November 3, 2015 - Blogpost Reading

In the article, “The Tradition Effect: Framing Honor Crimes in Turkey,” by Dicle Kogacioglu, defines the term ‘honor crimes’ in regards to Muslim developing countries, such as Turkey (the case study), is portrayed to be a secular state through their legal and institutional framework; however, the following questions are stressed in terms of ‘honor crimes’ committed within Turkey: “Why do institutional practices that are otherwise legitimized through their confrontation with tradition stop at the door of honor killing? Why, when it comes to honor killings, does the Turkish Republican contraposition of institution and tradition break down?”

Institutions within contemporary Turkey deal with dilemmas in the ‘third world nationalism’ through the ideology of hegemonic ways in regards to social and institutional framework—men are in charge of the family and they determine the ‘women’s honor’ in reference to the family—demonstrating the gender politics in Turkey. The term ‘honor crimes’ has been defined as ‘the murder of a woman’ (by the members of her family) because of the disapproval of her sexual behavior.

Thus, the observation leads into focusing on the effects of practicing institutions in regards to the states status of ‘modern identity’ and how the implications of violence against women has become a symbol of ‘death by tradition’ in terms of ‘honor crimes’ in Turkey—feminists must understand the subjectivity of ‘honor crimes’ are still committed in Muslim developing countries and it has become a burden for all feminists-standpoints in regards to accepting such gender politics within Turkey.

In the article, “Crafting and Educated Housewife in Iran,” by Afsaneh Najmabadi, demonstrates the struggle for Muslim women in the Middle East in regards to the Persian text portraying pre-modern normative concepts of ‘wife and mother ethics’—from house to manager of the house, to the educational regimes—women in contemporary Iran will be observed on the differentiations of genders in the making.

In regards to the ethics mentioned in the Persian text: “That the father, not his wife, was the manager of the household and in charge of the disciple and education of the children (sons, more specifically), and that the biological mother was not necessarily and at times not preferably the nurturer and caretaker of the child.” However, this notion was depicted through modernist works, such as Hasht bihisht (an earlier text on advice and ethics), instead of a woman becoming part of the household, the woman is recognized as a ‘subjectivity’ under a man’s management, but the woman has now become the manager of the household, as well as committing to be the primary educator of her children. In other words, motherhood has become a symbol of mediating two concepts through modernity for women in the Middle East: Progress and women’s rights.

The observation continues on with Kirmani’s suggestion on the concept of second school family—the mother of the child trains their them into developing modern manners and ethics within the Islamic family (culture) structure—however, disciplinary techniques have become a “general feature in the rethinking of gender in the Iranian modernist imagination…” Thus, Iranian women’s movement portrays “the new individual self through literary, and a new social self through, patriotic political activities.”

Week 10 Readings

Marriage, Money, and Sex

            Kecia Ali talks about Muslim marriages in Islamic countries versus in America. In the Islamic countries the man has all the sexual power after the first consummation and the woman gets a dowry. The dowry helps her expenses after the three month period that her husband is lawfully mandated to take care of her after a divorce. The dowry used to be put in place so that the woman’s family would get compensated for giving the woman away and losing a member of their tribe. The changing times have changed this into money that is given directly to the wife so that she can take care of herself. Divorce laws reflect how important the dower is by not allowing the woman to easily get a divorce. The idea is that a woman could simply marry a man, consummate the marriage and then get a divorce to collect her dower. She talks about how Muslims in America do not follow these marriage laws because they follow the civil laws of the country instead. American courts do not enforce dower rules, so marriage and divorce is much different for them. 

            The dower is seen in a negative light is a “vulva price.” The dower is money paid to the woman for exclusive rights to her sexuality and her reproduction. I believe this ties in with Juliet William’s piece because the theme of exchange of money for sexual needs comes up again. 

            The man has an obligation to not only make sex pleasurable for him, but for his wife also. This is a nice thought but it is also followed up with the reasoning that if the wife is not pleased she will become chaotic in public. If her need are not met she will provoke men in public and cause chaos. The man is allowed to withhold sex for the woman entirely, but there are dire consequences if the woman withholds sex from the man. 

            Male dominance is seen in the marriage also where it is fine for a Muslim man to marry a non-Muslim woman. A Muslim woman is not permitted to marry a non-Muslim man. The reasoning behind this is that the man is the enforcer in the marriage and whatever he says goes. Therefore if the man is not Muslim but the woman is, his believes will overpower hers. 

Lesser Evils: Divorce in Islamic Ethics

            A couple can remarry three times before a divorce is absolute. After the third time the wife needs to remarry before they can get back together. A man can do a triple divorce and divorce her three times all at once. This makes the divorce absolute.

