Gender and Violence in Islamic Societies: Patriarchy, Islamism and Politics in the Middle East and North Africa

294 Pages·2013·2.45 MB·English

by  Zahia Smail Salh

Zahia Smail Salhi is Professor of Modern Arabic Studies in the
School of Arts, Languages and Cultures in the Faculty of Humanities
at the University of Manchester.
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GENDER AND
VIOLENCE
IN ISLAMIC
SOCIETIES
Patriarchy, Islamism and Politics in the
Middle East and North Africa
Edited by
Zahia Smail Salhi
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Published in 2013 by I.B.Tauris & Co Ltd
6 Salem Road, London W2 4BU
175 Fifth Avenue, New York NY 10010
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Distributed in the United States and Canada
Exclusively by Palgrave Macmillan
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Copyright Editorial selection and Introduction © 2013 Zahia Smail Salhi
Copyright Individual Chapters © 2013 Canan Aslan-Akman, Mariam al-Attar, Claudia
Corsi, Moha Ennaji, David Ghanim, Hiam Salaheldin Elgousi, Raoudha Kammoun, Ibrahim
Kharboush, Heba Mamdouh, Fatma Zohra M. Nedjai, Zahia Smail Salhi, Fatma Tütüncü and
Souryana Yassine
The right of Zahia Smail Salhi to be identifi ed as editor of this work has been asserted by the
author in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patent Act 1988.
All rights reserved. Except for brief quotations in a review, this book, or any part thereof,
may not be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted,
in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or
otherwise, without the prior written permission of the publisher.
Library of Modern Middle East Studies 134
ISBN 978 1 78076 530 3
A full CIP record for this book is available from the British Library
A full CIP record for this book is available from the Library of Congress
Library of Congress catalog card: available
Typeset by Newgen Publishers, Chennai
Printed and bound in Great Britain by CPI Antony Rowe, Chippenham
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CONTENTS
Notes on Contributors vii
Introduction 1
Chapter One Gender and Violence in the Middle East and
North Africa: Negotiating with Patriarchal
States and Islamism 12
Zahia Smail Salhi
Chapter Two Gender-based Violence in the Middle East
and North Africa: A Ubiquitous Phenomenon 43
David Ghanim
Chapter Three Women and Violence in Light of
an Islamic Normative Ethical Theory 62
Mariam al-Attar
Chapter Four The Struggle against Male Violence with an
Egalitarian Jurisprudence and Religious
Conservative Government: The Case of
Secular Turkey 82
Canan Aslan-Akman and Fatma Tütüncü
Chapter Five Working in a Hostile Environment: Female
Labour Segregation and Women’s
Impediments to Private Sector
Opportunities in Jordan 108
Claudia Corsi
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vi GENDER AND VIOLENCE IN ISLAMIC SOCIETIES
Chapter Six Violence against Underage Girl Domestic
Workers in Morocco 131
Moha Ennaji
Chapter Seven Gender and Violence in Egypt: Prevalence
and Factors Exposing Women to the Risk
of Domestic Violence in Alexandria 151
Heba M. Mamdouh and Ibrahim F. Kharboush
Chapter Eight Female Genital Mutilation between Culture
and Religion: The Case of Egypt 178
Hiam Salaheldin Elgousi
Chapter Nine The Insidious Violence: A Study of
Husband-Wife Power Relations in the
Algerian Context 196
Fatma Zohra Mebtouche Nedjai
Chapter Ten Gender use of Expletives and Verbal
Abuse: A Tunisian Case 218
Raoudha Kammoun
Chapter Eleven Gender and Language Discrimination in EFL
Textbooks: Female Invisibility as a Form of
Gender-based Violence 239
Souryana Yassine
Bibliography 261
Index 281
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LIST OF
CONTRIBUTORS
Canan Aslan-Akman is Assistant Professor in the Department
of Political Science and Public Administration, The Middle East
Technical University, Ankara, Turkey.
Mariam al-Attar is Head of the Department of Ethics, Philosophy
and Religion EPR, King’s Academy, Jordan.
Claudia Corsi is a Civil Servant at the Ministry of Interior, Prefettura
of Milan, Immigration Offi ce. She is also a Postdoctoral researcher in
Comparative Law and Integration Processes.
Moha Ennaji is Professor of Gender Studies and Linguistics,
International Institute for Languages and Cultures, Centre for
Intercultural Dialogue and Migration Studies, University of Fez,
Morocco.
David Ghanim is Senior Research Fellow, Department of Philosophy,
Linguistics, and Theory of Science, University of Gothenburg,
Sweden.
Hiam Salaheldin Elgousi is Post Doctoral Research Fellow, School of
Modern Languages and Cultures, University of Leeds.
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viii GENDER AND VIOLENCE IN ISLAMIC SOCIETIES
Raoudha Kammoun is Assistant Professor of English and Linguistics,
Faculty of Letters, Arts & Humanities, University of Manouba,
