Week 4- Mohanty and Abu-Lughod

This week's readings focus what is and isn't acceptable feminism for Muslim women, concluding that one must walk a very fine line to adequately portray Muslim women's reality and ideals. The first reading, by Mohanty, mainly rejects depictions of Muslim women through the framework of Western feminism. Mohanty finds that western feminism usually argues that all non-western women are objects of their male counterparts, incapable of agency and victims of discrimination. Mohanty disagrees with such broad statements for all women, binding them together as inferior not only to men, but also to western women. She argues that such knowledge production, a common theme in our class, is damaging to non-western women. The criticism I have with Mohanty is that she's completely against grouping people together. Everyone is unique and so are communities, cultures, countries, etc. But if we don't group people, then it's difficult to create any knowledge or action at all.

I preferred the Abu-Lughod readings, which I found to be more nuanced and realistic than Mohanty's. Abu-Lughod also argues that western political colonialism and feminism disregards the differences in what Muslim women want. Many of these women do not envy western models of feminism and look to create a new society, rather than copy a troubled western version. But she also contends that both Islamists and proponents of secularism in the Middle East are borrowing more from the west than they'd like to admit, such as ideals of equal education among genders. Yet, they retain a more cultural approach to many of their ideals, such as supporting the rights of women to wear the hijab and burqa. My criticism with Abu-Lughod was that at one point she seems to suggest that women's organizations that try to raise awareness about violence against women are perpetuating negative stereotypes. If there is violence against women anywhere, it should not be hidden just to improve public relations! I commend these organizations and find it ridiculous that Abu-Lughod doesn't even consider that such organizations are all over the world, especially in America, because violence against women is a global problem. Sorry Mohanty, I just grouped women together, but this is the reality.