UB Womens Film Series
Shekaiba Wakili
Ethnic Women of Afghanistan Unveiled
Women for Afghan Women
WOMENS FILM SERIES... Buffalo
WIB UPDATES:
1. NONVIOLENCE TRAINING: Roxanne, Charles (Peace Center) and Pat have met to sketch out a 2 1/2 hour training for WIB.
It will be held on a Saturday from 2 - 4:30 in a place large enough to hold the expected 20 or so WIB-ers.
Some components:
-History of nonviolent acitvism/protest
-Nonviolence barometer
-Legal issues (arrest/police issues/noncitizen concerns)
-Responding to hostility/confrontation at vigils
-Civil Disobedience as example of protest & personal accounts
-Wrap-up/Feedback/Evaluation (verbal)
Alot to cover in 2 hours.
Tentative date: Sat. Mar. 9th 2 pm - 4:30 pm.
Final details will of course be announced at the Sat. vigil the week before the training date.
2. Lucille Sherlick, who recently returned from Israel, studying various women's peace groups (includingWomen in Black) is willing to come and talk to our WIB group - again, a Saturday following a vigil. Please let me know if this is of interest to anyone - She may join us too at future vigils.
3. Messages about war/WIB/other stuff:
INTERNATIONAL WOMEN"S DAY (IWD): MARCH 8(Friday this year)
2 events of possible interest to this group:
******* March 8
WOMEN OF AFGHANISTAN: A COMMUNITY FORUM
11:30 am - 2:30 pm
YWCA of Western New York
190 Franklin Street, Buffalo
The Buffalo Niagara Coalition for Women's Rights is planning an outstanding event for International Women's Day:
" Women of Afghanistan: A Community Forum".
To be held at the downtown YWCA at 11:30 a.m. - 2:30 p.m. on
March 8, the forum will include three women whose work is focused on assisting the women of Afghanistan: Nafissa Mahmood Ghowrwal (Maryland); Susan Safi-Rafiq (Georgia); and LaShawn Williams, head of Human Rights Watch Women's Division(New York City). Local Respondents: LaVonne Ansari & Sawsan Tabaa will provide perspectives from our own Buffalo Muslim community. We are very excited about these plans and hope you have set aside the date and time to attend.
$10 student/limited income or $20 general for lunch & program. $50 PATRON (Pat will have registration forms at the Feb. 16 vigil)
******* March 8
AAUW PROGRAM ON PORTRAYAL OF WOMEN IN MASS MEDIA
Dinner & Program
Samuel's Grande Manor
6:30 pm $25
American Association of University Women (Buffalo Branch) will host on
March 8, International Women's Day, a dinner program at Samuel's Grande Manor on the theme
"Portrayal of Women in Mass Media". The event is cosponsored by Zonta International, Erie County Commission on the Status of Women and National Organization for Women (NY State).
Four panelists, experts on various aspects of the media will provide an overview of the theme and delve into selected topics: -
Dr. Elayne Rapping - professor in the Women's Studies Department at UB, a specialist in issues of media and gender and mainstream culture will speak about
"Images of Women in Media in a Changing World";
- Dr. Rafika Merini, associate professor in the Modern and Classical Languages Department at Buffalo State College and past head of Women's Studies at the College, will speak on "Stereotypical Images of Women of French-speaking Africa and Middle East in International Media";
- Faye Lone-Knapp, an author, poet, cultural presenter on issues of identity and Native American education and literature, will speak on "Portrayal of Native-American Females in Mainstream Children's Literature";
- Dr. Bernadette Wegenstein, visiting assistant professor in the Media Study Department at University at Buffalo, a linguist, semiotician and expert in Romance languages and cultures will speak about "Bellissima pasta - Femininity and Italianita in Pasta Advertisements".
The panelists will address the audience early during the event so as to encourage discussion about the theme at dinner tables. There will be also displays of examples of some advertisements to promote discussion and enhance guests' participation in the celebration.
All are welcome to join in this celebration, on
Friday, March 8 at 6:30 p.m.
in Samuel's Grande Manor (8750 Main St., Williamsville).
The cost of $25 per person includes dinner and program; please send advance reservations (required) to Judy Weidemann.
Contact Teresa Gessner
(tel./fax: 716-634-5053;
e-mail: tgessner@acsu.buffalo.edu)
for more information, or Judy Weidemann (tel: 655-3649; e-mail: JWeide7172@aol.com) about reservations.
