Very few Western scholars have written about the role of women in the Middle East. One usually gets to read run-of-the-mill news reports about acts of oppression committed against them. It is, therefore, a refreshing change to see a scholarly work on how some women are circumventing the limitations imposed on them and bringing about change in the Middle East.
Isobel Coleman's book, Paradise Beneath Her Feet: How Women are Transforming the Middle East takes the reader on a fascinating journey through exotic locales in the Middle East, highlighting the conditions in which women live in a number of countries and how they are inching their way to greater assertiveness in the Muslim world.
Coleman is a scholar on women's issues and a senior fellow for United States foreign policy at New York's Council on Foreign Relations (CFR).
As director of the CFR's Women and Foreign Policy programme, Coleman has travelled extensively in the Muslim world, visiting relatively egalitarian societies such as Indonesia but focusing on five countries where women's rights are most tenuous — Iran, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and Iraq — to support her view that keeping women down keeps a nation down. She argues that women, in their struggle for gender equality, are employing techniques that outsmart men, who set the paradigms of behaviour for women. With scant literature available on women in the Muslim world, Coleman's book provides interesting insights, illustrating with examples from the Middle East how women are resorting to novel ways to assert their rights and, in effect, transforming that region.
Coleman says one of the most contentious issues within Islam today is the role of women in society.
Conservatives and reactionaries interpret Islamic texts narrowly to justify restrictions on women's mobility, legal rights and access to the public sphere, including health care, education and the workplace. Indeed, extremists among them use violence to impose their views. Moderate Muslims, on the other hand, find plenty of room within the Quran to support equal rights for women, she argues.
"The outcome of this struggle matters enormously. Attitudes towards women increasingly represent a stark fault line between those promoting economic reform, human rights and democratisation on the one hand and those adhering to austere, fundamentalist notions of society on the other," Coleman said.
In an interview with Weekend Review at the CFR, she explained why she gave greater attention to women's status in the Middle East, though she does make references to other Muslim countries such as Indonesia and Malaysia.
"The book also talks about women in Indonesia and Malaysia but there is greater focus on the Middle East. Americans are most interested in the Middle East because it is challenging and topical. News from the Middle East always seems to be negative to them," she said.
Coleman is no armchair commentator. She has been specialising in the Middle East for a decade.
When asked how she sources reliable information Coleman said: "I travel regularly to the region and write on a variety of topics. I have drawn upon my Middle Eastern sources and my research. In addition, I have used World Bank reports and have also done interviews" .
The women's movement in Iran fascinates many Americans, who have seen images of women taking to the streets to bring about change. "In Iran, you have a reactionary and conservative regime, a regime that has taken a strong stand on women's issues. That position is viewed as hypocritical and onerous by the general population," Coleman said.
Was she asking Iranian women to emulate American feminists as role models in their struggle for change?
"No, not at all. There are many traditional women in Iran. I believe Iran's women are looking to preserve their traditions and culture and yet have civil liberties. Women are trying to find their own traditional way. In my interviews, I had the feeling that Iranian women — as elsewhere in the Middle East — are looking for a greater role in society and also trying to preserve their traditions," Coleman said.
By successfully connecting with the world, Iranian women have earned international sympathy: their One Million Signatures campaign against discriminatory laws drew global recognition; the human rights lawyer Shirin Ebadi won the Nobel Peace Prize; and the young Neda Agha-Soltan, whose death was shown on YouTube, became the symbol of the Iranian resistance against last year's controversial election results.
The path followed by Iranian women fills Coleman with hope that even in Muslim societies that present cultural and political obstacles, women are finding opportunities to stand up and change the environment — by operating within Islamic paradigms.
But the US administration cannot do much to help Iranian women achieve greater civil liberties. "Iran is a particularly challenging case ... this is also because of the very tense state of relations between the US and Iran. The US does not have any leverage inside Iran," she said.
Coleman referred to the recent sentence passed on a woman to be stoned to death in Iran but which was not carried out due to international pressure. "It shows that Iran's regime can be moved to act under international pressure," she said.
Stories about the shockingly primitive conditions in which Afghan women live abound. Tales of young Afghan girls in their early teens being given away by their fathers in marriage to men in their late fifties or early sixties send shock waves abroad. The US administration has taken a strong interest in improving the lives of a lot of women and young girls by encouraging them to attend schools and obtain at least a basic education.
"Yes, the US has enormous influence on the Afghan people. There are more girls in schools in Afghanistan today than ever before," Coleman said.
Western politicians have been critical of Pakistan's madrassas, religious schools, for brainwashing young minds.
"The US has been addressing this problem over the years," Coleman said.
"[Former Pakistani president] Pervez Musharraf was pressurised to register all madrassas and force them to keep tabs. But it is still a problem, I agree. We need a functional education system in Pakistan. The madrassa, in some cases, is the only alternative for some parents. Lack of education in Pakistan — and this also applies to girls — is a very, very troubling issue. The Kerry-Lugar Bill [co-authored by Senators John Kerry and Richard Lugar, spelling out conditions for giving aid to Pakistan] is trying to address the issue of education for girls in Pakistan," Coleman said.
But she said she saw "signs of hope" across the Muslim world: Brave women and men pushing for a more progressive Islamic discourse to promote gender equality in an emerging movement of Islamic feminism.
From Morocco to Afghanistan, Islamic feminism is stirring. More and more women are allying themselves with moderate Islamic personalities to show that the transformation they want is within the Islamic paradigm, she said.
Coleman cites a number of women who are effectively pushing for change. There is Sakena Yacoobi, an Afghan educator, who runs more than 40 women's centres across Afghanistan, providing thousands of women with literacy and health classes and teaching them about their rights within Islam.
Madawi Al Hassoon, a successful businesswoman, is espousing the cause of working women in Saudi Arabia. Not to forget Salama Al Khafaji, a dentist-turned-politician who relies on moderate interpretations of Islam to promote opportunities for women in Iraq's religiously charged environment.
These quiet revolutionaries are using Islamic feminism to change the terms of religious debate and fight for women's rights within Islam instead of against it. The book tries to raise the flag of hope — that things are changing and, more often than not, the change is being led by women.
Manik Mehta is a commentator on Asian affairs.
