Katha Pollitt has written a letter about American feminists’ supposed lack of concern for women in the developing world and in majority-Muslim countries. She’s asking for signatures — you can email kpollitt@thenation.com to add your name to the list. The letter reads:
Columnists and opinion writers from The Weekly Standard to the Washington Post to Slate have recently accused American feminists of focusing obsessively on minor or even nonexistent injustices in the United States while ignoring atrocities against women in other countries, especially the Muslim world. A number of reasons are given for this supposed neglect: narcissism, ideological rigidity, reflexive anti-Americanism, fear of seeming insensitive or even racist. Yet what is the evidence for this apparently now broadly accepted claim that feminists don’t support the struggles of women around the globe? It usually comes down to a quick scan of the home page of the National Organization for Women’s website, observing that a particular writer hasn’t covered a particular outrage, plus a handful of quotes wrenched out of context.
In fact, as a bit of research would easily show, there are dozens, if not hundreds, of US feminist organizations involved in promoting women’s rights and well-being around the globe–V-Day, Equality Now, MADRE, the Global Fund for Women, the International Women’s Health Coalition and Feminist Majority, to name some of the most prominent. (The National Organization for Women itself has a section on its website devoted to global feminism, on which it denounces a wide array of practices including female genital mutilation (FGM), “honor” murder, trafficking, dowry deaths and domestic violence). Feminists at Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch and the United Nations have moved those organizations to add the rights of women and girls to their agenda. Feminist magazines and blogs–Ms. magazine, Feministing.com, Salon.com’s Broadsheet column, womensenews.com (which has an edition in Arabic)–as well as feminist reporters and commentators in the mainstream media, regularly report on and condemn outrages against women wherever they occur, from rape, battery and murder in the US to the denial of women’s human rights in the developing or Muslim world.
As feminists, we call on journalists and opinion writers to report the true position of our movement. We believe that women’s rights are human rights, and stand in solidarity with our sisters who are fighting for equal political, economic, social and reproductive rights around the globe. Specifically, contrary to the accusations of pundits, we support their struggle against female genital mutilation, “honor” murder, forced marriage, child marriage, compulsory Islamic dress codes, the criminalization of sex outside marriage, brutal punishments like lashing and stoning, family laws that favor men and that place adult women under the legal power of fathers, brothers, and husbands, and laws that discount legal testimony made by women. We strongly oppose the denial of education, health care and equal political and economic rights to women.
We reject the use of women’s rights language to justify invading foreign countries. Instead, we call on the United States government to live up to its expressed commitment to women’s rights through peaceful means. Specifically, we call upon it to:
–offer asylum to women and girls fleeing gender-based persecution, including female genital mutilation, domestic violence, and forced marriage;
–promote women’s rights and well-being in all their foreign policy and foreign aid decisions;
–use its diplomatic powers to pressure its allies–especially Saudi Arabia, one of the most oppressive countries in the world for women–to embrace women’s rights;
–drop the Mexico City policy–aka the “gag rule”–which bars funds for AIDS- related and contraception-related health services abroad if they provide abortions, abortion information, or advocate for legalizing abortion;
–generously support the UN Population Fund (UNFPA), which supports women’s reproductive health including safe maternity around the globe, and whose funding is vetoed every year by President Bush;
–become a signatory to The Convention on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW), the basic UN women’s human rights document, now signed by 185 nations. The US is one of a handful of holdouts, along with Iran, Sudan, and Somalia.
Finally, we call upon the United States, and all the industrialized nations of the West, to share their unprecedented wealth, often gained at the expense of the developing world, with those who need it in such a way that women benefit.
I signed it, because I think everything she says is correct and spot-on, but I had a few concerns, which I detailed in an email to her and some other feminist activists. I wrote:
Katha and everyone,
I think this is a great letter, and a much-needed statement. My only concern is that it seems disproportionately representative of white, Western and non-Muslim women. Yes, I know the letter is from American feminists, but I think it does a real disservice to the many, many women’s rights activists who are making change in their own countries (including the U.S.) and communities in their own names. Many of these women consciously choose not to adopt the word “feminist” exactly because of its connotations of cultural and racial supremacy, and when their names and voices are absent from this discussion, it reinforces the notion that feminism is about white Western women speaking for our poor oppressed third-world sisters; in reality, of course, there are strong and vocal women around the world who are perfectly capable of speaking for themselves, but whose voices are routinely silenced and drowned out.
Organizations like RAWA, Sisters in Islam, the Muslim Women’s League, Muslim Women Lawyers for Human Rights, and Ni Putes Ni Soumises, and individual feminists like Fatema Mernissi, Leila Ahmed, Asma Jahangir, Asma Barlas, Shirin Ebadi, Ziba Mir-Hosseini, Amina Wadud, Mona Elthaway, and Zaina Anwar, are doing (and have done) fantastic feminist work in the U.S. and abroad. Muslim women are founding domestic violence centers and legal aid programs that are culturally competent. There is a lot of great work being done in this area by women who are both feminist and Muslim, or from majority-Muslim countries.
My concern boils down to this: Even greater than the myth that feminists don’t care about Muslim women is the idea that Muslim women are never feminists . In fact, plenty of Muslim women are feminists, and it’s a little silly to argue that American feminists don’t care about Muslim women when there are vocal American Muslim feminists out there. I worry that we’re drawing lines between “feminists” and “Muslim women,” when in fact there are women who identify as both. I worry that we further prop up the stereotype of feminists as white, Western, and secular. I worry that we alienate Muslim women who are being talked about rather than conversed with.
I think this letter is a great idea. But perhaps instead of talking about Muslim women, we should be including them in the conversation. Just my two cents.
I do think her letter is right-on, and so I’m not attempting to criticize or undermine her efforts here. And I did sign the letter, since I think it is ridiculous that feminists are constantly accused of ignoring Muslim women. But I do think it’s fair to say that white American feminists, while not ignoring Muslim women (and women of color and women in the developing world), are not always the best at engaging with them and listening to them. I include myself in that.
Email Katha to sign the letter if you’re so inclined.