***********************
Update on peace efforts/actions planned for IWD in Israel:
**From WIB person in Israel - msg. rec. 02-06-02 Friends, Bat Shalom is organizing worldwide for International Women's Day. Here is their description of what they are doing, and their appeal to you.Marcia Feedman
Coalition of Women for Peace
Web site: www.coalitionofwomen4peace.org
Email: intl@coalitionofwomen4peace.org----- Original Message ----- From: bat shalom To: marciaf@netvision.net.il Sent: Tuesday, February 05, 2002 10:05 PM Subject: REQUEST FOR INTERNATIONAL SOLIDARITY: International Women's Day,March 8, 2002
February 5, 2002 Dear Friends and Allies of Bat Shalom,
Bat Shalom's International Women's Day campaign for March 8, 2002 will be more powerful and effective WITH YOU AS OUR PARTNERS. Commemorated since 1910, International Women's Day is a time for women to speak up and out where we are too often silenced and invisible. We urge you to take this opportunity to once again ensure that our message reverberates with the passion for justice and uncompromising resistance to oppression and occupation that informs all of our work. Women's rights are embedded in universal human rights - and are never achieved in isolation. We hope that you will join our efforts in bringing to the fore women's voices for an end to the Israeli occupation and a just resolution of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
We are coordinating representative delegations of Jewish and Palestinian Israeli women to meet with all of the foreign diplomatic missions in Israel, including those in East and West Jerusalem, Tel Aviv, and Haifa. We are requesting brief meetings (approximately fifteen minutes) with either the ambassador or someone from the diplomatic staff of each embassy and consulate, for the morning of Friday March 8, 2002. In these meetings, we will present our demands for international intervention in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and for immediate international protection for Palestinian civilians. And we will finish the day by organizing and participating in an International Women's Day demonstration (more details to come).
What can you, our international allies, do to help make our campaign a success? We would like women around the world to organize in solidarity with us, on or close to International Women's Day. Here is a list of suggested actions to choose from:
1. Organize delegations of women to meet with the Israeli diplomatic representatives in your own or nearby cities on March 8 or the closest business day. Present them with our declaration (which will be finalized next week). Let them know that you are well informed regarding the situation in Israel and that you support the efforts of the growing local and international demands for an end to the Occupation.
2. Arrange delegations of women to meet with local representatives of your country's government (for example, parliamentary or congressional representatives) on March 8 or the closest business day. Present them with demands to pressure your country's government to support international intervention in the conflict and international protection for the Palestinian people.
3. On March 8th, urge your community of supporters to send emails and faxes to Israeli diplomatic representatives in your country, as well as representatives of your country's government, demanding international involvement and an end to the occupation.
4. Organize a demonstration in solidarity with our demands for international involvement in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
DEMANDS THAT ARE AMPLIFIED BY YOUR INTERNATIONAL SUPPORT RESONATE MORE PROFOUNDLY AND EFFECTIVELY HERE! Please keep us informed if you decide to participate in our International Women's Day campaign. Also, if you have any questions about these actions, or suggestions for other related actions, don't hesitate to contact us at batshalo@netvision.net.il. Please write 'MARCH 8' in the subject line.
Yours in struggle, Bat Shalom Bat Shalom is a feminist peace organization working toward a just peace between Israel and its Arab neighbors. Bat Shalom, together with The Jerusalem Center for Women, a Palestinian women's peace organization, comprise The Jerusalem Link. Visit our web site for more information and our latest activities: http://www.batshalom.org
We gratefully accept contributions to help support our work. Checks in any currency can be mailed to Bat Shalom, POB 8083, Jerusalem 91080, Israel. Tel: +972-2-563 1477; Fax: +972-2-561 7983. See our web site for information about tax-deductible contributions or bank transfers.
To subscribe to Bat Shalom's newsletter, please reply by e-mail with the word "Subscribe" in the subject line, and include your first and last name in the body of the email. To unsubscribe, please write "Unsubscribe" in the subject line, and also include your first and last name in the body of the email.
[i appologize for not being able to propperly format this text - i dont have the time - but if anyone would like it in an easier to read format please eamil me at: PeaceJusticeResolution@yahoo.com]
******
From Lucille Sherlick:
> Al-Ahram Weekly Online
> 17 - 23 January 2002
> Issue No.569
>
> Islamic feminism: what's in a name?
