The New Nation - Internet Edition

Challenges, risks, and obligations for women in 2008

Rounaq Jahan

I am deeply honored to receive the Graduate Society Award from the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study. My memories of Harvard as a graduate student living in the all-women dormitory at 6 Ash Street, the Cronkite Graduate Center, from 1965 to 1969 are full of joy, exhilaration, and great expectations. It was not easy for me to get adjusted to Harvard or living in the United States. Though I was fluent in reading and writing in English, I had never spoken the language before I came to the US. Further, I was raised in a gender-segregated Muslim society leading a very protected and sheltered life. So there were challenges. However, soon after I arrived, I was given a friendly advice that here you either sink or swim. 'Since I had no intention of sinking, I suppose, I quickly learned how to swim. But I think it's not simply the fear of sinking but something more positive that propelled me to swim. I liked and enjoyed the stimulating academic environment of Harvard, class lectures given by the outstanding faculty, and discussions with fellow students. I was completely immersed in a life of books and ideas. For the first time in my life, I was encouraged to speak up and debate in the class and outside. Harvard demanded intellectual rigor and, at the same time, provided a supportive environment for me to achieve that goal of excellence. I owe an immense debt of gratitude to Harvard for my intellectual and personal growth.

The world has changed tremendously and particularly the lives of women have changed significantly since I was a graduate student in the mid-1960s. In the last 40 years, in the United States as well as in countries around the world, gender gaps in education, employment, income, decision making, and even in political leadership have been narrowed. In many countries, including the US, women now outnumber men in schools and colleges. They have a significant presence in many fields; e.g., science, medicine, business, and law, which in the 1960s used to be heavily dominated by men. Women's labor-force participation has also become near equal. Marriage and family patterns have changed enabling women to have greater voice within the household, which had traditionally been a major site of women's exploitation. We have traveled far but we still face many challenges, some old and some new.

So what are the challenges? I will focus on four which are old, but they still continue to challenge women. Our first challenge is to shape our own identity, to be our own person and not be defined by others. This is not always easy, as our families and societies are constantly telling us who we should be. But from my own experiences, I know that when we stand firm on what we want to be, we can break many barriers. When I began my academic-activist life in my country Bangladesh in the early 1970s, I used to stand out as a young, single woman pursuing a path very different from other women. What I find remarkable is how quickly our society changed. Change happened because I was not alone; many other women also decided to fulfill their own potentials.

Of course, we have to recognize that achieving our own personal goals cannot be our only challenge. We need to confront the challenges that condition the lives of the vast majority of the world's women. We need to focus specifically on areas where progress for women has been relatively slow in the last 30, 40 years. Our second challenge is then to improve the terms and conditions of women's work, both paid and unpaid. We all know that women's employment rates have increased significantly in the last 40 years, but women's share of earned income has not been at par with their employment. For example, at present in the US, women constitute nearly half (46 percent) of the labor force, but their share of earned income is about two-thirds that of men's. It is even lower in India, which is less than one-third. A part of the problem is that the conditions of poverty have pushed women to take any employment, no matter how poor the terms and conditions. This has resulted in women being predominantly concentrated in low-paid, insecure, casual jobs. For example, in Bangladesh, men dominated manufacturing jobs in the 1970s. Now the situation has reversed where young women make up a majority of the industrial workforce. Further, 80 percent to 90 percent of the workers of the garment industry are young women. This industry, which constitutes Bangladesh's main exports, annually earns 9 billion dollars, whereas these women workers earn less than a dollar a day while putting in 12â€"14 hours. However, Bangladesh is not unique. The economic boom of many countries is dependent on women's cheap labor. Additionally, the burden of unpaid work in the care economy (i.e., child care, care of the sick and elderly family members) continues to be a problem for women as they expand their participation in paid employment. Getting governments and the private sector to recognize women's contribution to economic growth, their poor work conditions, and their labor in the care economy remains a major challenge for women in the future.

