sisters In Islam, its founding member, its purpose of establishment, and its activities and programs. 2.1. BACKGROUND OF SISTERS IN ISLAM Sisters In Islam (SIS) is a non-profit Malaysian organization that claims to be a group that advocates justice for women.1 The organization was formed by several women who at the time were already involved actively in other organizations. These founding members wanted to prove that the suppression of women in Muslim societies does not originate from Islamic teachings, but rather from some interpretations of Islamic sources by men.2 The group’s formation started in 1987 as a part of the Association of the Women Lawyers (AWL) when several women lawyers and their friends gathered to concentrate on problems relating to the implementation of certain new Islamic Family Laws that were enforced in that year. Composing of lawyers, academics, journalists, analysts and activists, they became a point of reference for women in difficulty seeking legal redress from religious authorities. This situation led to the formation of the core of what was to 1 Rashida Khanam, Muslim Feminism, 7. 2 Anna Spiegel, “Women's Organisations and Social Transformation in Malaysia: Between Social Work and Legal Reforms,” in Negotiating Development in Muslim Societies: Gendered Spaces and Translocal Connections, ed. Gudrun Lachenmann, and Petra Dannecker (Lanham, MD/New York: Lexington Books, 2010), 71. 23 become Sisters In Islam (SIS) in 1989,3 and in 1993, they were registered as a Non- Governmental Organisation (NGO) under the name of SIS Forum (Malaysia) Berhad.4 Since SIS was established, SIS has garnered a lot of support from other organizations and important individuals in Malaysia and abroad.
    [Show full text]
  • In Pursuit of God and Rights: Islamic Feminist Discourse and Sisters in Islam in Malaysia Yasmin Moll
    Journal of International Women's Studies Volume 11 Article 4 Issue 1 Gender and Islam in Asia Nov-2009 “People Like Us” in Pursuit of God and Rights: Islamic Feminist Discourse and Sisters in Islam in Malaysia Yasmin Moll Follow this and additional works at: http://vc.bridgew.edu/jiws Part of the Women's Studies Commons Recommended Citation Moll, Yasmin (2009). “People Like Us” in Pursuit of God and Rights: Islamic Feminist Discourse and Sisters in Islam in Malaysia. Journal of International Women's Studies, 11(1), 40-55. Available at: http://vc.bridgew.edu/jiws/vol11/iss1/4 This item is available as part of Virtual Commons, the open-access institutional repository of Bridgewater State University, Bridgewater, Massachusetts. This journal and its contents may be used for research, teaching and private study purposes. Any substantial or systematic reproduction, re-distribution, re-selling, loan or sub-licensing, systematic supply or distribution in any form to anyone is expressly forbidden. ©2009 Journal of International Women’s Studies. “People Like Us” in Pursuit of God and Rights: Islamic Feminist Discourse and Sisters in Islam in Malaysia Yasmin Moll1 Abstract This paper attempts to critically situate the discourse of Islamic feminism and its activist incarnations such as the Malaysian group Sisters in Islam within an analytical framework that seeks to look beyond the all-too-common trope of “multiple modernities.” The paper examines the conditions of possibility enabling such groups and discourses, looking in particular at the modern nation-state, and the imbrications of social discourses of rights and religious discourses of individual belief within this state.
    [Show full text]
  • Musawah Movement: Seeking Equality and Justice in Muslim Family Law
    UCLA CSW Update Newsletter Title Musawah Movement: Seeking Equality and Justice in Muslim Family Law Permalink https://escholarship.org/uc/item/1gz83404 Author Basarudin, Azza Publication Date 2009-03-01 eScholarship.org Powered by the California Digital Library University of California Seeking Equality and Justice in Muslim Family Law Musawah Movement BY A Z Z A Basar U D IN In Saudi Arabia, a female lawyer was banned from practicing law because of her gender. An advocate of women’s rights in Afghanistan laments that women are the property of males in their family from infancy to death. A young British Muslim woman reflects how fataawa1 passed in Muslim majority countries govern the lives of Muslims in her home country despite differing social realities. In Gambia, a woman activist explains how Female Genital Mutilation is a primary source of gender inequality since clerics argue that it is an injunction of Islam. These personal stories from Saudi Arabia, Afghanistan, Britain, and Gambia, among others—signifying the contention between law, lived reali- ties, and experiences, and illuminating the need for equality and justice— emerged in Kuala Lumpur during the launch of the Musawah (“equality” in Arabic) movement. Between February 13 and 17, 2009, Malaysia bore witness to the courageous and necessary search for equality and justice in Muslim Family Law through the meeting of a transnational network of activists, academics, ngos, grassroots organizations, policy makers, and those com- mitted to reclaiming Islam for themselves in their struggle to (re) envision the role and meaning of their faith in the twenty-first century.
    [Show full text]
  • Islamic Feminism
    Critique: A worldwide journal of politics Islamic Feminism Waleed Malik Carleton University, Ottowa In some ways the feminist challenge to patriarchy has been a defining feature of the recent past, exploding in almost every region of the world and producing massive change that had once seemed inconceivable. But it is a project that remain incomplete and whose progress has been uneven, with some regions lagging far behind others; one of those regions that has evoked particular concern in the past few years is one typically called the “Muslim world”. Typical views of “Muslim” women are surprisingly monolithic and persistent, seeing them as veiled and “victims” of “oppression” that is either caused by Islam or justified by it 1. For many people, including “Western” feminists both in the West and in the Muslim world, the only path of “liberation” for Muslim women is the transformation of their countries into secular, “Westernized” states and to encourage an indigenous feminist movement that mimics their Western counterparts. Hence they see only the secular women’s organizations operating in these countries as the only true feminist actors in the “Muslim world” 2. In recent decades, this project of secular feminism has faced an increasingly challenging landscape in the Muslim world. Propelled by a failure of secular and modernist ideologies to solve its problems and a complex web of social, political and economic factors, the “Muslim world” has been in the throes of an “Islamic resurgence” since the seventies, becoming increasingly hostile towards secular feminism as an alien, imperialist force that violates the Islamic faith that has been growing in importance 3.
    [Show full text]
  • 1 Islam and Women's Rights by Zainah Anwar Executive Director Sisters in Islam Presented at University of California, Berkeley
    Islam and Women’s Rights by Zainah Anwar Executive Director Sisters in Islam Presented at University of California, Berkeley and Los Angeles Distinguished Visitor Program 30 September – 6 October 2007 The setting The Islamic resurgence that has engulfed most Muslim countries today has thrown forth different levels of tension and competing ideologies within these societies: what Islam, whose Islam is the right Islam? Very often, it is the status and rights of women that have become the first casualty in this battleground. The struggle for equality and justice for Muslim women must therefore be placed within the context of women living in Muslim societies where Islam is increasingly shaping and redefining our lives. Very often, it is the Muslim women who are targeted to reflect society’s renewed commitment to the faith in ways that are often discriminatory and oppressive. It is therefore not surprising that in these countries, from Egypt to Iran, Paksitan, Indonesia and Malaysia, women’s groups are at the forefront in challenging traditional authority and fundamentalists and their use of religion to justify women’s subordination and inferior status, and most perniciously, to use religion to silence any dissent or defame or incite hatred against those who offer alternative views to protect and promote the rights of women in Islam. The challenge we confront is: how do we as Muslims reconcile the tenets of our faith to the challenge of modernity, of plurality, of changing times and circumstances? How do we deal with the new universal morality of democracy, of human rights, of women’s rights, and where is the place of Islam in this dominant ethical paradigm of the modern world? 1 The response to this challenge has led to various forms of discourses on Islam and rights.
    [Show full text]