Secular and Islamic Feminist Critiquesin the Work of Fatima Mernissi

Women and Gender

Th e Middle East and the Islamic World

Editors

Margot BadranValentine Moghadam

VOLUME 9

Secular and Islamic Feminist Critiques in the Work of

Fatima Mernissi

By

Raja Rhouni

LEIDEN • BOSTON2010

Th is book is printed on acid-free paper.

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ISSN 1570-7628ISBN 978-90-04-17616-4

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À ma mamanÀ mon papaÀ mon mariÀ tous ceux que je porte dans mon cœurAvec tendresse

CONTENTS

Preface ................................................................................................. xiAcknowledgments .............................................................................. xvii

Introduction Mernissi as a Point of Entry into Islamic Feminism ................................................................. 1

Mernissi and Her Critics .............................................................. 1Engaging Islamic Feminist Th eory through the Case of

Mernissi ...................................................................................... 11Laying Bare My Assumptions ..................................................... 13Mernissi and Islamic Feminism .................................................. 20Rise of a Movement(s) and Birth of a Term ............................ 22Islamic Feminism: An Oxymoron? ............................................ 27Problematizing ‘Islamic Feminism’: What’s in a Name? ....... 31Organization of the Book ............................................................ 38

PART ONE

MERNISSI’S SECULAR CRITIQUE:WRITING THE GENDERED SUBALTERN

HISTORY OF MOROCCO

Chapter One Multiple-Front Postcolonial Feminist Critique .................................................................... 47

Revisiting French Colonialism and the ‘Emancipation of Women’ ...................................................................................... 47

Deconstructing Nationalist Discourse of ‘Women’s Liberation’ ............................................................... 55

Uncovering the Political and Economic Instrumentality of Traditional Gender Roles to a Neopatriarchal System ....... 66

Chapter Two A Subaltern Critic Unveils the Intersection between Gender and Class Biases in Modernization Policies ......................................... 77

Mernissi’s Subaltern Narrative and Confl icts with a Dogmatic Marxist Discourse .................................................. 79

viii contents

Problematizing Modernization through a Subaltern Narrative ..................................................................................... 86

Foregrounding ‘Subaltern Consciousness’: Can the Subaltern Be Heard by Mernissi? ............................................................. 102

Chapter Th ree Decentering Feminism, Demystifying the Harem, and Revising ‘Muslim History’ ........... 119

Decentering Feminism ................................................................. 119Demystifying the Harem Using a Double-Front Critique ..... 131In the Silent Margins of Muslim History ................................. 147

PART TWO

BETWEEN SECULARIST AND ISLAMIC FEMINISM

Chapter Four Th e Secularist Moment ....................................... 165Beyond the Veil .............................................................................. 165Woman in the Muslim Unconscious ........................................... 178

Chapter Five Revisiting Islam from ‘Within’ ......................... 195L’Amour dans les pays musulmans ............................................. 195Th e Veil and the Male Elite ......................................................... 201Islam and Democracy .................................................................... 236

Conclusion Toward a Post-foundationalist Islamic Feminism 251

Glossary ............................................................................................... 275Bibliography ........................................................................................ 277Index .................................................................................................... 287

Writing . . . is the act of a lost soul; the approach is that of someone fragile, who has no message, someone in search of herself, someone sure of nothing, except that something isn’t right and it hurts. Writing is an admission of impotence, but one reinforced and buttressed by an incredible generosity and marvelous faith in humanity and its grandeur which derives from its being perfectible.

Fatima Mernissi, “Writing is Better Th an a Face-Lift ,” inWomen’s Rebellion and Islamic Memory

PREFACE

When I fi rst heard the name Fatima Mernissi, I was an undergraduate student (1991–95) in the department of English at the Faculté des Lettres et des Sciences Humaines, Université Mohammed V, Rabat, Morocco. One of my professors mentioned Mernissi as the Moroccan feminist par excellence. Th ough I was quite sensitive to gender inequalities in general, the name did not catch much of my attention. I had been introduced to feminism a year or two before in a literary course, which, despite its value, oft en focused on American or French feminisms; the issues we covered seemed to me, and I presume to a lot of my classmates, far away from Moroccan reality. Th e disinterest and oft en distrust of feminism by my classmates, especially my male classmates, largely stemmed from this particular focus.

