The Paradoxical Effect of Islamic Feminism

As Pakistan becomes world’s third-most dangerous country for women amidst growing dichotomies between the Islamists and secularists, the transformative potential of Islamic feminism has become a matter of urgent concern. Islamic feminism and Islamization have experienced varying degrees of interplay in Pakistan owing to the politically unstable history of the country, yet the common concern of Islamic feminists remains that the Quran and Hadith which form the basis of Shariah (Islamic law), are misinterpreted in an attempt to legitimize the subordination of women. Created as a modern Muslim state in 1947, Pakistan was expected to advance women’s rights; instead, gender inequality was institutionalized through personal and family laws. It was in the late 1970s, however, that the Hudood Ordinance, particularly the Zina (adultery) laws, resulted in severe socio-economic and legal setbacks for all women. Women were restricted to the chador (the veil), and the chardevari (household), and the distinction between adultery and rape was blurred resulting in high-profile cases of female rape victims being publicly flogged for adultery.

When the impact of Hudood Ordinance started to proliferate across the country, it triggered an immense mobilization by women who viewed such policies as blatant attempts to use Islam for legitimizing patriarchy. In an effort to collaborate the growing resistance against the Ordinance, women’s rights activists came together to form the Women’s Action Forum (WAF). Acknowledging that outright opposition of Islamization would be counterproductive in the prevailing Islamist political climate of the country, the secular feminists of WAF sought to reclaim their rights using an Islamic feminist ideology. In addition to resorting to Islamic feminism, WAF members in an attempt to avoid being discredited as ‘anti-religious’ women, reached out to those members of the ulema (community of religious scholars) who opposed the Islamization policies, as well as those women members of the politico-religious Jamaat-e-Islami party who were against the state’s stance on rape. Consequently, an unprecedented demonstration was held in which women activists protested against the Hudood laws. However, despite the persistent struggles of Islamic feminists, Hudood laws remained unscathed for nearly three decades. It was not until November 2006 that the ‘Women’s Protection Act’ mitigated some of its negative effects. The ordinance itself was not repealed and it continues to be incorporated into the legal system.

Moreover, today’s reality is that Islamic feminism is being hijacked by the Jamaat-e-Islami women and Al-Huda institute who in the name of Islamic feminism are further destabilizing the gender regimes. This is the paradoxical effect of Islamic feminism. In the wake of the Islamization of the late 1970s, the right-wing women activists of Jamaat-e-Islami joined WAF in its protest, yet three decades later when the contested laws were to be reformed, these women vehemently demonstrated against such efforts. In fact, prominent feminist scholar Afiya Zia contends that the Jamaat-e-Islami women have been increasingly co-opting the Islamic feminist ideology to spread a non-feminist agenda which calls for a purely patriarchal social system. Whether these women have agency of their own or their mobilizations are mere false consciousness or internalization of the patriarchal norms, their voice hinder the transformative potential of Islamic feminists who are committed to offer progressive interpretations of Islam. Hence, in an attempt to redefine rights of Muslim women through a progressive interpretation of Islamic texts, the distinction between women who are genuinely striving for improving women’s gender interests and those who employ Islamic feminism as a tactical tool to spread an Islamist agenda gets blurred.

With regards to the Al-Huda institute whose founder is a self-proclaimed Islamic feminist, Pakistani-American theologian Riffat Hassan rejects its claim to modernize Islam or even profess a feminist ideology. Instead, she argues that the institution exploits the egalitarian rhetoric of Islam to apply traditionalist interpretations of the Islamic texts. Through the lens of an interest-paradigm proposed by sociologist Maxine Molyeneux, Islamic feminism pursued by Al-Huda focuses on the practical gender interests whereby gender rights are formulated from within the existing gender order and women are expected to adhere to their role of caretakers in the private sphere. Such non-political interests have limited transformative potential as they do not substantially challenge the culturally produced social relations within the existing gender order. In fact, these interests may even perpetuate structural subordination.

While the feminist reading of Shariah remains necessary, because Islam continues to be a legal and political system for Pakistan, the political reality acts as a detriment for those women who are committed to seeking reforms through religious reinterpretation. Whether such developments challenge the transformative potential of Islamic feminism is subject to debate, but evidence indicates that Islamic feminist activists are now incorporating secular frameworks with the goal of pursuing an effective political agenda that has long-term policy implications. In order to fully comprehend Islamic feminism in Pakisatan, there is a need to carry out further research into examining the relationship between Islamic feminism as a theoretical academic ideology and Islamic feminism as a form of practical collective action committed to advancing women’s gender interests.

