Correspondence Commonweal's quest for a home and cheaper paper; sanctions in Iraq; Islam and patriarchy; feminism explored anew
FEIT, CHUCK & AUDETTE, GENE & MAHONEY, JOHN F. & BEEZAT, ROBERT & ESPOSITO, JOHN L. & QUINN, MARY LOU & DELLMAN-ANDERSEN, CAROL & Steinfels, Margaret O'Brien
(Continued from page 2) Islam & women The articles on Islam in the January 31 issue were interesting and informative. Though I know enough not to trust stereotypes of hysterical, chanting, terrorist...
...As in the past, so today one finds a diversity of interpretations in the Islamic community (umma...
...And looking for the religious roots of the "keen sense of hospitality" that David Burrell observed in the Muslim world was an interesting exploration...
...The umma, or communal aspect of Islam, is a needed antidote to the overly privatized focus of our American culture...
...Historically, the primary, if not sole, interpreters of Islamic law were males functioning in and conditioned by patriarchal societies...
...Just as the issue of women's status and role in the other Abrahamic traditions has been affected by a patriarchal past, so too in the twentieth century Muslims have faced the issues of reinterpretation and reform, of determining what is essential and unchanging versus that which is subject to change...
...The questions have ranged from those of marriage and divorce to those of veiling and employment...
...Our career choices were: nurse, teacher, secretary...
...The "sacrificial" role that women have traditionally been encouraged to embrace has left them vulnerable, and still contributes to our current dilemmas...
...Dellman-Andersen finds women underrepresented on her local school board, she might consider running herself and/or encouraging other women to do so...
...I find these authors' disparagement of the women's movement deeply disappointing...
...But helpful as the articles by John Esposito and David Burrell were for me, I was left wondering whether there are religious roots in Islam for the strong bias against women that seems apparent among Muslims...
...Women's interests are more varied and more complex than these one- or two-note organizations seem to realize...
...Many of us were not sent to college because it was a waste of money...
...Most men would be more than happy to continue controlling the church, corporations, and government and to have women continue focusing on the family...
...The important lesson brought home from the Beijing Conference is that women can no longer remain outside the decision-making process of any institution that affects our lives, whether in government, culture, or religion...
...We did not have the self-esteem to see being single as an option...
...Today, women working outside the home are experiencing the same biases that stay-at-home mothers have encountered: Their years of service don't count much, their effort and skill aren't valued, and when they get sick or old or are "downsized" nobody really cares...
...The Islamic recognition that "each of us has a built-in destiny to return all that we have received to the One from whom we have received it" is powerful and compelling...
...With few exceptions, the smartest of us did not think of becoming an engineer or a lawyer...
...Become a Commonweal Associate Glendon and Steinfels grossly underestimate the power of the male establishment...
...I would appreciate some enlightenment from either or both of your authors...
...There are new generations of women who face issues that are different from those that confronted women of the fifties and sixties to say nothing of the long-neglected, still-neglected problems of poor women, women of color, immigrant women, etc...
...Our status was determined by our husbands...
...MARY LOU QUINN Emerson, N.J...
...But I believe that the most important obstacles exist at a level deeper than the realms of politics and governances, in still-surviving attitudes which more or less take for granted that women and families are to serve the needs of institutions, rather than the other way round...
...Finally, regarding the abuse of women in Muslim societies: Yes, it exists...
...Though we may not consider ourselves card-carrying feminists, we are profoundly affected by the political, (Continued on page 29) CORRESPONDENCE (Continued from page 4) cultural, and religious conditioning of our time...
...To argue that we need a new and better women's movement simply recognizes that some real reforms were achieved and many more are needed...
...But to attribute abuses primarily to religion is to offer an easy answer to a complex set of social problems...
...The Islamic tradition is the product of text and context, revelation and human interpretation...
...As in the West, women face discrimination, oppression, and abuse...
...ROBERT BEEZAT Rolling Meadows, III...
...To an outsider, it sounds rather like the thinking of some fundamentalist Christian groups that subjugate women to the community's needs and, not incidentally, to men...
...Beyond that, there has been and is a rich diversity of belief and practice...
...In most parts of the United States, things have not changed much...
...Feminization of poverty, growing populations of dependent elderly women, disturbing implications of the campaign for legitimizing assisted suicide all have ties to these attitudes and assumptions...
...It is common to hear or read reports of women being beaten or killed for refusing to veil their faces, or that women are prohibited from working outside the home, or, most appalling of all, that ritual, sexual mutilation of women is still a common practice among some Muslims...
...The question is an important one...
...JOHN L. ESPOSITO Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia Women, families, power Re: Mary Ann Glendon's "Feminism & the Family" [February 14]: I believe it is possible to harmonize women's and men's roles in social and economic life with their desires (and their children's needs) for a decent family life...
...The author replies: An article I published in America [July 6,1996] did criticize the women's movement while acknowledging its many positive achievements...
...MARGARET O'BRIEN STEINFELS...
...In our school district, we have had a total of two women school board members in the sixteen years I have lived here...
...Give us (women) a break Mary Ann Glendon ["Feminism & the Family," February 14] and Margaret O'Brien Steinfels have now published several cover articles in major Catholic magazines in which they have stereotyped and attacked the women's movement of the 1970s...
...For example, sexual mutilation (clitorodectomy) in Africa is not practiced across the Muslim world but rather is a regional practice adopted and legitimated by some Muslims and some non-Muslims alike...
...it is patriarchy...
...Today, there are many new voices, those of women as well as men, who seek to reexamine their Islamic tradition to respond to changing realities...
...As Mary Ann Glendon put it, "Beware of the policies manufactured far away from public scrutiny and without input from the people most concerned...
...Islam, like Christianity and Buddhism, has universally accepted, essential beliefs /practices such as the Five Pillars of Islam...
...The definition of modest dress, of women's role in public life, or of employment differs markedly from one Muslim country or region to another...
...We must remember that, in the hands of their interpreters, religious traditions or ideologies can be a source of inspiration and liberation or of oppression...
...And how does the idea of umma relate to the role of women in Muslim societies...
...If Ms...
...carol dellman-andersen Silver Lake, Ind...
...One must put oneself into the context of the times...
...As Mary Ann Glendon's article in Commonweal shows, and I think the experience of many women verifies, the women's movement as promoted by NOW, NARAL, Emily's List, etc., does not represent the interests political, social, economic, or ethical of all women...
...Do these practices have roots in mainstream Islam, or are reports of them additional examples of media focus on extremist, aberrant factions among Muslims...
...Therefore, the issue is not religious roots...
...The percentage of women at Harvard Law School is not indicative of overall societal change...
...The author replies: Please excuse the brevity of this re-ponse to Robert Beezat's letter, which was forwarded to me here in Southeast Asia...
...Religion was interpreted within and for patriarchal societies and thus was used to legitimate beliefs and practices...
...Though I know enough not to trust stereotypes of hysterical, chanting, terrorist Muslims as being at all representative of the vast majority of Muslims, I have never taken the time to read a book or two about Islam to understand what Muslims believe and how their beliefs translate into everyday living...
...As leading Catholic women, members of a determinedly patriarchal church, I expect more of them...
Vol. 124 • March 1997 • No. 6
