Women and Islam: Advanced Topics Week#3 By Dr. Monia ... · Shia presence in Saudi Arabia: about...
Transcript of Women and Islam: Advanced Topics Week#3 By Dr. Monia ... · Shia presence in Saudi Arabia: about...
Women and
Islam: Advanced
Topics
Week#3By Dr. Monia Mazigh
Fall, 2019 ©
Women in Two “Islamic Countries”: The
Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) and The
Islamic Republic of Iran (IRI)
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Title of the book: “A Most Masculine
State: Gender, Politics and Religion in
Saudi Arabia”
Author: Madawi Al-Rasheed
Cambridge University Press, 2013
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Women in Saudi Arabia
She is Saudi-Arabian-born. She is a visiting professor at the Middle East Centre at the London School of Economics and Political Science, London, UK.
She is the granddaughter of Mohamed bin Talal Al-Rasheed, the last prince of Emirate of H’ail.
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Madawi Al-Rasheed
Saudi women are either superstars
or victims of their own society and
within their religion
“Are society, culture, and religion
responsible for the extreme
marginalization of Saudi women in
the public sphere?”
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Introduction to the book
Women discrimination in Saudi Arabia
is situated in the evolution of the state
from one relying on religious revival to
one anchored in religious nationalism
Women are central to these political
(nationalistic) and religious projects
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Her main arguments
“If there is anything unique about
Saudi Arabia, it is the long historical
association between the state and
religion to which women have been
central”
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Important Point
WahhAbism Wahhabism is named after an 18th century
preacher: Muhammad ibn Abd al-Wahhab (1703–1792)
He started a reform movement in the remote, sparsely populated region of Najd
He called for a purging from widespread Sunni practices as the veneration of saints and the visiting of their tombs and shrines
“A corpus of doctrines", and "a set of attitudes and behaviour, derived from the teachings of a particularly severe religious reformist who lived in central Arabia in the mid-eighteenth century" Gilles Kepel
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1945: Oil for Military ProtectionKing Ibn Saud converses with President F.D. Roosevelt
The insurgents called for the
overthrow of the House of Saud that
they accused of corruption and
religious permissiveness
Consequences: stricter adherence
to Wahhabism
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The Seizure of the Grand
Mosque in Mecca: 1979
Several and major unrest in Qatif (Eastern region)
Shia presence in Saudi Arabia: about 10% or 15% of the population (about 20 million native Saudi)
Sectarian outburst of violence between Shia minority and Sunni Majority
Beginning of Shia mobilization in Saudi Arabia
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1979: The Iranian Islamic
Revolution
In the 1990s, a new Saudi Arabian
culture started to emerge: post
capitalism, globalized, consumption
culture, neo-liberal market
economy
How religious authorities reacted to
this new economic environment?
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Economic and Religion:
Strange Bedfellows
How to keep this immorality away
from Saudi youth and especially
from women
They would issues fatwas to
dissuade the youth from adopting
this “impious” way of life…
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Religious Challenges
“The political and religious forces have combined to generate the seeming obsession separating men and women in the public sphere, from the market to mosque, university, and school; the regulation of marriage to foreigners, subject to the requirement of obtaining permission from the Ministry of Interior; the guardianship system imposed on women; and many other legal restrictions”
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Roots of the Obsession with
Women’s Lives
On one hand, you have a state that encourages a neoliberal type of economy: consumption, malls, urban shopping, flourish the cosmopolitan fantasy
On the other hand, we have a state that forbids mixed encounters, control sex and desire to remind people about their commitment to “religious nationalism”
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Contradictory Society
The oil economy had a
tremendous impact on gender
relations, marriage, and sexual life
The state turned a natural instinct
into an obsession
Is this segregation model viable?
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The Impact of Wealth Oil on
Gender Relations
The oil economy contributed to the
consolidation of the obsession with
women bodies
Enforcement of moralities and sex
segregation
Monetization, privatization, consumption,
and excessive advertising
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Oil Economy and its Social
Impacts
“While secular Arab nation states
have, since the 1950s, espoused
women and their emancipation as
legitimate causes under the rhetoric
of national development, the Saudi
state declared women in need of
protection, welfare, and paternalistic
support under the umbrella of Islam”
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Concluding remarks by al-
Rasheed
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In 1955: the first school for girls was established
In 1970: the first university for women in Saudi Arabia was opened: The Riyadh College of Education.