> Islamic feminism is on the whole more radical than Muslims' secular
> feminisms, argues Margot Badran
>
> What's in a name? What's behind a name? What is Islamic feminism? Let
> me offer a concise definition: it is a feminist discourse and
> practice articulated within an Islamic paradigm. Islamic feminism,
> which derives its understanding and mandate from the Qur'an, seeks
> rights and justice for women, and for men, in the totality of their
> existence. Islamic feminism is both highly contested and firmly
> embraced. There has been much misunderstanding, misrepresentation,
> and mischief concerning Islamic feminism. This new feminism has given
> rise simultaneously to hopes and to fears. We shall look at who is
> producing it, where, why and to what end.
>
> FEMINISM: As it has been rightly noticed concepts and terms have a
> history -- and practices around concepts and terms have a history.
> The term feminism was coined in France in the 1880s by Hubertine
> Auclert, who introduced it in her journal, La Citoyenne, to criticise
> male predominance (and domination) and to make claims for women's
> rights and emancipation promised by the French Revolution. Historian
> of feminisms Karen Offen has demonstrated that since its first
> appearance the term has been given many meanings and definitions; it
> has been put to diverse uses and inspired many movements. By the
> first decade of the 20th century the term made its appearance in
> English, first in Britain and then in the 1910s in the United States;
> by the early 1920s it was in use in Egypt where it circulated in
> French and in Arabic as nisa'iyya. Yes, the term originated in the
> West, specifically France. No, feminism is not Western. American
> feminism is not French (as both Americans and French would loudly
> acclaim). Egyptian feminism is not French and it is not Western. It
> is Egyptian, as its founders attested and as history makes clear.
>
> Feminisms are produced in particular places and are articulated in
> local terms. Creators and practitioners of women's history taking
> shape as a new field in the 1960s, and growing especially the during
> 1970s and 1980s, attested to a plethora of feminisms that had
> appeared in different global locations. Sri Lankan scholar Kumari
> Jayawardena's 1986 path-breaking book Feminisms and Nationalism in
> the Third World documented feminist movements that had emerged in
> diverse Asian and Middle Eastern countries and were located within
> local national liberation and religious reform movements, including
> movements of Islamic reform. Egypt as we know was a pioneer in
> articulating feminist thinking and in organising collective feminist
> activisms. Yet despite a large literature in many languages
> documenting these globally scattered feminisms, the notion that
> feminism is Western is still bandied about by those ignorant of
> history or who perhaps more wilfully employ it in a delegitimising
> way. Some still speak of a "Western feminism" in essentialist,
> monolithic, and static terms, belying a certain Occidentalist turn of
> mind or, perhaps, a political project aimed at adversely "framing"
> feminism. Feminism, however, is a plant that only grows in its own
> soil (which is not to suggest than any ideas or movements anywhere
> are hermetically sealed off).
>
> ISLAMIC FEMINISM: The term Islamic feminism began to be visible in
> the 1990s in various global locations. It was from the writings of
> Muslims that I discovered the term. Iranian scholars Afsaneh
> Najmabadeh and Ziba Mir-Hosseini explained the rise and use of the
> term Islamic feminism in Iran by women writing in the Teheran women's
> journal Zanan that Shahla Sherkat founded in 1992. Saudi Arabian
> scholar Mai Yamani used the term in her 1996 book Feminism and Islam.
> Turkish scholars Yesim Arat and Feride Acar in their articles, and
> Nilufer Gole in her book The Forbidden Modern (published in Turkish
> in 1991 and in English in 1996) used the term Islamic feminism in
> their writings in the 1990s to describe a new feminist paradigm they
> detected emerging in Turkey. South African activist Shamima Shaikh
> employed the term Islamic feminism in her speeches and articles in
> the 1990s as did her sister and brother co-activists. Already by the
> mid-1990s, there was growing evidence of Islamic feminism as a term
> created and circulated by Muslims in far- flung corners of the global
> umma.
>
> It is important to distinguish between Islamic feminism as an
> explicitly declared project, as an analytical term -- and Islamic
> feminist as a term of identity. Some Muslim women, as seen from the
> foregoing remarks, describe their project of articulating and
> advocating the practice of Qur'anically-mandated gender equality and
> social justice as Islamic feminism. Others do not call this Islamic
> feminism but describe it as an Islamic project of rereading the
> Qur'an, women-centered readings of religious texts, or "scholarship-
> activism" as it is referred to in the 2001 book Windows of Faith
> edited by Gisela Webb.
