Mohanty’s key thesis uses the lens of a feminist perspective, but also takes a look at an anti-racist and anti-imperialist lens. She looks at the interconnections between feminist, anti-racist and anti-imperialist. Subsequently, there is a discursive or material framework between First World Feminists and Third World Feminists and the way in which first world feminists perceive third world women. As the paper will discuss, it is dangerous to assume that third world women are a coherent group within the social, economic and political processes (Mohanty 17). Mohanty begins by pointing out that even if the processes of colonization may appear to be sophisticated, it can include the suppression of women and the heterogeneity of the subjects (Mohanty …show more content…
There is this concept of the veiling in Iran, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Pakistan and India where it is seen as a form of sexual control over women (Mohanty 33). Mohanty mentions that it is inaccurate to generalize the concept of the veiling in the Middle East as a form of sexual control over women or as a universally oppressive reality (Mohanty 42). She argues that the veiling in Iran, for example, should be looked at from a different perspective at different time periods (Mohanty 42). For example, during the Revolution of 1979, some women used the veil as a means of solidarity with their working-class sisters who were part of street demonstrations; however, in the post-Revolution period, the Iranian regime forced the idea of veil as part of their mandatory religious law (Mohanty 39). The point is that it would be intellectually immoral or ignorant of people to group all veiling into a single derogatory category. Furthermore, Mohanty is right to dismantle a universal view that assumes veiling is a means of oppression on all women throughout the entire Muslim world (Mohanty 28). Subsequently, this view denies the existence of a veiled woman who is not forced to wear the veil, but she does it because of her own religious practices, while trying to employ a full …show more content…
The question then becomes: who is producing knowledge in situations of power? The person here who is producing the knowledge would be the western feminists who continuously categorize women in the third word through constructed terms and classifications. When we label women in the third world country as poor, uneducated and victimized, then we are perpetuating this idea that they are vulnerable and weak, but also that they need a man to provide for them because they are unable to take care of themselves. Mohanty states: “not everyone is able to produce knowledge in the same way and those feminist scholarly practices are inscribed in relations of power” (Mohanty 19). The more power a person has, the better chance they have of them being heard. Her argument is that western women and some of their writings about the third world women is an act of discursive colonization because the west is the primary source of knowledge (Mohanty 18). When we look at the informal practices of the production of knowledge, Mohanty deconstructs this idea that tries to define women of the third world as typical victims (Mohanty 18). Women who are portrayed as victims of male violence need a way to escape it, but if they try to defend themselves, they become situated in a
The article “My Body Is My Own Business” by Naheed Mustafa is about an Islamic women’s principle that putting on her usual headscarf, or Hijab, actually empowers her as a female, contrary to the popular principle that the hijab represents male oppressiveness. She ex...
We cannot deny the imperfection of the world today; poverty, violence, lack of education, and the general overwhelming deficiency of basic daily necessities are among some of the most troubling issues on the agenda. By carefully selecting our critical lens, we can gather that there are many aspects of today’s issues where we can focus our attention and begin the quest for solutions to these pervasive problems. Authors Nicholas Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn (2009) utilize their book Half the Sky: Turning Oppression into Opportunity for Women Worldwide to emphasize the particular struggle of women in the world today and how by addressing three particular abuses of sex trafficking and forced prostitution, gender-based violence (including honor killings and mass rape), and maternal mortality, we may begin “unlocking an incipient women’s movement to emancipate women and fight global poverty” (p. xxii). However, we must first understand the difficulty of addressing such complex issues by a proposing a “one-size fits all” solution and take into consideration the varying feminist perspectives that currently contemplate the oppression of women in societies around the world. To be able to critically digest Kristof and WuDunn’s book we must explore the types of stories and evidence included and how they’re presented, and the generalized theories behind the insight and solutions regarding the women in need around the world. The authors alienate their audience by ignoring the complexity of building a singular feminist movement. Kristof and WuDunn’s book Half the Sky further contributes to the oppression of women because they objectify Third World women by portraying them as victims in need of outside rescue and suggest that an overarching solution...
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
Muslims, Sikhs, and many other religious affiliations have often been targeted for hate crimes, racial slurs, and misfortunate events. We are all different in our own ways some are good and some are bad yet one event changes everything for everyone affiliated with the group. The book The Politics of the Veil by Joan Scott a renowned pioneer in gender studies gives a detailed and analytical book of about the French views towards the Muslim females in France during 2004. The author talks about why the French governments official embargo of wearing conspicuous signs is mainly towards the headscarves for Muslim girls under the age of eighteen in public schools. The main themes of book are gender inequality, sexism, and cultural inequality historical schools used in the book are history of below, woman’s history, cultural history, and political history. In this essay, I will talk about why Joan Scotts argument on why the French government’s ban on wearing conspicuous signs was
Fatemeh Fakhraie’s essay “Scarfing it Down,” explains how Muslim women suffer because of what they wear. Fakhraie blogs about Muslim women in her website she explains; “Seeing ourselves portrayed in the media in ways that are one-dimensional and misleading." Several people judge Muslim's by their appearance because they assume they're a bad person. The author of this essay wants the reader to know that Muslim women wearing a hijab are not a threat to the world.