            Marriage, sex, and divorce are all very male centered and not very fair the woman. We saw this during the Iranian Divorce film and in this piece. Without the use of a dowry marriage and divorce could become much better and easier for women. Without the dowry the women would also not have the guarantee of support after the marriage ends.

fsaneh Najmabadi - Crafting and Educated Housewife in Iran

Najmabadi makes the argument that an educated muslim woman makes a better mother, wife and nation. She talks about the definition of the Muslim wife and mother within premodern era Persian texts. They describe the motives for taking a wife being the preservation of property and progeny.These texts were clear regarding the father, not the mother, was responsible for the care and education of the children. 19th century texts shifted the mother to this role.  Mirza Aqa Khan Kirmani mentions 'schools' in which Muslim men gains ethics; The womb, where the man biologically absorbs the character of his mother and  Family, where the family influences him, especially the mother. The womb seemed to take on epic importance, responsible for creating the nation of ethical Iranian men, and as such perhaps women (mothers) need respectful treatment to ensure they are not unhappy while their wombs are engaged in nation building.  However, Kirmani points out how Iranian women are deprived of all rights and this may have prompted a rethinking of gender in modernist Iran. Her main message is progress of the nation is seen as dependent on the progress of women, making women's education a priority, even to men's. Family eventually replaced man as the pillar of the nation, and women as mother were now given full responsibility for raising a most ethical family. Educated mothers would result in an intelligent and ethical nation.

Najmabadi describes how early in the 19th century, the organization of girls schools by Iranian mothers was met with hostility. I found it very interesting when she talked about how the notion of women in higher education was challenged. Why would a wife and mother need to go to high school, or university? How would that diploma help in raising their family? Be she points out that the term family can also mean the nation of Iran.

Sexual Ethics and Islam - Marriage, Money And Sex

It is always interesting to see how quickly cultures are to judge others for things that are abnormal to their customs. Most importantly how the judgement happens when people don't bother themselves to learn more from that particular culture just judge off the “top coating”. I say this  because within this reading by Kecia Ali, a lot of details about a Muslim marriage are revealed that the public eye (i.e. United States) does not bother to learn. Our first thought is that women within Muslim marriages are oppressed by force. But this article strictly entails how it consists more of imitations that Muslim women face within their marriages.

First off, It’s quite interesting to learn how emphasized it is throughout the article that a man must fulfill his wife’s pleasure (sex-wise). Which is really shocking since from a western point of view, I felt that men tended to make their marriage about them and how a wife must please them. “The linkage of divorce with dower may seem odd, but the husband, in the jurists’ logic, is paying for a type of control. It is this control that makes sex lawful” (5). Then it was described how the sex and offspring decisions is all about the men. Basically the man decides when he wants to have sex and if he chooses not to have sex for a year or so than the wife must be fine with that. Along with that she has no say in it nor has the permission or right to ask for sex. Regarding the children, their form of birth control, recommended by the prophet is the “pull-out method” basically to remove the penis before ejaculation BUT if the women wants the man to continue to fulfill pleasure then he must. Besides that the women do not have much say in when she wants children. She can’t force her husband if he doesn’t want to. The worst of all is that she knows she cant complain because their marriage becomes a contract with the dower that is given to her.

Which brings me to a dower, which is money or property offered/given to a women by requirement before marriage. A dower will not only demonstrate the respect to Muslim tradition but also that a man is able to provide for a woman (money, food, etc.). A dower will basically show that a man that is able to provide for his wife and future family, that he is reliable. But it is specifically given to the woman so it won’t seem as if the man is trying to “buy” her off her family. But with the dower is where it entitles the man to everything, sex privileges and the right to divorce. Since they give the women dowers the man can ask for divorce and be granted while on the other hand it will not be that easy for women unless they are able to pay all the dower back or they have a consensual divorce. And regarding sex as mentioned above it is their duty as  a wife to always be willing to have sex. They also discus how all the marriage policies become problematic when men marry outside of Muslim women. Because they become entitled to have more rights within their marriage which then make the Muslim men less useful within their culture.

Overall, this article was disappointing for me because I do wish that women would be able to speak up for themselves whether it was regarding divorce or sex. Of course this is from an American point of view because I believe that marriage ideals should consist of both people not just one person controlling it.

Week 10: Marriage, Money, and Sex

Marriage, Money, and Sex

            From my understanding of this chapter is that when it comes to women a dower is given to protect them. The only problem is that women are supposed to have this just in case anything goes wrong they have that money to live. But when it comes to American Muslim marriages it doesn’t always work this way as religious leaders do not have a say in the law here in the United States. But even when payment goes well for the women and she receives the dower, the idea is for her to be there for her husband and up hold the house hold. In reality this isn’t what a wife is used for instead she is used as a sexual human in which she becomes available for her husband whenever he wishes.