>
> The producers and articulaters, or users, of Islamic feminist
> discourse include those who may or may not accept the Islamic
> feminist label or identity. They also include so-called religious
> Muslims (by which is typically meant the religiously observant), so-
> called secular Muslims (whose ways of being Muslim may be less
> publicly evident), and non- Muslims. Many Muslims use the adjectives
> religious and secular to label themselves or each other; other
> Muslims feel uneasy with these terms. It is important to historicise
> or contextualise the use of these terms as they do mean different
> things in different times and places. Also, it needs to be stressed
> that the terms religious and secular are not hermetically sealed
> terms; there are, and always have been, imbrications between the two.
>
> Some who engage in the articulation and practice of Islamic feminism
> assert an Islamic feminist identity from the start. These include
> contributors to the Iranian journal Zanan, South African exegetes and
> activists, as well as women belonging to the group "Sisters in Islam"
> in Malaysia. Others, and these include many of the key producers of
> Islamic feminist discourse or new gender-sensitive Qur'anic
> interpretation, have been reluctant to identify themselves as Islamic
> feminists. Yet, some have changed their positions in more recent
> years. In the past, Amina Wadud, the African-American Muslim
> theologian and author of the landmark 1991 book Qur'an and Woman
> adamantly objected to being labelled an Islamic feminist. Now she
> shows less concern if others identify her as such; what is important
> to her is that people understand her work. But, Wadud does bristle
> when she is slammed as a "Western feminist." In the preface to the
> 1999 Oxford University Press edition of her book, she decried the
> pejorative use of both "Western" and "feminist". This devout Muslim
> woman asks: so what's wrong with being Western? (Let us not forget
> that there are large and growing numbers of Western Muslims, or
> Muslims in the West of whom Wadud is one). As for discrediting
> feminism, she snaps back: "No reference is ever made to the
> definition of feminism as the radical notion that women are human
> beings." American based theologian Riffat Hassan of Pakistani origin
> has also come to accept the Islamic feminist designation, concerned
> most, like Wadud, that her work be understood.
>
> GLOBAL PHENOMENON: Islamic feminism is a global phenomenon. It is not
> a product of East or West. Indeed, it transcends East and West. As
> already hinted, Islamic feminism is being produced at diverse sites
> around the world by women inside their own countries, whether they be
> from countries with Muslim majorities or from old established
> minority communities. Islamic feminism is also growing in Muslim
> Diaspora and convert communities in the West. Islamic feminism is
> circulating with increasing frequency in cyberspace -- to name just
> one site: maryams.com.
>
> Globally, English is the major language in which Islamic feminist
> discourse is expressed and circulated. At the same time, it is
> expressed in a large number of languages locally. In order to do
> Qur'anic interpretation and closely read other Islamic religious
> texts, mastery of Arabic is essential. Yet since English is used as
> the common language of Islamic feminism, the terminology available in
> that language is also used. And with the spread of Islamic feminist
> exegesis, many Arabic loan words are entering English, such as
> ijtihad, which is fast becoming a household term.
>
> Islamic feminism transcends and destroys old binaries that have been
> constructed. These included polarities between "religious" and
> "secular" and between "East" and "West." I stress this because not
> infrequently there are those who see Islamic feminism, or the
> recognition of an Islamic feminist discourse, as setting up or
> reconfirming polarities. In my own public lectures and writings, I
> have argued that Islamic feminist discourse does precisely the
> opposite; it closes gaps and demonstrates common concerns and goals,
> starting with the basic affirmation of gender equality and social
> justice. Suggestions or allegations of a supposed "clash" between
> "secular feminism" and "religious feminism" may either be the product
> of lack of historical knowledge or, as in many cases, a politically
> motivated attempt to hinder broader solidarities among women.
>
> The pioneering secular feminisms in Egypt and other Arab countries
> have always had space for religion. The founding Egyptian feminist
> discourse was anchored simultaneously in the discourse of Islamic
> reform and that of secular nationalism. Secular feminism (often
> called just plain feminism) made Islamic arguments in demanding
> women's rights to education, work, political rights along with
> secular nationalist, humanitarian (later human) rights, and
> democratic arguments. When feminists plead for changes in the Muslim
> Personal Status Code they obviously advanced Islamic arguments.
>
> Islamic feminism advocates women's rights, gender equality, and
> social justice using Islamic discourse as its paramount discourse,
> though not necessarily its only one. Islamic feminist discourse in
> Iran draws upon secular discourses and methodologies to strengthen
> and extend its claims. Wadud in her women-sensitive interpretation of
> the Qur'an combines classical Islamic methodologies with new social
> science tools and secular discourses of rights and justice while
> retaining a firm and central grounding in Islamic thought.
