Feminism and Islam

There is a tendency in some feminists to confuse approval with respect for differently held certain religions and cultures, thereby allowing themselves to be being seduced into complicity with anti-Muslim prejudices. As someone who acknowledges serious doubts about the practices of many religious institutions, I want to explore the difference between holding this viewpoint and displaying prejudice against the people who choose to follow certain religious practices.
The Muslim community is currently being marked as an out-group The sins of a few are being imposed on all and distorted into inaccurate representations of the Muslim men as rapists and Muslim women as passive victims. We are seeing fear mixed with a framework of law and order being used to unify the majority against a demonised group.

One of the markers of out-groups is the way in which the sins of a few are vested on many. When I hear some feminists making general derogatory comments about Muslim men or women, I am shocked. I can see echoes of the twists in consciousness that were used by anti-Semites to justify programs against Jews. Yes, there are differences between dinner conversations official policies, but there are connections.

Please don't shrug this off as 'political correctness' or a romanticisation of Muslim religious views. I have no time for institutionalised beliefs that encourage extreme forms of discipline and punishment, and, like many, find some of the cultural and legal practices in some countries abhorrent. However, any attempt to change these practices does not justify a generalisation about Muslims. Muslims, like feminists, are not a homogenous group. There are multiple forms and practices, including many that are little different to some forms of Christianity and Judaism.

By making comments about Muslims in general and assumptions about the position of women, we reduce all Muslims to Other-strangers who are not like us. When comments are made that assume women who wear headscarves in Australia are not in control of their own decisions, these women are denigrated. They are denied their own agency-ironically something that many feminists have fought long and hard to provide women. There are many tough and articulate feminist women who wear headscarves. This is not a contradiction. The contradiction is perhaps between the feminist mantra of choice and an inability to respect the choices being made.

For example, ultra orthodox Jewish women are expected to shave their heads and wear a wig. Like those who wear crucifixes or other signals of spiritual belief, when Muslim women choose to cover their heads, they are expressing their faith in public. If we disagree with their beliefs, we can argue this civilly, recognizing that we also hold beliefs others may question. This is different to assuming they are somehow less than us and do not deserve our respect.

Problems occur if there is no choice and people are compelled to wear certain clothes. In a democratic country, the question is not what we believe in, but whether we do it without compulsion. There is also the right to engage in debate and express our views, but democratic freedoms come with responsibilities to recognise the effects of our expression of views on others.

Ethnic slurs are common in public abuse. Their use in the rapes does not mean they were the reason for them. There are long traditions of young men seeking sex outside the groups they are likely to marry, then expressing contempt for those they have sex with. Many women have been referred to as 'town bikes' or sluts. The assumption that religious beliefs are implicated in rape also needs to be questioned. Literal interpretations of religious texts are problematic in most religions of the book, but none of them sanction rape.

We also need to distinguish between deliberately racist acts and the excessive acts of gang driven masculinity expressed as violence against women. Rape is a gender crime. Cases such as Anita Cobby's and Leigh Leigh's ended in murder, but there were no outcries against the groups which produced these men. These were rapes in a long tradition of good old Aussie 'gang bangs'. We have no reason to assume these latest locally born and educated youth were more affected by their religion than their attachment to gang violence.

We should question the public outrage on these rapes because some men who happened to be Muslim committed them. There has been an interesting rise of false feminist consciousness in some Australian males, who are usually very anti-women. This includes some shock jocks who suddenly decide to defend Australian womanhood against the presumed attacks of Muslim men, then ponder out loud why feminists are not supporting the hue and cry against these rapists. This type of folk panic may add some listeners and voters but it fractures the possibilities of problem solving with civility.

The process for creating the Other (who is not like us) was also visible at the beginning of the war against the Taliban. Protests about the situation of women in Afghanistan were ignored for years until George Bush wanted to make war on the Taliban. Laura Bush and others set the scene by invoking the problems of women as a reason for bombing the then rulers out of office. Women are no longer on that political agenda nor will rape as violence against women be followed up locally.

The use of race based hate as a means of creating patriotism and forms of national unity has a long tradition, we need to be wary of its current guise. The increasingly evident connection between scapegoating out groups and calls for law and order are also fairly toxic. As feminists, let's take particular care to not become complicit in fear mongering and racism. We know what it feels like to be Other!

Eva Cox
23/09/2002