Post for 4/22

Extra credit post
Lila Abu-Lughod criticizes western feminists for attempting to restructure foreign cultures. While I understand western feminists genuinely care about women’s status, they are not taking the necessary steps to address women’s rights in this culture. She argues that in the past, we have overlooked and misinterpreted what is really going on the Islamic culture. This has resulted in western feminists trying to further their various political and international agendas, which encompass the idea of “saving” women. “Saving” reinforces a sense of superiority by westerners and is detrimental to the women in Muslim societies.

She argued that burqa raises political and ethical questions that have to do with how to deal with difference. Even after the "liberation" from the Taliban, many Afghan women do not agree with what the Westerners want for them. For many of them, they feel both religiously and culturally empowered by choosing to cover themselves. In this situation, what can we do?

I think it is crucial to understand differences and consider their actual needs. We cannot appear as superior to them; rather, we must work collaboratively on creating a better environment for all, and like Abu-Lughod discussed, create the peace necessary for debates and discussions. Also, we need to be respectful of other routes of change. She writes:

Is it impossible to ask whether there can be a liberation that is Islamic?

Abu-Lughod’s article relates to a research project I did in my Introduction to Anthropology class last year. In the class, we were told to investigate what appears as an odd behavior in a culture and analyze it in terms of its meaning to the overall culture. I studied why young girls of the Okiek community, one of Kenya's smallest ethnic groups, engage in the practice of female circumcision. At first glance, most people, like myself, would say this practice is completely unjust and must be eradicated. However, after careful analysis of understanding the workings of the culture and ethnographic data on the community, I learned a great deal of the importance it had.

I found that female circumcision fits well into several aspects of Okiek culture by playing an important role as a marker of social, ethnic, and religious identity. Female circumcision in this culture actually makes females more mature, strengthens bonds between women, and develops new ways of acting and interacting. What is interesting is that most feminists and other groups do not take into account the cultural significance and seek to eradicate it immediately.

Therefore, along the lines of Abu-Lughod’s claims, individuals and organizations attempting to eradicate certain practices in other parts of the world must take the time to understand how a specific practice fits into the culture. In the future, efforts undertaken by individuals, feminists, government and non-governmental organizations will be more successful if they restructure their campaigns by taking an anthropological approach to understand why communities engage in certain practices. Furthermore, like Abu-Lughod suggests, we the need to accept differences, but not to extreme of being a “cultural relativist who respect whatever goes on elsewhere as “just their culture” (767). There is a boundary and we must be careful to not step over it.