Women, Feminism and Fundamentalism

161 Pages·2007·4.702 MB·English

by  Ireen DUBEL & Karen VINTGES

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ISBN 978 90 6665 872 1 / NUR 745
Humanistics University Press
is een imprint van Uitgeverij SWP voor uitgaven
van de Universiteit voor Humanistiek Edited by Ireen Dubel and Karen Vintges
www.swpbook.com
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Women, Feminism & Fundamentalism
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WOMEN, FEMINISM &
FUNDAMENTALISM
Edited by Ireen Dubel and Karen Vintges
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Th is book was also published as Issue 27 (October 2006) of the Journal for Humanistics
(ISSN 1567 - 7117).
Cover illustration: Demonstration International Women’s Day, Iran, 8 March 2006.
Photo made by Amir Kholoosi. Translation of the pamphlet on the front cover:
‘We are children of Kourosh (Cyrus), founder of human rights’ [Kourosh / Cyrus
(580 - 529 BC), the fi rst Achaemenian Emperor].
Women, Feminism & Fundamentalism
Edited by Ireen Dubel and Karen Vintges
ISBN 978 90 6665 872 1
NUR 745
© 2007 SWP Publishers, Amsterdam
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced in any form with-
out the written permission of SWP Publishers, Amsterdam, the Netherlands. Any
person who does or relate to any unauthorised act with regard to this publication is
liable to prosecution and civil claims for damages.
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CONTENTS
Introduction: Women, Feminism and Fundamentalism - Ireen Dubel and 6
Karen Vintges
Section I - Concepts and Theories 11
Dutch Muslim Women and Fundamentalism: Experiences, Results 12
and Strategies - Ceylan Pekta -Weber
On Stony Grounds: Female Religious Subjectivities in the Battle 25
over Modernity - Sarah Bracke
‘A woman of valour, who can fi nd her? Far beyond pearls is her 40
value…’: Fundaments and Feminisms in Contemporary Orthodox
Judaism - Chia Longman
Th e Life of Rabia al-Adawiyya: Refl ections on Feminism and 53
Fundamentalism - Karen Vintges
Section II - Islamic Feminism 61
International Islamic Feminism Revisited - Margot Badran 62
Gender Jihad - Abdennur Prado 71
Islamic Women’s Manifesto (IW/M) 75
Section III - Strategies 79
Iranian Women’s Voices Across Borders - Halleh Ghorashi 82
Th e Politics of Dissent: Th e Role of Catholics for a Free Choice in 98
Latin America - Juan Marco Vaggione
Christian Fundamentalism and Curtailment of Women’s Sexual 114
and Reproductive Rights - Maria de Bruyn
I Am Glad Th ey Have Banned Th e Vagina Monologues - Sarah 134
Mukasa
Muslim Women and Feminist Strategies in Times of Religious 141
Fundamentalisms -Anissa Hélie
About the editors 159
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INTRODUCTION
Women, Feminism and Fundamentalism
Ireen Dubel and Karen Vintges
The issues surrounding Women, Feminism and Fundamentalism are currently being
debated throughout the world in every way imaginable.
We are pleased to present a broad spectrum of views in this volume: many authors
deal explicitly with the concepts of feminism and fundamentalism and express differ-
ent approaches on the issue. What they have in common, however, is that they dis-
tance themselves from what is known today as ‘secular fundamentalism’; an approach
that is prominent in western European countries, and that claims that only secular
Reason brings truth and progress such as equal rights for women. In contrast with
strongly secularist feminists like Susan Moller Okin and Ayaan Hirsi Ali, the authors
in this volume argue that a struggle for women’s rights is possible within non-secular
contexts.
Th e term fundamentalism has numerous defi nitions and is nowadays applied to a
broad range of phenomena; to religions, cultures, traditions, neo-liberal economic
policy, and also to strains of thought originating in Enlightenment and secularism.