Written by Afifa Faisal

* A different and edited version of this article has been published in the News International, Pakistan

The Burden of Dowry

Among the patriarchal social customs prevalent in our society, the widespread practice of jahez (dowry) affects both rural and urban women. The amount of dowry a woman brings to her in-laws at the time of marriage varies depending on her family wealth, but certain material expectations such as furnishing the in-laws house and gifting gold jewelry and embellished clothing to the extended family of the husband tend to be the minimum standard for many families.

The potential implications of promoting dowry are evident in a society where the birth of a girl is marked by a cry of sorrow. Yet, it is often the sensitive nature of the wedding process that prevents the bride’s family from questioning the burden of dowry amidst blatantly expressed expectations of material gains in coercive circumstances.

Over a decade ago, I interviewed female survivors of acid attacks and stove burning during an internship with a Lahore-based NGO. As I attempted to pen down in a newspaper article the possible factors perpetuating such ruthless acts of gender-based violence, I learnt that for many of these women, their insufficient dowry exposed them to dowry-related violence and harassment.

Today, in the wake of the Oscar-winning ‘Saving Face’, the issue of gender-based violence, specifically acid attacks, has received global attention. Yet, the deadlock over the passage of the Domestic Violence (Prevention and Protection) Bill persists. Ironically, unlike the earlier draft of the bill which referred to dowry demands as a form of domestic violence, the latest version omits any such reference to dowry demands.

While the Dowry and Bridal Gifts (Restriction) Act (1976), the Dowry and Bridal Gifts (Restriction) Rules (1976), and the Dowry and Bridal Gifts (Restriction) Amendment Ordinance (1980) attempt to limit the practice of dowry, ultimately, it is not the mere adoption of legislation, but its effective implementation that can prevent dowry deaths and dowry-related violence and harassment. Unfortunately, as the consumerist culture continues to escalate in our contemporary society, the practice of dowry as well as the incidence of dowry-related violence is on the rise.

According to Islamic scholars, the practice of dowry is not endorsed by Islam and gifts to the bride are only to be given voluntarily. Prophet Mohammad saw to the marriages of his four daughters and there is no record of him having given anything to his daughters except for Fatima to whom he gave simple household items when she married Ali. If Islam promotes minimal wedding expenditures and the only obligatory condition of the Nikkah Nama (marriage contract) is that of Haq Mehr which is a sum of money the husband gives to his wife, then there is a greater need for a concerted effort to condemn the practice of dowry in our society.

Written by Afifa Faisal

* A different and edited version of this article has been published in the News International, Pakistan

Gender Inequalities in Unpaid Care

In a heterogeneous global society where interests vary by sex, race, class, ethnicity, and sexual orientation, among others, achieving equality across all differentials is a difficult task. Nonetheless, state policies should aim to at least ameliorate the existing inequalities, if not eliminate them. With regards to contemporary gender inequalities, feminist scholarship is highly contested and studies continue to theoretically and empirically question the different forms of patriarchal structures and practices prevalent in the society. I seek to highlight gender inequalities embedded in unpaid caring responsibilities within the household where unpaid care work is conceptualised as ‘unpaid domestic or personal services provided through the social relations of care and kinship.

Today’s family structures are multi-dimensional where heterosexuals are marrying less and later, divorce rates are soaring, solo-mother families are on the rise, homosexuals are forming new domestic arrangements, and women, both married and unmarried, are entering the labour force. While the increasing rate of women’s labour force participation is resulting in a decline in patriarchy within the family, unpaid caring responsibilities continue to be gendered. Women continue to spend much more time in unpaid care work than men, including household chores, childcare, and care of sick and elderly family members. In fact, European Commission Report notes that women do more unpaid care work than men and even when both are employed, women still spend more time in unpaid care work. The gendered distribution of unpaid care work is also reflected in data collected through national time use surveys in fourteen European countries where on average women aged 25 to 44 spend 60 minutes on childcare per day which is three times the amount of time men spend on childcare and 162 minutes more per day preparing food, washing dishes, and cleaning the house.

Gender differentials in unpaid care work have financial implications for women. Caring for others limits women’s participation in the labour market when unpaid care work is substantial and potential wages are too low for women to leave their homes to enter the labour market. Such limitations arising from sex segregation in the labour markets, wage gaps, and insufficient social protection have repercussions for women in the form of forgone wages. These forgone wages reduce lifetime earnings for women which further affect their savings through reduced pensions. Moreover, when women return to work their wage level may be less, because of the loss in work experience or discrimination by employers against mothers. If women resort to part-time work, as most of them do, the work pays less compared to full time.

