Feminism in the Modern Arab world
Today,
feminism is becoming evident throughout the entire western world. Feminist
movements and societies are growing in number, and the demand for awareness
regarding women’s rights are high. Towards the Arab world specially, the
pressure from west is rising and it is
obvious that Feminism is seen with some skepticism there even by women thus the demands for a change are prominent. This is
particularly visible through social media platforms around the world. Moreover,
being a society consisting of well-educated people, usually indicates that
there is a will to do good for your own community. However, the lack of involvement
by the Lebanese population strikes as a peculiar (unexpected/unanticipated)
approach to the issue that contributed to ignoring the role of woman in
building the society.
Lebanon
as a patriotic society, has a history of abolishing women and female rights;
women in Lebanon have thus experienced abasement and degradation throughout
centuries. However, four major feminist approaches have emerged in the last
century that have changed how people view women in the Middle East on a certain
limit. The first wave started with the pioneers (Raedat) during the 1920s (Nisaa
al Ishrinat). Feminism was affected by the conflict with colonialism in the
third world and the Middle East, and the social changes brought through Western
missionaries, as well as Ottoman and Egyptian attempts for emancipating women.
This wave of feminism in the Middle East was supported by women of elite - as
well as men. These were individuals interested in the education of women in
order to integrate in the public setting. The second wave of feminism appeared
when two camps: The Lebanese Women Union and the Christian Women's Solidarity
Association grouped in 1952 to form a permanent association named the “Lebanese
Council of Woman”. Furthermore, the third wave took place when the UN conference
situated in Beijing raised the topic of Women’s roles that provoked the
formation of two organizations: the National Commission for Lebanese Women
(NCLW) and the National Committee for the Follow up of Women’s Issues in 1955.
This NCLW was the official representative of the Lebanese to the UN that helped
in improving the participation of women in social, political, and economic
fields, besides it revokes any discriminatory hurdles against this
participation. The final wave was held when some women’s organizations, like
the Collective for Research and Training on Development-Action (CRTD-A) and
KAFA, connected between the third and fourth waves of Lebanese feminism that
handled problems like domestic violence and abuse of female domestic workers, women’s art, and male-centered knowledge
which contributed to the appearance of more women organizations in the late few
years like Nasawiya that aimed to “give a voice to the voiceless in the Lebanese
society” (Rita StephanNov 7 2014,para 3,5,7,16)
In spite
of these widespread movements, the absence of feminism in Lebanon is still
evident. The presence of several organizations that proceed to highlight the
importance of feminism and gender equity, fails to ignite engagement. Thus, the question remaining is what disables
the feminist movements from becoming entrenched in the Lebanese society? To
answer this question one needs to assess how the society views women.
In
the Arab world particularly, there is a long tradition of associating/linking
women to non-academic settings. The tendency derives from strongly ingrained
historic and religious practices/believes. Tracing the Islamic traditions back to their
origin, one discovers that the gender division has been evident since the
uprising of the religion. Well-defined gender rules have been established
throughout centuries in this religion, thus leaving its followers to the
continuation of these notions.
Subsequently,
the conception that rules and the ethics found that are prescribed based on
gender view, are firmly embedded in the Arab society. Men and women are
separated accordingly through general Islamic and cultural believes. As stated
by Haqiqatjou, Islam is a religion that promotes the separation of men and
women, thus leading this to be a general conception entrenched in the Lebanese
society (2017).
Due
to its predominance, Islam has affected the mindset of the Lebanese population
throughout generations. As a
result, new ideologies fail to establish roots in the Lebanese society. Traditions
and religiously related perceptions fail to become embedded in the society and
thus many Lebanese people remain in their traditional mindsets. However, being
that Islam is only widespread amid a certain percentage of the Lebanese
population, this remains as one of several causes of reluctance towards
feminism. Thus, these expectations are to a large extent caused by cultural
rather than religious traditions.
The cultural expectations enforced on women of
the Arab world are to a great extent restrictive in regard to female
liberation. The ideology of the Middle Eastern society enforces patriotic
tendencies, whereas male dominance is manifested. This creates a constant need for
the female to live up certain expectations and demands. Following Lebanese
traditions, family structures are distributed according to genders and gender
roles. Within the family, the importance of the males originates from the
conception of the family as an economic establishment. The father is viewed as
the economic head of the family, and thus the family steadiness relies on his
financial stability (Collelo, para. 1, 1987). Consequently, there have been few platforms where
women could perform in the public sphere, thus restricting her role to the
family settings.
