WOMEN AND RESISTANCE TO RADICALISATION EDITED BY FATIMA SADIQI An increasing number of women’s voices HELMUT REIFELD in the Mediterranean and Africa is rising to fight the mounting violence against women in the name of radical Islam and the instrumentalization of religion to exacerbate Islamophobia and attain power. These voices range from academics, to activists, and policy-makers, and suggest new ways WOMEN AND RESISTANCE TO RADICALISATION of looking at the concepts of Mediterranean and African “women’s rights”, “Islamic feminisms” and “resistance, as well as exploring theoretical and methodological tools. Through feminist discourses, activisms, and movements, the voices are denouncing biases, asking for justice, reclaiming rights in spaces, and reconciling older and newer generations of feminists in the Mediterranean and Africa. WOMEN AND RESISTANCE TO RADICALISATION WOMEN AND RESISTANCE TO RADICALISATION EDITED BY FATIMA SADIQI HELMUT REIFELD Centre ISIS pour Femmes et Développement Publié par Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung e.V. © 2017, Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung e.V., Bureau du Maroc Tous droits réservés. Toute reproduction intégrale ou partielle, ainsi que la diffusion électronique de cet ouvrage est interdite sans la permission formelle de l’éditeur. Les opinions exprimées dans la présente publication sont propres à leurs auteurs. Coordination : Abir Ibourk Mise en pages : Babel com, Maroc Impression : Lawne, Rabat, Maroc Dépôt légal : 2017 MO 4875 ISBN : 978-9954-99-911-0 Edition 2017 CONTENTS 7 | INTRODUCTION Fatima Sadiqi 13 | PART ONE: FACTS AND CONTEXTUALIZATIONS 15 | TALES OF ‘SPRINGS’ AND ‘REVOLUTIONS’: WOMEN, THE ALGERIAN BLACK DECADE AND THE ISLAMIST FEMICIDE Zahia Smail Salhi 41 | FEMMES DJIHADISTES : VICTIMES OU « IMPOSSIBLES COUPABLES » Nabila Hamza 63 | URBAN POVERTY AND GENDER-BASED VIOLENCE: A CASE STUDY OF THE CITY OF FEZ Souad Slaoui and Hassan El Hajjami 73 | CONTEXTUALISATION OF EXTREMISMS AND WOMEN’S RESISTANCES: THE CASE OF EGYPT Sarah Farag 81 | PART TWO: STRATEGIES AGAINST EXTREMISM 83 | YOUTH RADICALIZATION IN NORTH AFRICA: SUGGESTIONS FOR COMBATING IT Moha Ennaji 93 | THE MISSING LINK: WOMEN AS CARE-PROVIDERS AND COUNTERING VIOLENT EXTREMISMS Fatma Osman Ibnouf 113 | ISLAMIC WOMEN’S POLITICAL ACTIVISM IN MOROCCO: A BULWARK AGAINST EXTREMISMS Hanane Darhour 127 | MOROCCAN WOMEN SAINTS Aziza Ouguir 6 137 | LAYLA M.: A FILM ABOUT THE RADICALISATION OF A MOROCCAN-DUTCH GIRL. WOMEN’S VOICES FROM AMSTERDAM WEST AND THE VU UNIVERSITY Edien Bartels and Lenie Brouwer 155 | MOROCCAN-DUTCH WOMEN’S MULTIPLE VOICES: INTRODUCTION Karen Vintges 161 | PART THREE: EMERGING GENDER TRANSFORMATIONS 163 | RELIGION AND TRANSFORMATION IN SOUTH AFRICAN UNIVERSITIES: A FEMINIST PERSPECTIVE Mary Hames 175 | AFRICAN FEMINISMS, COMMUNITY, POWER, AND DECOLONIAL RESPONSIBILITY Tushabe wa Tushabe 181 | LIST OF AUTHORS Introduction Fatima Sadiqi This volume is a follow-up of the 8th edition of the Mediterranean Women Forum on the theme “Women’s Voices in the Mediterranean and Africa: Movements, Feminisms, and Resistance to Extremisms”, which was held at the Merinides Hotel (Fez, Morocco) on May 5, 6 and 7, 2017. The forum was organized by ISIS Center for Women and Development and the Konrad Adenauer Foundation Rabat. The main aim of the conference was how to fight radicalization and extremism, build-up peace initiatives, protect women’s rights, and enhance women’s empowerment. An increasing number of women’s voices in the Mediterranean and Africa is rising to fight the mounting violence against women in the name of radical Islam and the instrumentalization of religion to exacerbate Islamophobia and attain power. These voices range from academics, to activists, and policy- makers, and suggest new ways of looking at the concepts of Mediterranean and African “women’s rights”, “Islamic feminisms” and “resistance, as well as exploring theoretical and methodological tools. Through feminist discourses, activisms, and movements, the voices are denouncing biases, asking for justice, reclaiming rights in spaces, and reconciling older and newer generations of feminists in the Mediterranean and Africa. In retrospective, women in the Mediterranean and Africa have always been sensitive to radicalized discourses as they are often used as scapegoats in situations promoting such discourses. Although the two regions are seen as distinct spaces, women in them are increasingly facing the same ordeal. These and similar topics are addressed by the articles in this volume. The authors of the article were all participants in the above-mentioned conference. The themes of the articles may be categorized along three main axes: (i) Facts and contextualizations, (ii) Strategies of Resistance, and (iii) Emerging gender transformations. 