In a Fox News segment on February 1st, 2017, a political commentator argued that no principle “demeans, degrades, and dehumanizes women” more than the principle of Shariah law.
Then, they criticized the organizers of the Women’s March for not “marching against” the barbaric practices that oppress women in Muslim-majority countries. Statements like these are common on the conservative news network. Not only do these arguments generalize the experience of Muslim women living under various conceptions of Shariah law, but by critiquing western innaction, they subtly omit the political agency of Muslim women residing within various Muslim-majority countries. For this reason, one would assume the author of the aforementioned statement to be a stereotypical white neoconservative with a penchant for war. Instead, the speaker was Ayaan Hirsi Ali, a Somali-born critic of Islam.
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Over the past decade, Hirsi Ali authored several bestselling books and wrote for a variety of widely-circulated publications including the Wall Street Journal, the New York Times, and The Daily Beast. In 2005, Hirsi Ali was named by Time magazine as one of the 100 most influential “leaders & revolutionaries” in the world. More recently, in 2014 Brandeis University invited her to speak at their spring commencement ceremony and receive an Honorary Doctorate. This public presence has grabbed the attention of many prominent media figures, including the comedian Bill Maher and neuroscientist Sam Harris, both of whom have described Hirsi Ali as a hero and champion of women's rights. As a result of this frequent media exposure, Hirsi Ali has steadily amassed over 250-thousand followers on Twitter and 120-thousand followers on Facebook, effectively establishing herself as one of the most prominent political commentators in the
Ever pass by Muslim woman in a hijab at the mall or park and think how oppressive and restraining her culture must be? Maysan Haydar, a New York social worker who practices the Muslim tradition of veiling, believes otherwise. In her article, “Veiled Intentions: Don’t Judge a Muslim Girl by Her Covering,” Haydar highlights on her experiences as a Muslim living in an American culture, where showing more skin is the “norm.” Haydar speaks specifically to a crowd who unconsciously makes assumptions about certain Muslim practices, in hopes of sharing the truth behind them. Haydar suggests that, contrary to popular belief, not all Muslim women cover themselves strictly as an “oppressive” religious practice, but that some women, like herself, find
The Islamic women of Afghanistan are denied many of the same liberties that Americans take for granted everyday. Although the religion that they have faith in, according to Janelle Brown’s “Terror’s First Victims”, “guarantee[s] women status in society as individuals and religious d...
Governments often claim that they are helping women gain equality when they invade and impress their values on other cultures. In “Feminism as Imperialism”, Katharine Viner states that “Bush cut off funding to international family planning organizations [and then claimed he] bombed Afghanistan to liberate the women from the burkas” (1). However, the problem with wars claiming to “save” women is that the majority of the time women are just becoming victims of western misogyny as opposed to eastern misogyny (Viner, 2). Just because some women choose to wear head coverings doesn’t make them repressed, “liberation for [Afghani women] does not encompass destroying their identity, religion, or culture and many of them want to retain the veil” (Viner, 2). Therefore, using women to justify war is counterproductive because it still represses women and ignores what the women actually
Western, David. “Islamic ‘Purse Strings’: the Key to Amelioration of Women’s legal Rights in the Middle East” Air Force law and Review Vol. 61. 0094-8381(2008): p79-147.
Muslim Women and Western Ideas of Feminism Western feminists aim for completely equal rights for men and women. They want to liberate women from perceived oppressions from men. Their aims are to give women completely free choice in their decisions. Such examples are child-bearing. This is a good view to the extent that men and women were created equally and so they should be treated equally.
Overall, Islam and Gender is a valuable addition to the field of ethnography by examining the everyday struggles, experience, and involvement of women within the Islamic law. Hosseini targets a Western audience and hopes to leave them with a better understanding of the Islamic judiciary system and Iranian feminism. She successfully provides her readers with an unprejudiced account of the shari’ah and family law, and even includes the ideologies of those opposing her personal beliefs. Hosseini specifically requests Muslim women to take a stand develop their own local, Islamic feminist movement and openly advocates new discourse within Islamic jurisprudence.
