The Foreign Service Journal, April 2011

28 F O R E I G N S E R V I C E J O U R N A L / A P R I L 2 0 1 1 and Development Review, for exam- ple, is to integrate gender into devel- opment policies and diplomacy. But while women around the world are making strides in educa- tion, income generation and public participation, significant gaps still exist, particularly in sub-Saharan Africa, the Middle East and South Asia. These regions all have deeply entrenched cultural traditions and patriarchal practices that work against changes for women. And in conservative, Muslim-majority communities, women’s rights are among the most contentious political and ideo- logical issues. In places like Nigeria, Somalia, Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Afghanistan and Pakistan, Islamic conservatives link women’s piety to the purity and religious authenticity of their societies. They then use religious justifications to enforce that piety through a limited public role for women, gender segregation and harsh punishments for any perceived transgressions. Powerful Islamists do their best to smear women’s groups as followers of an illegiti- mate, neo-colonialist Western agenda. But the desire for economic growth is becoming an ef- fective counterweight to such opposition. All over the world mothers and fathers, husbands and wives, business owners, government officials and religious leaders are coming to recognize that their countries cannot prosper without the full participation of half the population. In- vestments in girls’ education and economic opportunities for women have already begun to yield tremendous ben- efits for households and communities. Such gains are powerful levers for raising per capita incomes and trans- mitting the advantages directly to the next generation. Happily, Islamic conservatives are no longer the only members of these societies to cite religious justifications for their position. Reformers — whether out of a faith- based conviction or an acknowledgment of the growing religiosity of their societies — are also using Islamic arguments to bol- ster their positions. And these ef- forts are slowly converging into a global movement sometimes called “Islamic feminism”: the promotion of women’s rights through religious discourse. Pushing Open the Gates Just as conservatives have used Islam as a barrier to women’s em- powerment, Muslim feminists are using their faith to promote gender equality. They argue that Islam, at its core, is progressive for women and sup- ports equal opportunities for men and women alike. By firmly grounding their arguments in religious discourse, these advocates offer a culturally acceptable and sustain- able way to expand opportunities for women. Their suc- cess holds promise for a more stable, prosperous and progressive Middle East. Islamic feminism draws on the ideas of numerous in- tellectuals and activists. Some of its leading proponents are actually men — distinguished religious scholars who contend that Islam was radically egalitarian for its time and remains so in many of its texts. For their part, Islamic feminists contend that sharia (religious law) evolved in ways inimical to women not due to any inevitability, but because of selective interpretation by patriarchal leaders. They further argue that the worst practices directed at women, like those of the Taliban, actually represent a sub- version of Islamic teaching by tribal customs and tradi- tions. Accordingly, they seek to revive the equality bestowed on women in the religion’s early years by rein- terpreting the Quran, putting the texts in historical con- text and disentangling them from tribal practices and other local traditions. The great potential of Islamic feminism lies in its grass- roots appeal. In this regard, it is quite unlike the secular feminism we are used to in the West. Secular feminism, both in the Middle East and in the West, has usually been the province of urban elites and intellectuals, which has long been its weakness. Social change takes time to make its way from city salons and urban newspapers to the countryside, especially in places with few roads and little public education. But Islamic feminism has the potential to be embraced quickly by local leaders and, perhaps most F O C U S Islamic conservatives are no longer the only members of Muslim- majority societies to cite religious justifications for their position. Isobel Coleman is a senior fellow at the Council on For- eign Relations, and also the director of CFR’s Women and Foreign Policy Program and the Civil Society, Markets and Democracy Initiative. This article is adapted from her book Paradise Beneath Her Feet: How Women Are Trans- forming the Middle East (Random House, 2010).