Year: 2004
Type: book
Abstract: The increasing polarization between the Western World and the Arabic countries after the 11th of September 2001 has strengthened the Western belief that Islam is a major part of the problem.Compromise and consensus to both political and social problems may however be found if Islam is treated as part of the solution to these problems.The first step towards a better understanding is to realize that the extremist voices on either side are rarely representative of the majority opinion even within the male community.The second step is to realize that male statements on women's place in society must not be taken as adequate descriptions of the social reality experienced by women.The third step towards a constructive dialogue is to take seriously the attempt by Moslem intellectuals, like Riffat Hassan (presented in Åsne Halskau's essay), to conceptualise human rights and women's rights in the language of their own tradition.In a word: Tradition is a plurality, not a monolithic, patriarchal and authoritarian structure.Feminism has served the West well, and may also be beneficial to the Middle East.The mainstream feminist insistence on equality of rights, as pointed out in Christian Meyer's essay, may however, obscure our understanding of the division of space, labour and social functions between the male and female sphere in traditional societies.The women's confinement to the "home is not a similar restriction in a Turkish village like Catalcam as it would be in a suburb of a European city."The home", where the women rule supreme, comprises approximately 75% of the village in geographical terms, and in economic terms perhaps even more.Men and women do not compete, as they do in modern industrial societies, in the same arenas.They compete within their respective arenas, and it is not evident that the male arena is the most important.In Christian Meyer's view, the practical exclusion of women from politics and interaction with the governmental apparatus, does not make the female sphere subordinate to the male sphere.The two spheres, rather, are co-ordinated and based on autonomy, equilibrium and co-ordination.The male chitchat in the teahouses is of little significance and the men's involvement with the larger world outside the village is not something to be envied.The gender-based division of Catalcam society has nothing to do with the fact that Turkey is predominantly Moslem.Christian Meyer argues that a simi-1 I. Blom "Feminism and Nationalism in the Early Twentieth Century: A Cross-Cultural Perspective" in Journal of Women's History, Vol. 7 No.
Language: English
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W7072256453