The World’s Religions by Huston Smith is a novel based on the different religions found around the world. The main area of focus within this book was to expand the knowledge of different cultures and their religions. The chapters that were specified to focus on include Islam, Judaism, Christianity and the Primal Religions. Go into detail about each religion. Smith goes into great detail about each religion, concentrating on the teachings and essential elements of each religion, important people that helped form the religion, and traditions. He specifically discusses how these three religions are very similar rather then how different they are, with the main studies on Moses, Jesus, and Mohammad. Finally he discusses the Primal Religions – meaning the traditions that are passed down through oral communication.
Lila Abu-Lughod’s article titled, “Do Muslim Women Really Need Saving?” takes a closer look at the problematic ethnocentric approach many have when trying to gain an understanding of another culture that may be foreign to that individual. In this analytical paper, Lughod looks at women in Islam, specifically the treatment of women and how it might be utilized as a justification for invading into a country and liberating its people. The country Lughod refers to in her article is Afghanistan, and Lughod points out the misunderstanding from the people to the Bush administration like First Lady Laura Bush who believed that intervention was necessary to free women from the captivity of their own homes. It is important to consider the role that different lenses play into all of this, especially when one’s lenses are being shaped by the media. Depictions of covered women secluded from society leave a permanent image in the minds of many, who would then later support the idea of liberation. This paper will discuss that the practice of using propaganda when referring to the lifestyle in the Middle East is not exclusive to the U.S; rather it has been utilized throughout history. Additionally, we will take a closer look on the importance of symbols, such as veils in this case; help to further emphasize the cause to liberate. Finally, we will analyze Lughod’s plea towards cultural relativism and away from liberal imperialism.
Power, Carla. "Muslim Women Demand End to Oppressive Laws." TIME.com. N.p., 17 Feb. 2009. Web. 29 Oct. 2013.
"We Muslim women can walk into the modern world with pride, knowing that the quest for dignity, democracy, and human rights, for full participation in the political and social affairs of our country , stems from no imported Western values, but is a true part of Muslim tradition.
Within the Muslim world, the Quran, Hadith and their religious messages are often misinterpreted and taken out of context by the believers themselves, and that might lead Muslims to unjustly treat each other. Islamic feminism is a social movement created in the 1990s that thrives to promote women’s holy rights granted by Allah through various interpretations of Qur’an verses (Tafsir) and the Hadith (Prophet Muhammad’s words) in order to put Muslim women in their just place solely based on the principles of their religion. The ultimate goal of Muslim feminists it to liberate women and themselves from wrong patriarchy and change the generally negative Western perception on Islam and its laws regarding the “gentle gender”. While some Muslim activists portray the explanation and promotion of a Qur’an-instructed gender equity and social justice as any Muslim woman's right, others, conversely, refuse to label such a practice as Islamic feminism and depict it as a woman-focused understanding of the Hadith and Holy Qur'an. Aysha A. Hidayatullah argues in her article (“Feminist interpretation of the Qur’an in a comparative feminist setting”) that according
F. Hasan, Asma Gull (2000). American Muslims; The New Generation. New York. The Continuum International Publishing Group Inc.
In an advertisement published in Vogue Paris in February 2009, Steven Klein photographs fashion model Lara Stone in a manner that brought much controversy to the world about women and violence. In the photograph, a fashionably clad woman in lingerie is forcibly held down by a naked man, while a police officer poses suggestively on her legs and points a gun in her face. This advertisement seems excessively violent for a fashion magazine that young girls and the majority of the mainstream world idolize. By condoning and making the type of violence that is popular in fashion magazines ‘cool’, people begin to recreate the scenes in these photographs in real life because they are constantly exposed to it. Furthermore, this constant exposure to violence
In today’s globalized world, women’s studies is emerging as a fast growing discipline which is not restricted any more to the academia but is significantly capturing the attention of the civil society. The way civil society responded to “Nirbhaya” gang-rape case of December, 2012 in Delhi; the way people came on the streets in protest against this horrific and barbarous crime committed against a 23 year old woman; this people’s movement has undoubtedly engineered the emergence of a new consciousness among us about the need for a realization of women’s honour and dignity in the society. There have been serious debates on the issue of whether more stringent laws (in the line of Shari’a law) be implemented in our Indian society so that such heinous crimes against women can be prevented. However, the aforesaid incident is only one among many hundred other such crimes happening everyday in almost every corner of the globe. Many such incidents of crime are either suppressed or do not come to limelight. The following analysis is a humble attempt to deal with the status of women (especially in Islam) in a globalized world.
Women have fought through torture, blood, sweat, and tears to help women stand strong in our