With hindsight, I think that Mernissi’s work, if taught, would have signifi cantly changed my classmates’ negative assumptions about femi-nism, especially the commonly held idea that feminism describes a war against men and Islam, waged by Western and Westernized bourgeois women, advocating sexual promiscuity. If my classmates and I had studied, for instance, Mernissi’s Doing Daily Battle: Interviews with Moroccan Women, based on her pioneering interviews with mostly rural and poor urban women, we would have realized that her work is for the most part about foregrounding the voices of underprivileged Moroccan women, subject to a combination of class and gender marginalization.1 Th is aspect of Mernissi’s scholarship was one of my motivations, among many, to write a dissertation on her work.

As a young educated woman, living in a patriarchal, though chang-ing, society, I was obviously most intrigued by her works on Islam and gender.2 Th is was another (and the most important) incentive behind

1 Mernissi, Doing Daily Battle: Interviews with Moroccan Women, trans. Mary Jo Lakeland (London: Th e Women’s Press, 1988). Th e book was originally published in Morocco in 1984 under the French title Le Maroc raconté par ses femmes [Morocco narrated by its women] (Rabat: SMER, 1984). It was republished in France as Le Monde n’est pas un harem: paroles de femmes du Maroc [Th e world is not a harem: Voices of Moroccan women] (Paris: Albin Michel, 1991). I will be using the English translation, Doing Daily Battle, throughout this book.

2 One of the most signifi cant changes in Morocco is certainly the new family code (Moudawana), issued in 2004, which signifi cantly moved toward greater gender equality

xii preface

my project. Reading Mernissi’s Beyond the Veil: Male-Female Dynamics in Modern Muslim Society, I could not but agree with its intransigent critique of gender discrimination in Islam.3 I had been saturated with clearly gender discriminating laws, to which I was painfully introduced in courses on Islamic education during high school. Women’s secondary status in areas of inheritance and witness-giving made me come to the painful awareness that I, a profoundly religious teenager, was in fact a second-class believer. As a postgraduate student reading Beyond the Veil, I discovered that Mernissi’s secularist position and her criticism of what she saw as the misogynist message of Islam matched mine.

Yet reading Mernissi’s Le Harem politique: le Prophète et les femmes (Th e political harem: Th e prophet and women) (published in English in 1991 as Th e Veil and the Male Elite: A Feminist Interpretation of Women’s Rights in Islam), with its ‘new’ vision of Islam as a religion with a message of gender equality, aborted because of deep-rooted cultural misogyny and male political interests, somehow shook my

and is considered today “to be the most gender-egalitarian sharia-grounded civil code” (Margot Badran, “Islamic Feminism Revisited,” Al-Ahram Weekly Online, no. 781, February 9–15, 2006, Al-Ahram Organization, http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/2006/781/cu4.htm). Among the signifi cant changes it brought is the abolition of the patriarchal family. Whereas the former Moudawana, also called Le Code du Statut Personnel (Personal Status Code) conceived of the family as being headed by the husband, the new family code states that the family is under the equal responsibility of both the husband and wife. Th e law also abolished the institution of matrimonial tutorship, wilaya (from wali, male tutor). Today, it is no longer mandatory for an adult woman to have a tutor sign her marriage contract. In addition, the amendments brought seri-ous restrictions on polygamy, unilateral divorce, and precocious marriages. For the text of the new Moudawana, see the Ministry of Justice’s Web site, http://www.justice.gov.ma/MOUDAWANA/Frame.htm. An unoffi cial English translation was prepared by Global Rights in 2005, http://www.globalrights.org/site/DocServer/Moudawana-English_Translation.pdf?docID=3106. Th ese legal changes are in line with social changes, like women’s growing access to education and employment, the emergence of women as heads of household, and the increase of the age at fi rst marriage. For an excellent discussion of social changes and new political dynamics in general in Morocco, see Taieb Belghazi and Mohammed Madani, L’Action collective au Maroc: de la mobilisation des ressources à la prise de parole [Collective action in Morocco: From mobilization of resources to taking the fl oor] (Rabat: Publications de la Faculté des Lettres et des Sciences Humaines, 2001). For a discussion of the new Moudawana, its limitations, and problems with its implementation, see Souad Eddouada, “Implementing Islamic Feminism: Th e Case of the Family Code Reform in Morocco,” in Islamic Feminism: Current Perspectives, ed. Anitta Kynsilehtto (Tampere: Tampere Peace Research Institute, 2008), 37–46.

