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OverviewsII"Women in Islam: Islam as Hindrance,"Overview from the Anthropological Tradition."Orthodox Islam and Egyptian Women: . A Survey Analysis," by Shahin Gerami "Some Ideas about Women's Work in Algeria," by Farouk Benatia. "Toward the Study of the Psychodynamics of Mothering and Gender in Egyptian Families," by Mervat Hatem. "Attitudes of University Students Toward Women's Work: The Case of Jordan," by Mohammad Issa Barhoum "The Changing Status of Islamic Women in the Arab World," by Debbie J. Gerner-Adams. "Women and Industrial Work in Egypt: The Chubra El-Kheima Case," by Mona Hammam. "Women in the Arab Gulf," by Nesta Ramazani "Women in the Moral Order: Identity and Change," Amal Rassam. "Public and Private Politics: Women in the Middle Eastern World," Cynthia Nelson
Many of the articles surveyed in the anthropological (sociological) tradition may serve as examples of a conventional scholarship on the region with many of the major assumptions in the social sciences on gender and modernization woven through the texts. There are three main areas of inquiry which are usually supported through observation or empirical case studies and sometimes, supported by statistical analysis. They include: an interest in women and Islam in which the author usually draws his own conclusion or allows the interviews of various subjects to speak for themselves, analysis of women's place in the family and society which is articulated within a public/private framework and lastly, the literature focuses on women in national development and modernization and the role of women in the work force. Islam is often explained as an ideology used to justify male dominance over women or it is associated with traditional values which are determined to be anathema to the needs of a modern age. The role of Islamic law is often interpreted only as a measure to ensure male control. For example, Amal Rassam explains, "Male control is often expressed in Islamic law in terms of a duty to protect women, who are perceived as weak and socially dependent on males, be they fathers, husbands, or sons." Such Western feminist interpretations view Islam as claiming that women are the weaker sex. Shahin Gerami states in her study on orthodox Islam and Egyptian women that, "Islamic scripture is very specific about the "inherent" inability of women to handle power or to make rational decisions. Causal links are drawn between women's weaker physique and her intellectual inferiority." In looking for an explanation for what these anthropologists perceive as the insubordinate position of women in society (this they measure by literacy rates, veiling and seclusion practices, level of education and participation in the work force), they look to Islam and traditional values as sources of socially patterned organizing principles. Often, the link is firmly established between Islam or Islamic inspired traditional practices and the inferior status of women in society. The attitude towards Islam on the part of the anthropologist was noted as not always a negative one. Some would argue that the challenge regarding women's place in society is not to Islam but to deeply ingrained customs and habits. Nesta Ramazani records the views of professional Gulf women who defend the values and social structure in Islam and who see a return to Islamic values as aiding the position of women vis a vis a puritanical and narrow religious establishment. In an article on women and work in Algeria, Farouk Benatia claims that Islam must be purged of its distortions and that the Holy Qur'an accords a superior place to women in society than that given to men. He advocates the education of women based on a correct interpretation of religious teaching with modern views and a proper understanding of socialism. In looking at the changing status of "Islamic Women" in the Arab world, Debbie Gerner-Adams argues that women in the Arab world have actually lost the status given to them at the time of the inception of Islam, "One could interpret the history of women in Islam as one long struggle to maintain the rights enunciated by Mohammed in the face of a series of traditions hostile to women's rights in the various Mediterranean countries conquered by the Muslims." The attitude towards Islam and its cause/effect role in the status of women in society varies, but by an large, Islam and traditional practices associated with it are perceived by Western and Westernized anthropologists as having a negative impact on women in society. How then, do anthropologists examine the role of women in Muslim societies? The writers surveyed were usually interested in linking gender to role and most all would agree that the role of women is inferior to that of men. They come to this conclusion by measuring a number of variables such as literacy, educational level, living/class conditions, family roles and participation in the work force. Practices like veiling/hijab and seclusion are of particular interest to these writers as evidence of the inferior status of women. Functional and spatial segregation represents to these writers an absence of freedom and mobility for women. Gerner-Adams divides societies influenced by Islam into public and private based on the functions of the sexes as compared to Judeo-Christian societies which are divided into public and private based on masculine and feminine attributes. She claims that functional duality is more restrictive than gender duality because, "functional duality restricts and rejects women's equal access to power and economic resources, and limits their spatial mobility." The public/private paradigm as a theoretical framework to illustrate the subordinate status of women clearly expresses an underlying inability to appreciate the value of the private realm and the importance to society of mothering and the role of wife and sister. Tradition is almost invariable demoted, perceived as something to be eliminated for the future of progress. This is an attitude paralleled in Western feminist movements. Tradition and modernization are cast in oppositional terms as far as what they can offer women. One could deduce from this survey on the anthropological approach to women in Islam that only that which is public and visible is of any value to society. Cynthia Nelson asks in her work on the public.private dichotomy that anthropologists re-think their notions of power and cast power into a social relation of 'reciprocity of influence.' She illustrates the Western male-biased notion of power as inadequate to understanding influence and power relations in the Middle East. Nelson names the notion of power in the region as one of negotiated order, "the potential for levying sanctions, the potential for influencing further actions of others as well as one's own." Among the vehicles that Nelson explores to expose how women extend influence are marriage, mediator, mother and wife, alliance making and the exertion of influence through the supernatural. Nelson concludes that women yield great public influence but do so from private family positions. With this in mind, the family is often portrayed as the breeding ground for female oppression through mothering practices and role assignments based on gender. In a study on the psychodynamics of mothering and gender in Egyptian families, Mervat Hatem describes a number of practices and attitudes which prepare women for their subordinate/service oriented place in the social structure. She employs a feminist marxist psychoanalytic synthesis of gender roles in capitalist societies for her observations of the Egyptian family. Because her framework of reference is geared to autonomy and individualism, she describes Egyptian mothering in a very negative light. She claims that practices such as collective sleeping arrangements discourage ego strength and she suggests that in rural extended families where many women mother the children of the village, that, "because there are so many women to turn to, women are submerged in their femaleness and undifferentiated. Therefore, Hatem argues, women's collective participation in mothering prepares children to treat women as undifferentiated females.