In many contexts the term has become synonymous with fanaticism, dogmatism,
extremism and even terrorism. As such it has become a concept that evokes much
confusion. Th e defi nition of fundamentalism that we use as editors is: the belief
in absolute Truths and the urge to disseminate these and impose them on others.
Feminism to us stands for the struggle against all forms of violence against women,
and for equal rights and full citizenship for women, within any context, secular or
religious.
Our volume is divided into three sections. In the fi rst section which is entitled
‘Concepts and Th eories’, the concepts ‘feminism’ and ‘fundamentalism’ are dis-
cussed and analysed in various ways. In this section several articles explore the lives
of orthodox religious women and refl ect on the relationship between fundamental-
ism and feminism in religious contexts, discussing among others Saba Mahmood’s
path-breaking study on women in the Egyptian Women’s Mosque Movement.
Th e second section which is entitled ‘Islamic feminism’, provides a link between
6 Women, Feminism & Fundamentalism
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theory and practice. In this section the emerging discourse of Islamic feminism
is discussed and presented in three articles. One of these is the ‘Islamic Women’s
Manifesto’. Islamic feminism strives for ‘gender justice’ within Islamic contexts,
‘gender justice’ standing for the principle that women are full citizens and are not
inferior to men.
In the third section which is entitled ‘Strategies’, a diversity of actual strategies of
women and women’s organisations are discussed with regard to religious funda-
mentalisms in various societies (including Iran, Latin America and Uganda). Th e
articles in this section put forward a multitude of practices and discourses about
feminism, women’s liberation and religion.
In the 1980’s, at a time when the dominant feminist discourse in Europe and North
America assumed anti-religious or secular strategies, in Latin America women
pleaded for separation of church and state while at the same time retaining their
Catholic faith and beliefs. Th e past decade has seen scholars from the Middle East
and South Asia arguing for reinterpretation of religious texts with the aim of over-
coming the apparent contradictions between religion and feminism. Th roughout
the world the issue of ‘women and Islam’ is a terrain for political struggle. Th is
applies to Iraq where the new regime, propped up by the American occupation,
introduced a new constitution based on the Shari’a. It also applies to Iran, where ac-
tivism by women is no longer tolerated under the rule of the conservative president
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. (In March 2006 and 2007 women’s demonstrations in
Teheran were violently dispersed.) In Western countries, including the Netherlands,
the debate with regard to women and Islam takes place (unrelentingly) without the
inclusion and participation of Muslim women. Th e debates are about radicalization
of Muslim girls, whether or not to ban the oppressive veil and the need for a third
wave of women’s liberation. Muslim women in the Netherlands who make a distinc-
tion between religion and tradition or express the ideals of liberation and equality
in religious terms are seldom heard.

Th e fi rst section of this volume therefore opens with an article by Ceylan Pekta -
Weber which examines the issue of women, feminism and fundamentalism from
the point of view of Dutch Muslim women. Ceylan Pekta -Weber is chairwoman
of the Dutch organisation for Muslim women Al Nisa, and published Moslima’s.
Emancipatie achter de dijken (2006) (Muslim women: Emancipation behind the
dykes). She discusses various concepts of fundamentalism, both the Muslim and the
non-Muslim variety, and the misunderstandings resulting from that diff erence. She
also examines the manifestations of Islamic fundamentalism in the Netherlands
and the actions of women both on its behalf and against it.
Sarah Bracke’s article is based on her thesis, Women resisting secularisation in an
age of globalisation (2004). Bracke researched Muslim women in Kazan, the capital
of Tatarstan, women of the Catholic movement Comunione e Liberazione in Italy,
Introduction 7
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women of Milli Görü , the Turkish movement of political Islam in the Netherlands,
and women in a Dutch white evangelical community. Bracke also examines various
concepts of fundamentalism, concepts that in her opinion are hindering an adequate
understanding of the experiences and subjectivities of women in these movements
- a task that most certainly belongs to the domain of women studies.