3 I will be using the 1987 edition of Beyond the Veil: Male-Female Dynamics in Modern Muslim Society, rev. ed. (1975; Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1987).

preface xiii

secularist convictions.4 It, indeed, eased some of the aching anger I had felt against what aft er all constituted one of the most important identity components for a Muslim woman like me. As Ziba Mir-Hosseini argues: “If we are Muslims, whether or not believing or practicing, Islam is part of our identity, our way of life, a culture, a system of values. We may be at ease with it or fi nd our position painful and ambiguous.”5 However, Mernissi’s book did not have satisfactory answers to all of my questions regarding the existence of discriminatory ‘laws’ in the foundational texts of Islam, such as the ones pointed out by Beyond the Veil. For a long time, then, I felt caught between these two power-ful, yet very diff erent texts, the fi rst speaking to my mind, the second to my heart. Indeed, the reconciliation with this important identity constituent was not yet to come.

Th is confusion and uneasiness soon disappeared with my decisive encounter with historian of Islamic thought Mohammed Arkoun, who gave regular lectures in Morocco in the late 1990s and the beginning of the twenty-fi rst century.6 Arkoun’s insistence on the importance of history, or the comparative history of religions, in understanding and studying Islam; his call for the incorporation of the human sciences methodologies; his criticism of literal readings of founding texts and foundationalism in Islamic thought; and his assertion of the plurality of meaning were revelations to me. Surprising as it may seem, I came back to Islam through comparative history of religions, literary criticism, and linguistics. Th ough Arkoun has never dealt with gender issues in Islam in his work, his insights opened new avenues to me both as a person, for whom religion has always mattered, and as a young scholar, trying to make sense of gender in Islam. Equipped with the analytical tools

4 Mernissi, Le Harem politique: le Prophète et les femmes (Paris: Albin Michel, 1987); Mernissi, Th e Veil and the Male Elite: A Feminist Interpretation of Women’s Rights in Islam, trans. Mary Jo Lakeland (New York: Addison-Wesley, 1991). A British edition is also available, under the title Women and Islam: An Historical Enquiry and Th eological Enquiry (Oxford: Basil Blackwell, 1991). I will be referring to the American edition, Th e Veil and the Male Elite.

5 Mir-Hosseini, Islam and Gender: Th e Religious Debate in Contemporary Iran (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1999), 4.

6 I came across Arkoun during his talk at the Institut Français, Rabat. Arkoun, “Al-Islah: réforme, ou subvertir la clôture dogmatique” [Al-Islah: Reform, or subversion of dogmatic closure] (lecture, Institut Français, Rabat, October 16, 2000). Th ree years later, I had the opportunity to personally meet him and discuss with him my work on Mernissi, during a conference organized by the Centre Jacques Berques, Rabat, in which I took part.

xiv preface

provided by Arkoun and other progressive Muslim scholars, later, I was at last able to put my fi nger on the origin of my dilemma by articulating an ‘alternative’ approach to Islam, which eventually would constitute the central thesis in my doctoral dissertation.