Professor Leila Ahmed, active Islamic feminist, in her article “Reinventing the veil” published in the Financial Times assumes that there is a connection between “advancement” and veiling, which means that unveiled women are advanced and vice versa. In addition, she supports that it led to increasing rate of violence. She questions why women wear veil, that is considered as “symbol of patriarchy and women’s oppression”. However, research changed her position towards wearing veil. Firstly, she states that wearing veil was essential for women, because it could be beneficial and influence to how people treat women, in terms of job, marriage and free movement in public. Secondly, her assumption was explained while interviewing women, who stated
In the book, Women in the Middle East, a Saudi Arabian proverb states, "A girl possesses nothing but a veil and a tomb" (Harik and Marston 83). The key words, "veil" and "tomb" lend evidence to the fact that many Middle Eastern women lack identity symbolized by the “veil” and lack the right of ownership except for their veil and the tomb. This statement further enforces the notion that many women in the Middle East are expected to serve and tolerate the oppression of the men in their lives throughout their lives on this earth. Moreover, it confirms that many of these women do not get the opportunity to obtain education, join the work force, and even participate in the political affairs of the country. This arrangement further helps the Middle Eastern men to view women as their properties, servants, or even as slaves. Ultimately, there are three main reasons why Middle Eastern men engage in the act of oppressing their women.
Laws, values, morals and, societal norms often lead to mental and/or physical oppression towards women in most modern and occidental countries. Middle Eastern countries enforce women to be entirely covered with the Niqab or the Hijab. On the other hand, modern societies consider that a free woman is the one that is not wearing any veil over her head. While contrasting both situations, one can believe than the uncovered and semi naked woman posting for a magazine cover page is luckier in terms of freedom than the covered woman. The author, Lulu Garcia Navarro explains what are the major similarities in countries sharing diverse ideologies, restricting women’s freedom differently and, sometimes involuntarily.
Academic discourse is the means by which new and old theories may be applied to a topic in order to reach a better understanding or challenge a notion raised within the field. It is through discussing and analyzing these concepts that individual voices may be applied to an academic community, allowing for a wider lens of thought to be picked up and further discussed. Grewal participates in this discourse in her article “'Women's Rights as Human Rights': Feminist Practices, Global Feminism, and Human Rights Regimes in Transnationality”. This paper shall analyze and discuss how Grewal applies previous theoretical concepts related to feminist discourse in order to offer a Transnationalist Feminist critique to the Global Feminist notion of Women's Rights as Human Rights.
Assignment 2 Hanna Nguyen Section 022 TA : Lucha Mohanty critiques “women” and the portrayal of women in the modern world, in the Western’s views as being helpless and damsel in distress, victimized, homely and needing to be saved. Mohanty looks at the portrayal of “women” to be old fashioned and enhanced the stereotype based on media and societal view of women and how they should be. This view of women is carried out not only in society but also politics and the economic system. The feminist movement has been going on for a long time, to break the stereotype of women, and yet it is ingrained in society. A “third world women, is oppressed and living in the “old” days, stuck under the guise of being helpless and defenceless.
In this text Mohanty argues that contemporary western feminist writing on Third World women contributes to the reproduction of colonial discourses where women in the South are represented as an undifferentiated “other”. Mohanty examines how liberal and socialist feminist scholarship use analytics strategies that creates an essentialist construction of the category woman, universalist assumptions of sexist oppression and how this contributes to the perpetuation of colonialist relations between the north and south(Mohanty 1991:55). She criticises Western feminist discourse for constructing “the third world woman” as a homogeneous “powerless” and vulnerable group, while women in the North still represent the modern and liberated woman (Mohanty 1991:56).
For this critical analysis two readings, US Third World Feminism: Differential Social Movement by Chela Sandoval and Cultural Feminism versus Poststructuralism: The Identity Crisis in Feminist Theory by Linda Alcoff will be used to explore the depth of the relation between each authors thoughts an interpretations of feminism. It is obvious from the titles that these two authors clearly are focusing on different aspects of feminism and provide unique insight into the diverse branches of the feminist movement.
299). The study consisted of having in-depth personal interviews to share their experiences of being a Muslim American woman (Anderson Droogsma, 2007, p. 300). Veiling to these women was a way of freedom while also having a Muslim identity (Anderson Droogsma, 2007, p. 301). It was also a source of behavior control, to not be sexually objectified, a way of commanding respect from others and even a source of checking their own behavior (Anderson Droogsma, 2007, p. 301). One of the women interviewed said, veiling to her was a way to feel connected to other Muslim woman who veil (Anderson Droogsma, 2007, p. 302). Veiling can be a way to feel connected to your religion and God as well as being connected to those who practice the same faith, it can be considered an act of membership. Many of the women interviewed noted they have been removed from planes, been treated unfairly, and have had strangers shout at them all for just being Muslim and being more visibly recognized from veiling (Anderson Droogsma, 2007, p. 303). This is an example of how media can affect the general population. When the media only shows radicals and compares all Muslims to being terrorist or dangerous they are actually putting Muslim people at risk of being assaulted in public. Muslim woman in particular are more at risk for being assaulted as they are more identifiable. So while veiling can be a source of empowerment and freedom for women it is a double-edged sword because it also puts them at further risk of being
In the “Women in Development” (WID) huge numbers of NGOs were involved, that were programmed so that women can gain access funds and be included as program beneficiaries in the development process. “Women and Development” (WAD) its roots in Marxist feminism and the theory of dependence, which believes that the fruit of development which the North or western world enjoys is the ...
As a student of Economics, Women’s Studies and International Studies, I have been interested in understanding development policies dedicated towards women globally. The intention of development policies is to improve the lives of women by empowering them but most policy makers avoid explaining the root cause of oppression. Therefore, many policies are devised to treat the symptom and not the cause. Examining development policies targeting women in the light of feminist theories is essential for creating a positive impact on the society. The focus of this paper is to illustrate the intersection of development policies and feminist theories. The citations also involve feminist critiques of some development approaches. I analyze the development policies formulated for the women in the Global South by exploring the areas of education, economic independence, health and globalization.. The intention behind this paper is to connect the feminist theories we learnt in the class to a practical application. I use western feminist theories to compare and critique the international development pr...