Women in Iran

I have been reading this morning about women in Iran. My attention was drawn to the issue in part because Delaram Ali, a woman's rights activist from Iran, was recently sentenced to a flogging and two-and-a-half years in prison for working against the state. Amnesty International and other groups are calling for her release.
(see http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/7088310.stm)

The BBC also has an article on the "fashion police" in Iran and how the authorities are attempting to get Iranian women to dress more conservatively. The article is interesting, but what I found most thought-provoking were the comments that follow the article. Some people criticise the BBC reporter for being too negative: one woman asks "We certainly do not question what is worn by the average person on the streets of London, Paris or Berlin? So why is there such a great interest in Iran?"

Another woman emphasises the way in which wearing the veil can be empowering - but also stresses how heavy-handed governmental enforcement of women's dress can make lead to distorted social views of women. This is how the veil becomes an article of oppression rather than of liberation:

"The issue of hejab occupies the minds of women and men alike since the Islamic revolution in 1979. A woman convinced of the necessity of hejab feels that she does not wish to attract the stares of strange men by exposing her body and hair and stressing the beauty of her face. She wants to be valued as a person, not as a beauty. In many Islamic countries, women wear hejab, but with much more variety. While I like to cover up, I think that the authorities, when imposing hejab shortly after the revolution, went too far and were too restrictive. Thereby, they created sensivities in men that it is now difficult to get rid of."
Madleine, Tehran, Iran

"Manifesto of a Veiled Woman"

At the “women in cyberspace” conference that I went to at AU on Monday night, Mona Eltahawy’s young sister told a wonderful story about the preconceptions that surround women who choose to wear the veil. Mona’s sister (whose name I didn’t catch – I will call her Laura, because that’s my sister’s name!) has decided to wear the hijab. She stated that veiled women in Egypt walk a tight line: the fundamentalists don’t like these women (they aren’t covered enough) and the liberals want to save every one of them. Laura described how, one day at college, she wanted to fill in a questionnaire on the topic of beauty. So she asked for a copy of the questionnaire and was told that veiled women were not allowed to fill it out. This led Laura to use her facebook account to vent her frustration. On facebook, she published her “manifesto of the veiled woman.” This manifesto included statements such as 1) I have sexual desires like any other woman/person; 2) I care about beauty. Laura said that she was sick and tired of being viewed as a vegetable.
Before long, she received a message from an Egyptian man who clearly could not cope with this open expression of sexual desire. Egyptian man told Laura that she was “a danger to society.” Egyptian men, he declared, did not want to marry women like this so Laura would have to (quote) “turn to homos.” Laura promptly blocked this charming man from her facebook account. But she made a final telling remark: cyberspace provided her with a relatively safe space to express her desires and individuality. And she was able quite easily to block the Egyptian man who took such offense. But if she had stood at a street corner and declared such beliefs, would she have been so safe?

Women in Cyberspace: Talk at American Univ, Cairo

On Monday, November 5th, I went to a panel discussion at AU on "Her Space, Our Space: Girls and Women Pushing the Boundaries of Cyberspace." The panel was chaired by Mona Eltahawy, an Egyptian journalist whose writings on the Arab world appear regularly in Arab and U.S. media. (see her website at http://monaeltahawy.com/). The discussion threw a fascinating perspective on the spaces women are using to assert their voices, and the subversive potential of blogs and internet use. Here are some of the highlights of the discussion:

Mona Eltahawy opened the discussion by describing how she became addicted to blogs – first through Kuwaiti, and then Saudi bloggers. She fell in love with one blog in particular: one that was written by “Saudi Girl”, a woman who dreamed of the day she could wear flip-flops and show off her toe ring and nail varnish. “I loved this girl!” Mona said. After giving a paper on blogs to a prestigious meeting of journalists, and urging those present to check out Saudi Girl’s site to discover the way women were using cyberspace to push boundaries, Mona discovered that Saudi Girl was actually Saudi Guy…. “But,” Mona said, “I wasn’t disappointed.” Instead, Mona described how she was thrilled at the layers of subversion and gender blurring that was at the heart of this particular blog. You can still read saudigirl’s “outing” on her/his webpage at http://saudigirl.blogspot.com/. S/he writes:
“It first started when I became livid by some of the idiotic arguments that certain public men were using to justify, or make apologies for, the dearth of women's rights in Saudi Arabia. I decided to write to these men in a public fashion. Why not write as a man you ask? Well, I thought it would be more effective (for the cause) if a woman demonstrated the total absence of logic in their arguments. So Alia, a character created for an angry email, became my Arab Amazon, fighting for her rights, and for the rights of all downtrodden Saudi women.”

The discussion at AU also touched on the fact that blogs were a good place for women to reinvent themselves, and to speak out in a way that was not allowed within day-to-day life. One veiled woman described how she started a blog after she spoke out in class and was met with cries of “What! A veiled woman speaking out! You should be quiet…” Writing a blog, she said, was part of her refusal to remain silent. On a blog, you cannot tell if a woman is veiled or not – indeed, you cannot even tell whether it is a woman or a man who is writing. In this way, the blog can override many initial social prejudices.
The discussion also touched on whether blogs were an effective way of changing society. Some of the older members of the audience argued that blogs were a form of escapism, and that it was important to travel and talk to people face-to-face. Just because you blog with two or three people from America or Australia, for example, did not mean you actually knew those cultures…
Can blogs really depose dictators like Mubarak? Who knows… but, as the panel pointed out, blogs were becoming a new media and a new way for the younger generation to assert their voice. We were reminded that two policemen were jailed on Monday for the torture of a prisoner in Egyptian jails – and they were prosecuted principally because an Egyptian blogger spread the video footage of the torture (see my posting on this story – Nov 6). So, the overall theme of the night was: blog! And get your voice heard…

Photo journal of 30-year-old Egyptian woman

The BBC currently has a series of photo journals exploring families around the world. One of these journals is of a 30-year-old woman from Egypt who is a science teacher and mother of three daughters.
Two entries in particular were sad to read because of what they say about the status of women in Egypt. The captions state:

"It took Sherifa a long time to come to terms with the fact that she has three daughters and no boys. Relatives, she says, used to see her as inferior to women in the village who have sons.
"I cried and cried so much when the ultrasound scan showed that my third child, and last hope, was another girl. I am now completely over it. People still tease me about it, but I no longer get so upset. In fact I am happy with my three brilliant daughters, and above all it is God's will."

And:

"Accepting God's will is a theme with Sherifa's life and marriage. "My father was violent with my mother. I chose to marry Ouf because he seemed caring and tender. He used to spend hours standing outside my window," she says.
"After marriage, he changed. He became violent and would insult me in front of his family. I hated my daughters seeing this. We used to argue so much, but with time this passed. I learned that if I wanted to live in peace, I had to compromise, and it has worked." "

For the full photo journal, see http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/shared/spl/hi/picture_gallery/07/middle_east_egyptian_family/html/1.stm

5 days of bleeding and still alive... just

In the South Park movie, Mr. Garrison admits his suspicions about women: “I don’t trust anything that bleeds for 5 days and doesn’t die.” Sometimes I also don’t trust this thing that insists on regularly bleeding and I wish I could escape it entirely! As yet another period approaches, and I face another series of sleepless nights, I began to reflect on the extreme discomfort that insists on visiting every month…

Anita Diamant has written a novel called “The Red Tent.” This title refers to a red tent where women in nomadic tribes used to congregate. Once a month, the women set up this tent and refused to move. They were obviously all on the same cycle and they would sit in the tent, gossip, bleed and … who knows… Cry? Shout? Moan?