With the decisive help of my advisor, Moroccan critical theorist Taieb Belghazi, I registered in 1997 the fi rst doctoral thesis on Mernissi’s work in a Moroccan university.7 My project was within the framework of the doctoral program Culture and Development, which followed the cultural studies MA program that Belghazi and other professors had initiated in the department of English of the same faculty.8 Th is program aimed to train students in interdisciplinary critical analysis through exposure to cultural studies with its numerous theories, like postcolonialism, postmodernism, and gender studies.

I was lucky enough that within the same year, Mernissi, who had stopped teaching at the university, gave a talk at a conference organized by the faculty, on “Women and Madness.”9 I was very excited to put a face to a name and to hear her in person at last. I sat in the front with my notebook, prepared for what I expected to be an academic lecture on the subject. Th ere stood in front of me an elegant woman in her late fi ft ies, with makeup and beautiful jewelry, which, I later learned, she designs herself. “She is a diff erent feminist,” I thought. Th e image of the other icon of Arab feminism, Nawal El Saadawi, who had been invited to give a lecture two or three years before, was still vivid in my mind. Saadawi wore jeans and a hat, with no makeup or ornament. Unfortunately, the subject of Saadawi’s lecture escapes my memory, only a strong impression remains that it was a powerful and assertive speech.

In contrast, Mernissi’s talk, that day, was defi nitely light and humor-ous. I was so driven by her anecdotes about the Rabat Offi ce of Tele-communication—her huge phone bill, which drove her “insane,” and the way she dealt with it through clever correspondence with the

7 Th e dean of the faculty at that time expressed his disagreement to this registration, because he did not see the relevance of studying Mernissi’s work, worse still, writing a doctoral thesis on her scholarship. Th erefore, this work could not possibly have seen light without Belghazi pleading my case.

8 Lahcen Haddad and Fakhreddine Berrada, to whom I am deeply indebted for his invaluable teachings in cultural studies, also took part in introducing this program. Said Graiouid and Hasna Lebbady are two other important scholars in the fi eld of cultural studies at the university.

9 Mernissi is now linked to the Institut Universitaire de la Recherche Scientifi que, Université Mohammed V, Rabat.

preface xv

offi ce—that I completely forgot to take notes. Her charm came from a combination of a good sense of humor and, I would say, a ‘feminine charisma.’ In fact, in all of her talks that I had the chance to listen to, Mernissi subjugated her audience through speeches combining humor with the use of darija, the Moroccan Arabic dialect, which is rarely used in intellectual gatherings (standard Arabic is typically preferred). Th is is part of her rebellious and dramatic personality, as well as part of a conscious strategy to fully catch the attention of her listeners and deliver more eff ectively her message, eschewing what would be an unattractive serious academic style delivered in classical Arabic. In that, I believe, she has been successful.

Aft er the talk, I approached the diva timidly and introduced myself. I told her about my project, to which she amusingly responded with an interjection resembling an ‘Oh my God!’ I smiled. One of her amusing statements that I had read in the introduction to one of her books had immediately crossed my mind. It states:

À quoi donc sert se genre de livre si ce n’est à donner à l’auteur l’impres-sion qu’il est important? Et me sentir importante est une drogue vitale pour moi, car tout me prouve à chaque minute le contraire. Alors, com-prenez mon horreur de toute autoévaluation. Comprenez ma répudiation unilatérale de toute réfl exion sur ce que je fais. Et surtout pourquoi je résiste violemment à quiconque essaie de me persuader du contraire, et pourquoi je ne suis inscrite dans aucune « union des écrivains », soit-elle arabe ou chinoise. J’évite comme la peste d’allez dans les séminaires ou on essaye de « se pencher sur mes œuvres ». J’admire en fait ceux qui tentent ce genre de plongée, car l’idée suffi t à me donner le vertige.What is the value of this kind of book if not to give the author the impression that she is important? Feeling important is a vital drug for me, because everything proves to me at every moment the opposite. Th erefore, do understand my repulsion of any self-evaluation, my uni-lateral repudiation of any refl ection on what I am doing; especially why I violently resist anybody who tries to persuade me of the opposite, and why I am not subscribed to any “union des écrivains” [writers’ union], be it Arab or Chinese. I avoid like one avoids the plague attending seminars that try to “delve into” my work. I admire those who attempt this kind of plunging since the simple idea is enough to give me vertigo.10

I then expressed my wish to have an interview with her, thinking that it is worth trying aft er all. I was not alone in requesting to speak to her.

