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Trilogy of Violence: Religion, Culture and Identity the Abused Muslim Woman in the Age of Secular Modernity Hasnaa T

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Trilogy of Violence: Religion, Culture and Identity the Abused Muslim Woman in the Age of Secular Modernity Hasnaa T Clark University Clark Digital Commons International Development, Community and Master’s Papers Environment (IDCE) 5-2015 Trilogy of Violence: Religion, Culture and Identity The Abused Muslim Woman in the Age of Secular Modernity Hasnaa T. Mokhtar Clark University Follow this and additional works at: https://commons.clarku.edu/idce_masters_papers Part of the International and Area Studies Commons Recommended Citation Mokhtar, Hasnaa T., "Trilogy of Violence: Religion, Culture and Identity The Abused Muslim Woman in the Age of Secular Modernity" (2015). International Development, Community and Environment (IDCE). 10. https://commons.clarku.edu/idce_masters_papers/10 This Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by the Master’s Papers at Clark Digital Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in International Development, Community and Environment (IDCE) by an authorized administrator of Clark Digital Commons. For more information, please contact [email protected], [email protected]. Clark University Clark Digital Commons International Development, Community, and Test Community Environment 5-1-2015 Trilogy of Violence: Religion, Culture and Identity The Abused Muslim Woman in the Age of Secular Modernity Hasnaa T. Mokhtar Clark University Follow this and additional works at: http://demo.clark.bepress.com/demo_etd Part of the International and Area Studies Commons Recommended Citation Mokhtar, Hasnaa T., "Trilogy of Violence: Religion, Culture and Identity The Abused Muslim Woman in the Age of Secular Modernity" (2015). International Development, Community, and Environment. Paper 17. This Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by the Test Community at Clark Digital Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in International Development, Community, and Environment by an authorized administrator of Clark Digital Commons. Trilogy of Violence: Religion, Culture and Identity The Abused Muslim Woman in the Age of Secular Modernity Hasnaa T. Mokhtar May 2015 A THESIS Submitted to the faculty of Clark University, Worcester, Massachusetts, in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in the department of International Development, Community and Environment And accepted on the recommendation of ___________________________________________ Denise Humphreys Bebbington, Chief Instructor Keywords: Islam, culture, identity, gender, development, feminism, women’s rights, women’s empowerment, violence against Muslim women 2 ABSTRACT Trilogy of Violence: Religion, Culture and Identity The Abused Muslim Woman in the Age of Secular Modernity Hasnaa T. Mokhtar Like many religious traditions, men use Islam to justify and sustain patriarchal control of women. Islam is stigmatized as inherently violent and oppressive to women. The dominant rhetoric among Muslim feminists attributes the aggression to the misinterpretation and misreading of sacred Islamic texts. However, an on-site observation and exploration of the 2014 gathering of Rihla in Konya, Turkey revealed that misinterpretation is but one of many causes and justifications of cultural Violence Against Muslim Women. The purpose of this research is to explore a new dimension of cultural violence against women in the name of Islam by examining the intersection of religion, culture, identity and gender in the context of developmental studies. Development interventions seeking to address such violence treat religion as a cultural obstacle to Muslim women’s empowerment, often ignoring the multiple-layers of women’s oppression that state and non-state actors cause, which may be exacerbating the issue. Thus, this study outlines key themes to illustrate the blurred lines between religion, culture and identity. I argue that Muslims recognize the severity of Violence Against Muslim Women, but they contest Western efforts, based on a model of modernization and secularism to empower women and demand gender equality, which are seen as threatening and undesirable. Research findings provide a broader understanding of how religion can be a double-edge sword: cultures of patriarchy use it to justify violence, yet Muslims believe that it is the way to women’s empowerment and gender equality. Denise Humphreys Bebbington, Ph.D. Assistant Research Professor of International Development and Social Change Cynthia Enloe, Ph.D. Assistant Research Professor, Adjunct Professor of Political Science Nigel Brissett, Ph.D. Assistant Professor of International Development and Social Change ACADEMIC HISTORY Name: Hasnaa Mokhtar Date: May 2015 Baccalaureate Degree: Arts, English Language Source: King Saud University, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia Date: June 2002 Employee Engagement, Unilever KSA; Jeddah, Saudi Arabia June, 2012 Account Manager, Adalid Public Relations; Jeddah, Saudi Arabia Jan., 2012 Project Manager, Cadre Economic Cities; Jeddah, Saudi Arabia Jan., 2011 Volunteer, Women Aware; Montreal, Canada May, 2010 Reporter, Arab News; Jeddah, Saudi Arabia 2006 - 2010 i DEDICATION ,ﷺ To Allah, and then to my beloved Prophet Mohammed Whose blessings and teachings motivate me to pursue my ambition, To my father, my mother, my husband, my son and my yet to be born child, Whose love, encouragement and prayers enable me to reach such success and honor, To my professors, my mentors, my colleagues, my friends and family, Whose inspiration and support led me to believe in myself at the hardest moments. ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS The great Arabic poet, Ahmed Shawqi, has a famous verse that translates to: “Stand up and give due respect to your educator/mentor/tutor, For a teacher's status is akin to/is almost as high as that of a messenger.” I am deeply grateful to all the professors and mentors who inspired me with their thought provoking discussions, stimulating lectures and in-depth conversations. I wish to thank them for being more than generous with their expertise and precious time. I wish to specifically thank (in alphabetical order): ⋅ Cynthia Enloe, Ph.D. Assistant Research Professor ⋅ Denise Humphreys Bebbington, Ph.D. Assistant Research Professor of IDSC ⋅ Ellen Foley, Ph.D. Associate Professor of IDSC, Interim Director of IDCE ⋅ Erika Paradis, IDCE Assistant Director ⋅ Hamza Yusuf, President, Co-founder & senior faculty member of Zaytuna College ⋅ Jude Fernando, Ph.D. Assistant Professor of IDSC ⋅ Kristen P. Williams, Ph.D. Professor and Chair of Plitical Science ⋅ Marianne Sarkis, Ph.D. Assistant Professor of IDSC ⋅ Nigel Brissett, Ph.D. Assistant Professor of IDSC ⋅ Tamra Gray, founder of Rabata.org ⋅ Uthman Khan, Worcester Islamic Center ⋅ William F. Fisher, Ph.D. Associate Provost & Dean of Graduate Studies ⋅ Zaid Shakir, co-founder & senior faculty member of Zaytuna College iii Table of Contents DEFINITION OF ARABIC WORDS ......................................................................................................... 2 INTRODUCTION ........................................................................................................................................... 3 ABUSED IN THE NAME OF ISLAM? ................................................................................................................ 3 6TH CENTURY TO 21ST CENTURY: WHERE ARE THE MUSLIM WOMEN? ....................................... 10 BLURRED BOUNDARIES: RELIGION, CULTURE AND IDENTITY ....................................... 12 WHAT IS RELIGION? ....................................................................................................................................... 12 WHAT IS CULTURE? ........................................................................................................................................ 17 WHAT IS IDENTITY? ........................................................................................................................................ 22 THE MYTH OF RELIGIOUS VIOLENCE? ...................................................................................................... 26 CULTURAL VAW IN THE NAME OF ISLAM .............................................................................................. 32 ISLAMIC FEMINISM ......................................................................................................................................... 41 RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODOLOGY .................................................................................. 47 MY CULTURE, MY RELIGION, MY CAUSE ................................................................................................. 47 DATA COLLECTION ........................................................................................................................................ 50 METHODS AND FIELD SITE ........................................................................................................................... 51 DATA ANALYSIS .............................................................................................................................................. 54 PARTICIPANTS AND INTERVIEWS ............................................................................................................... 57 LIMITATIONS OF THE RESEARCH ................................................................................................................ 58 THE ABUSED MUSLIM WOMAN: WHERE DO WE BEGIN? (FINDINGS) ........................... 59 EQUALITY OR EQUITY? ................................................................................................................................. 60 WHERE IS THE MUSLIM FEMALE SCHOLAR? .........................................................................................
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