Our third challenge is to reduce violence against women. We have succeeded in making violence against women, particularly domestic violence, a criminal offense in many countries. But this has not resulted in any significant reduction on the incidence of violence. Even in a country such as Sweden, which generally ranks number one in the global women's empowerment index, police reports of assaults on women have increased by 40 percent during the 1990s (from 14,000 in 1990 to 22,400 in 2003). What is worse, war and political and ethnic conflicts have routinely embraced violence against women as a part of their arsenal. In recent years we have witnessed rape being used as a weapon in war and conflict situations in Asia, Africa, as well as Europe.

Our final challenge, and here we have near stagnation, is to improve women's presence in political leadership positions. With the exception of Nordic countries, where women have made significant progress; in the rest of the world progress has been extremely slow. For example, in Sweden, women constitute 47 percent of parliament and 52 percent of ministerial level positions. In contrast, in the USA, women hold 16 percent of Congressional seats and 14 percent of ministerial positions. In India, which has been a model for a long-standing stable democracy among the Southern countries, the progress of women is even slower, though a woman prime minister has governed India for more than a decade (1966â€"1977; 1980â€"1984). In India, women's share of parliamentary seats is 9 percent and ministerial positions are 3 percent. However we cannot effectively address these challenges without recognizing the emerging threats/risks for women's empowerment. I will now turn to the risks for women. I will be selective and focus on four major risks. The first risk is the global trend of cutting back on the role of government and the public sector and relying more and more on the market and the private sector; which can adversely affect women'sâ€"and particularly poor women'sâ€"health and education. From our past experiences, we know that government laws and policies have played a critical role in improving women's conditions. Nordic women are doing better compared to women of other regions mainly because Nordic governments have been proactive. Their equality laws, women-friendly social policies, 40/60 principle of political representation, and public sector provisioning of health and education have contributed significantly in pushing Nordic countries to the top of the women's empowerment index.

The second risk for women is the persistent and alarmingly widening inequalities between different groups of women, which has held back our overall progress and created obstacles in building a strong and cohesive political voice. The gains women have made in the last 40â€"50 years have not been equitably shared. Class, race, place of residence have been major markers of disparities. Let me give a few examples of these disparities: Lifetime chances of dying from maternal deaths are 1 in 2,500 in USA and Europe, 1 in 94 in Asia, and 1 in 16 in sub-Saharan Africa. However, there are not only North-South disparities, but also great disparities within countries. In India, less than half (43 percent) of births are attended by skilled personnel, compared to near universal attendance (99 percent) in USA. But disparities within India are greater than that between India and USA. Only 16 percent of the poorest families compared to 84 percent of the richest families in India have skilled birth attendance. Within USA also, black women (7.5 percent) have double the rate of unemployment compared to white women (4 percent). If we want to sustain our progress, we need to work towards reducing these disparities.

The third and related risk for women is the narrow constituency base of the women's movements. Women's movements around the world have played a key role in mobilizing women to demand their rights and pressurize governments to enact laws, adopt policies, and take specific actions. But the constituency bases of these movements in most countries have been limited to upper- and middle-class women. Working-class and poor women have generally not been drawn into them. This gap has considerably weakened the capacity of the women's movement to work as a strong unified political force.

The task of widening the constituency base becomes particularly urgent when we consider the fourth risk for women: the backlash from conservative groups, many of whom are religious extremists. These extremists are to be found in all religions: Christianity, Islam, Judaism, and Hinduism. In recent years, the resurgence of political use of religion and the political strength of faith-based groups have directly threatened women's rights. For example, the religious extremists in the USA are not only limiting women's choice in this country; via the gag rule, they are also threatening the reproductive rights of women globally. The secularists who have been in the forefront championing women's rights are in a much weakened position politically in many countries. The global war on terror has further exacerbated the risks for women by legitimizing the political use of religion and religious groups.