10 Mernissi, Le Monde n’est pas un harem, 8. Th is introduction does not appear in Doing Daily Battle, the English translation of the original book Le Maroc raconté par ses femmes. Unless otherwise noted, all translations are my own.

xvi preface

Next to me was standing a young woman, who had introduced herself in a confi dent way as a journalist for a local daily newspaper, and who expressed the same wish. Mernissi asked for our contact information and promised to get in touch with both of us soon. I was, of course, not surprised when she did not. Given her self-declared distaste for discussions about her work, I could easily understand how a woman of her stature, solicited all over the world and involved in so many projects, could not have time for further interviews.11 To date, I have been unsuccessful in such an endeavor. I must confess that I have not really insisted, partly because of my reserved nature, but mostly because I believe the work of people largely speaks for them. Besides, Mernissi has expressed a lot of her ideas and is no doubt tired of having to explain herself time and again, as suggested by her statement above. I can perfectly imagine and understand this lassitude. I had enough mate-rial, including some published interviews, to attempt this ‘vertiginous’ enterprise. Th is I was determined to undertake with respect, but also with critical eyes, because I believe that criticism is not always about debasing people’s work, but can rather be a way of celebrating them by arguing with them and possibly also pushing their projects and landmark critiques toward new avenues.

11 Many scholars interested in her work, like the Swedish Jonas Svensson or the Moroccan Ahmed Cherrak, also have been unsuccessful in getting in touch with her. See Svensson, Women’s Human Rights and Islam: A Study of Th ree Attempts at Accommodation, Lund Studies in History of Religions, vol. 12 (Lund: Religionshistoriska avdelningen, Lunds universitet, 2000), http://kundweb.netatonce.com~u21805/Ladda%20ner_fi les/Avh.pdf, which mainly focuses on Mernissi’s work; and Cherrak, Al-Khitab al-nissa’i fi al-Maghrib: namoudhaj Fatima Mernissi [Feminist discourse in Morocco: Th e case of Fatima Mernissi (Casablanca: Afrique Orient, 1990).

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

Th is book is fi rst of all dedicated to Professor Taieb Belghazi, without whom my work literally would not have seen light. Besides initiating me to the fi eld of cultural studies, his kindness, honesty, and passion for research have enlightened and inspired the lives of many of his graduate students at Université Mohammed V, Rabat, Morocco. I am grateful to Margot Badran, coeditor of the Brill series Women and Gender: Th e Middle East and the Islamic World, not only for encouraging this project but also for her invaluable comments, which oft en challenged many of my assumptions. My thanks also go to Badran’s coeditor of the series, Valentine Moghadam, and to the anonymous reader of Brill for constructive suggestions and comments, which immensely contributed to the development of my argument in this book. Brill editors Sasha Goldstein and Nicolette van der Hoek provided much-appreciated help and patience. I am grateful to Basia A. Nowak for her professional copyediting, for her invaluable comments and suggestions, and for her patience in the process.

