Week 4 Post

The readings this week detail many of the problems associated with feminism itself along with the issues raised by imposing a generally Western notion of feminism onto different groups. There is first the problem of who exactly feminists are interested in helping. Mohanty points out the problem of feminism serving women as a group. It situates women as a homogeneous group despite the fact that in one society different members will have different motivations and priorities. For example, younger women may be more likely to care about access to education and reliable birth control, while older women may not be as concerned with this. There are also socioeconomic divisions in motives throughout the group “women.” While upper class women may be concerned about access to education, poor women are likely to be concerned with access to things like food, shelter and employment rather than if they will get to go to college. Therefore, feminism has to situate itself within any society. The idealism must confront the real issues women within the society face.

However, even if the idea of feminism were to situate itself in middle-class Arabia, that does not guarantee that the issues of this group are the same as in the West. Abu-Lughod proposes the question of what kind of feminism is appropriate for the Middle East? In a different socio-political climate and structure it may not be useful to rely on a discourse that is based on Western women, their public roles and ideas of domesticity. To do this would be to undermine the native culture, which should not be the goal. Rather, it would be more instructive to understand the role of women in the native society and find out what they would like their role to be. This course of action is distinct from presuming that these women have life desires identical to Western women. Abu-Lughod mentions that Islamists attempt to legitimate the practice of veiling through celebrities who are “coming home.” This discourse suggests a calling for freedom from Western ideology and a certain nostalgia for tradition. While this is likely an attempt to exploit discontent with Western influence, it highlights that this discontent exists nonetheless.