>
> For many years in my talks and writings, I have discussed how Muslims
> secular feminists' discourses always included religious discourse and
> in more recent years, while observing a new Islamic feminism in the
> making, also noted the imbrications of religious and secular
> feminisms. My recent article "Locating Feminisms: The Collapse of
> Secular and Religious Discourses in the Mashriq" published in a
> special 50th issue of the African Gender Institute's journal Agenda
> makes this point. Likewise, do Afsaneh Najmabadeh and Ziba Mir-
> Hosseini in their publications, and Miriam Cooke in her new book
> Women Claim Islam: Creating Islamic Feminism through Literature, as
> well as others.
>
> Some of the specific goals are the same as those articulated earlier
> by secular feminists, such as changes in various national Muslim
> personal status codes. Other earlier feminist demands have long since
> been realised in many places. Often, when secular and Islamic
> feminists try to work together for common goals, they are inhibited
> or pulled asunder by competing political forces as happened in Yemen
> following the successful drive by a coalition of a wide spectrum of
> women to prevent a regressive Personal Status Law from being enacted
> in 1997.
>
> CONSTITUTING A DISCOURSE: How is Islamic feminist discourse being
> constituted? This issue includes what some Muslims are calling
> Islamic feminist theology (for example a young Lebanese researcher,
> Hosni Abboud, who is examining the treatment of Mary in the Qur'an --
> the only woman mentioned by name in the holy book. The basic argument
> of Islamic feminism is that the Qur'an affirms the principle of
> equality of all human beings but that the practice of equality of
> women and men (and other categories of people) has been impeded or
> subverted by patriarchal ideas (ideology) and practices. Islamic
> jurisprudence, fiqh, consolidated in its classical form in the 9th
> century, was itself heavily saturated with the patriarchal thinking
> and behaviours of the day. It is this patriarchally-inflected
> jurisprudence that has informed the various contemporary formulations
> of the Shari'a. The hadith, the reported, but not always authentic,
> sayings and deeds of the Prophet Mohamed, have also been often used
> to shore up patriarchal ideas and practices. Sometimes the hadiths,
> as just suggested, are of questionable provenance or reliability, and
> sometimes they are used out of context. Thus a priority of Islamic
> feminism is to go straight to Islam's fundamental and central holy
> text, the Qur'an, in an effort to recuperate its egalitarian message.
> Some women focus exclusively on the Qur'an (Amina Wadud, Rifaat
> Hassan, Saudi Arabian Fatima Naseef); others apply their rereadings
> of the Qur'an to their examination of the various formulations of the
> Shari'a (Lebanese Aziza Al-Hibri, Pakistani Shaheen Sardar Ali);
> while others focus on re-examining the hadith (Moroccan Fatima
> Mernissi, Turkish Hidayet Tuksal).
>
> The basic methodologies of this Islamic feminism are the classic
> Islamic methodologies of ijtihad (independent investigation of
> religious sources), and tafsir (interpretation of the Qur'an). Used
> along with these methodologies are the methods and tools of
> linguistics, history, literary criticism, sociology, anthropology
> etc.
>
> In approaching the Qur'an, women bring to their readings their own
> experience and questions as women. They point out that classical, and
> also much of post-classical, interpretation was based on men's
> experiences, male-centered questions, and the overall influence of
> the patriarchal societies in which they lived.
>
> FEMINIST HERMENEUTICS: The new gender- sensitive, or what can be
> called feminist, hermeneutics renders compelling confirmation of
> gender equality in the Qur'an that was lost sight of as male
> interpreters constructed a corpus of tafsir promoting a doctrine of
> male superiority reflecting the mindset of the prevailing patriarchal
> cultures.
>
> There are many ayaat (verses) of the Qur'an that seem to declare
> male/female equality. One is Al- Hujurat: "Oh humankind. We have
> created you from a single pair of a male and a female and made you
> into tribes and nations that you may know each other [not that you
> may despise one another]. The most honored of you in the sight of God
> is the most righteous of you [the one practicing the most taqwa]."
> Essentially, ontologically, all human beings are equal, they are only
> distinguished among themselves on the basis of their rightful
> practice or implementation of the fundamental Qur'anic principle of
> justice. Hence there is no contradiction between being a feminist and
> being a Muslim, once we perceive feminism as an awareness of
> constraints placed upon women because of gender, a rejection of such
> limitations placed on women, and efforts to construct and implement a
> more equitable gender system.