            When it comes to sex in a Muslim marriage this article kind of bugged me. I guess you can say it is my American views that make me feel this way. But I was shocked that the whole sexual experience and even having children is all up to the man. Even when a woman’s pleasure is said to be important to the marriage in reality it is only to the man’s bigger benefit then really trying to make sure the women is happy. The only reason one even worries about the women is to make sure the man is okay. The man having all the options and making all the choices when it comes to their sexual life really bugged me. in the sense that a women cannot even decide when she wants to have children. The way in which marriage works was really confusing to me.

Week 10: "Marriage, Money, and Sex" By Kecia Ali

"After the first time, intercourse is his right, not her right."

Kecia Ali begins to talk about the dower; that is, a certain amount of money that the man is obligated to give to his wife upon divorce. Often times that does not happen. She goes on to talk about how the husband is obligated to provide for his wife and the household. If failure to do so, the wife can request a divorce through the courts. 

This reading has several parallels to the documentary we watched in class, "Divorce: Iranian Style." We see how women are oppressed in the marriage institution and don't really have much of a say. "Sex is, by and large, a male right and female duty" (13). In other words, all the husband has to do is sexually satisfy his wife three times a  year and she has to be sexually available to him at all times. Another example of the law benefiting men and suppressing women is that, "the legal tradition fundamentally views marriage as an exchange of lawful sexual access for dower, and continued sexual availability for support" (13). 

In the United States, things are a bit different for Muslims as the courts do not recognize the dower. The husband or the wife can file for divorce as Islamic law is not fully recognized. 

Ali ultimately suggests that one way in thinking about a more equal opportunistic marriage system is reconsidering the dower, spousal support, and intermarriage. There are laws in the Quran that refer to seventh-century Arabia, but maybe should be slightly altered in order to further meet modern needs as people have changed since then?

Marriage, Money, and Sex

"Sex is, by and large, a male right and female duty [according to fiqh texts]..." (p. 13)

This article ties in perfectly to the documentary that we watched in class-- "Divorce: Iranian Style". I thought that it was quite interesting to firstly, see it played out on film, and then to read this piece on the legality of [Muslim] marriage as well. Additionally, it was enlightening to read on the accoutrements of marriages in the Muslim community themselves.

While admittedly from a quite Western feminist point of view, I found myself quite unhappy with the divine legality that is sexual ethics in marriage. More so specifically, the 'penalties' that a wife could face upon not pleasing her husband sexually. [This, of course, taken at face value, brought the 'White Savior' complex right out of me.] It seems vastly unfair to confine a woman in an impotent marriage/consummation thereof to said marriage. It seems as if the [Muslim] male has multiple avenues to be able to file for divorce (multiple interpretations as well), but the woman has little law that can oblige to her aid. This seems massively unfair, and I think that it is a ripe controversy in the marriage system as a whole.

All in all, this article served to inform the reader on the issue of massive power/relational disparities that exist in the Muslim institution of marriage. For myself, it gave insight on the actualities of said constrictions to the woman, instead of merely stating that Muslim marriages are oppressive. 

More Mahmood: "Agency, Gender, and Embodiment"

"Action does not issue forth from natural feeling but creates them." (p. 157)   

  

This chapter gave insight on the very [almost] subliminal aspect of passivity in women's society. From what I gathered, it is a system in which the act of piety itself stems from a deep air of passivity-- this air, so to speak, is the direct spawn of societal norms that feed into the subjugation of women as a whole. Furthermore, it also unravels the idea of [some] women's subordination by the way of the above quote: "Action does not issue forth from natural feeling but creates them." Which, in all basis, helped me understand the seeming thesis of this chapter: that we are essentially a product of our actions. 

Upon further reading into the chapter, it was very apparent that Mahmood seeks to shirk societal norms that subordinate the woman. Instead, she seeks to let women make their own decisions/motives on who they decide to be. It is this so-called 'mold' that she closes with that caught my eye: basically, Mahmood seeks to encourage the woman to stop trying to fit into a specific caste of society, this caste is/SHOULD not fully be formed as a starting point, because it falsifies the woman, and creates this veiled opinion of the woman as a societal conglomerate. 

Week 8 Politics of Piety by Saba Mahmood

This weeks reading politics of piety by Saba Mahmood the reading talked about how peoples traditions are different form one another depending on what they believe. The author also talked about agency. Mahmood also talked about how if women follow what society wanted them to that meant that they were giving manpower by following societies norms.

