Women’s movements in Muslim societies

The awareness of Muslim women of inequality and limited access to justice compared to their male counterparts is the result of Muslim encounters with Western values through, for example, education.

Studies of women’s movements indicate that women began to organize into movements as they became modernized (Ahmed 1992; Brenner 1995). Women’s encounters with modernization indeed bring betterment for women’s status. The number of literate women continues to increase as education becomes more accessible. Women are able to achieve higher education, which later enables them to engage in public affairs. Some women have even enjoyed political leverage in their communities. Women become active participants in social, economic and political fields, but they are at the same time challenged by the surviving patriarchal social structure. Some Muslim men see women’s wider engagement in public affairs as a threat to their authority, both at home and in public (Ong 1990). As a result, they demand that women retreat from public space and return to their ‘domestic’ tasks.

To counter this move, Muslim women form themselves into women’s groups. Muslim women associate within women’s groups to challenge traditional authorities and their use of religion to justify women’s subordination. In Iran, women began to organize into autonomous groups in 1905. In Turkey and Egypt women’s movements emerged in 1908 and in 1920 respectively (Ahmed 1992; Paidar 1996). In Iran, women’s movements began in the form of individual struggle before the establishment of women’s groups. Since it began with individual struggle, the struggle did not seek power or attempt to democratize the patriarchal social and economic system. Rather, these individual struggles addressed women’s resentment under the oppressive domination of men and demanded fairness in the way they were treated (Mojab 2001, 125). It was only later in their development that women’s movements in Iran began to fight against the conservative practices of religion. However, at this time, they did not yet accept ideas of Western feminism, so their outlook and motivations were primarily based on Islam, making it an indigenous struggle (Mojab 2001, 126, 128).

In the 1970s, Iran experienced a growing Islamization of society and women responded by forming movements to struggle for gender equality and justice. These movements were ‘Islamic’, since they held Islam as the only authentic, indigenous road to gender equality and justice (Mojab 2001, 130). During this period, women’s movements emerged as a response to growing conservatism, which provoked women’s awareness of their rights within Islam. This awareness later manifested in various forms of women’s activities developed together with the ‘new religious thinking movement’, which emerged in the late 1980s. The ‘new religious thinking movement’ in Iran was led by Abdolkarim Soroush, and attempted to address the use of sharia/Islam to justify the state’s ideology that regulates the private lives of individuals (Mir-Hosseini 2006, 637).

Islamic feminist movements, such as that which emerged in Iran, have also appeared in other countries in the Middle East. Women’s movements in the Muslim world, especially in the Middle East and North Africa, consist largely of women with professional backgrounds such as lawyers, writers, educators, civil servants and business women (Moghadam 2009, 12). At least seven forms of women’s groups currently exist in the Middle East and North African countries. These include service or charitable organizations, official or state-affiliated women’s organizations, professional associations, women’s studies centres, women’s rights, or feminist organizations, non-governmental organizations working on women’s and development issues, and worker-based or grassroots women’s groups (Moghadam 1998, 2003). These groups of women have played a highly vocal and visible role in pushing for family law reform. They prioritize their struggles to change laws on personal status so that women can have their rights and equality in the family. Their campaigns include criminalization of domestic violence (including honour crimes), equality of nationality rights and greater opportunities for political and economic participation. To advance their causes, women’s organizations also initiate research, advocacy and lobbying directed at government institutions, religious leaders, the media and international organizations. In pursuing their goals, women activists pursue different platforms, incorporating ideas ranging from universal human rights, global women’s rights, to Islamic feminist agendas. They appeal to their governments to align their domestic policies with international conventions, such as CEDAW¹⁵ (the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women) and the Beijing Platform for Action (Kandiyoti 1995).

In many other Middle East and North African countries, women’s rights groups have been pushing for women’s empowerment through legal reforms. They demand better employment opportunities and access to wider political participation.

In Nigeria, human rights and women’s rights activists employ multiple and intersecting discourses, including Islamic feminism, human rights, democracy and progressive religious discourse to advance their cause. These discourses complement each other and can help advance the agenda of women’s rights, gender and social justice (Badran 2008, 174). Badan observes that Nigeria, which is a secular country, has a number of both Muslim and Christian women’s organizations, and all these women’s organizations employ a variety of different frameworks in approaching women’s problems. Some Muslim women choose to work within an Islamic framework, while others employ multiple frameworks with reference to international norms or secular feminism. Though working in a different framework, these two kinds of women’s organizations are increasingly converging on one common concern that touches on issues including women’s rights, state and society. This can be seen following the famous zina (sexual activities outside marriage) cases in Nigeria. They involved two women, Safiyatu Husseini and Amina Lawal, who were sentenced to death by stoning for committing zina in 2002 (Badran 2008, 173). Their death sentences galvanized Nigerian women and human rights activists from different ideological backgrounds to seek gender justice (Badran 2008, 183).