In light of such gender inequalities in unpaid care, state policies should redress the burden of unpaid caring performed by women through effective social policies. While state legislations contend to create greater equality, in practice, the dominant ideology focuses on the equality of opportunity rather than the equality of outcome. The Equal Pay and Sex Discrimination Acts, for example, allow women to enter the labour market, but cannot overcome structural impediments such as sex segregation by occupation and wage gaps#. It is not surprising, therefore, that women continue to struggle with the ‘feminization of poverty’.


By Afifa Faisal

Urban Household Transitions in Africa and their Gender Implications

In analyzing urban household transitions in Africa where 40 percent of the population lives in urban areas and the urban population is expected to increase to 58 percent of the total population by 2050[1], it is crucial to fully conceptualize the terms ‘urban’, ‘urbanization’, and ‘household’.

While urbanization is defined as ‘a process whereby the proportion of a population living in urban areas increases’[2], the meanings of ‘urban’ and ‘urbanization’ are subject to considerable debate owing to inter-and-intra regional differences on what distinguishes an urban area from a rural one. Most urban definitions focus on what is physically present within a given urban area such as population or economic production, among others, but emphasis may be placed on what flows through urban areas e.g. trade, information, and so on. For comparison purposes, the United Nations Statistics Division finds the size of the population as the most appropriate unit of classification. With respect to the size of the population, smaller countries tend to have a low cut-off point for urban areas as opposed to bigger countries. For example, in Uganda, a settlement of 2000 inhabitants or more is classified as urban, but in Mali, the cut-off point is 5000[3]. Hence, it is crucial to note that when countries’ national statistics are taken into account for international comparability, the data used may not be perfectly comparable.

Similar to the definition of urban areas, there is no universal definition of households. The United Nations Statistics Division offers two definitions of households where households are defined for data collection on the basis of either: 1) Shared function: a household consists of all persons who may pool their incomes and have a common budget to a greater or lesser extent; they may be related or unrelated persons or a combination of persons both related and unrelated (UN’s ‘housekeeping concept’); or 2) Shared space: a household consists of all persons living together in a housing unit (UN’s ‘house-dwelling unit’). Problematizing the concept of household reveals that even though majority of households consist of members related by family ties of blood or marriage, families are generally bigger than households, and households are historically specific and vary from country to country or region to region. Households can take many forms, including nuclear, extended, female-headed lone parent, nuclear-compound, single-sex, and step-family household, among others.

Theoretical perspectives argue that the increasing urbanisation in Africa is replacing extended households with nuclear households. While this may be true to some extent, there is inadequate empirical evidence to support this claim and there are reasons to believe otherwise. For example, in the wake of HIV/AIDS pandemic, there is an increase in the size of orphan-led households in Africa with 44% of Zambian households having taken in orphans due to death of parents[4]. Moreover, among low-income households, there is an increase in size because of scarcity of employment.

There is also an increasing feminisation of household headship in Africa. This proliferation of female-headed households is happening in the wake of increasing female labour force participation as male employment opportunities decline owing to macroeconomic factors. Other factors contributing to the increase in female headship include males migrating for labour which is the primary reason for female-headed households in South Africa. Male deserting their female counterparts and dying as a result of HIV/AIDS or conflict are other factors. For example, in Angola decades of conflict have led to the loss or displacement of men resulting in an increase in female-headed households. In the case of South Africa, women’s view of men as “superfluous” in many respects is another reason for the large proportion of female-headed households[5]. It is crucial to note, however, that statistics on female-headed households in Africa and elsewhere may be under-reported, because of male biases whereby household headship and being a male is regarded as equivalent. The decision-maker criteria for headship can also be problematic, because in practice a person who makes the most income is often also the decision maker.

In conclusion, as the urban households evolve in Africa, there are gender implications for policy formulations that cannot be ignored. Appropriate policies and interventions are required to respond to these transitions. Data collection on household composition should be improved to satisfy the need for data on household size, transition, and characteristics of the head of household – sex, marital status, educational level and economic status. Moreover, direct public assistance must be offered for households identified through means-testing as being the poorest. These households may include some female-headed households where income level is constrained owing to the idealization of heteronormative model and other social and economic inequalities.

 By: Afifa Faisal

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[1] United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs (UN-DESA) (2011) World Urbanisation Prospects (UN-

  DESA: New York)

[2] Dyson, Tim (2010) Population and Development: The Demographic Transition (Zed: London), xv

[3] UN-Habitat (2010) State of the World’s Cities 2010/11: Bridging the Urban Divide (UN-Habitat: Nairobi), 13 & 41

[4] Bajaj, Monisha (2008) Schooling in the Shadow of Death: Youth Agency and HIV/AIDS in Zambia, Journal of   

  Asian and African Studies, 43

[5] Dyson, Tim (2010) Population and Development: The Demographic Transition (Zed: London), 186

Skin Whitening?