Although
rooted in traditional believes, several of the previously mentioned
expectations are still embedded in the society. These (expectations) prevent women
from discovering and exploiting their independence. There is a continuous
belief that women are created for the men and the family only, and that her
existence depends on their needs. However, Feminism as a socio-political
movement in the western world has contributed to improving the females’ society
and resulted in several liberation movements where both genders are recognized
as equal, and have the same rights and privileges. These movement stands as
vital for the realization of females’ worth on political, social and
governmental podiums (Kezia, 2015).
Additionally,
counter poles challenging the entrenched social structures have been
introduced. This in turn prevents the growth of mind, and precludes discovery
of personal traits as well as possible distribution to society. As stated by Hashem there are several social
media platforms that have proceeded to exclude women from the political and
public life. In spite of this, feminism has allowed women to continue to ‘defy
obstacles’ and assert their presence in public places. This had been exerted both
in daily assessments, as well as publicly organized ‘framework’ (Hashem, 2017).
The two types of feminism:
One can directly conclude that there
are two types of feminism in Lebanon: the secular feminism and the religious
feminism. Amid these, several points of views appear. Some seculars see
religious feminism as a “healthy, strategic appeal for the masses and a way to
feminist movements accessible for more women”, whereas some secular women
believe that religious feminism restrain them, this is best described by Mir-hosseini
“the translation of the patriarchal notions inherent orthodox interpretations
of Islamic law into policy, provoked increasing criticism of these notions
among many women in their private space are the religious, traditional and
historic thoughts she is living". The Arab women against feminism claims
that the ideologies related to feminism diminishes the traditional family
structures and that some women are forced into family structures that they do
not wish upon themselves. Feminism strives to promote liberty of choice and
freedom to the woman.
In
addition to traditional religions and social structures, a majority of the
problem lies within the political aspect. The gender roles in Lebanon are, as
of today, still associated with old-fashioned beliefs. Primarily, the laws that
indicate who has the legal access to assets such as housing, land, income and
social benefits (USAID, 2014, chapter205, 8) are still in favor of the male. The disregard of such advantages inhibit the
female from taking the leading role in her household. Simultaneously, it
restrains the family structure and causes the female to be dependent upon the
male. A huge contributing factor is the division of parental custody after
divorce. The Islamic law, still applicable in the governmental system in
Lebanon, states that it is the male who is provided with parental custody in
the case of divorce (RRT Country research, 21 July 2004,
Attachment 6). This enables the man to obtain controlling power
of the household, whereas the woman’s capabilities remains restricted in
respect of the children’s legal status. These political affiliations reflect a
gender malfunction in the social structure of the society, which contributes to
the inequalities between the genders.
Men taking jobs
Another idea that posit the issue of
inequality between men and women is the dominance of men over jobs and this is
shown through history. Women’s entry into the workforce was not long time ago
and has been a dilemma for the heteropatriarchal system in Lebanon (in 19th
century woman and girls were the prime workers in silk factory),however the
female was then threatened by patriarchal powers and had to work for low wages with
compare to those given to the males. This situation has led to appearance of protests
that demanded for equaling the wages between men and women, and probably the
most significant protest in the history of Lebanon was that that happened in
November 1972 when workers of Ghandour candy company went on strike to demand higher
wages and equal distribution of wages between men and women, where many women
died as a result of conflict with the local police. Why men are preferred more
than women in handling jobs is still not obvious. Around 70 per cent of the 1.5 billion people in the
world living in poverty are women. If we only equate feminism with a mainstream
women's movement and labor organizing with men’s experience, feminist actions
won't be able to do a change and all their sacrifices will go useless. Leaders
of jobs should look on the option of hiring women to handle jobs taken by men
considering that they have studied the same amount of education and have the
same history of experience.
Feminism Misconceptions
The perception that feminism is generated in order to abolish
the ‘very widespread problem’ of ‘systematically subjugating women’ in the
Middle East, generates mistrust and skepticism towards the ideology
(Haqiqatjou, 2017). What fails to come across is how abusive relationships and
violation of women’s rights contribute to the causes of feminism being sought
in the Arab world. However, it is rooted in the desire to empower women to the
same extent as men. Nonetheless, the presence of feminism in the western world
is not due to its continuous violation of women’s rights, but rather due to the
desire to establish equality. From here where misconceptions and
misunderstanding of feminism arises.