>
> Feminist hermeneutics distinguishes between the universal or timeless
> basic principles and the particular and contingent, or ephemeral. In
> the case of the latter, certain practices were allowed in a limited
> and controlled manner as a way of curtailing behaviours prevalent in
> the society into which the revelation came while encouraging
believers or
> placing them on the path to fuller justice and equality
> in their human interactions. Feminist hermeneutics has taken three
> approaches:
> 1) revisiting ayaat of the Qur'an to correct false stories in common
> circulation, such as the accounts of creation and of events in the
> Garden of Eden that have shored up claims of male superiority;
> 2) citing ayaat that unequivocally enunciate the equality of women
> and men;
> 3) deconstructing ayaat attentive to male and female difference that
> have been commonly interpreted in ways that justify male domination.
>
> As an example of a new interpretation of the Qur'an, we can look at
> sura (chapter) four, verse 34. While fundamentally equal, humans have
> been created biologically different in order to perpetuate the
> species. Only in particular contexts and circumstances will males and
> females assume different contingent roles and functions. Woman alone
> can give birth and nurse, and thus, in this particular circumstance,
> a husband is enjoined by the Qur'an to provide material support as
> indicated in 4:34, "Men are responsible for (qawwamun) women because
> God has given the one more than the other (bima faddala), and because
> they support them from their means." Wadud-Muhsin, Hassan, Al-Hibri,
> Naseef, etc. demonstrate that qawwamun conveys the notion of
> providing for and that the term is used prescriptively to indicate
> that men ought to provide for women in the context of child- bearing
> and rearing. It also does not necessarily mean that women cannot
> provide for themselves in that circumstance. The term qawwamun is not
> an unconditional statement of male authority and superiority over all
> women for all time, as traditional male interpreters have claimed.
>
> The women exegetes thus show how classical male interpretations have
> turned the specific and contingent into universals. I do not want to
> get into an exegetical battle here and now but rather to indicate
> Islamic feminist interpretative moves. Concerning the masculinist
> argument that men have authority over women, while deconstructing
> particular ayaat such as the above, the exegetes also draw attention
> to other ayaat affirming mutuality of responsibilities as in sura
> nine, verse 71 of the Qur'an which says that "The believers, male and
> female, are protectors of one another."
>
> TO WHAT END? Islamic feminism serves people in their individual lives
> and it can also be a force in improving state and society. As far as
> Muslim women in Western diaspora communities and in Muslim minority
> communities are concerned, second generation Muslim women are often
> caught between the practices and norms of the original home cultures
> of parents who migrated from Middle Eastern or South Asian countries,
> and the ways of life in their new countries. Islamic feminism helps
> these women untangle patriarchy and religion; it gives them Islamic
> ways of understanding gender equality, societal opportunity, and
> their own potential.
>
> On the other hand, Islamic feminist discourse is equally relevant in
> predominantly Muslim countries. It constitutes a different statement
> of the views of the people and their understanding of and attachment
> to their religion and culture, by attempting a strong and Islamic
> articulation of gender equality.
>
> In re-examining the Qur'an and hadith, Islamic feminists are making
> cogent arguments that Islam does not condone wanton violence against
> women, promoting the notion that violence against women is indeed
> anti-Islamic. This alone will not put an end to violence but it is
> one among many weapons against it. The Malaysian group "Sisters in
> Islam" is one among many that have decried violence against women
> perpetrated in the name of Islam in a pamphlet they distributed
> widely. South African Saadiya Shaikh has also completed a study on
> the subject and is currently looking at notions of sexuality in
> Islamic religious texts.
>
> Islamic feminism on the whole is more radical than Muslims' secular
> feminisms have been. Islamic feminism insists on full equality of
> women and men across the public/private spectrum (secular feminists
> historically accepted the idea of equality in the public sphere and
> the notion of complementarianism in the private sphere). Islamic
> feminism argues that women may be heads of state, leaders of
> congregational prayer, judges, and muftis. In some Muslim majority
> countries, Muslim women function as judges, some as prime ministers,
> and one is a head of state. Thus Islamic feminism stands to benefit
> us all, Muslims of both sexes, as well as non-Muslims living side by
> side with Muslims everywhere.
>
> It seems important to focus on the content of Islamic feminism, on
> its goals, and not to get bogged down with distracting issues about
> who has the right to think/analyse and to speak. Let us not be too
> defensive or proprietary about Islamic gender equality, about Islamic
> feminism. The way I see it, Islamic feminism is for all.
> Islamic feminism is a feminist discourse expressly articulated within
> an Islamic paradigm and behaviours and activisms inspired by it are
> enacted in Islam's name. Some of the Muslims talking about Islamic
feminism
> were among the producers of the new discourse, or activists inspired
by
it.