Tunisia.
Ibrahim Kharboush is Professor of Maternal and Child Health,
High Institute of Public Health, University of Alexandria, Egypt.
Consultant in the Research Department, Alexandria Regional Center
for Women’s Health and Development.
Heba M. Mamdouh is Lecturer of Maternal and Child Health, High
Institute of Public Health, University of Alexandria, Egypt. Consultant
in the Research Department, Alexandria Regional Center for Women’s
Health and Development.
Fatma Zohra M. Nedjai teaches in the Department of English,
Faculty of Letters and Humanities, University of Mouloud Mammeri,
Tizi-Ouzou, Algeria.
Zahia Smail Salhi is Professor of Modern Arabic Studies in the School
of Arts, Languages and Cultures, Faculty of Humanities University of
Manchester.
Fatma Tütüncü is Associate Professor, Department of Public
Administration, Abant Izzet Baysal University, Bolu, Turkey.
Souryana Yassine is Lecturer, Department of English, Faculty of
Letters and Humanities, University of Mouloud Mammeri, Tizi-
Ouzou, Algeria.
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INTRODUCTION
GENDER AND VIOLENCE
IN ISLAMIC SOCIETIES:
PATRIARCHY, ISLAMISM AND
POLITICS IN THE MIDDLE
EAST AND NORTH AFRICA
In December 1993, the United Nations in its General Assembly
made the following declaration on the Elimination of Violence
against Women: ‘Violence against women is a manifestation of his-
torically unequal power relations between men and women, which
have led to domination over and discrimination against women by
men and to the prevention of the full advancement of women’, and
defined violence against women as ‘any act of gender-based violence
that results in, or is likely to result in, physical, sexual or psycho-
logical harm or suffering to women, including threats of such acts,
coercion or arbitrary deprivation of liberty, whether occurring in
public or in private life’.
Although violence against women is present in every country and
no society can claim to be free of such violence, wide variations exist
in the ways it is perceived and addressed by different societies. Such
perceptions are always shaped by various factors including culture,
religion, economics and politics.
In the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) unequal power
relations between men and women still prevail and are sustained by
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2 GENDER AND VIOLENCE IN ISLAMIC SOCIETIES
patriarchy and the rise of Islamism in the last few decades. These
two entities shape the political discourse of the ruling elite and have
serious repercussions for the ways family laws are constructed and in
consequence the manner gender and violence are perceived and tack-
led. It is a common phenomenon in the MENA region that under
the apparel of patriarchal culture and misinterpretations of religion
women’s human rights are removed and violated. It has to be noted,
however, that while these countries share a strong sense of patriarchal
culture, Sharia-based Family Codes, and rising Islamic extremism
which all contribute to maintaining and sustaining certain forms of
violence against women, the levels and forms of violence differ from
one country to another. It would be a grave error to overlook diversity
in the types of violence that exist in each country, the intensity, and
the processes of addressing such violence.
Although there is no universally accepted definition of violence
against women this study is based on the gender-based roots of vio-
lence as it is inflicted on women and girls specifically because of their
gender, and targets their self-worth and their right to life with dig-
nity and security. Violence has deep-seated physical and psychological
effects on the victims and it is perpetuated by intimate partners and
other family members, and by the state. It occurs both in the public
and the private spheres, in the family, within the general community,
at work and in various state institutions.
Violence is perceived not only as physical harm which targets
women’s bodies, but includes various forms of violence directed at
women because they are women and these include segregation in
the workplace and limiting women’s access to wealth, gender stereo-
typing through textbooks and the media, verbal aggression and
humiliation, control of women’s finances and income, forced veiling
and restricted access to education and health care.
This volume is set to be a forum among academics in various
disciplines, practitioners and activists as they approach the subject
of gender-based violence in the Middle East and North Africa. Their
accounts testify to the urgency of addressing the phenomenon of
gender-based violence not only in terms of putting in place adequate
legislation to protect the human rights of women as universal rights
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