Casually Oppressing Women
“One was a shy, slender young woman who spoke no English when she was brought from Pakistan to enter an arranged marriage with a stranger in Virginia. The other was a self-confident professional, born in Turkey but raised in the United States, who thought she knew what she was doing when she married an educated Muslim man in Maryland.†Life in Maryland, however, proved to be horrible:
“My husband beat. He show knife. I am scared for him, for all family,†said Shamim, 21, the Pakistani bride, who was rescued by police. She is being sheltered and tutored in English at a private home. “They say no money, no call mother at home. I cook for all, I not eat. I not know 911 what is. I think I go crazy.â€
I do not understand why Western feminists, who are supposed to stand for women rights, never speak out against the oppression of women in Muslim communities in the West and in quite some Muslim countries.
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15 Responses to “Casually Oppressing Women”
You’ll also find lots of discussion on feminist sites about Muslim women being oppressed in both their own countries and in western countries.
http://feministing.com/archives/006766.html
http://feministing.com/archives/005902.html
http://www.msmagazine.com/news/uswirestory.asp?id=8466
http://www.feminist.org/news/newsbyte/uswirestory.asp?id=8957
“I do not understand why Western feminists, who are supposed to stand for women rights, never speak out against the oppression of women in Muslim communities in the West and in quite some Muslim countries”
Me neither.
Maybe because no one is listening to the voices of feminists?
I certainly hear and read lots of comments.
My impression was the same as domajot. They do speak out against abuse of Muslim women quite frequently. I’m glad Kansasgirl was able to provide some links.
OH, Western feminist aren’t doing enough, are they?
Since when did Westerners give a rats ass about oppression in other countries in general?
Western men seem more interested in buying these women (or the girls in some cases) not liberating them
Thank you Kansascat: good stuff. Of course there are *some* feminists who do so, my point is more that they do not do it nearly enough (and in some cases we have even seen feminists joining forces with fundamentalist – note not radical or extremist – Muslims in their opposition, for instance, to the war in Iraq).
Anyway: thanks for those links.
I wonder why there isn’t a full scale feminist movement to do something about this problem. They should really launch a big campaing, equal to the pro-abortion campaign.
Some of us worry that if we push too hard, we will only make things more difficult for our veiled sisters, who have to live in a society where men will beat them for showing too much wrist, where a woman can be executed as an adulteress for having been brutally gang raped.
Some of us — in the case of Taliban Afghanistan for example, where women could only be taken care of by female doctors but females were forbidden to gain the educational level necessary to become a doctor — feel that because the actions taken by men amount to self-genocide, the terrible circumstances simply cannot survive a generation.
Some of us are too busy fighting for things like equal pay and adequate access to contraception and proper care/education for our children to spend a whole lot of time on things halfway across the world. We have to pick which battles to fight, because there is not enough time or energy to fight them all.
Some of us believe that the solution to our Muslim sisters’ problems must come from within their own sisterhood of feminists. We will gladly support groups that do this work, but they have to — if I may borrow from the psychologist’s lingo — take ownership of the problem and decide to do something about it.
Some of us realize that in the Western world, it *may* be a woman’s choice to wear modest clothing, and even chador, veil, hajib, or burka. That being said, in the Western world a woman of any culture has the inalienable right to choose her own marriage partner and furthermore the inalienable right not to be assaulted.
On a related note, this item absolutely stunned me. At 6 this girl was shipped off to India to care for her sick mother and at 11 she was in a forced marriage. Her Aunt back in the UK apparently thought it was just fine for an elementary school child to
be a slavecare for a disabled adult, but not just fine for her to be forced into sex and marriage. Her own family did this to her, other female members of her own family had the power to prevent even the faintest possibility of it happening.We can’t save the world when some people won’t even save a blood relative.
“Since when did Westerners give a rats ass about oppression in other countries in general?”
That’s my general impression. Much as workers rights activists in the US aren’t crusading to end child slavery throughout the world, American feminists (as ShortWoman has aptly shown us) deal with AMERICAN feminist issues. I’m sure the vast majority abhor Muslim treatment of women, though I agree that sometimes some (not all) feminist organizations make “allies” out of Muslims for other purposes and it makes me entirely uneasy.
That said, I think more should be done about Muslim women INSIDE the US. Fine that you can’t very well take on the viscous Islamic world beyond our borders, but educating and campaigning for laws obligating equality for any woman within the US should be at the forefront of an American feminist organization, since doubtlessly Muslim women (especially recent immigrants) must rate amongst the most vulnerable of women. I can only hope this is the case.
“other female members of her own family had the power to prevent even the faintest possibility of it happening.”
A common misconception of discrimination against women is that only men do it. This is of course nonsense, women are very often the most common “enforcers” of their own oppression. They are the ones teaching their daughters that they are lesser and are to obey men. They are the ones teaching their sons to lord over women. They are the ones who will socially exclude another woman who steps out of bounds, and often the one who will snitch about rule breaking. A woman who leaves “her place” is a living reminder that you are too afraid to do the same. Some will react with admiration, others with hate.
Lynx, I don’t think American feminists only worry about American women. And I don’t think Short Woman speaks for all feminists (nor do I). We’re a big diverse group.
And to Michael van der Gaelin:
I remember reading about the Taliban’s treatment of women well before the Sept 11 attacks made the Taliban a household word. Ms. Magazine followed the developments in Afghanistan pretty closely and urged readers to contact human rights groups to protect women’s treatment there.
That said, as American feminists, we have more power to act in the U.S. There’s only so much we can do to change laws in another country.
As for the plight of Muslim women in the U.S. trapped in abusive marriages – I think this is more an issue of domestic abuse in general than one of the oppression of women in Muslim communities. I don’t know the statistics, but I don’t think that spousal abuse in the U.S. is more prevalent in Muslim marriages than in non-Muslim marriages. What struck me about the 21-year-old Pakistani bride is that she didn’t know she had rights in the U.S. To me, this woman has more in common with sex slaves who are brought to the U.S. and held against their will than with Muslim wives in arranged marriages. And that’s a lot harder to fix. We can pass laws outlawing spousal abuse, but how do you know that everyone knows their rights?
And…I almost let this go but I just couldn’t do it…..but the pro-abortion campaign? Wow. Although I’m sure some people think abortion is a good thing, I think most people in the pro-choice camp believe (as I do) that the fewer abortions, the better.
MvdG–
Strawman alert!
Blaming “feminists” is a laughably vague.
Who, specifically, is disappointing you?
I just spoke to a Muslim woman.
According to her,a Muslim woman is more likely to go to her Imam than to talk to outsiders. Toghether, they may decide to call the police and enlist social services.
The fear of reprisals (re her children as well) plays a large role, and it is wise, rather than cowardly, for westerners to enter the fray in a particular case carefully.
When a whole culture needs to change, the situation is not anything like dealing with the abuse of indivicual women in the West.
I rarely hear western feminists speaking out about the plight of muslim women.
And I don’t think Short Woman speaks for all feminists (nor do I). We’re a big diverse group.
Indeed. That’s why every point began with the phrase “Some of us….” Each of us has our own opinion, and our own priorities. Furthermore, that is a Good Thing. My personal feminist priorities, for example, include affordable health care, local victims of domestic abuse, and the right of women to be treated as competant human beings by men in positions of authority (whether that authority is as a cop or as an auto mechanic). Yours are probably different, but I have found quite enough issues to keep me busy close to home.
Short Woman, I wasn’t criticizing you for focusing on women closer to home. I thought it was clear in your post you didn’t claim to speak for all feminists and I was just pointing that out to Lynx.