EQUALITY OF NARCISSISM

A smarter way to fight for Muslim women (Waleed Aly, The Age, March 9th, 2005)

This is where Western discussions in general, and Western secular feminist discourses in particular, hit a mighty roadblock. Even among Muslims seriously committed to gender reform, Western feminism has often presented more of a hindrance than a help.

In simple terms this is because, to the Muslim ear, feminist discourse smacks of colonial imperialism. It echoes a broader historical polemic between the Muslim world and the West in which Western prescriptions for Muslim reform were often egocentric and hypocritical. Here one could cite Lord Cromer, the 19th century British consul-general in Egypt who advocated Egyptian women's unveiling while simultaneously being president of the men's league for opposing women's suffrage in England. [...]

Feminism and imperialism seemed to have some kind of undisclosed memorandum of understanding.

This perceived link with cultural hegemony continues to the present day. Many Muslims agreed with Western feminist criticisms of the Taliban forcing Afghan women to wear the burqa. Such denial of choice is indeed oppressive, and deserves opposition. But nary a squawk was heard from those same Western voices in opposition to laws in Turkey that denied women the choice to wear headscarves in educational and political institutions.

This leaves many Muslim women wondering whether their feminist sisters only defend a woman's right to choose when she chooses to renounce Islamic norms, but not when she chooses to adopt them. Being forced to abandon Islamic behaviour does not seem to matter.

The belligerent attitude towards Islam exhibited particularly by second-wave Western feminism didn't help. Arguments seeking gender equality by prising Islam's fingers off social norms and constructing a society on secular foundations were profoundly offensive to many in the Muslim world, where religion is still so central to identity. To attack Islam was not to attack the tool of patriarchal oppressors; it was also to attack the identity of the oppressed.

Unlike the 19th century variety, much of modern Western feminism is focused on the interests of secular, upper-middle class professional women who seek material and sexual freedom. Its objective is not so much to rein in male irresponsibility and dominance, but to ape and compete with it. Even when it addresses important family issues like spousal abuse, it generally does so by scorning notions of reverence, duty and commitment and declaring them to be the source of the stain. Much as Western liberals need to believe that the paucity of anti-male, anti-Islamic voices among Muslim women is a function of fear and ignorance, it reflects in many cases an eyes-wide-open rejection of the spiritually sterile and self-regarding lives of so many Western women.