Periods are strange and dominating things in my life. Every month, I find my body is taken over by what I call “my period self.” For about three days before my period, and for a couple of days afterwards, an alter being moves in under my skin, creating strange electrical currents down my arms and legs and into my stomach. I can still feel my calmer, rational, happy person there inside, but the period self insists on taking control. I am convinced that this period self is a manic depressive on crack. She takes an overdose of amphetamines and then inserts herself into my body. My mind begins to work over time. I get over-stimulated by ideas, I start attempting to do (literally) ten things at once and I can’t sleep at night. This might seem like a good time to be hyper productive… but no. While my mind is jumping up and down and doing somersaults, my concentration levels also deplete and I become overwhelmingly exhausted. So, basically, I walk around like an over-caffeinated crack addict who hasn’t slept for a month. It’s not a great feeling… particularly when it’s coupled with sharply painful stomach cramps.

I used to despair whenever this period self took up residence. I thought my life was doomed and I would never recover. I now recognize her face, know that she is only passing through, and I try to focus on the fact that I only need to endure her for 10 days. The problem is… I’m only left with 20 days of (relative) sanity in every month.

Where’s my red tent???

Damned if you Do, Doomed if You Don't

Lisa Belkin studies women in the workplace and her recent article on the topic was no surprise - but it still made me sigh in frustration (I'm guessing this is part of a much wider collective sigh amongst women!)

Emphasising the confusing status of women, particularly when it comes to behaviour in the workplace, Belkin starts her article: "Don’t get angry. But do take charge. Be nice. But not too nice. Speak up. But don’t seem like you talk too much. Never, ever dress sexy. Make sure to inspire your colleagues — unless you work in Norway, in which case, focus on delegating instead."

Belkin goes on to discuss the double-standards and confusing signals that plague the workplace:

"Catalyst’s [an organisation that focuses on women in the workplace] research is often an exploration of why, 30 years after women entered the work force in large numbers, the default mental image of a leader is still male. Most recent is the report titled “Damned if You Do, Doomed if You Don’t,” which surveyed 1,231 senior executives from the United States and Europe. It found that women who act in ways that are consistent with gender stereotypes — defined as focusing “on work relationships” and expressing “concern for other people’s perspectives” — are considered less competent. But if they act in ways that are seen as more “male” — like “act assertively, focus on work task, display ambition” — they are seen as “too tough” and “unfeminine.”

One interesting study by a psychologist highlighted just one double-standard:

"He [the psychologist] is the author of one such study, in which he showed respondents a video of a woman wearing a sexy low-cut blouse with a tight skirt or a skirt and blouse that were conservatively cut. The woman recited the same lines in both, and the viewer was either told she was a secretary or an executive. Being more provocatively dressed had no effect on the perceived competence of the secretary, but it lowered the perceived competence of the executive dramatically. "

Good grief!! As Belkin points out, women just can't win.... Whatever culture I find myself in, I am enraged at the ways in which society oppresses women and assesses them according to different standards. We women just have to keep pushing at those visible and not so visible social, economic and sexual barriers!!

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/01/fashion/01WORK.html?pagewanted=1&ei=5087&em&en=fc0c03fe07914c0c&ex=1194325200&adxnnlx=1194176375-/7GgGL7xUve8xiU8i%2029VA

Female Sexuality Part II

I have continued to read about the topic of "women's sexuality" since my posting a few days ago. Of course, I've thought about this issue at length before: my Ph.D. was on how the women who fought for the vote in Britain negotiated their public/ private identities in their autobiographical writings. Their sexuality inevitably played critical roles in this negotiation.