Very few access to social, political and legal rights
During King Abdallah’s reign: increasing women’s political and economic rights and enhanced access to higher education
In 2001: Women were issued national ID cards for the first time
In 2009: first female vice-minister was appointed
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2015: Women running for the first tie in municipal elections
Saudi women had achieved high levels of education and social awareness (with literacy rates of more than 90% for young women) and exceeded men in university enrollment
in June 2018, women were given the right to drive cars
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President Trump, Oct. 2, 2018
“We protect Saudi Arabia. Would you say
they’re rich. And I love the King, King
Salman. But I said ‘King — we’re
protecting you — you might not be there
for two weeks without us — you have to
pay for your military,’
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Mohamed Ben Salman (MbS): the New
Face of Saudi Arabia?
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MbS: Women at the Forefront
of Vision 2030
January 2019, the Kingdom announced
the Women in the Workplace Initiative:
equal pay for equal work
Women make up approximately 20% of
the Saudi domestic labour force but earn
54% of what men make for equivalent
work
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The new initiative does not demand complete gender segregation of the work environment
The government plans to raise the share of women in the labor force to 30% by 2030
The Saudi government is promoting women-only industrial parks and workspaces
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August 2019, Saudi women were allowed
to apply for a passport and travel without
the permission of a male guardian
September 2019, KSA has relaxed the
mandatory dress code for tourists
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Women in the Islamic Republic
of Iran
Women participated in the Iranian Revolution
between 1977-1979 against the Shah
Their reasons for opposing the Shah were
varied: economic deprivation, political
repression, identification with Islam
Middle-class and working-class women
protestors were wearing the veil as a symbol
of opposition to Pahlavi bourgeois or
Westernized decadence
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In 1981, the Islamists were able to make
veiling compulsory and to enforce it
During the first half of the 1980s, the
Islamic Republic (IRI) banned women
from acting as judges and discouraged
women lawyers
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The Shah’s Family Protection
Law of 1967 and 1973
It had restricted polygyny
Raised the age of marriage for girls from 9
to 15 years of age
Allowed women the right to divorce
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The ”good” Muslim woman came to symbolize the moral and cultural transformation of society
The success of the revolution and the return of Islamic values depended on the appearance and comportment of women—a responsibility that some women gladly assumed but which others found extremely onerous or simply opposed
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The death of Ayatollah Khomeini in 1989
The presidency of Hashemi Rafsanjani (1989-1997), in the context of economic liberalization and integration into the global economy
The Iran-Iraq war (1980-1988): employment opportunities for educated women in the public sector, particularly in health, education, and (to a lesser extent) public administration
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Women were strongly discouraged from public roles
However, they were not formally banned from the public sphere
The regime rewarded Islamist women by allowing them to run for Parliament and giving them jobs in the civil service
These Islamist women made demands on the government for equality and greater opportunity.
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After the death of Ayatollah Khomeini, the
government reversed its opposition to
family planning and embarked on a
vigorous campaign to stabilize population
growth
The total fertility rate declined in Iran from
3.2 to 2.3 children per woman
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In 1990s
Women were encouraged to enter
gynecology, pharmacology, midwifery,
and laboratory work
The government also opened the field of
law to women in the 1990s. “Women legal
consultants” were permitted in the
Special Civil Courts, although women still
could not serve as judges
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About 35%t of public sector employees
today are women. Most work in the
Ministries of Education and Health and
about 35 percent have university degrees
During the academic year 2002-2003,
women’s enrollments exceeded those of
men for the first time since universities
were established in Iran in the 1930s
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The Quiet Revolution
Soheila Jelodarzadeh
Jamileh Kadivar
Fatemeh Rakai
Fatemeh Haghighatjoo
Elaheh Koulai
They became outspoken advocates of reform and women’s rights. They called for changes in the patriarchal family laws as well as more political freedom
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Temporary marriage
Temporary marriage or sigheh.
Women who agree to sigheh would do so
out of financial need ( widows or
divorcees)
In most cases, the man is married and
much older than the woman
Younger generations are opting for “white
marriage”
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Polygamy or polygyny: polygamy is almost
non-existent in Iran but the law still allows it
Post-Divorce Financial Arrangements: women
obtained the right to claim compensation for
household services rendered during marriage
Extending a wife's access to divorce
Granting women more grounds for requesting
a divorce
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Sources KSA https://www.abouther.com/node/13416/people/fea
tures/mbs-puts-womenforefront-vision-2030
https://intpolicydigest.org/2019/10/20/women-s-rights-reforms-in-saudi-arabia-under-mohammed-bin-salman/
IRI https://www.wilsoncenter.org/sites/default/files/Vale
ntineMoghadamFinal.pdf
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vaafty1YK6M
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yYaRb070r8E
https://www.amazon.ca/Politics-Womens-Rights-Iran/dp/0691135479
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Your thoughts…
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