To clarify, the first myth is that feminism is found to
strict men’s abilities and promote females potentials above them and to support
the women’s superiority above men, but in fact it is not men opposing and
feminists are not against men or even better than them. Feminism don’t aim to
hinder male rights but rather to give the female equal rights;” some woman
claim themselves as feminists and then bash themselves against males, that’s
isn’t feminism; that’s misandry, which is the hatred and prejudice against men”
(Ashley wrights, March, 6, 2015, para.3) (figure (2))
Another
misconception is that feminists can’t act feminine. Some people believe that in
order to stop the abasement against girls, feminists start to ignore how they
dress and how they look like, they just want to be comfortable and don’t expect anyone to tell them what to do and how
to behave. They are thought that by defending their rights to equal men they
lose their femininity. However many feminists consider that they are obliged to
do so in order to be accepted in the patriarchal society; through this way they
are losing their congenital instinct and are becoming more masculine.
Furthermore, many people consider that feminism is different
from sexism. To clarify, sexism is defined as “the unfair treatment of people
because of their sex “however feminism is defined by “the belief that men and
women should have equal rights and opportunities” and that feminism try to
“receive equal compensation, opportunities, and treatment unlike sexism that
tries to mistreat men” (Julia Schemmer, Dec 3, 2014,para.2).
(Figure (3))
-Western and Arab feminism
Furthermore,
the feeling of being undermined by women in the western world contributes to
the existing skepticism. A growing tendency amongst the feminist movement is
promoting the female body as predominant. Some state that the act of nakedness founds
empowerment of the genders. Thus, abundance of the male superiority emerges
from the ability to expose their bodies. Men are to a large degree indorsed to expose their
bodies, e.g. through laboring and manual work (Hashem, 2017). On the contrary, the exposure of the female body
is viewed as less acceptable. Consequently, the desire to create a counter poll
prompts the movement to induce nakedness as an excessive tool in the female
liberation process. This is particularly visible amongst western movements.
Unfortunately,
women in the Middle-East perceive the attitudes towards their sexual liberation
as accusation that highlights their ‘unwillingness’ to exploit their sexuality
when wearing short jeans or open T-shirt. As a result several Arab women state
that their nakedness is not needed to feel empowered. It creates an opposing
force where the purpose is to prove their self-worth and independence
regardless of body exposure.
Due
to the different social norms and customs, there is a great gap between Western
and Arab feminism. Lebanese Feminist movements wishes, to some extent, to
differentiate their views from the western ideologies. This emerges from the
difference in expectations towards Lebanese women contrary to the ones
projected on woman of western societies. For instance, the impression of what
the female role consists of, are rooted in the traditional Arab customs.
According to these, the woman is the primary caregiver in the family.
Traditionally, this was also the case in western societies; however, overtime
these expectations have changed dramatically. Simultaneously, family arrangements
in Western societies have undergone numerous changes. Room for challenging social norms are ending
in accusations regarding male and female roles, and how they are perceived in
society. A distinguish between the two movements thus causes differences in
both ideology and performance. According to Arab Muslim feminists, western
women are ‘deprived of their ethics and morals’ ( Taghrid Abu Sarhan,
2013, 15). This contributes
to the dissociation of western feminists movements in Lebanon.
-Shadow Feminism
What
feminism in Lebanon facing is best referred to as “shadow feminism”, to illustrate
the feminist approaches done were not able to make a noticeable change; they
were like a shadow. All the organizations and protests did not reach their goal
to equate males and females to ensure justice and to provoke women to play a
vital role in building the society they live in. They were not able to give
women a voice in decision making. Thus,
“shadow feminism gives a different picture of women's activism in Lebanon and
presents women who challenge norms of gender sexuality and class” (Suha B., 2003, 55). Feminism main goal is to stop the
neglect and marginalization women suffer every day in order to promote women to
be equal to men and recognize their identity away from all the traditions and
religious beliefs that constrain them and inhibits them from doing their roles
as active and useful.
