Category Archives: Islamic feminism

Research and Activism

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Notable lessons I took from a PHD Research and Activism Seminar. This is particularly informative those involved in women’s rights programming activities. I hope we can move to designing programs where answers are derived from sincere and honest conversations, as opposed to, being trained by someone of knowledge!

  • Needs Assessments: Instead of taking objectives to the field, develop the objectives from the field. This enables a more participatory approach to assessing needs and responding to them.
    • NL: I think sometimes when we assert that certain rights are immutable and inalienable, we may forget the contexts where these rights are ‘asked’ or ‘contested’. There are nuances to these problems that make the contestations and the asking difficult. We can be mindful that we should not simply be stating “you have rights from violence, you have rights to inheritance etc..” Our publications and programs should instead query why violence occurs, why usurpation of property occurs, by who, and whether the ‘rights’ language is necessarily relevant and timely for the cause. What dialogues can we facilitate and participate in to explore the frustrations behind rights-violations?
  • Mapping the political context; by targeting the institutions that shape the context of research. What is this institution saying about this issue? In fact different institutions may offer different lens and methods of approaching an issue.
  • Instead of identifying ‘opposers’, think of building them within one’s spectrum of allies. Develop goals with them. Even if goals are not aligned, find meaning in conversations even if it leaves the subject with ambiguities. Professor Mir Hosseini always talk about being comfortable with ambiguities. We need not know all the answers NOW.
  • How does our identity as a speaker/trainer create our positionality? Positionality is a power dynamic, real or perceived. By the terms ‘feminist’, or as a ‘lawyer’, etc..one already assumes a knowledge that you seek to impart to others. There are ethical considerations behind this; of how attempting to ‘train’ or ‘educate’ others, you yourself create a hierarchy where feminist knowledge gives one an upper hand over the other?
    • How may FI programs, or the language (on our website) create this feeling amongst beneficiaries? Like “to train, to educate, to teach”….What about “to converse, to hold a dialogue, to discuss, to find ways collectively”? Perhaps this may change the way we design programs.
    • There is an interaction between knowledge and the subject of knowledge. There is a power starting from the power of the pen, which may translate as a sense of superiority over a subject and therefrom over lives, performance and knowledge.
  • The great reminder: We should not be complacent with our knowledge and passion!
  • Also an acceptance that in reality, not all fora will accept us. Professor Welchman speaks of feeling hurt by politics of exclusion for variety of purposes (difference in class status, difference in appearance, difference in religion, difference in regional origins..etc) But she encourages us to be non-territorial, inclusive and unyielding both in perseverance and humility.

Then some interesting notes from Gender and Armed Conflict class by Professor Heathcote:

  • When using the word women, have to think about the differences that exist, singular deployment is a problem.
  • Who do we mean when speaking about women?
  • When are we speaking about women?
  • Where? Cannot just Be a global category. Temporal and geographic.
  • Standpoint; what is your standpoint, where are you doing from, how are you going to deal with difference and difference of women in your work? How do you accommodate differences, where were the connections, or shared experiences?

Social Experiences of Human Rights Activists

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The last two weeks has been quite memorable social experience. I had some friendly calls with activists in Libya, then also connected with various SOAS alumni activists in the human rights field, who came just to give support and encouragement. I met Cecilia an Argentinean activist/bubble-of-energy who directs Conciliation Resources, “Conciliation Resources is a peacebuilding NGO supporting people at the heart of conflicts who are striving to find solutions. We work with them to deepen our collective understanding of the conflict, bring together divided communities and create opportunities for them to resolve their differences peacefully.”

Of course last week Professor Lynn Welchman and Professor An Naim both gave two inspiring lectures on life as a researcher and activist, the meaning of scholarship. Actually beyond the intellectual efforts, the history and stories of both these two incredible people is outstanding. I hear a frustration, sometimes sadness, stories of friendship between the events they cite. Even categories of human rights in legal speak become tamed as life stories come alive. Their insight and passion (beautiful combination) left so many of us returning to our lectures, seeing the next months beyond just a Master degree, but as something more for the world. Isn’t it a poetic justice, somehow?

Maybe this quote helps:

“Then why do you want to know?”

“Because learning does not consist only of knowing what we must or we can do, but also of knowing what we could do and perhaps should not do.”