(!)" She tries to develop an idea of the gendered personalities produced by Egyptian families and she finds that the women are dependent, lacking in autonomy and take most pride in their roles within rather than outside the family. Much of the literature sees the situation of women as poor due to their over represented role in the family, their lack of mobility as evidenced by traditional social practices and the absence of independence and individuation/separation from the family and from men, in particular. Much of the anthropological interest in women in Islam focuses on the issue of women in the labor force. Studies focus on the subject from a variety of perspectives. For example, some studies provide statistics on the number of women in the wage earning work force and the type of work they are doing, some concentrate on the attitudes in society about working women and the feelings of women themselves about the type of work they do. In almost all cases, the implication is that bringing women into the public arena as wage laborers is necessary to modernization and economic development. These studies are oriented toward economic development and women's contribution to this process is usually measured only by her participation in the labor force. These studies, therefore, presuppose a causal relationship between women's participation in the work force and modernization and development. A familiar argument is made by Amal Rassam in her article, "Women and the Moral Order: Identity and Change." Reductionist reasoning in this work seems to be that excluding women from wage labor is detrimental to the development process and is therefore anti-progressive in terms of modernization. Women are explained as being out of the work force due to attitudes about sexual segregation which is justified by the chaotic potential of female sexuality. Rassam describes the control of female sexuality as the reason behind male dominance. Carried a step further, one can conclude that according to Rassam's characterization, a change in the pattern of male dominance will facilitate economic modernization. Farouk Benatia's article on women's work in Algeria is an excellent example of social and economic commentary on improving the situation of women through the wholesale grafting of Marxist ideology and a brand of socialism which negates traditional values. His distaste for the patriarchal family is made apparent in his search to make women equal to men through gainful employment. He argues that by leaving the home, women will gain self-respect and pride by becoming part of society. Bound by home and tradition, the Algerian woman, according to Benatia, is "without personality." His Marxian definition of work is that it has 'human value' and because women's work in the home is instinctive, it is of no 'human value.' Benatia finds that the only way women can valorize themselves is through joining the work force. Mohammed Issa Barhoum also argues that the contribution of women to development can be measured by their participation in the labor force. The aim of his study is to evaluate socioeconomic background and attitudes towards work. He found a high correlation between women students and more successful and educated fathers. This conclusion supports the thesis that traditional practices are an impediment to the education of women. He concludes that, "in terms of the theory of social deviance, parents' education affected the attitude of their children as a result of the change in the traditional customs and values with regard to sex-role differentiation and the participation of women in the workforce. These finding are in contrast to another study on women working in a factory who were uneducated and used what little income they had to educate their daughters because they all saw education as a way for upward mobility. The women in the study on the Chubra El-Kheima factory all felt pride in their work and in their contribution to national development but also claimed they would stay home and raise their children if it were economically feasible. Debbie J. Gerner-Adams described some of the negative traditional attitudes that are associated with working women: work exposes women to unnecessary exposure to men, work may ruin her reputation and chances for marriage, work shames the male head of household by exposing him as unable to provide for his family, and women gain few if any benefits to work outside the home. Some men have been recorded by anthropologists as believing that educating women is a source of status and improves their marriage possibilities and makes them better mothers. Despite higher literacy rates and better educational opportunities, women in the Arab world are not increasing significantly their participation in the workforce. Anthropologists tend to ignore that importance of the family in the region and the centrality of women to this institution. Studies show that women themselves feel that their role in the family is the most important. One of the most enlightening articles about the position of women and their opinions about Islam and work and tradition is in Nesta Ramazani's article, "Arab Women in the Gulf." Without any theoretical model or particular ideological purpose for writing, the author manages to convey the feelings of a hand full of women about themselves and their way of life. Islam is discussed as an asset and practices like wearing hijab are felt to increase rather than to decrease mobility and protection. The value and tremendous increase in charity and social work, inspired by Islamic values to the benefit of mothers and children is illustrated. Experiences in America, and especially on American campuses, have shocked women who found creative ways to revive rather than reject tradition and traditional values. Many women in the Gulf have used the rights given them by Islamic law to buy and invest in property and businesses. Women's understanding of Islam has helped them to develop professions in medicine, teaching, pharmacology and law. The majority of articles by anthropologists seem to be limited by Western notions of women, the family and society and by the cult of the autonomous individual and secular living. By and large, traditional values are perceived as being a barrier to modernization and progress. Anthropologists have yet to discuss what women are loosing from modernization and Westernization. Ramazani's article shows that one does not need an intimate and detailed understanding of Islam nor an elaborate theoretical framework to discuss meaning in the lives of individual women.
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