Arab Spring vs. Women's Rights
by Raheel Raza
June 21, 2012 at 5:00 am
June 21, 2012 at 5:00 am
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In a
propaganda trap doubtlessly intended to cripple one politically – like so many
others of its kind, such as "racist" – if a woman speaks in ways
expected of a woman she is considered an inadequate leader; if she speaks in
ways expected of a leader she is considered an inadequate woman. If you can
dismiss the person, you can dismiss the issue.
In the "Arab Spring" countries in
transition, women are now marginalized or excluded entirely from political
bodies. Denial of one's fundamental right to participate in the democratic
process in one's own country is one form of violence. Yet it is not,
unfortunately, alone in the pattern of violence involving restrictions on
women.
In much of the Muslim world today, when a
Muslim woman speaks out or is qualified to take a leadership role, she is
called "militant." In a propaganda trap doubtlessly intended to
cripple one politically – like so many others of its kind, such as
"racist" – if a woman speaks in ways expected of a woman, she is seen
as an inadequate leader; if she speaks in ways expected of a leader, she is
seen as an inadequate woman. If you can dismiss the person, you can dismiss the
issue.
During the revolutions and uprisings across the
Arab world, violence targeting women has been reported frequently as committed
by police, soldiers, and militia. There have even been accounts of violence
against women by demonstrators.
The United Nations Declaration on the
Elimination of Violence against Women defines violence against women as
"any act of gender-based violence that results in psychological harm or
suffering to women." Prohibitions on participation in the political,
economic, and social decisions which will affect oneself and one's family are a
form of violence. Decisions about women made without consultation with women
create psychological harm and suffering. Refusing women the right to support or
oppose laws concerning them is a violent act against them.
I attended a meeting of the United Nations
Human Rights Council in March and heard testimony about women's rights being
violated across the Middle East. That women's rights continue to be usurped and
that women continue to be dehumanized by Islamists is a reality and a horror.
Another international organization, Women
Living Under Muslim Laws, has identified anti-women policies as a danger sign
of spreading fundamentalism. These practices, whether they involve limitations
on freedom of movement, on the right to education and employment, or imposition
of discriminatory laws, under authoritarian and theocratic rule, represent a
challenge for women to organize and act together. As Islamic fundamentalism is
misogynistic, feminist input in debates about the future of Islam and Muslims
is considered "provocative." But Muslim women's ever-greater
political leadership in attaining freedom and gender equality is indispensable
to defeating fundamentalism.
The first Arab woman to win the Nobel Peace
Prize, Tawakkol Karman, a Yemeni journalist, recently said "My dear women:
You have revolted from all over the country of Yemen, Tunisia, Egypt, Libya and
Syria in order to construct a dignified life and a better future. Therefore,
there is no way that we should bend down or go back."
Many women hoped the so-called "Arab
Spring" would bring changes to the Middle East to help them realize their
dreams and secure a better life for the next generation of women through
peaceful transitions away from dictatorship, and collaboration between men and
women, Muslims and non-Muslims, government and civilians. But, as Tawakkol
Karman also pointed out, "One of the necessities of partnership is for
women to obtain their full rights. No dignity and no liberty for a nation which
oppresses women and takes away their rights."
Tawakkol Karman, is a member of Al-Islah, the
Yemeni branch of the Muslim Brotherhood, which has benefited most from the
electoral aftermath of the "Arab Spring" in Tunisia, Morocco, and
Egypt. Her position may therefore be considered ambivalent: she is a female
rebel within a revolutionary movement that historically has emphasized the
subordination of women according to alleged "Islamic" concepts. The
"new" MB has followed the model of its current Turkish patron, the
neo-fundamentalist Justice and Development Party (known as the AKP), in
emphasizing an ostensible commitment to modern principles of equality and
citizenship. But in practice, AKP has left its "moderate" promises
behind as, recently, it proposed an educational reform that Turkish parents
fear would encourage girls, in particular, to quit school after only four
years.
For decades, Egyptian Muslim women suffered
because divorce was not easy for them to obtain. But the right of women to
initiate divorces in court actions ("khul") was established under
ex-president Mubarak. Recently, however, an independent member of the Egyptian
parliament suggested limiting women's right to initiate divorces. Mohamed
al-Omda, deputy head of the People's Assembly Constitutional and Legislative
Affairs Committee has submitted a draft law that would abolish the prerogative
of "khul."
In Syria, women
have been abducted by pro-regime forces, to spread fear in the population, and
there is a mass of evidence involving rape, arbitrary detention, torture,
"disappearances" and summary executions. In Libya, rape
has been employed as a weapon of war, and the victims are stigmatized into
silence. In Egypt,
women demonstrators have been sexually assaulted by male protesters, and
several women dissidents were detained by the army, and forced to undergo
"virginity tests".
Hanaa Edwar, head of the charity Al-Amal
("Hope" in Arabic) has said, "Iraqi women suffer marginalization
and all kinds of violence, including forced marriages, divorces and harassment,
as well as restrictions on their liberty, their education, their choice of
clothing, and their social life."
No commentary on human rights in the Arab world
would be complete without mention of the outstanding example of denial of
women's rights: Saudi Arabia. The kingdom is so flagrant in its violations of
women's rights that one article cannot encompass all of them. A Saudi
journalist, Dr. Khalid Al-Nowaiser, wrote on March 21, 2012, in Arab News,
"Saudi women urgently need equal rights." He added, "There are
always men who want to control women's rights in the name of religion or
otherwise."
Many Arab women want emotional and intellectual
liberation, including free participation in public life. These are not new
demands. The United Nations Development Programme's 2007-08 survey of Middle
Eastern women's status revealed that the rate of education among Arab women is
the lowest in the Muslim world – in societies where we believe that educating
one woman is like educating the entire nation.
Resistance to the establishment of women's
rights may be blamed on self-appointed male caretakers of Muslim tradition, who
feel threatened by the appearance of a significant number of women in a public
space, considered reserved for men only, and who say they see emancipated
Muslim women as negative exemplars of Westernization.
The Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood's Freedom and
Justice Party (FJP) has attacked other laws regulating personal status in
Egypt. They accuse the National Commission for Women, established in 2000 and
chaired by Mubarak's wife, Suzanne Mubarak, of implementing Western strategies
to undermine the family and social life in Egypt.
Women can bring about change – call it
"The Silent Revolution." Women in Morocco already helped bring about
significant improvements in marriage, divorce, and other family law, and
polygamy has nearly disappeared there. Many relevant voices have been heard in
the past year. Speaking in Rabat, Morocco, in March 2012, Michele Bachelet, a
former president of Chile and executive director of the new organization, the
United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women, also
known as UN Women, called for greater equality, especially in rural areas,
where inequality between men and women is "most marked." At the same
time, in Tunis, several thousand women demonstrated outside parliament against
any attempt by the new Islamist-dominated government to cut back their
recognized rights.
In March 2012, in Saudi Arabia itself, female
students at a branch of King Khalid University in Abha, in the country's
southwestern Asir region, joined in a major protest against trash piled up on
the campus, abuses by administrators, and the corruption alleged against the
university president, Abdullah Al-Rashid. The students were attacked by female
security guards. When the demonstrations continued for a second day, state
security agencies, including the so-called "morals patrols" or mutawiyin,
often referred to as a "religious police," gathered at the university
in an attempt to suppress the demonstration. Saudi sources reported 53 students
injured and hospitalized, and one dead of an epileptic seizure.
Even in the Saudi kingdom, protest and change
initiated by women are inevitable. We need only the courage to recognize and support
them.
Related Topics: Raheel Raza
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