--- On Sun, 25/1/09, CK Vishwanath <[email protected]> wrote:
> <
> > <http://www.solidarity-us.org/node/576>
> >
> > [Shahrzad Mojab is a prominent Iranian professor at
> the
> > University of Toronto.]
> >
> > "Little effort is undertaken by feminist
> activists to
> > confront boldly,
> > without any hesitations, both imperialist aggressions
> and
> > religious
> > conservative forces. Some of us recall the debate in
> the
> > summer of
> > 2006 when we were organizing against the Israel
> aggression
> > on Lebanon,
> > when some women argued in support of Hezbollah, a
> religious
> > conservative group, as an anti-imperialist resistance.
> > Others went as
> > far as carrying portraits of Ayatollah Khomeini and
> Moqtada
> > al-Sadr,
> > two symbols of women's oppression, in antiwar
> marches.
> >
> > Some antiwar feminist academics cloak their support
> for the
> > patriarchal-religious force in the "cultural
> > relativist" argument
> > which privileges the "indigeneity" of
> patriarchy.
> > My question is: Why
> > have feminists, especially those with a progressive,
> > antiwar,
> > anti-globalization agenda, in recent years repeatedly
> > failed to uphold
> > a multi-edged banner of resistance? Why have we failed
> us
> > to see the
> > multiplicity of contradictions in patriarchal
> capitalism?
> > We should
> > seek the answer, I would like to propose, in the
> following
> > factors:
> >
> > 1) The theoretical turn in feminism in the last three
> > decades has had
> > a devastating impact on women's struggle globally.
>
> > Exaggerated
> > emphases on "identity," "voice,"
> > "agency," "location" and
> > "experience"
> > have reduced patriarchy to questions of culture and
> > religion. This
> > means that patriarchy as an institution of women's
> > subordination is
> > separated from capitalist relations of exploitation,
> from
> > imperialist
> > domination, and from the rise of nationalism and
> > fundamentalism. This
> > myopic view of patriarchy, sometimes even endorsed the
> > colonialist
> > "liberation" agenda for women in Afghanistan
> and
> > Iraq.
> >
> > 2) The political implications of this theoretical
> shift
> > have been even
> > more disturbing. Feminism as a potential strong
> opposition
> > social
> > force has been reduced to fragmented, disjointed and
> > coopted
> > tendencies. The outcome is the re-emergence of
> colonial and
> > imperialist feminisms on the one hand, and nativist
> > feminisms which
> > perpetuate patriarchy under the banner of culture on
> the
> > other.
> >
> > 3) The post-9/11 condition has added more complexity
> to
> > this already
> > messy situation. In the West we are faced with the
> rise of
> > state
> > suppression of individual rights and civil liberties
> under
> > the name of
> > "security" and "war on terror."
> > State-sponsored racial profiling is on
> > the rise, and Islamophobia, anti-Arab, and anti-Muslim
> > racism are
> > growing. Most feminist responses are at best ambiguous
> > toward this
> > environment of fear and terror.
> >
> > 4) The right turn in the feminist movement coincides
> with
> > three
> > decades of cooptation and fragmentation of women's
> > movements through
> > the instruments of the UN, World Bank, International
> > Monetary Fund,
> > and a vast network of non-governmental organizations
> > (NGOs). These
> > capitalist institutions have supported, funded and
> promoted
> > patriarchy
> > by turning the struggle of women to de-politicized and
> > liberal notions
> > of "gender mainstreaming" and
> "women's
> > empowerment."
> > In this imperialist feminist scheme, women were
> trained to
> > lead NGOs,
> > to participate in the political structure of
> conservative
> > and
> > pro-Western states, to engage in alienating, pacifying
> > training
> > programs for the capitalist "democracy" and
> join
> > the army of workers
> > to build "civil society." In this version of
> > women's struggle,
> > capitalist relations of power and the institutions of
> state
> > and
> > patriarchy are left untouched."
> >
> > _______________________________________________
> > Foil-l mailing list
> > [email protected]
> > http://insaf.net/mailman/listinfo/foil-l_insaf.net
>
>
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