But, as I mentioned in my "Female Sexuality Part I" posting, living in Egypt has made me look again at the power of my sexuality and the strange dynamics that exist between men and women. I liked one particular blog posting that I read today and I wanted to share the (male, Christian) author's views:

"Faced with the power that women have over men, a power men have had to control through de-humanization, social and economic control, sexual exploitation and physical violence, and the rhetoric of innate sexual difference, many men end up, in the end, a quivering puddle on the floor, terrified that a strong woman will discover and make public what has been heretofore a secret even to these men themselves (except perhaps in their darkest thoughts they dare not express) - these men just don't cut it [I don't totally agree that men 'don't cut it'...]. A sexually, socially, economically liberated woman is a threat on many levels. It is my contention, however, that the most elemental threat is the sexual element. There are various social and economic controls that still exist to limit the social and economic power of women. A woman who is sexually free, however, threatens men's view of themselves at its most basic level. [also unsure about this point....]

You might be wondering about the whole "Christian" element I spoke of above. It is my contention that all that I have written has been written from a perspective that views women as equal creatures before God, created with power and vulnerability, part of which is sexual. Unless we want to deny that sex is a good gift from a good God (as my other told me, "If God made anything better than sex, He kept it to Himself"; there is no better theology of sex that I know of!) we have to start thinking in more creative ways about human sexuality. We should begin by recognizing, as a social fact, the threat posed to men's well-being by strong, independent women. We need to recognize that threat as existing on multiple levels, and deal with it on multiple levels. We need a positive view of human sexuality, one not linked to outmoded social roles and easily avoidable biological consequences, and teach both boys and girls, men and women, about the power they have, and how it should be used creatively and positively; and about the dangers it poses destructively and negatively."

From: "Women, Women's Sexuality & the Right", http://whatsleftinthechurch.blogspot.com/2007_04_08_archive.html
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Wearing a Veil .. my readings on the issue (I)

I have begun reading a variety of articles and books on women in Islam, focusing particularly on the the wearing of the veil.
The article I am reading today describes the rise of "Islamism"--a political form of Islam-- and how educated, well-travelled women who are part of this movement decide to wear the veil as a symbol of pride and distinction. The author, Nilüfer Göle, (a prominent Muslim Turkish scholar) admits that it is a "puzzling issue, because they have become assertive by adopting a symbol of gender subservience and stigmatization." She describes the veil as a "stigma," but how it is now being used as a 'positive' stigma by many women:
"veiling as a sign that is seen as debasing women's identity - as inferior to men, passive and secluded in the interior family space -- is voluntarily adopted by women as a stigma sign, but struggling to become a new prestige symbol. In short, the meanings of the veil are undergoing a radical transformation by women who have had access to secular education and agency and claim their difference in spaces of modernity. The headscarf, symbol of backwardness, ignorance, and subservience for Muslim women in modern contexts, fights back to bcome, once again, as it has thought to be in the Islamic past, a symbol of distinction and prestige for urban Muslim women."
(Nilufer Gole, "The Voluntary Adoption of Islamic Stigma Symbols," 70 Social Research 810, 820-1 (2003)).

