Women living under muslim laws Femmes sous lois musulmanes Dossier 21 Dossier 21 Women living under muslim laws Femmes sous lois musulmanes Dossier 21 was edited by Harsh Kapoor. Cover: The cover illustration is by the wellknown Algerian cartoonist Kaci. It has been reproduced with permission from Edition Edifra (22, boulevard Poissonnière, 75009 Paris) from the volume 'Bas le voile', 1994, 48pp [ISBN: 2-914070-63-X] About the Dossiers The Dossiers are an occasional publication of the International Solidarity Network of Women Living Under Muslim Laws. Conceived as a networking tool, they aim at providing information about lives, struggles and strategies of women living in diverse Muslim communities and countries. Women’s groups may freely reproduce material, however we would appreciate acknowledgements. For those articles previously published in other journals, permission should be sought directly from them. Information contained in the Dossiers does not necessarily represent the views and positions of the compilers or of the network Women Living Under Muslim Laws, unless stated. The Dossiers are meant to make accessible the broadest possible strands of opinion within varied movements / initiatives promoting greater autonomy of women. The Dossier seeks to inform and share different analysis and experiences. Produced on non-profit basis through donations and grants, the Dossiers have, till now, mostly been distributed free of cost to women and women's organisations. Printing and distribution costs of one Dossier work out to 60 F.Francs (about 12 US$). We appeal to readers to send donations to meet the production and postage costs. Any donation however small is extremely welcome. To new readers of the Dossiers: Would you like to be placed on our mailing list? If you are associated with an institution / group would you consider setting up an exchange of publications with us? For all correspondence write to: Women Living Under Muslim Laws, Boite Postale 20023, 34791 Grabels Cédex, France. Directrice de publication : Marie-Aimée Hélie-Lucas Rédaction : Women Living Under Muslim Laws Boite Postale 20023, 34791 Grabels Cédex, France. Dépôt légal 1et trimestre 1991, ISSN 1018-1342 Commission paritaire en cours. Mise en Page : Crayon & cie, Montpellier Imprimerie Arceaux 49, Montpellier. 2 Dossier 21 Contents Introduction 5 Fundamentalism(s) The War Against Feminism in the Name of the Almighty: Making Sense of Gender and Muslim Fundamentalism Janet Afary 7 Iran Women and Politics in Post-Islamist Iran: the Gender Conscious Drive to Change Azadeh Kian 32 Hojjat al-Eslam Sa‘idzadeh - Iran Ziba Mir Hossieni 56 Foundations of the Equality Perspective Modern Fiqh: the Case of Divorce Hojjat al-Eslam Saidzadeh 60 Iran's moral enforcers beat a retreat Julian Borger 64 Bangladesh Mullahs, Migrants, Miracles: Travel and Transformation in Sylhet (Bangladesh) Katy Gardner 67 Sri Lanka Ethnic Identity, Religious Fundamentalism and Muslim Women In Sri Lanka M.A. Nuhuman 89 Muslim Women Muslim Women on the Threshold of the Twenty-First Century Homa Hoodfar 112 Newsbriefs 125 Resource Index Declarations and Petitions 146 Organisations and Projects 149 Audiovisuals 157 Books and Papers 160 Periodicals 166 Dissertation 169 Dossier 21 (September 1998) Women Living Under Muslim Laws 3 ISSN 1018-1342 4 Dossier 21 Introduction Fundamentalist political movements and their onslaught on women have been subject to much debate over the years and have become one of the key concerns of our network. The paper by Janet Afary surveys content and character of this systematic attack on women's rights in the name of religion and comes up with reactions, responses and mobilizational strategies to undermine the fundamentalist(s) politics. Ever since the early days of the 1979 revolution in Iran, women's rights activists have keenly been interested in understanding the situation & struggles of Iranian women. The contribution by Azadeh Kian provides a fascinating description of the new protagonists for women's political and social rights in todays Iran. The Iranian regime, over the last two decades has done its best to maintain a tight hold on all foreign influence and has infact tried exporting its own ideological products internationally (e.g. Hezbollah in Lebanon, Islamic Students Organisation in Pakistan); The main focus for Iranian voices for change and democratisation, has come to revolve around a strategy of 'reform from within' (maybe, for lack of any other realistic possibilities), giving primacy to a re-interpretation of Muslim religious discourse of the state; One of the most prominent examples of progressive interpretation of religious texts favourable to women in the recent Iranian history has been that of the cleric & legal scholar Hojjat Al