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When President Obama uttered the words “women’s rights” during his
speech at Cairo University last week, my ears perked up. The fact that
a US president is putting women’s rights up there on the international
agenda — on par with peace in the Middle East, no less — is indeed
historic. That he has the guts to say to a room full of Egyptian men
that women’s rights in the Muslim world are a topic that needs
addressing, was quite a thrill. The fact that there was some applause
after he made that opening statement, “the sixth issue that I want to
address is women’s rights,” was absolutely startling. Signs of change,
perhaps.
But when Obama started to outline the details of his vision for
women’s rights in the Muslim world, that’s when I started to bristle.
Because although issues of education and literacy are obviously vital,
these issues barely skim the surface of what Muslim women have to face.
But more than that, Obama’s underlying philosophy guiding his approach,
one that is nestled in the cultural relativism that tells people to
look the other way when women are hurt in the name of religion, signals
a very troubling trend in gender, religion and politics.
I reject the view of some in the West that a woman who chooses to cover her hair is somehow less equal.
So first of all, what view that a woman who covers her hair
is less equal? With all due respect, as someone who has been studying
and writing about women and religion for some time, I can honestly say,
what the hell is he talking about?
What I think he may be referring to is the claim made
primarily by religious people that liberal feminists are condescending
towards women who choose a traditional lifestyle. I’m pretty sure
that’s what he’s talking about. But even if that’s the case, it’s a
bungled statement. Liberal feminists do not look down on women who
cover their hair, but see the cultural demands placed upon women’s
bodies as wrong and unfair, and a violation of democratic principles. A
woman can certainly choose to cover her hair, but the type of rhetoric
that accompanies religious demands for female body cover are often very
damaging for women’s freedom, health and overall well-being.
Obama continued in the next sentence:
But I do believe that a woman who is denied an education
is denied equality. And it is no coincidence that countries where women
are well-educated are far more likely to be prosperous.
Okay, I don’t entirely understand this either. What is he trying to
say? The first sentence was condemning people in “the west” who see
hijab-clad women as inferior. Now the “but” we were expecting was not
an exploration of how hijab can humiliate women, but about the
importance of education. Did I miss something? What’s the connection?
His message seems clear: Okay guys, you can keep the hijab but make sure your girls get an education. And with that he skipped right over an entire world of issues around women’s body in religion.
I wonder, why bring did he up hijab in his opening if he wasn’t
going to talk about it at all? I think he was just trying to score
points with those who disagree with liberal feminists. He was trying to
say, okay, I hear your point. Those liberal feminists can be really
mean and offensive to you. So forget that — let’s talk about education.
The inferred, unspoken sentence in between is where he talks, man to
man as it were, about those annoying liberal feminists.
In case the thousands of Egyptian men in the audience did not hear
clearly enough that Obama was trying to say, “Hey, I hear you guys,” he
made himself perfectly clear in the next sentence:
Now let me be clear, issues of women’s equality are by
no means simply an issue for Islam. In Turkey, Pakistan, Bangladesh,
Indonesia, we’ve seen Muslim-majority countries elect a woman to lead.
Meanwhile, the struggle for women’s equality continues in many aspects
of American life and in countries around the world.
Did Obama just say that Muslim countries are better to women than
the US?! Are we to understand that since the late Benazir Bhutto was
head of Pakistan and Hillary Clinton recently suffered a sexism-filled
loss in America, that women are better off under Islam?
Let’s talk about this for a moment.
What about the fact that in Saudi Arabia women cannot drive?
Or that the first four women in history were only last month elected to parliament in Kuwait?
Or that according to rankings of the International Parliamentary Union,
Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and Oman are ranked LAST in the world because they
have ZERO women in government? And that they are followed closely