Let me finally turn to women's obligations. Again, I will be selective and highlight four. Our first obligation is to ourselves. As I mentioned earlier, we need to always stand up for our own rights, to be constantly vigilant and ever-ready to defend and promote our rights.

Our second obligation is to assist other women who are less privileged and resourced than us in our own countries as well as globally. We may all have our own paid and unpaid work responsibilities. But we still need to volunteer time for civic and political actions that address the issues of inequities and exclusion. I became involved in the women's movement in the 1970s, when I realized that I could no longer be a silent witness to the plight of thousands of women who were raped during our war of national liberation and were socially stigmatized and abandoned by their families.

Our third obligation is to recognize the critical role that education has played in fueling women's progress. This is more crucial for us who had the privilege of receiving an excellent education. Evidence from all over the world indicates that women's education has been good not only for women; it has also led to family well-being and economic growth. But millions of girls and women around the world are still denied access to education, particularly quality education. Girls account for more than half of the 57 million children who are out of school. We and institutions such as Radcliffe and Harvard need to move beyond simple knowledge generation. We have to get involved in quiet initiatives as well as public campaigns to ensure that quality education becomes available to all of the world's citizens.

Finally, we need imagination to create a vision of a society, economy, polity, and world order that will be equal, just, and inclusive; and we need to be in the forefront and provide leadership to a shared struggle of women and men to reach that vision. We need stamina and courage, but above all, we need to be committed and have faith in our own strength to transform the world.

(Rounaq Jahan has been a professor of political science at Dhaka University in Bangladesh and served in an advisory capacity on several policy-making bodies established by the government of Bangladesh. She founded Women for Women, one of the first feminist research centers in Bangladesh, in 1973, and she was a representative of Bangladesh to the United Nations General Assembly in 1977. Jahan graduated from Dhaka University in Bangladesh in 1963 and received her MA and PhD in political science from Harvard University in 1968 and 1970, respectively.)

Counter-terrorist policing

When Prime Minister, Gordon Brown, finally took the reigns of power, he was warmly applauded for the new tone he set for politics in general and his seemingly more calculated and cautious approach to tackling the scourge of terrorism. This included a much cooler relationship with US President, George W Bush, than that of his predecessor Tony Blair.

This month, Home Secretary, Jacqui Smith, launched a much-needed fresh approach to the Prevent component in the Government counter-terrorism strategy. With resources allocated, she said this will "enable us to develop a new kind of counter terrorist policing." To a chorus of charges from both the Conservatives and Liberal Democrats of breaching rules so close to the May 1 local and mayoral elections, she announced that she would be providing "more than three hundred new police posts across the country over the next three years." Their job in the Prevent strategies would be to target radicalisation in Muslim areas and therefore put a curb on potential terrorists. The new roles included training others, briefing on where radicalism might be happening, identifying people at risk of radicalisation, working with colleges, prisons and schools and building links with mosques.

In a speech to Basic Command Unit Commanders, Smith referred to her visits to Pakistan and Bangladesh, where she said their two governments had also seen the need to develop their own Prevent strategy. The new government in Islamabad is "determined to tackle the social and economic issues that it believes can create a climate for radicalisation." It wants to take on unregulated madrasahs, to challenge the world view of the terrorists, and communicate a credible counter narrative that will have an impact on communities in both Pakistan and the UK. As part of this, she said she wanted to explore "inviting moderate imams from South Asia to support their counterparts in communities in Britain."

As with the recent initiative to empower women, all attempts to address some of the inequalities, prejudice and alienation suffered by the Muslim community should be welcomed. But why are they only being launched as part of the counter terrorism strategy, which Smith implicitly acknowledged in an interview with the News of the World was not succeeding? She said that the threat was actually increasing with still 30 active plots, 200 networks of terrorist cells and 2,000 individuals being monitored.

The Home Secretary admitted that it was not possible to "arrest our way" out of the terrorist threat and what was needed was a long-term approach. But singling out and targeting Muslims, however it may be couched, only serves to further stigmatise the community and can lead to the further alienation of Muslim youths, who feel like they are under siege.