Muslim women’s movements that operate within an Islamic framework have also begun to appear in Muslim countries in Asia such as in Indonesia and Malaysia. Like the struggle of Muslim women in the Middle East, in order for Muslim women in Southeast Asia to advocate reform and demand change of the laws, they need to engage in the project of interpretation of texts and laws. Muslim feminist scholars such as Norani Othman, for example, are adamant that Muslim women need to continuously engage with Islamic issues, challenge the male monopoly on the interpretation of Islamic texts, and maintain their struggle against patriarchal religious authority (Othman 2006, 340). Othman also highlights the need for women’s activists to form coalitions and alliances to work with progressive and democratic Muslim intellectuals and scholars.

In the case of Malaysia,¹⁶ ‘women and the family have been defined and redefined in the concepts, policies, and practices circulated by the state and by resurgent Islam’ (Ong 1990, 258). The Ulama and the government have also introduced a rigid interpretation of Islam and hindered open discussion of religion. Thus, the struggle for gender equality in Malaysia begins with challenging the conservative religious establishment, such as the Ulama (religious authorities) and the government (Othman 2006, 346–347). The biggest challenge for women activists in Malaysia is that they have to challenge conventional conservative understandings that the doors to ijtihad (independent and innovative legal reasoning) are closed, except for Ulama with a traditional religious education. On this view, other Muslims do not have the right to speak on or question any matter pertaining to Islam.

Another depressing fact for women’s activists in Malaysia is that many Malaysian Muslims lack the willingness to question the details of any bill enacted by government, many of which are said to be derived from Islam (Othman 2006, 346). This is because the state has systematically set a measure that questioning ‘sharia-derived bills’ will lead to accusations of being ‘against Islam’. Martinez (2006, 261) has also made similar observations, claiming that middle-class Malay Muslims are ‘unwilling’ to address any issues affecting Muslim women for fear of being labelled ‘less Islamic’ or ‘insulter of Islam’. This public mood was then used by political leaders to gain political mileage from Islamic voters.

This situation has led women’s movements in Malaysia to employ two strategies to fight for women’s rights (Othman 2006, 347). The first is to fight against the patriarchal culture embedded within the society, which has become a source of bias or discrimination against women. The second is to fight against the use and adoption of Islam by the state to justify gender-biased or discriminatory and misogynist policy and regulation in society. While pursuing these two strategies, women activists in Malaysia seek the support of progressive Muslim scholars and intellectuals who have authority on religious knowledge, to reinterpret Islamic sources. Muslim women activists in Malaysia also seek to introduce gender discourse to politicians and members of religiously conservative groups and the Islamist political parties.

One women’s organization that has played a significant role in promoting gender equality within the Islamic framework in Malaysia is Sisters in Islam. Sisters in Islam (SIS) is committed to advancing women’s rights, as well as human rights in general, within an Islamic framework (Saeed 2004, 96–97). This organization was established in 1993 from what began as women’s study group. Its leaders come from well-educated backgrounds and most have a law degree. SIS engages in public advocacy and provides education for women to help them understand their rights within Islam. The establishment of SIS arose from concerns over the injustices that women experienced under the implementation of Islamic law (Anwar 2001, 228). As indicated above, the founders of SIS were previously lawyers who became part of the sharia subcommittee of the association of women lawyers looking into problems with Islamic family law. According to Hefner (2001, 242–243) the establishment of SIS in Malaysia is:

A result of dynamic development following the global politics which enhanced the legitimacy of increasingly high-profile Muslim feminist organizations who have worked to bring about reforms in the Islamic courts and other Islamic institutions so as to improve the legal options and overall living standards of Muslim women.

As demonstrated, Muslim women activists organize themselves into organizations and involve themselves in women’s movements in attempts to advance women’s status and to promote legal reforms and social transformation in society. It shows that in their struggle women strategize their movement by developing networks and coalitions with male religious authorities and the reform-minded Muslims, as seen in the case of Iran, Morocco and Nigeria. Women’s movements have also demonstrated the ability to engage in their struggle for equality within Islamic frameworks, and within the broader discourse of democracy and human rights.

The next section discusses the emergence and development of women’s organizations, women’s NGOs and women’s movements in twentieth-century Indonesia. Although Indonesia is not an Islamic state, Islam has been an important element in shaping national politics. Thus, the discussions above are relevant to understanding Indonesia’s women’s movements.