gender - badran, feminism in islam

Question 1

the term gender activism

Answer 1

• ‘the term ‘gender activism’ intends to capture women’s common ‘feminist’ modes of thinking and behaviour in the public sphere without denying the reality of distinct feminist and Islamist ‘movements’ and the separate experience of uncommitted (pro-feminist) women’ (142)

Question 2

feminism

Answer 2

• feminists = usually white, upper-middle class
• some shy away from being labelled a feminist due to the connotations of anti-men that it carries
• gender activism in chapter is ‘mainly pragmatic rather than political in the more highly organised or self-conscious sense’ (143)
  o it involves fighting against oppressive forces
  o freedom from patriarchal authority

Question 3

contemporary context

Answer 3

o in Egypt, Islam was until recently associated with establishment of Islamic state – women = passive
o now Islam = more broad, welcomes women
o state = involved in presence of Islam. Muslims are often hostile towards state and feminists
o ‘at the moment the broad conservative atmosphere in Egypt, permeated by populist Islamist influences, tempers explicit public feminist expression’ (144)
o since 1980s, there has been some liberalisation in terms of gender

Question 4

niqab/hijab and identity

Answer 4

o in Egypt, feminism = Western
o some are precluded from coming out as feminists
♣ ‘for these women feminism is not a comprehensive analysis dealing with the whole of society but a partial approach which they see as privileging women and as a luxury in a Third World country like Egypt’ (146)
o feminists in Egypt have ‘layered identities’ (147)
o ‘in contrast to feminists and pro-feminists, Islamist women claim a single paramount identity which, according to their ideology, must be publicly asserted’ (147)
o feminists have no way of externally demonstrating their identity

Question 5

islamic women and feminism

Answer 5

o ‘Islamist women are seen as having cultural norms on their side, while feminist women appear to be challenging indigenous culture’ (147)
o feminists in Arab and Islamic world must show that they are not tainted by Western influence e.g. ‘the early organised feminist movements led by Huda Sha’rawi and Duriyya Shafiq operated within an Islamic framework’ (148)

Question 6

second wave feminism o Nawal al-Saadawi

Answer 6

o Nawal al-Saadawi
♣ Wanted social, cultural, economic evolution
♣ Drew on Islamic arguments
♣ Attacked double standards
♣ Received criticism
♣ Her work was misunderstood as ‘encouraging the immorality of women and violating religion’ (150)

Question 7

second wave feminism - organised feminism in Egypt 1980s

Answer 7

o 1980s, organised feminism in Egypt
♣ led to development of New Woman Society and Society of the Daughters of the Earth
♣ 1984, Majallat Bint al-Ard is created
♣ 1985, rescindment of personal status law of 1979
♣ led to formation of feminist coalition (committee for the defense of the rights and of the woman and the family). Succeeded in reinstating law

Question 8

gender activism in groups

Answer 8

o	Cairo University
♣	Gender activism = strong, but has challenges 
♣	Many students are conservative 
♣	Female professors = role models 
o	Arab Women’s Solidarity Association 
♣	Membership grew in mid-1980s
♣	Feminist debate and outreach 
♣	Controversy with Islamists 
♣	1991, ‘after al-Saadawi participated in protests against the impending first Gulf War, the government closed down the association’ (157)

Question 9

the legal rights of the egyptian woman: theory and practice

Answer 9

♣ booklet written by lawyers, first woman ambassador of Egypt etc.
♣ women can specify in marriage contract that they have the right to work outside the home
♣ ‘their strategy is to mobilise women in order to share with them their skills, expertise and experience in a number of concrete fields, including adult education….and general information for the benefit of the broad mass of underprivileged women’ (159)

Question 10

different ways of expressing feminist solidarity

Answer 10

♣ bakr – records women’s history in fictional form
• all characters are women
• means that society will not forget about women
• wants history to involve women (159)
♣ huda – uses history to evaluate the past and ‘write the history of Egyptian and Arab women’ (160)

Question 11

intellectual women

Answer 11

• ‘since the end of the 1980s, the positions of intellectual women as feminists, pro-feminists and Islamists concerning women’s roles in Egyptian society have been converging’ (161-2)
• ‘although women across the ideological spectrum engage in gender activism, which is essentially a common pragmatic approach, women’s moorings in divergent ideologies remain significant’ (162)

Question 12

response of islamist women to feminism

Answer 12

• ‘Whereas committed feminists have evolved analyses of patriarchal supremacy, Islamist women have either internalised patriarchal thinking…or they have silently eschewed it’ (162)
• younger Islamist women are beginning to question male dominance
• gender activism in Egypt will continue to reflect different ideologies/constructiosn of identity
• whilst feminists view religion as individual and do not attempt to assert Islamic state, ideologically concerned Islamists argue that when the Islamic state is achieved, women will be liberated
  o however, both show common forms of activism

Question 13

agency

Answer 13

• ‘How do we talk about women’s activism within independent feminist movements without exaggerating the notion of free agency? How do we talk about women’s agency as ‘feminists’ within masculinist movements without underestimating the possibilities of their independent agency?’ (216)