In reassessing the Prevent component, Smith spelled out the need to address key challenges that drive radicalisation. But nowhere in her speech was there any mention of tackling some of the root political causes in this country. She said that what was needed first was to challenge both an ideology and an image of terrorism. The ideology promoted by terrorists "misreads a great religion, and wilfully distorts history and politics for its own purposes." It is inexcusable to glorify terrorism and call the indiscriminate killing of civilians heroic. But it is hard to ignore the fact that every terrorist video message speaks of the untold suffering caused by the disastrous 2003 Iraqi invasion and the dismal plight of the Palestinians while the world sits in silence.

The Government has continually pledged to put the creation of a viable Palestinian state at the top of its agenda, but increasingly stops short of even condemning the latest Israeli massacres. There can be no so-called neutral policy towards a belligerent aggressor which has occupied another territory for 60 years and has flagrantly breached international law with impunity. The Government has shown a vestige of regret for some of its mistakes over Iraq, but has fallen short of any real apology for the war that was based on false premises.

There are domestic issues that also need to be addressed: not just the rising tide of Islamophobia but the virtually annual bouts of anti-terrorism legislation that makes Muslims feel more and more like fifth columnists. The need for more draconian laws is highly questionable when you take into account official figures which show that counter-terrorism legislation has led to so few extra convictions in the last seven years. Statistics compiled from police records by the offices of the National Coordinator for Terrorist Investigations lists only 41 Terrorism Act convictions up until the end of March last year, out of 1,165 arrests since 2001: less than three per cent. In contrast, offences under other laws including murder and explosives offences, conspiracies, firearms, grievous bodily harm and other related offences have resulted in 183 convictions for terrorist suspects.

Unfortunately, the Prime Minister appears to be retracting towards the discredited policies of his predecessor instead of being firmer in setting out his own vision. A complete break with the past is required and Brown needs to be more forceful in biting the bullet and calling for an inquiry into the Iraq war now and not waiting to follow on the coat-tails of the US again. As has been often repeated, any hopes of learning lessons from the threat of terrorism can only start with an independent judicial inquiry into the 2005 London bombings as is being called for by many of the survivors and families of the victims. Certainly, they do not want to wait for new legislation that will allow the overdue inquests to be held in secret.

A new long-term Prevent strategy for a different kind of counter-terrorist policing is certainly welcome as is this Government's call for a partnership with all the necessary players. These include all sections of the community and not just those selected by the Government. The deal Smith apparently struck with Pakistan, which has its own severe problems, to allow respected Islamic scholars to be brought over to Britain to combat extremism also appears to be a reverse of the Government's commitment to having more domestically-trained imams. It also contrasts with what Communities Secretary, Hazel Blears, talked of in her speech to police commanders regarding the priority of strengthening leadership in Muslim communities by "increasing the number of home-grown imams." Of concern is the delay in establishing the Mosques and Imams National Advisory Board (MINAB), which has been subjected to Government interference and hampered by the refusal by many mosques and Islamic organisations to give it support. In regards to this, it is important to note that research carried out by Chester University last year contradicted the Government's approach of blaming Imams for radicalising young British Muslims, claiming there was no evidence for this.

If the Government wants its anti-terrorism policy to succeed, it should look afresh at its failed strategy.

(Source: The Muslim News, UK)

Confessions of a British spy - II

In the Hijri year 1122, C.E. 1710, the Minister of Colonies sent me to Egypt, Iraq, Hijaz and Istanbul to act as a spy and to obtain information necessary and sufficient for the breaking up of Muslims. The Ministry appointed nine more people, full of agility and courage, for the same mission and at the same time. In addition to the money, information and maps we would need, we were given a list containing names of statesmen, scholars, and chiefs of tribes. I can never forget! When I said farewell to the secretary, he said, "The future of our State is dependent on your success. Therefore you should exert your utmost energy."