Female Sexuality... part I

I have been thinking a great deal about many universal, age-old topics as I tramp the streets of Cairo. One of these topics is “female sexuality”… who hasn’t written or thought about this?? Living in Cairo, I am experiencing my sexuality in a completely new way. There are many elements of the society here that want me to regard my sexuality as a dangerous and unwelcome force that I need to keep well hidden. Because this is a male-dominated culture, with men crowding the public spaces, my sexuality is seen as a source of public disorder. Men, it seems, are naturally sexual animals and so it is the duty of women to prevent the men from becoming too excited. Yesterday, I wore a t-shirt that was a little more low-cut than usual. No, you could not see a hint of my breasts. But it also wasn’t all the way up to my neck. The hissing from men doubled or trebled. And numerous women also looked at me and my collarbones with disgust. Otherwise, I was wearing a long skirt down to my ankles and my hair was tied back. I wasn’t wearing makeup.
Yes… I know that I am in a foreign culture with strong religious beliefs and, as a visitor, I should show respect for Islamic customs. I wouldn’t wear a short skirt and tank top. And I understand and respect the religious convictions of many people here. But my perspective is not religious because, well, I am not religious. And I can see clearly how sexuality is being used as a source of repression and how, in many ways, women are the more powerful members of society because they are capable of ‘entrancing’ men with their bodies. But because of the male physical strength, the men have taken over the majority of societies in the world and women are forced to ‘regulate’ themselves so that the poor men can cope.
Today I am reading an article about how the Taliban controlled women and the private sphere in Afghanistan. The autobiography of one Afghan woman recounts how: “Women were not allowed to laugh or even speak loudly, because this risked sexually exciting males. High heels were banned because their sound was also declared provocative. Makeup and nail varnish were banned. Women who failed to respect such edicts would be beaten, whipped, or stoned to death.” (From Juan Cole, “The Taliban, Women, and the Hegelian Private Sphere,” 70 Social Research 3 (Fall 2003).)
The Taliban was a particularly oppressive regime with shockingly anachronistic interpretations of Islam. But I can feel the same type of attitude here: that women need to ensure that they are in no way provocative, in order to save the poor men from their sexual urges. On my better days, I feel sorry for the men on the street and pity their need to hiss at me. It’s a pathetic attempt to seem ‘manly.’ On the harder days, I begin to feel their aggressive shouts and stares get under my skin and undermine my strength. Last night, after walking the streets in my shockingly provocative t-shirt (with sleeves and just below the collar-bone), I decided to head to the all-women’s section of the gym and avoid any male attention. Constantly pushing against the male assertions of dominance can get tiring and I needed a few hours to feel comfortable with my body and not feel judged or sexually threatening. But these all-female rooms shouldn’t have to exist… it should be the men who are made to regulate their bodies and potential sexual urges. And it should be the men who are made to feel embarrassed and ashamed if they find themselves incapable of controlling their excitement at the sight of a woman’s body.

Cairo Metro

The metro in Cairo was a wonderfully pleasant surprise – it beats London and New York for cleanliness and speed. And it only costs 1 Egyptian pound (around 10 pence in the UK..) What made the ride so pleasant was the fact that there is a women’s-only carriage at the front of the train. Finally I could stare at people to my heart’s content and not get immediately propositioned for sex…!! What a great thirty minutes of freedom!
The carriage was full of women and children dressed in all sorts of colours and to various degrees of conservatism. There were women dressed from head to toe in black, with sheets of material covering their whole body, with only a small slit for the eyes. These women even wear gloves… they made me feel extra hot as I stood in my trousers and shirt and felt beads of sweat trickling down my back.
The majority of women, however, were in a regular hijab – a headscarf that covers all the hair and frames the face. Some of these scarves were bright, decorated in sequins and small beads. Others were very plain and somber. The majority of younger women wearing the niqab had on jeans and tight tops—though the sleeves almost uniformly went to the wrist (a favourite style is a long-sleeved top with a little tank top over the top). The older women, however, tended to be wearing loose tops and long ground-length skirts.
One woman in particular stood out: a strikingly-beautiful young woman in an aquamarine scarf draped only loosely around her head. She was much darker than the other women and almost certainly wasn’t Egyptian. Her hair was in tight braids and her silver jewelry shone against her skin. Egypt is full of refugees fleeing from the numerous civil wars further south in Africa. The majority of cleaners hired by Westerners seem to be from African countries south of Egypt: Somalia, Sudan, Liberia, Eritrea (see AMERA, an NGO working in Cairo with refugees, link on the RHS of this blog). I wondered about her story and whether she felt as much of a foreigner as I did, standing amongst chattering families and schoolchildren trying to finish their homework.
Generally, I think it will be hard to meet Egyptian women. Everywhere I go, there are crowds of men, but very few women. But I had so many questions I wanted to ask the women on that carriage: How do they deal with the aggressive Egyptian men? How do they feel when they are covered beneath so many layers of hot material? What do they think when they look at me with my t-shirt and uncovered head? What do they think of President Mubarak? If they had one wish, what would it be?