> Other Muslims, as scholars, writers, journalists and public
intellectuals,
> commented on Islamic feminism, entered debates, and wrote about while
> standing outside the emergent ranks of Islamic feminists. Moroccan
> sociologist and writer Fatima Mernissi is a well-known example, and,
> moreover, one of the earliest to articulate Islamic feminism without
> taking on an Islamic feminist identity.
>
> Drawing from the history, and more contemporary observation, of Egypt
> With its pioneering feminist movement, I would like to stress again
that
> Muslim women's feminism has been a feminism within Islam, that is it
has
> Articulated itself within an Islamic framework -- though not within
that
> framework alone, since this feminism has also articulated itself
within
> nationalist, humanitarian/human rights, and democratic discourses.
>
> The distinction between (secular) feminist discourse and Islamic
> Feminist discourse is that the latter is a feminism that is
articulated
> within a more exclusively Islamic paradigm (but even this is
complicated).
> This is not to suggest (or create) a binary between secular feminist
and
> Islamic feminist discourse but rather to point to the discursive
categories
> mobilised. There are imbrications of the secular and the religious in
both
> discourses.
>
> * The author is senior fellow at the Center for Muslim- Christian
> Understanding, Georgetown University, specialising in women and
gender in
> Muslim societies. This article is taken from her recent
> talk at the American Research Center in Egypt.
******
Jan. 25, 2002 Women's E-News , part of NOW Legal Defense Fund
CULTURE
Exhibit Reveals the Humanity Hidden by the Veil
By Maya Dollarhide - WEnews Correspondent
NEW YORK (WOMENSENEWS)--Born in Afghanistan and raised on Long Island,
photographer Shekaiba Wakili used her lens in her adopted country to
grasp
the meaning of the Taliban's shuttering away the women in her homeland.
She photographed portraits of five Afghan immigrant women--one from each
of
the nation's major ethnic groups--in two poses: veiled and face exposed.
The results, on exhibit here at the American Museum of Natural History
until Jan. 27, are a dramatic demonstration of the humanity the veil
covers
and the loss of identity that the act of veiling extracts.
"For assimilation purposes none of these women wear headscarves on a
day-to-day basis here in New York," Wakili says. "In fact the models had
not worn a borqa since they'd moved to the United States, and it was
difficult to go back, even for the shoot."
When the women came to her studio and put on the borqas Wakili had for
them, it was an emotional experience for all. Under the Taliban rule,
women
were required to wear a borqa and cover their faces with a veil. Women
also
could not allow themselves to be photographed, a crime punishable by
severe
beatings or death.
"When the first woman came out of the dressing room completely covered
we
were silent," Wakili says. "The model told me that she had forgotten how
restrictive and difficult it was to move in the borqa. We got tears in
our
eyes as we thought about the women back home who had been forced to wear
this for six years.
"I wanted to show the faces of women who had left Afghanistan, and to
show
how stifling the borqa was to their individuality and selves," says
Wakili,
31.
After Sept. 11 devastated this city and, in some cases, aroused ethnic
animosities, Wakili decided she wanted to use her lens to demonstrate
the
distinctions in appearance and customs among the Afghan people.
"There are subtle differences in skin tone, eye color and hair," Wakili
says. "Only under the borqa you can't tell. You couldn't tell that there
were beautiful, smart, and ethnically diverse women under there."
Showing the World Hidden Faces
The portraits show the women from the neck up. In some the look is
defiant
and some wear a somber gaze into the camera. All are facing the directly
into the photographer's lens, something that would have been forbidden
when
they lived in Afghanistan. Their faces are wide and open, and with the
head-covering of their borqa secured about their shoulders, it is easy
to
see their individual and distinct looks.
One has dark eyes, and one wide-set and lighter brown ones. Some faces
have
been worn with age and some are smooth. But they are all individual and
distinct, a startling contrast to the photos in which each woman is
covered
by the borqa. In these photographs the women appear all alike; only the
different colors of borqa tells them apart.
Wakili is a Pashtun, the group that now comprises the majority of people
living in Afghanistan but is only 38 percent of all Afghans. Twenty-five
percent are Tajiks; 19 percent are Hazaras; 6 percent Uzbeks, and a
small
percentage are Turkman.
Wakili, an advisor for the nonprofit group Women for Afghan Women, says
this mix of varied cultures was destroyed during the Soviet occupation,
when 2 million Afghans were displaced internally and 6 million fled the
country.
"It was the mixing of so many cultures that made us once a modern
society,"
she says.