― Umberto Eco, The Name of the Rose

Actually sitting with one of my Professors, I admitted being emotionally drained by the nit-picking and hair-splitting of laws. It was not quite what I wanted to admit. Then it appeared to me how we are all stuck in some sort of crisis, I as a woman, as a Muslim woman, as a Muslim woman activist, as a human being. It wasn’t clear why I still needed to interpret-and re-interpret and adjust and re-adjust a reading of a text in order to conclude that harm against women is wrong. Any harm. It was a startling irony to me. We were conversing about a conversation; conversing about written words to argue for non-violence. It seemed so distant from lived realities yet somehow this conversation about text, words, scripture, or divinity was important. It is an entry point to constructive dialogue with power-holders, the keepers of religion and honour, of culture and tradition, of puritanism, — but then also of love and compassion, of kindness and appreciation – and today I thought about the white beneath the black. There is love and compassion in textual construction and interpretation. The project of feminists working in Muslim-majority contexts are bringing this forth, bringing this into the fold of definition and of performance.

This week, I also sat in a PHD research seminar on NGOs as cultural mediators in South Africa. It was interesting how she spoke of using stories in reality to reflect on discriminatory customs. This reminded me of the Musawah Global Life Stories project; where through a series of stories about the lives of Muslim women all over the world, the practices of guardianship (wilayat) by men and obedience (tamkin) by women are filtered, exposed, and re-understood. The Women Children Legal Research Foundation in Afghanistan, where I work, is involved in stories of Afghan women for this project. I am really curious to see the findings of these “ethnography” AND particularly how this will be strategically used to push for legislative reforms. It is incredible!

Some new FI reads:

Legal brief on freedom of expression in human rights work

Techniques on Engaging with Men in Women’s Activism

Meet the FI Team!

Lots of Love,

Natasha

The thought of representation and gender equality

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There are days for just analyses. Femin Ijtihad has posted two analysis on the thought of representation and gender equality in Islam and Muslim societies. These are some excerpts.

Syed Jamil’s article on the representations of Muslim women in neo-colonial imagination, Islamic canonical texts, and the feminist response.

“…this essay does not seek to establish the ‘Truth’ regarding Muslim women as it exists in the world of social reality. Rather, it seeks to examine how various representations of Muslim women, as networks of signs where the signified is infinitely delayed, are constructed and to what effects and consequence these representations are mobilized” (432).

So long as we confine our conception of the political to activity that is openly declared we are driven to conclude that subordinate groups essentially lack a political life or that what political life they do have is restricted to those moments of popular explosion. To do so is to miss the immense political terrain that lies between quiescence and revolt and that, for better or worse, is the political environment of subject classes. It is to focus on the visible coastline of politics and miss the continent that lies beyond (Scott 1990: 199)’” (438).

“This is the unspoken ground of the unsaid on which patriarchy traces the narrative of women’s subjugation: the existence of a deep-seated and insubordinate – almost subversive – consciousness directed against the patriarchal order” (438).

How can I explain the relationship between gender inequality and Islam?

It’s important to recognize that gender discrimination is not particular to the Islamic world, nor does it reflect essential “Islamic” values or practices. Rather, gender inequality in the Muslim world is often the result of historical, political, cultural, and economic factors, and many discriminatory laws, traditions, and practices that maintain the second-class status of women in Muslim societies are not necessarily related to the core messages of Islamic sacred texts. Therefore, there is no essential reason that  “Islam” and women’s rights can’t exist side by side.

Think about:

- Are discriminatory practices towards women in my community justified as symbols of Islamic identity or explained as key parts of ‘our culture,’ in contrast to Western culture and values? Are women in my community considered guardians of specific Islamic values?

-Who makes the argument that gender inequality is essential to Islam? Why do they feel that making this argument is important, and what are the best ways to approach them?

-What alternatives are there within the Islamic tradition, across all sects, to these interpretations, and how can they be promoted?

-How can I be heard and respected as I participate the debate over ‘what Islam means’ within my community?

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I was so proud of the F.I. team, Sara Bergamaschi, Sarah Jones and Deya Bhattacharya, in their recent representation at the London School of Economics for a panel presentation.

Contemporary debates and historical identities: Evolving conceptions of pluralism in Islam and the future of women’s rights in post-revolutionary Libya

For some contemporary jurists, concepts like ijtihad create space for innovative interpretations of shari’ah, and allow a jurisprudence that protects gender equality. Conservatives resist this as an assault on Islam’s theological purity and historical identity. Through interviews conducted with activists and analyses of the theological structures in Islam that frame this debate over reform, we intend to critique the current state of gender equality in Libya and gauge the potential effects of this intellectual conflict on the political inclusion of Libyan women.

 

When men become solutions…

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  • Excerpt: Men may understand women’s rights violations differently from women, because they are not directly affected by it or experience it differently from their standpoint. They cannot always be expected to understand them from the same lens. It is also important to note that the frequency and normality of some of these violations may have desensitized them from understanding their gravity and costs to the society. Thus, it is crucial that the experiences of women are conveyed to them in ways that help them understand what is at stake. This may involve the use of analogies and examples that are outside issues of gender, especially where there are strict demarcations of men’s and women’s roles or a sense of acquiescence or surrender that religion or culture accepts or expects this. Analogies or examples that they can appreciate or have been through themselves may also be an entry point into discussions.