I set out on a voyage to Istanbul, the centre of the Islamic caliphate. Besides my primary duty, I was to learn very well Turkish, the native language of the Muslims being there. I had already learned in London a considerable amount of Turkish, Arabic (the language of the Qur'an) and Persian, the Iranian language. Yet learning a language was quite different from speaking that language like its native speakers. While the former skill can be acquired in a matter of a few years, the latter requires a duration of time several times as long as this. I had to learn Turkish with all its subtleties lest the people should suspect me.

I was not anxious that they should suspect me. For Muslims are tolerant, open-hearted, benevolent, as they have learnt from their Prophet Muhammad 'alai-his-salam'. They are not sceptical like us. After all, at that time the Turkish government did not have an organization to arrest spies.

After a very tiresome voyage I arrived in Istanbul. I said my name was Muhammad and began to go to the mosque, Muslims' temple. I liked the way Muslims observed discipline, cleanliness and obedience. For a moment I said to myself: Why are we fighting these innocent people? Is this what our Lord the Messiah advised us? But I at once recovered from this diabolical [!] thought, and decided to carry out my duty in the best manner.

In Istanbul I met an old scholar named "Ahmad Effendi." With his elegant manners, open-heartedness, spiritual limpidity, and benevolence, none of our religious men I had seen could have equalled him. T his person endeavoured day and night to make himself like the Prophet Muhammad. According to him, Muhammad was the most perfect, the highest man. Whenever he mentioned his name his eyes would become wet. I must have been very lucky, for he did not even ask who I was or where I was from. He would address me as "Muhammad Effendi." He would answer my questions and treat me with tenderness and with compassion. For he considered me a guest who had come to Istanbul to work in Turkey and to live in the shadow of the Khalifa, the representative of the Prophet Muhammad. Indeed, this was the pretext I used to stay in Istanbul

One day I said to Ahmad Effendi: "My parents are dead. I don't have any brothers or sisters, and I haven't inherited any property. I came to the centre of Islam to work for a living and to learn Qur'an al-karim and the Sunnat, that is, to earn both my worldly needs and my life in the Hereafter." He was very delighted with these words of mine, and said, "You deserve to be respected for these three reasons." I am writing down exactly what he said:

"1- You are a Muslim. All Muslims are brothers.

2- You are a guest. Rasulullah 'sall-allahu alaihi wa sallam' declared: 'Offer kind hospitality to your guests!'

3- You want to work. There is a hadith ash-Sharif stating that 'a person who works is beloved to Allah.' "

These words pleased me very much. I said to myself, "Would that there were such bright truths in Christianity, too! It's a shame there aren't any." What surprised me was the fact that Islam, such a noble religion as it was, was being degenerated in the hands of these conceited people who were quite unaware of what was going on in life.

I said to Ahmad Effendi that I wanted to learn Qur'an al-karim. He replied that he would teach me with pleasure, and began to teach me (Fatiha sura). He would explain the meanings as we read. I had great difficulty pronouncing some words. In two years' time I read through the whole Qur'an al-karim. Before each lesson he would make ablution himself and also command me to make ablution. He would sit towards the qibla (Kaba) and then begin teaching.

What Muslims call ablution consisted of a series of washings, as follows:

1) Washing the face;

2) Washing the right arm from fingers to elbows;

3) Washing the left arm from fingers to elbows;

4) Making masah of (moistening both hands and rubbing them gently on) the head, backs of ears, (back of) neck;

5) Washing both feet.

Having to use the miswak vexed me very much. "Miswak" is a twig with which they (Muslims) clean their mouth and teeth. I thought this piece of wood was harmful for the mouth and teeth. Sometimes it would hurt my mouth and cause bleeding. Yet I had to use it. For, according to them, using the "miswak" was a muakkad sunnat of the Prophet. They said this wood was very useful. Indeed, the bleeding of my teeth came to an end. And the foul breath that I had till that time, and which most British people have, was gone.

