Politics

“Saudi Arabia is not yet ready for women to participate in the upcoming municipal elections on 23 April.” The election commissioner made this bold statement late last month, referring to women’s roles as both voters and candidates. Two years earlier, however, the first female deputy minister was appointed, and in 2005 officials from the Ministry of Municipal Affairs promised that women would be able to participate in the 2011 elections.

In a column published March 31 in the Orlando Sentinel (“Women overseas must taste fruits of feminism”), Jonah Goldberg suggests that the work of feminists in the US is largely done. Equality has largely been achieved, he argues, and now is the time to take the feminist movement overseas. Our next destination? The Muslim world. We can all agree with Goldberg that the Egyptian army’s use of virginity tests to humiliate female prisoners is despicable, though we might point out that the Egyptian army remains strong in part due to America’s generous $1.3 billion yearly military-aid package.

A common theme since the Arab uprisings started has been the celebration of the role of women in the protests. Some have even gone so far as to say that the “stereotype of the submissive, repressed victim has been shattered by female protesters in Egypt, Tunisia and Yemen”. I am not sure that women on the ground in these countries feel the same way, or feel that their participation in the protests is unprecedented.

While Muslims should stand in solidarity against anti-Muslim rhetoric and violence, Muslims who are marginalized within the Muslim community should not feel like we need to be silent in the face of injustice in our own communities. On certain issues, we definitely need a united front; however, this union will be weak until we fix the things that divide us from within.

Historians categorize the earliest men and women into starkly simple gender roles—hunters and gatherers. Men would hunt to provide live game for the society, while women would forage for edible plants, berries, and useful materials with which to build shelter. The female also kept watch over the children. In fact, as she gathered materials, her peripheral vision evolved to cover a wider range, allowing her to literally watch the children from the corner of her eyes.

Before the 2011 revolutions, I never saw reflections of myself in the media portrayal of Muslim women. The women covered by the media usually played into the stereotypes of Muslim women as weak, silent, and victimized, and the only discussion about Muslim women that ever got any airtime was about their clothing. Many so-called experts, media gurus, and politicians obsessed over head-scarves (hijabs), face veils (niqabs), and cloaks (burkhas), clearly believing that Muslim women were somehow defined by their clothing choices.

Something sinister lurks inside the dazzle and shine of Vogue magazine’s print version of the March 2011 ‘Power Issue’. Among features on iconic performer Lady Gaga and Nobel Laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, past the Miu Miu heels and the sample strip of Jimmy Choo’s new perfume, a few good pages are spent glossing the ego of Asma al-Assad, the wife of Syria’s dictator. The article, “A Rose in the Desert” (Vogue, March 2011, p. 529), written by Joan Juliet Buck and photographed by James Nachtwey, is an exercise in the surreal alternating with the dangerously fantasist.

The headlines may be peppered with frightening words like “drone bombings, militants and kidnappings,” but they fail to reveal the positive strides Karachi has made in the past few years. With a population of over 15 million, Karachi is the world’s fourth largest metropolis. It is a bustling hub of commercial activity, as well as a city in the throes of social change. The poor huddle in shanty-towns amidst the well-to-do enclaves with staggering wealth. The forecast for the future is not all bleak, however, as the city continues to reinvent itself with pockets of civil society taking root.

The Violence is Not Our Culture (VNC) Campaign and the Women Living Under Muslim Laws (WLUML) network recently launched a new publication on zina (illicit sex) laws and their tentative (re)introduction in some predominantly Muslim nations. “Control and Sexuality – The Revival of Zina Laws in Muslim Contexts,” is an attempt by civil society organizations to address the historical, cultural, legal and political motives that have led to the reemergence of these controversial laws.