Skin whitening advertising associates light skin with idealized beauty that all women can attain, irrespective of nationality, race, or class. While the ubiquitous appeal of such advertising is culturally producing and reproducing idealized gendered bodies and gendered identities from the global North to the global South, skin whitening remains uncontested in South Asia. How are gender norms negotiated in skin whitening advertising? Are the imperialistic connotations of linking light skin with idealized beauty being challenged by the South Asian women?

The history of skin whitening in the postcolonial subcontinent can be traced to the cultural impacts of the conquests encountered in the Indian subcontinent. From the light-skinned Aryans who settled down in the North to the dark-skinned Dravidians in the South, the subcontinent exhibited many skin color variations. While the true pre-colonial origins of skin whitening remains disputed, it was the most pronounced during the nineteenth century British colonialism, where racial hierarchies, based on skin color differences, became a tool for colonial governance.

 

Anne McClintock in Imperial Leather: Race, Gender and Sexuality in the Colonial Contest (1995) and Anandi Ramamurthy in Imperial Persuaders: Images of Africa and Asia in British Advertising (2003) note that the nineteenth century soap advertising campaign reproduced skin color as a marker of class, gender, and race identity. During colonialism, soap advertising transformed ‘scientific racism’ into ‘commodity racism’ by representing soap as a signifier for ‘imperial glamour’ and ‘racial potency’. By 1889, the market extended into many areas of the world, including the Indian subcontinent.

Drawing on the racist iconography of the soap advertising campaign in which the soap washed away the ‘stigma’ of racial and class degeneration, today’s skin whitening cream advertisements can be said to represent ‘commodity racism’. By removing from the skin the ‘stigma’ of dark skin, whitening creams correlate light skin with beauty and socioeconomic progress. The discourse of such contemporary advertising incorporates both racism and ‘colorism’. The term ‘colorism’ conceptualized as a privileging of the lighter skinned over the darker-skinned within a community of color is said to happen over time when the predominantly colored communities internalize ‘white superiority,’ to create socioeconomic hierarchies. While today the soap advertisements cannot be shown, because of their blatant attempt to naturalize the ideology of ‘white superiority’, advertisers now employ semiotic manipulations to convey similar messages.

This association between light skin and idealized beauty and socioeconomic progress for women is best explained by the concept of ‘social capital’ as defined by Margaret Hunter. In If You’re Light You’re Alright: Light Skin Color as Social Capital for Women of Color (2002), Hunter uses the concept of ‘social capital’ to analyze the impact of skin color on the lives of African American and Mexican American women. She observes that most of the literature on skin color hierarchies points to the ideology of white prestige, but does not focus on its impact on women. Hunter defines ‘social capital’ as ‘a form of prestige related to things such as social status, reputation, and social networks. All of these forms of prestige can be converted into economic or educational capital.’ She argues that light skin is associated with beauty which in turn acts as a ‘social capital’ for women of color. She notes that this association can be traced back to the ideologies of white supremacy and patriarchy as practiced during slavery and colonialism. While Hunter acknowledges that physical appearance influences the status of both men and women, she argues that it is a far more important characteristic for women. She contends that even though people of color may not express a verbal desire for light skin, studies reflect that there is a strong preference for lighter skinned women by men from the same racial or ethnic group. Her study concludes that light skin as a form of ‘social capital’ influences the life chances for women of color, because when light skin with its history of colonialism and slavery, gets associated with idealized beauty, then positive attributes are linked to this beauty and as a result, light skinned women of color perform better in the areas of personal income, education, and spousal status. Hunter’s study can be critiqued for its essentialism, as she herself states that beauty can be perceived differently by different people and dark skinned women can compensate for their appearance by striving for high-status achievements such as education. Nonetheless, Hunter offers an effective analytical tool in the reading of skin whitening advertisements in which the product acts as a signifier for ‘social capital’ for women of color.

When the European attempted to enforce commodity fetishism on Africa, there were resistances by the Africans who either rejected the commodity or altered it for their needs. However, today’s global western consumer culture guises accepting ‘commodity racism’ as a self-empowering tool. As the Foucauldian analysis of the power of disciplinary practices suggest, the diffuse nature of power makes it difficult to resist, and instead disciplinary practices get internalized in the form of self-surveillance. In case of advertising, its magical transformation rhetoric and ubiquitous nature disguises social coercion even more, making it difficult to resist. Nonetheless, multinational corporations are expanding their consumer base by incorporating local cultural themes to create an affinity between the products and their dark-skinned female consumers. When skin whitening advertisements targeting young women are aired in postcolonial settings, with a predominantly dark-skinned population, local and international media watch dogs need to read the advertisements for their gender and racist connotations. Further research of the prevalence of skin whitening advertising is urgently needed to counter the continuing attempts of damaging the identity formation of young South Asian women.