Chia Longman gives a historical overview of the variety of movements within
Judaism and discusses the position of women in these movements. Like Bracke,
she emphasises the personal experiences, actions, and aspirations of women within
these movements, instead of portraying them as passive and oppressed beings.
Karen Vintges explores the fi ndings of Longman, Bracke and in particular the work
by Saba Mahmood, about the lives of orthodox-religious women. She asks what those
lives can tell us today. Vintges tries to clarify the relationship between feminism and
fundamentalism by looking at the lives of these orthodox religious women, particu-
larly the life of the eighth century Sufi -mystic, Rabia al-Adawiyya.
Th e second section of this volume opens with an article by Margot Badran, which
provides an overview of the emerging movement of Islamic feminism. According to
Margot Badran, Islamic feminism wants to return to the old revolutionary concept
of gender-equality that was introduced by the Qur’an in the patriarchal Arabic soci-
eties of the seventh century. She discusses the most recent developments in Islamic
feminism and states that it is a dynamic worldwide phenomenon, both diverse and
revolutionary.
Th e Internet-published text by Abdennur Prado is written as an announcement and
introduction of the fi rst international conference on Islamic feminism in Barcelona
in 2005. Th e ‘pamphlet-like’ character of this text refl ects this eff ort. Prado points
out the need for a ‘Gender Jihad’ in the Islamic world - a fi ght for equal rights
for women. Th e Islamic Women’s Manifesto was presented in November 2006 in
Amsterdam in the Cultural Centre De Balie, on the occasion of a lecture by Asma
Barlas, the fi rst woman signing the manifesto.
Th e third section of this volume opens with an article by Halleh Ghorashi. It is on
the various streams of women’s activism and feminism in Iran aft er the Islamic
revolution of 1979. She discusses the sharp contrasts between secular feminists in
the Diaspora and the women that try to work towards improvement of the position
of women within Iran. Ghorashi emphasizes the importance of mutual exchange
and communication, provided that the diff erent points of departure are taken into
consideration. Th e initial successes of the women’s organisations during the 1990’s,
however, have become more strained by the recent political changes in Iran, par-
ticularly the 2005 election of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad for president.
In his article, Juan Marco Vaggione discusses the political, prominent and privi-
leged position of the Catholic Church in Latin America with regard to the regula-
tion of sexuality. Abortion and homosexuality are issues the Catholic Church uses
8 Women, Feminism & Fundamentalism
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to position itself in society. Th e counter-strategy of the organisation of Católicas
por el Derecho a Decidir, is based on the reinterpretation of Catholic doctrine and
strives for women’s liberation in a religious idiom.
Maria de Bruyn’s essay indicates that Christian fundamentalists oft en ally with
fundamentalists of other religions to restrict the sexual and reproductive rights of
women at a global level. Th erefore, protest against this global strategy requires a
global co-operation of feminists of diff erent religions in return.
In her article, Sarah Mukasa describes the adventures of the Ugandan version of the
play, Th e Vagina Monologues. She criticises the arguments of culture, tradition and
religion that led to the prohibition of the play. Mukasa also takes a stand against the
Ugandan feminists who voiced objections against the play.
Finally Anissa Hélie’s essay discusses the diversity of feminist strategies with re-
gard to religious fundamentalism as practised by women active in the worldwide
network, ‘Women Living Under Muslim Laws.’ She concludes that feminists have to
be pragmatic about the choice of their strategies, overtly and covertly, anonymous
and public, gradual and confronting, incidental and continuously. Th e fi ght against
Islamic fundamentalism can also mean simply to continue living your own life as
a woman.
Drs. Ireen Dubel is Programme Manager Gender, Women and Development at Hivos,
the Humanistic Institute for Co-operation with Developing Countries.
Dr. Karen Vintges is university lecturer Political and Social Philosophy at the University
of Amsterdam.
Introduction 9
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