During my stay in Istanbul I spent the nights in a room I had rented from a man responsible for the service in a mosque. This servant's name was "Marwan Effendi". Marwan is the name of one of the Sahaba (Companions) of the Prophet Muhammad. The servant was a very nervous man. He would boast about his name and tell me that if I should have a son in the future I should "name him Marwan, because Marwan is one of Islam's greatest warriors."

"Marwan Effendi" would prepare the evening dinner. I would not go to work on Friday, a holiday for Muslims. On the other days of the week I worked for a carpenter named Khalid, being paid on a weekly basis. Because I worked part time, from morning till noon, that is, he would give me half the wage he gave the other employees. This carpenter would spend much of his free time telling about the virtues of "Khalid bin Walid." Khalid bin Walid, one of the Sahaba of the Prophet Muhammad, is a great mujahid (a warrior for Islam). He accomplished various Islamic conquests. Yet his (Khalid bin Walid's) dismissal from office by 'Umar bin Hattab during the latter's caliphate chafed the carpenter's heart (2).

"Khalid", the carpenter for whom I worked, was an immoral and extremely neurotic person. He somehow trusted me very much. I do not know why, but perhaps it was because I always obeyed him. He ignored the Shariat (Islam's commandments) in his secret manners. Yet when he was with his friends he would display obedience to the commandments of the Shariat. He would attend the Friday prayers, but I am not sure about the other (daily) prayers.

I would have breakfast in the shop. After work I would go to the mosque for noon prayer and would stay there till afternoon prayer. After the afternoon prayer I would go to Ahmad Effendi's place, where he would teach me such lessons as (reading) Qur'an al-karim, Arabic and Turkish languages for two hours. Every Friday I would give him my weekly earnings because he taught me very well. Indeed, he taught me very well how to read Qur'an al-karim, requirements of the Islamic religion and the subtleties of Arabic and Turkish languages.

When "Ahmad Effendi" knew that I was single, he wanted to marry me to one of his daughters. I refused his offer. But he insisted, saying that marriage is a sunnat of the Prophet's and the Prophet had stated that "A person who turns away from my sunnat is not with me." Apprehending that this event might put an end to our personal dealings, I had to lie to him, saying that I lacked sexual power. Thus I ensured the continuance of our acquaintance and friendship.

When my two-year stay in Istanbul was over, I told "Ahmad Effendi" I wanted to go back home. He said, "No, don't go. Why are you going? You can find anything you might look for in Istanbul. Allahu ta'ala has given both the religion and the world at the same time in this city. You say that your parents are dead and you have no brothers or sisters. Why don't you settle down in Istanbul?" "Ahmad Effendi" had formed a compulsive dependence upon my company. For this reason he did not want to part company with me and insisted that I should make my home in Istanbul. But my patriotic sense of duty compelled me to go back to London, to deliver a detailed report concerning the centre of the caliphate, and to take new orders.

Throughout my stay in Istanbul I sent reports of my observations monthly to the Ministry of Colonies. I remember asking in one of my reports what I was to do should the person I was working for ask me to practice sodomy with him. The reply was: You can do it if it will help you attain your goal. I was very much indignant over this answer. I felt as if the whole world had fallen down on my head. I already knew that this vicious deed was very common in England. Yet it had never occurred to me that my superiors would command me to commit it. What could I do? I had no other way than to empty the drug to the dregs. So I kept quiet and went on with my duty.

As I said farewell to "Ahmad Effendi", his eyes became wet and he said to me, "My son! May Allahu ta'ala be with you! If you should come back to Istanbul and see that I am dead, remember me. Say the (sura) Fatiha for my soul! We will meet on the Judgement Day in front of 'Rasulullah'." Indeed, I felt very sad, too; so much so that I shed warm tears. However, my sense of duty was naturally stronger.

(Source: Waqf Ikhlas, Istanbul)