Encountering Domestic Violence in Pakistan

Naturally formed feminist theories have always been a part of me. Yet, as a woman born and raised in Pakistan, I had the inherent inclination to accept the reality of prevailing gender biases and live with them. This changed forever the day I walked through the doors of AGHS Legal Aid Cell. As a non-governmental organization offering free legal aid to women, children, bonded labor, and religious minorities, the work of AGHS became deeply entrenched inside my consciousness. Indeed, after over five years of being in the United States, I returned to Pakistan in 2008 to re-join the efforts of the organization which truly shaped my personality as a woman.

While every citizen of the world has the right to life, liberty, and security, many women across Pakistan live without the guarantee of such rights. These women strive to be valuable members of their society, but need platforms from which they can throw away their shrouds of silence, raise their voice, and demand an end to social injustice. AGHS has been one such leading organization committed to ending violence against women and promoting women’s rights. As an intern, my rigorous discussions with eminent activists and regular visits to human rights institutions allowed me to not only learn from the experts in the field but also gain an insider’s look at the extent of the prevailing human rights issues inflicting the country.

Unlike many of my compatriots who adopted a more comprehensive approach to understanding the overall human rights situation in Pakistan, I was particularly struck by the issue of violence against women. In my curiosity to better understand the issue, I carried out an empirical study on the type, frequency, and perpetuating factors of domestic violence. As part of my research, I visited burnt units across the city and interviewed survivors of acid attacks and ‘stove-burst accidents’. Four-weeks of planning, researching, and interviewing, culminated in a publication in a leading newspaper. My study revealed that most of the female victims were burnt by their husbands or in-laws in the so-called ‘stove-burst accidents’. While many of the victims refused to report the perpetrator and claimed that the burns were due to manufacturing defects in the stoves, such claims were flawed on two bases. First, the areas likely to be burnt in a genuine stove accident were limbs and abdomen, but most of the victims were admitted with burnt genitalia. Second, the position of the victim in the family (usually that of a wife) suggested that women were not burnt by mere accidents but were victims of domestic violence. Based on this study, I concluded that women subjected to domestic violence continue to suffer and protect their perpetrators in order to guard their family honor and respect their chauvinist husbands. The prevailing cultural norms determined the fate of these women.

Attending college in the United States added a new dimension to my perspectives. The economics classes offered in a liberal arts environment encouraged me to intellectually challenge myself, ask questions that would allow me to understand local and international policy issues, and tirelessly pursue their answers. With regards to gender issues, it made me realize that in this era of rapid globalisation where countries are stratified based on their varying social and economic development levels, the issue of gender inequality seems to surpass the developing/developed world dichotomy. It is truly global in nature and no single social or economic index explains it. In fact, by shaping expectations of a trait that is either masculine or feminine, and associating innate characteristics with each gender, the global society as a whole tends to view men and women through the lens of gender stereotypes. This gender stereotyping in turn rationalizes the socio-economic subordination of women.

I believe that there exists a strong correlation between a woman’s employment and her socio-economic prospects. What explains this relationship is the manner in which a woman’s access to outside income influences her position in family and society. Indeed, an economically unproductive woman becomes subjected to marital intimidation, vulnerability, and dependence, and in the case of the unfortunate women in Pakistan, even close-to-death domestic violence. The prevailing notion among the contemporary policy advisers in Pakistan, however, is that domestic violence is triggered by cultural and religious factors alone. Yet, a comprehensive socio-economic analysis reveals that the issue has its roots in socio-economics. In retrospect, most of the domestic violence documented in my earlier study stemmed from arguments over money between a husband and a wife or a row between a wife and a mother-in-law regarding dowry (monetary gifts from the bride’s family).

I strongly believe that the most effective way to curb violence against women begins with the understanding of the perpetuating factors of domestic violence and then addressing them through effective policy making. It is with this motivation that I returned to Pakistan where 80 percent of women experience domestic violence. While my particular interest lies in women’s advocacy in Pakistan, my Master’s program in Gender and Social Policy at the London School of Economics has allowed me to gain a multi-dimensional and global perspective on the study of gender. Equipped with the necessary set of analytical and theoretical skills required to prepare for a career as a gender specialist, I plan to now leverage my in-depth knowledge and passion for gender equality and women’s empowerment to prevent violence against women.