-Consequences:
Consequences of a society with a lack of feminism include
higher rates of domestic violence, the abolishment of female rights and
minimized importance of females’ roles in the public sphere. A society without
feminism is like a flattened tire, it still have the circular shape but it
can’t rotate because it lost its sole. The lack of females’ appreciation has
its roots embedded in numerous social structures, which in turn contributes to
increased gender inequality. It is important to note that victims of domestic
violence may include individuals of both gender. Such incidents, however, may
be hard to detect. Feminism actively works to prevent incidents that affects
both genders, thus enabling it to be evident in the society is essential in
order to generate equality.
-How to solve the problem:
The perception that feminism is generated in order to abolish
the ‘very widespread problem’ of ‘systematically subjugating women’ in the
Middle East, generates mistrust and skepticism towards the ideology
(Haqiqatjou, 2017, para.6). What fails to come across is how abusive
relationships and violation of women’s rights are the causes of feminism being
sought in the Arab world. However, it is rooted in the desire to empower women
to the same extent as men. Nonetheless, the presence of feminism in the western
world is not due to its continuous violation of women’s rights, but rather due
to the desire to establish equality.
In fact feminism is itself a solution for the inequality between
genders. It appeared as a result of giving men more importance than women and
to support their roles in the society. It is to give females their identity and
their position in the community as working forces to let people view them as
humans with equal abilities and equal potentials who can hold high positions as
men do. All this can happen if feminist movements aim to let people accept this
idea and to further apply it. Thus a major approach to solve the lack and
weakness of feminism in Lebanon and the Arab world is by raising awareness
about what it really is and how to deal with it through clarifying its
misconceptions and promoting the job of organizations.
Misconceptions
about feminism are major contributor to why reluctance towards the ideology is
widespread amongst the Lebanese population. The perception that feminism exists
in order to portray and encourage a lifestyle that diminishes men, and the
traditional family structures, is added to skepticism. This idea that feminists are against men and
that they try to be over men must be modified by large number of people who
claim themselves as feminists first and by the rest of the society second. As
viewed in Figure 4 many “feminists” obsession to equalize males lead them to
control men, as a result many men turned sensitive and hated feminists. “It’s
making women think the only way they can be empowered is by degrading men as a
group”( Harriet Sinclair, March 3 2017).
Moreover, the fear of uneven distribution of
the relations between male and female is another aspect that miss explains the
concept. The attack of women against men in such vigorous way turn men afraid
from women taking their roles and leaving them behind, that women will take
control and the fight for promoting women to be equal as men will change to
fight of men to equalize women.
figure 4 : feminists wrong conceptions
The
fallacy that feminists need to lose their femininity to promote their existence
in the masculine society is part of this misconception and what feminists can
do is to promote both the equality and femininity to hinder this concept and
aware further coming feminists not to turn masculine when promoting justice
with men.
So
explaining this misconception can help feminists understand properly what they
need to do and what they need to avoid to ensure that their movement is
effective. Instead of aiming to marginalize men, women can demand to promote
their existence and roles to the level of males, with the help of males.
Feminism is not restricted to women but also to men that can
join females in their struggle against injustice and abuse and engage in their
movements in order to liberate all genders and build a society constructed on
equality far from the privilege of power that support men to ravage women by
force.
They
can support them in their action by standing with them in their protests and
publishing tweets, blogs or Facebook pages to differentiate between feminism
and its misconceptions to gather higher amount of advocators.
Furthermore, a significant way to give people a wider idea
about Feminism and what it aims is by enforcing the roles of organizations that
aim to raise the voice of women and encourage females to report if they face
violence and discrimination in home or in public spheres by making protests and
conferences that support females and aware them and by making advertisements on
the TV or newspaper or even social media. “Women cannot achieve equality on foundations
set by men. Instead, what is required is a process of building a more adequate
social theory through utilizing studies on women, by women in order that their
perspectives and experiences are recovered from the realms of marginality”.(Powell.J.L,
2013, para.2). Institutions like KAFA and NASAWIYA need to be more active
and try to differentiate between Feminism and its misconceptions so that they
can gather more advocators to support their movements and to limit the idea of
gender roles stereotyping in order to ensure justice and differentiate between
how feminism is portrayed and what it aims to do.
The absence of cooperation between organizations in Lebanon
is the main reason behind the decreased efficiency of feminist movements,
that’s due to the fact that every woman has its own loyalty to certain culture
and religion that many females put into the table before anything else. This
was obviously shown in the struggle to put laws in order to provide positions
for females in the elections and in the municipalities (women’s quota) which
didn’t reach to any result. It’s not only the responsibility of men but women
also play an important role in their separation from the society and especially
in taking jobs. Organizations must collaborate to make movements together and
encourage women to increase the confidence in their abilities and powers. A
single woman heading a successful institution will promote many others to
believe that they can also do it and that they don’t lack anything to reach
high positions and take big responsibilities like men do.