One method of doing this is using other examples of inequality. For instance a participant of the South African Men’s Forum was able to grasp the concept of gender inequality by comparing it to inequalities that existed during the racial apartheid in the region. 

Similarly a trainer of Islamic law to the Ministry of Justice in Afghanistan used the concept of slavery (now abolished in most parts of the Muslim world) to highlight its similarities with the complete subservience of a wife in exchange of dowry, as a way of deconstructing to the participants, the repugnant aspects of unequal relationships that Islam sought to gradually abolish through its revelations on the treatment of slaves now present in some marital relations.

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Empowering men as partners in women’s rights activists

I intend to begin this interpretive paper by exploring notions and definitions of key terms that arise in our discussions of men’s and women’s role in war and peace. I intend that this exploration will trigger readers to access more fluid definitions and notions that a) exposes the weaknesses of binary categories such as ‘men/women’, ‘powerful/subordinate’ and ‘oppressor/oppressed’ in the investigation of men and women’s daily-realities; and b) to use these fluid understandings (of the multiple roles that women and men play) to inform better grassroots programs, strategies and program content for new and existing training, campaigning and education activities in conflict and post-conflict situations.

This interpretive paper is designed as a set of reflective questions and a list of accompanying techniques of engagement with men, which I hope will serve as a useful framework for activists and organizations embarking to design programs to empower men in efforts concerning women’s (and men’s) rights.

Gender-based programs are often built upon a certain set of premises or assumptions that in theory frames the design and implementation of all activities.

The following are some examples of a premise:

  • The work of this organization is premised upon substantive equality between men and women as laid down in the Convention on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women.
  • The work of this organization is premised upon the belief that women’s economic independence through micro-credit lending is key to advancing their agency in decision-making activities in their household.
  • The work of this organization is premised upon the importance of raising the awareness of women’s rights amongst men and young boys and increasing men’s involvement in women’s rights efforts.

Some features of organizational or program premises:

  • They may exist on a conscious or sub-conscious level.
  • They may be expressly written out on organizational documents  or communicated orally between staff.
  • They can act as guiding posts or benchmarks for the implementation of a project.
  • They may reflect an organizational culture.
  • They may not always be communicated to and agreed upon by all the staff.

Establishing the premises for any program is important because they lay down the foundations for the design of new programs; they act as success indicators; they frame discussions that take place during staff meetings; they encourage certain types of conduct amongst staff; and they create an organizational culture. Communicating these premises and reiterating them during staff meetings and other activities involving staff engagement will be important for the premises to effect meaningful outcomes.

Many gender programs are starting to realize the importance of engaging men as partners in women’s rights efforts. Often men are perceived as problems and not targeted as solutions to women’s challenges. Thus advocacy methods sometimes unconsciously reproduce negative discourses (both written and spoken) of men’s adversarial disposition towards women. This narrow frame of reference may deter many men from contributing positively to women’s rights efforts. Laying down and communicating a premise that posits men’s positive involvement can invite staff to reconsider existing advocacy strategies and programs, and tease out existing organizational philosophies, approach and language, that may evoke unnecessary negative representations of men or male/female relationships.

Men’s involvement, in certain contexts, is extremely essential due to their preponderant exercise of decision-making in micro and macro activities effecting women such as family planning, education of female children, attention to treatment of diseases, access to maternal healthcare during pregnancy and the control of economic assets. At the macro level, this extends to nearly every effort in law and policy-making, programming and budget allocation, at all levels of government; their exercise of political power, access to Ministries, ability to tap into larger network of resources and authority over law and policies affect the allocation and equitable distribution of resources needed for this work.

There are a variety of innovative ways and strategies that women can use to increase men’s involvement in the work for gender equality.

Seeing beyond the dichotomy

The following set of reflective questions is designed to encourage readers to contemplate more fluid definitions and accounts of women’s rights and men’s role in its advancement. The discussion of these questions amongst staff members may initiate new ideas in the mapping, design, implementation and evaluation of activities pertaining to men’s role either as perpetrators in women’s causes or partners in them. This can potentially alter the approaches of women’s rights investigation and data collection, and the presentation of data and evidence collected to establish the cause and effect of women’s rights violations. Perhaps more importantly, the ideas generated may also inform the design of training, education and advocacy programs, that strategically and meaningfully includes men in the delivery of these activities, or engage them as important participants in them.  Continue reading →