8 FACTS AND CONTEXTUALIZATIONS The articles by Zahia Smail Salhi, Nabila Hamza, Souad Slaoui and Hassan El Hajjami set the ground: extreme violence in Algeria during the 1990s decade, the return of Jihadists in Tunisia, poverty in Morocco, and political turmoil in Egypt. Zahia Smail Salhi’s article “Tales of ‘Springs’ and ‘Revolutions’: Women, the Algerian Black Decade and the Islamist Femicide” offers an account of the struggle of Algerian women against their inferior legal status and against their suppression under Islamic rule governing life in public spheres. It describes how women‘s living conditions under the sway of Islamic Militias during the black decade quickly deteriorated, how they were exposed to violence, rape and torture and how they transformed their suffering into a rallying cry for equality. In “Femmes Djihadistes : victimes ou “impossibles coupables”, Nabila Hamza describes the phenomenon of female Tunisian Jihadists in Syria and Iraq and provides a list of factors that draw Tunisian women to terrorist groups. Foreign fighters of both genders do not seem to bear uniform societal characteristics and this study reveals some surprising results as to the various motives of women joining Jihadist groups. The article “Urban Poverty and Gender-based Violence: A Case Study of the City of Fez” by Souad Slaoui and Hassan El Hajjami is a case study of Fez’ Ain Noqbi district which aimes at providing an empirical insight into the factors that contribute to gender- based violence, while analyzing the various aspects of poverty encountered in environments such as the one in Ain Noqbi. The authors elaborate on the relation between dire living conditions and violence against women. As for Sarah Farag, her article “Contextualisation of Extremisms and Women’s Resistances: The Case of Egypt” contextualises Egypt‘s feminist movements across the country’s recent history of dictatorship, revolution, military coups and human rights violations. She highlights practices such as sexual violence and torture and points out the hostile environment of political 9 activism and human rights work in Egypt amid an increasing suppression of opposition forces by the regime. STRATEGIES AGAINST EXTREMISM The articles by Moha Ennaji, fatma Osman Ibnouf, Hanane Daghour, Aziza Ouguir, Edien Bartels and Lenie Brouwer, and Karen Vintges address various ways of countering extremism. These ways vary from concrete measures, care providing, politics, religion and art (filmmaking). In “Youth Radicalization in North Africa: Suggestions for Combating it”, Moha Ennaji addresses the phenomenon of foreign-fighters following the call of extremist groups such as Daesh and Al-Qaida, and provides an explanation of the societal factors which drive youth radicalisation. Furthermore, the article offers recommendations on how to counter this phenomenon in the countries of origin and how to re-integrate returnees. “The Missing Link: Women as Care-Provider and Countering Violent Extremisms” by Fatma Osman Ibnouf discusses the role of women in conflict/post-conflict zones and their contributions to society in traditional contexts. Based on a field survey conducted in the Darfur region and focussing mainly on camps for internally displaced people, the study highlights how women can prevent young people from engaging in violent extremism. Hanane Darhour’s article provides a history of women‘s participation in the political system of Morocco, identifying them as the bulwark against societal radicalisation. Furthermore, she explains the competition between secular and religiously oriented forms of Moroccan feminism and how they shape political agency and women’s activism in Morocco. Aziza Ouguir’s bases her article “Moroccan Women Saints” on Michel Foucault‘s concept of ethical self-formation and lays out an analysis of female Moroccan saints and how their stories are received by feminist activists today. The article uses accounts 10 of the lives of Moroccan saints and the results of interviews with secular and Islamist feminist activists. Edien Bartels and Lenie Brouwer’s article “Layla M. : A film about theradicalisation of a Moroccan-Dutch Girl. Women’s voices from Amsterdam West and the VU University” discusses the impact of Layla M., a movie by Dutch director Mijke de Jong about the problem of radicalisation among young Dutch women and factors that drive them to travel to Syria and join Daesh. Besides definitions of the phenomena of extremism and radicalisation, the article provides a list of characteristics that women drawn to jihad tend to have as well as an overview of the reception of the movie in the Amsterdam district the movie‘s protagonist is from. Karen Vintges’ article is a follow-up of the preceding one: it offers an introduction to the article written by