Moreover, promoting feminism and raising awareness through
the internet can be very effective since people are spending most of the time
on the virtual world. To explain, virtual organizations can be done on the
internet to gather the largest possible amount of supporters to aware them
about feminism and its aim to keep everything clear, far from misconceptions. Blogging,
for example, is working as new tool to raise awareness among its various users.
Also, viewing that feminism is matter of equating the capabilities and
opportunities of men to women, not to reach the state where women are better
than men on the internet will really help. To take gender concept away and give
a larger value to the abilities of both genders is the best way to fight injustice
in its various fields.
However,
a major concern amongst sceptics towards feminism here in Lebanon, is the worry
that the ideology will disrupt the common norms and gender structures. The conventional
norms are strongly embedded in the society and any new idea put on the platform
will be directly opposed behind the lid of cultures and traditions. If the
culture says that women are meant to be in their home having no jobs but to
meet the orders of their husbands who supply them with protection, and give the
best care to their families, then females are not expected to do something
rather than this or they will be considered as immoral girls who don’t respect
the traditions. Woman
in the Arab world was found to obey the man, stay under his protection and meet
his sexual expectations. In this situation the Arab woman needs to restrict
herself to certain limitations that she can or cannot do when she is exposed to
certain condition.
From
a social point of view, the tradition of protecting a woman is strongly
entrenched in the Lebanese society. In terms of protection, women are viewed as
weak and in need of a male amplifying their capabilities (Collins &
Dwyer, 2016, para.8). This creates a
barrier between the male and the female world, where the gender barrier has to
be crossed by a woman if she wishes to proceed into the world of a man. The
separation of genders in our society, and the idea of females need to be
protected by males, is “restricting female progress in the society” (Collins &
Dwyer, SBS, 2016, para.8).
Thus it’s important to try to keep the cultural and
traditional concepts away from the equation of feminism because it can’t reach
its goal with these present in the community in such large way. This can be
done by letting people who are attached to their cultures know that the world
has changed, and it is no more accepted to stay silent on the violation of
female rights and the underestimation of their capabilities. It is the time for
the culture to respect women. They need to understand that females are just
like males, they have the privilege to defend their rights and end this stereotyping.
Demanding for equality with men is not something against religions and
traditions, it is justice and must be found in every country around the world
not just limited to western societies or being westernized if women call for
it.
Understanding
that Feminism is an approach to equalize men and woman in the educational,
social and political life is important in promoting the role of woman in building
the best society away from discrimination and abuse. Increasing awareness that
the woman has the right to complete her study till a high level and to reach
high positions in social and political life by being the head of big
institutions or taking positions in the council of ministers or parliament can
encourage females and increase their self-confidence, which in turn promote
them to reach their goal.
Finally, feminism is about giving women the
liberty to participate, share and feel free to communicate with people on the
basis that they are as powerful as men especially in handling jobs. According
to Khader, empowering women in the workplace may contribute to the act of
raising women to prominent public roles, traditionally held by men. This will
potentially stand as an initiation to all further feminist movements, and will
contribute to the act of raising young girls in the belief of girl empowerment.
The stereotypes of feminism are important to be well cleared and identified in
order to ensure that the society is facing the right kind of feminism to reach
the best result which is stated by the American feminist Hoff Sommers when she
was interviewed about her book “Who Stole Feminism”:” I do worry
about a new generation of feminists who have been given a lot of
misinformation. They are on every college campus and are now out in the
community”. Raising
awareness remains the best solution to come closer to the Western feminism that
has proved its efficiency to support women roles in the society to a certain
limit, away from the idea of deprivation from morals and ethics and much far
from the cultural beliefs and traditions. Besides, the idea of being anti-men
to become a feminist must be deleted in order to have a “calm, more user
friendly feminism” (Hoff Sommers, 2017) [interview]. “Let’s stop quibbling about what
gender is “better” than the other, and let’s join hands to provide education,
dignity and a better standard of living for all”(Julia Schemmer, Dec 3,2014)(
Figure(5)), so is
there any way to reach it ?
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