Salem Sai'dzadeh. The outstanding work of Saidzadeh has earned him the wrath of the more conservative of the Iranian Mollahs. Saidzadeh's work is little known outside Iran and its is very important that reformers, liberal voices and activists for change elsewhere in the Muslim world discover it. Ziba Mir Hossieni has done great service to us all by introducing Sai'dzadeh's writings & providing a translation of one his works Winds of change are slowly erroding the totalising hold of the Iranian authorities. The one time dreaded 'Moral' police which kept people at bay by keeping them in 'right Islamic order' is now not so omnipresent in Tehran. From a dominantly Shia Iran where the clergy holds legal sway on matters political and personal, we move on to Bangladesh a largely Sunni muslim context with a secular system of jurisprudence and a fervent civil society. Less regimented and organised compared to the religious institutions of Iran, Sunni Islam in Bangladesh historically gained currency through mystical 'sufi' saints or 'Pirs' who were products of local society in Bengal. These freewheeling and cult like spaces built around 'pirs' have continued over hundreds of years but parts of Bangladesh have witnessed an Islamisation influenced by factors alien to local Islam . During the period of a military dictatorship, Islam was officially invoked leading to many a parachuted measures to institutionalise informally mediated modes of faith. Women Living Under Muslim Laws 5 Introduction Remodelling of the 'Pirs' though not officially sponsored has been one development. As in most South Asian countries, decades of steady flow of male labour migration to the west and to the economies of the Arabian Gulf have caused much change in the local configuration of power relations. Repatriation of money by working class immigrants has given them some degree of local influence in their rural country of origin. Returning influential immigrants have tried to 'rectify' and re-invent their local Pirs into 'Islamically correct' and properly scripturalised Sunni variety; based on an imaginary transcultural Islam which they have constructed in bits and pieces that they have picked up from many countries and cultures during their absence from Bangladesh . The paper by Katy Gardner recounts the story of religious change underway in a part of Bangladesh and its connections with Bangladeshi migrant communities which through its own internationalisation is now remoulding its local Islam. The situation of predominantly muslim societies is somewhat different when compared to Sri Lanka a multi religious society where Muslims constitute a small minority community. The Sri-Lankan Muslim elites, faced with processesleading to polarisation of different religious communities with distinct ethno-religio-political representation, got involved in their own project to construct a homogenous community identity. This process over the last four decades has increasingly encountered the emergence of conservative and fundamentalist political currents, which at moments in time even suggested that Sri Lankan Muslims adopt Arabic as their language, as it would bring them in line with 'real' Islam. This process has also slowly been leading to renaming of institutions with Arabic words instead of those traditionally in say Tamil. The paper by Nuhuman provides a historical overview of the processes of segregation and subordination of Muslim women in Sri-Lanka in wake of religious right gaining ground. Picking up the threads of the discussion in the opening paper of this Dossier, Homa Hoodfar explores the challenges facing womens initiatives across Muslim contexts with all their cultural and social diversity. September 1998 6 Dossier 21 The War Against Feminism in the Name of the Almighty: Making Sense of Gender and Muslim Fundamentalism Janet Afary Two Feminisms 1 n recent years, some post-modern feminists have warned us about the perils of generalizations in feminist theory that transcend the boundaries Iof culture and region, while feminist critics of postmodernism have argued conversely that abandoning cross-cultural and comparative theoretical perspectives may lead to relativism and eventual political paralysis.2 As I will argue in this article, the two positions are not always as diametrically opposed as they seem to be. The militant Islamist movements which have proliferated across a wide variety of cultures and societies in North Africa, the Middle East, and Southeast Asia, have propagated remarkably similar policies and doctrines with regard to gender issues. As a result, a comparative theoretical perspective that would focus on this issue is both essential and surprisingly neglected. But careful distinctions need be made between conservative discourses - both