When I was reading the article I keep thinking about what we discussed in class about if we were free or not and how Mahmood in chapter one say that people that go again the norms in society those people are free.  One part of the article that I liked was the part and they are talking about the veil and how they people have different views about women wearing the veil. I like the example that the author gives about Nama and how she had to go through a all process before been able to be shy because it was how God wanted women to be. Which the author later explain that is the same thing with the veil is a command on God and at the beginning when women wear the veil they don’t feel comfortable and people look at the women weird but later on when they get used to it if they take the veil off they feel exposed.  Then later on in the article the author gives an example of how Ashmawis argues that women wear the veil because is a tradition but with time people have make a religion tradition.  One part on the article that caught my attention was the example that the author gives about Butler analyzes of reappropriation of the term queer how before it was very insulting and how now that term is positively and is used for self identification.  When I read the example I began to think about the word nigger in the past was offensive and I believe is still is from my perspective but people use it to refer one another which then I ask my self do you know what you are saying.  Later as I continue reading the article another point that caught my attention was when the author was talking with Nadia about marriage and how marriage in Egypt is a big issue for women because they need to get married as soon as possible they can not be single on the thirties because then women began to be rejected by others in society.  Then the authors says at the end that we can not put people in a perfect mold because not all of us fit in the perfect mold that society has deign for us.

Week 8: Saba Mahmood: "Agency, Gender, and Embodiment"

In Chapter 5 “Agency, Gender, and Embodiment”, the author Saba Mahmood carefully studied the cause of women’s shyness and how repeated actions could lead to the virtue of shyness of women. During the mosque movement of women, Mahmood explained how external expressions could affect and shape the internal, and how the secular women passively self-cultivated shyness.

Furthermore, Mahmood also introduced and valued Judith Butler’s concept of performativity and she learned that it does not necessary represent the mosque movement even though it is based on the concept of repeated performance for self-formation and creation of agency. Therefore, to get a better understanding of the concept of agency, Mahmood studied the relationship between women and marriage in a patriarchal society. She was trying to prove that secular women had a different view on traditional marriage, but it wasn’t necessarily focused on altering patriarchal structures. Instead, it was focused on the mosque movement. “Mosque movement women are agents even in the patriarchal system because she recognizes her responsibility to deal with her situation even if she cannot change it.”

The last but not the least, Mahmood examined the different ways of how women dealt with or taught to deal with their not so pious husbands. “How does one practice da’wa in a patriarchal system if the husband disapproves?” Women navigate the textual tradition to choose how to deal with it. This is another modality of agency that proves resistance and subordination way of looking at agency is not quite enough.

WEEK 8 SABA: AGENCY, GENDER AND EMOBODIMENT

       For this weeks reading Agency, Gender, and Embodiment, by Saba Mahmood is focused on the ways women within the mosque movement express their agency given their social circumstances they live under in a patriarchal society. Due to the author’s profound interest, Saba exceedingly explores and examines the women of the mosque movement in Egypt and how women survive within a system of inequality and flourishes despites its constraints.

    What I found particularly interesting is they way the author juxtaposes and looks at two different ways of expressing individuality when engaging with social injustice. She interviews a woman named Nadia, who may seem more “traditional” and part of the mosque movement and a woman named Sana who is critical of the virtues of the mosque movement and considerers herself a “secular Muslim.” The author investigates how these two women dealt with the pressures of getting married where being single is rejected by the entire society as if “she has some disease, as if she is a thief (pg.169).”  She highlights how these women view sabr- an important Islamic principle that means to preserve in the face of difficulty without complaint.  The author to juxtaposes 2 opposing women—one being part of the piety movement and one who does not take part to show the significance of how women in Egypt due to their same restraints both think similar in that it is a very painful situation but how they cope with it is different

    I think the author is trying to illuminate that there are different ways of dealing with social constraint by analyzing the women in Egypt who go about in their daily life to express their individuality in ways that transform their conditions under societal norms. The author is proclaiming when examining agency there shouldn’t be a universal notion of what it looks like, a prescriptive agency but to look at the different ways it takes form due to societal norms and in what ways it is performed and how the individual tolerates or copes with it.

     Both women recognize the painful situation single woman face but how they express their individuality due to their constraints differs.  Sana believes that sabr is a vital Islamic principle that it shouldn’t be a solution to everything and that it is a passive way of dealing with their limitations as a single woman in Egypt. The way she mentally survives is by realizing her self-worth-- who you really are which enables her to pursue her individual goals. What she draws her self-worth from is he how she is good at her job, not if she is married or not. For Nadia sabr is a practice that helps one how to live with a painful situation, to trust and accept your fate.