News & Politics
A Muslim Woman’s Perspective on Obama’s Speech
Feminists are dissing him. Here’s what I liked about it.
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Feminists have given Obama’s three paragraphs on women in his Cairo speech a resounding thumbs down. (Click here for the XX Factor discussion.) I agree that Obama’s remarks were paltry compared to the depth and insight of his statements about Israel/Palestine and the war in Iraq. The bit about hijab was especially disappointing. In a region with unequal family laws, socially acceptable sexual harassment, and discriminatory legal codes, the hijab is hardly the main point of debate. Hijab and education are “safe” issues because one can bring them up without pointing fingers at men or regurgitating the stereotype of the brown Muslim man keeping the brown Muslim woman down. In taking this route, Obama ensures that he appeals to Muslim women who care about these two things without alienating Muslim men. This was politically shrewd, but estranging to women who have more pressing concerns about personal safety or finding a job to support themselves and their families.
In all this, there hasn’t been much said about what Obama did right. The fact that Obama even mentioned women’s rights is a big deal. And those three paragraphs were delicately crafted to contain subtle nods to both reformers and traditionalists.
Take his statement, “I do not believe that women must make the same choices as men in order to be equal, and I respect those women who choose to live their lives in traditional roles”; this was a shrewd linguistic move that soothes fears about tradition being thrown out of the window. At the same time, his mention of education was a nod to reformers: in many Middle Eastern countries, including Iran, the Emirates, and Qatar, female university attendance has risen in the last decade; reformers believe this will translate into long-term social and political change. His promise to “partner with any Muslim-majority country to support expanded literacy for girls, and to help young women pursue employment through micro-financing that helps people live their dreams,” reassures those reformers that the U.S. supports the same progress they do.
Finally, Obama took care not to merely point fingers. Crucially, he included the fact that America isn’t exactly a bastion of gender equality: “Meanwhile, the struggle for women's equality continues in many aspects of American life, and in countries around the world.” We often forget that when we point our fingers at other countries and find things about their gender systems objectionable, we’re living in a glass house built upon obscene rates of discrimination, rape, and violence against women. That doesn’t absolve anyone, but Obama carefully reminded us that we are all moving forward together in improving things for women.
That’s why those three paragraphs are a pretty big deal. Peter Daou at the Huffington Post is correct in suggesting, “If we are to fix America's image in the world and if we are to heal the planet's myriad ills… It will be done by leading through example, by righting the many wrongs here at home, by seeking justice and fairness for all …” Including women’s rights in a speech about solving conflicts and moving forward does just that.
Photograph of Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton by Mandel Ngan/AFP/Getty Images
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Obama's speech in Cairo was
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Obama's speech in Cairo was great.
"feminist puritanism"...what?
By: firelizard | Tue, 06/09/2009 - 20:29
I read Usama3's comment, and honestly, while it was interesting, I have to ask him/her if they read the article. It did not say Obama didn't go far enough, it said saying what he did was an important step. It definitely wasn't advocating armed invasion to promote women's rights. What article did Usama3 read?
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By: Usama3 | Sun, 06/07/2009 - 19:41
Clearly you wanted Obama to demand by use of force for the Muslim world to replicate Europe and America in their treatment of women.
Except, from the Muslim perspective, the West is STILL an invasive, neo-imperial force bent on subjugating the Muslim people for Western interests and gain.
This relationship is validated by daily accounts of Western military bases planned or built in Muslim lands (the latest being a French base in Abu Dhabi). Is it concievable for a Saudi military base to be outside of New York city, or outside of Houston?
Thus, the Muslim male mentality, if one can generalize, is indeed to 'defend' and 'conserve' tradition and custom and culture and religion even if one does NOT distinguish between which are good or bad or irrelevant and so forth. And this mentality has grown over the decades whereas the cause to follow Western guidance has dissipated. Its a historical fact that in the 1950s, most Egyptian women did NOT wear hijab or publicly display Islamic culture. Today, its a majority that wear hijab and are increasingly proud and devoted of Islam.
The Western mindset of confrontation in order to gain an advantageous change may have worked internally and domestically, but it has the opposited effect in the Muslim world. In fact, the presence of 100s of 1000s of American troops stationed in Saudi Arabia and Kuwait was the catalyst for global widescale terrorism and militarism against America and its allies. It also sparked increasing 'conservatism' in the Muslim world amongst men, including men mistreating and repressing women.
For Western feminists to presume that Obama should 'confront' the Muslim world to gain what they percieve to be rights perpetuates bad relations between Muslims and the West.
On the contrary, Islam contains many of the rights and values that uplift women and reenforce the cause of justice, fairness, good that people generally respect. But if one is merely seeking the practice and application of feminist ideological purity- a cause which has been proven to be contrary to human interests and stable societies for all- than one is systemically in error. It is best to approach Muslim leadership to reenforce the cause of Islam as the Prophet Muhammmad (saaw) practiced. This has worked in Egypt where the effort to end FGM included Al Azhar Islamic scholars and women's rights activists to eliminate the ancient preIslamic custom of FGM. As well, the Prophet Muhammmad (saaw) had 4 daughters and never performed FGM on them rather he discouraged it when one approached him about it.
This is the best way to reenforce womens' rights in the Muslim world.