Wakili found her subjects through women's groups and various friends of
Afghani friends. The subjects, who remain anonymous, did not quickly
agree
to become involved in the project. Wakili was faced with a barrage of
questions from the subjects and their families about her political
beliefs,
her family's history, and what the photographs would be used for. But
all
the women, Wakili says, were excited about the project.
One subject is a former health aid worker from Kabul, another is a
student,
and a third is a woman's rights activist.
Even though the women are here in the United States and pursuing their
professional lives, residual fear remains and all insisted their stories
be
shielded from the public, as well as their names. "The Uzbek model came
into my studio they day of the shoot and told me she'd changed her mind
about being photographed without the borqa covering," Wakili says. "This
woman doesn't wear a borqa here, none of the subjects do, but she and
her
family were concerned about someone seeing the photos.
"Her father decided it wasn't safe for his daughter. So I photographed
her
only with her borqa on," says Wakili, shrugging her shoulders.
Next on Wakili's plate is an exhibition working with Afghani fashion
designers to show the varied styles of each ethnic group's dress for
women
and men.
"When women had a choice whether or not to wear the borqa they would
develop a sense of style in their color and embroidery on their borqas
and
shawls. But that changed when it became a law, when they were forced,"
she
says. Besides different shawls and borqas, she also plans to show
westernized Afghani dress styles.
"In Afghanistan now some women are shedding the borqa and looking at the
new government's way of dressing to guide them," Wakili says. "But the
borqa was a woman's safety net and it isn't safe, probably, to go just
anywhere without it. Many members of the Taliban have simply drifted
back
into Afghani society, but they are still there.
"It is now probably worn for safety. But women are taking it off."
Maya Dollarhide is a freelance writer in Brooklyn. She is a graduate of
Columbia University's Graduate School of Journalism.
For more information:
Shekaiba Wakili: - http://www.shekaiba@shekaiba.com
"Ethnic Women of Afghanistan Unveiled"
http://www.amnh.org/education/jan2002/index.html#art
Women for Afghan Women: -
Peace, Shalom, Salaam:
OK - here's the latest list of WIB- Buffalo list members. When you reply
to
this message, you are reaching ALL of the following. If there are people
who want to join this list, please send me their e-mails/name. We would
like people who have either participated in WIB or who are 'recommended'
by
a current member just because we are sensitive to the possibility that
too
many e-mails can be sent by people we do not know, that do not have an
obvious connection to our peace work, and overload our list.
Please let me know if there are mistakes/incomplete names that can
become
full names, etc.
PRESS:
One TV channel came to last week's vigil (WIVB-Ch. 4 - CBS affiliate)
and a
brief sound bite was shown on the 11 pm news. Pat gave a statement about
peace/end war/use international tribunals. Not sure what was used- did
not
see it myself.
Buffalo News printed the notice of vigils held every Sat. in the Friday,
Feb. 1 local news section
Many thanks to Charles Cobb (Peace Center Director) for his work in
getting
out a press alert.
Another message from me: UB is holding a Women's Film Festival Thursday
nights from Jan. 31 - Mar. 14 (website :
www.womenandgender.buffalo.edu )
and tonight's film is EARTH, by Deepa Mehta (also did FIRE) - the story
is
about 1947 pre-partition India, and recounts the murderous ethnic
conflict
that the partition fanned between Muslims, Hindus, and Sikhs. Beautiful
film - narrated from the viewpoint of an 8 - year- old girl. It's not
all
about war - relationships, sexual politics, children/young women &
men/old
women are part of the story too.
7 pm Market Arcade Film & Arts Center - 639 Main St. Buffalo (across
from
Shea's Theater). Price: $4.50 students/$6.50 general.
Below is a brief report on plans for WIB - Buffalo, IWD events, a
planned
action in Israel for IWD, and articles dealing with Islamic Feminism and
photographing immigrant Afghan women. Are these articles pertinent/of
interest to you all or do they make for too long an e-mail message once
a
week?
See you all Saturday at the noon vigil! Elmwood & Bidwell.
Pat
Current WIB list :
Gwennor Lloyd Carr
Maya Dollarhide is a freelance writer in Brooklyn. She is a graduate of Columbia University's Graduate School of Journalism.
For more information:
Shekaiba Wakili: - http://www.shekaiba@shekaiba.com
"Ethnic Women of Afghanistan Unveiled" http://www.amnh.org/education/jan2002/index.html#art
Women for Afghan Women: - http://www.womenforafghanwomen.org/