My correspondence with miriam cooke was particularly useful in articulating the thesis of this dissertation. I am therefore grateful for her modesty and intellectual generosity. Youssef Yacoubi’s rigorous comments on a paper in which I summarized the second part of my doctoral thesis were also extremely valuable. I owe a special debt of gratitude to Alisa Perkins for bravely and generously editing the fi rst draft of my dissertation and for off ering detailed comments and impor-tant suggestions that helped me articulate my point more clearly. I am indebted to Rachida Ghazali for editing the fi nal draft of my disserta-tion. Although I cannot name all of the scholars who have provided invaluable comments, imparted important knowledge, and encouraged me along the way, I would like to especially mention Hasna Lebbady, Fakhredine Berrada, Lahcen Haddad, and Said Graiouid from Université Mohammed V. I appreciate Renata Pepicelli, Anitta Kynsilehtto, and Abdelkarim Khatibi for their encouragement. I am most grateful to my longtime friend, Souad Eddouada, for her friendship, solidarity, collaboration, and endless conversation; this book is without doubt the fruit of ongoing discussions with her. For their help, I would like to thank the librarians at La Source (Th e Source), Centre Jacques Berque

xviii acknowledgments

(Jacques Berque Center), Fondation du Roi Abdul Aziz Al Saoud (King Adul Aziz Foundation), the Moroccan American Commission for Educational and Cultural Exchange, and the Bibliothèque Nationale (National Library).

I would like to thank the following institutions for grants that allowed me to pursue this project. Th e Berlin Brandenburg Academy of Sciences and Humanities, the Fritz Th yssen Foundation, and the Institute of Advanced Study in Berlin sponsored the research program, “Europe in the Middle East—Th e Middle East in Europe,” in which I served as fellow during the academic year 2006–2007. As a fellow in the fascinating city of Berlin, my work was enriched by discussions with my peer fellows and friends, Eli Bar-Chen, Özlem Biner, Magdi Guirguis, Erol Köroglu Dana Sajdi, Oded Schechter, Shaden Tageldin, Muhammad Vasfi , and Zafer Yenal. I am grateful to Christine Hoff man for her friendship during my stay in Berlin. Special thanks go to Georges Khalil, the program coordinator, especially for getting me involved in organizing the inspiring conference “Reconsidering ‘Islamic Feminism’: Deconstruction or the Quest for Authenticity?” held in Berlin on April, 26–28, 2007. Meeting with young scholars and activists, in addition to prominent fi gures of Islamic feminism, like Amina Wadud, Ziba Mir-Hosseini, Nasr Hamid Abu Zaid, Kecia Ali, and Sa’diyya Shaikh, Umaima Abu Bakr, and Abdenur Prado, during the conference has also greatly infl uenced the ideas of this book. I appreciate Gudrun Krämer from the Institute of Islamic Studies, Freie Universität, Berlin, for her collaboration in organizing the conference and especially for giving me the opportunity to discuss my work with scholars of Islamic studies at the institute. Although the Institute for the Study of Islamic Th ought in Africa (ISITA), Program of African Studies, at Northwestern University, granted me a fellowship from April to June to 2004, I unfortunately was unable to use it due to commitments at my university.

Last but not least, my family, especially my adored parents Smail Rhouni and Naima Boumelha who have dedicated their lives to their children, has off ered unconditional love and relentless support for which I am grateful. I also dedicate this book to my beloved husband and life companion, Mhammed Sebbata, for his persistent love and incredible faith in me. I likewise off er special dedication to my dearest brothers and sister Kenza, Kamal, and Rachid Rhouni. I appreciate two great men who gave me the taste of freedom, my grandfather Mostafa Boumelha and my uncle Ali Boumelha, and my grandmother Fatima Boumelha

acknowledgments xix

who has off ered immense aff ection. I mention with love family members Jamal-Eddine Gharbi (my second father), Abdelmoughit and Abdelkrim Bencherki, Mounir Hosni, Mohammed El Bos, and Abdelkrim, Aziza, Zoubir, and Hanae Sebbata; aunts and uncles Hassan, Nadia, Samia, Dalila, Malika, Izdihar, and Ahmed Boumelha; and my cousins Omar, Chafi k, Lamia, Meryem, Malik, Achraf, Aicha, Adam, Zineb, Zakaria, Wassim, Fahd, Walid, Inas, Mimi, Aya, Ziad, and Anissa. Finally, I also dedicate this book to my much-loved fi rst nephew, Eliaz Rhouni Surzur, and his father Vincent.