Arab Feminisms Conference

What do Women Want? A Critical Mapping of the Future Direction for Arab Feminisms

The “Arab Feminisms: A Critical Perspective” Conference opened today at Issam Fares Hall in AUB to an audience of around 250 men and women. Organized by Bahithat (Lebanese Association of Women Researchers) in collaboration with a number of Arab women’s organizations and universities, the long-awaited conference took off with a grand keynote address by Professor Mervat Hatem from Howard University.

The audience at Issam Fares Hall during Opening of Arab Feminisms Conference - Photo by Feminist Collective

Noha Bayoumi, Secretary General of Bahithat, was first to welcome the audience and give thanks and credit to the organizers, funders, and universities that made the conference possible. Speaking of the chosen title, she noted: “While some of us within Bahithat identify as feminist, others prefer not to, and we are in constant conversation among each other over what feminism is and isn’t. What is undeniable, however, is our collective realization that what drives us is feminist thought – always.”

On that note, and amidst much applause, Bayoumi introduced Jean Said Makdisi, whom she referred to as “feminist par excellence.” Makdisi, in English, spoke of her expectations and hopes for the conference in its days to come. “We shall be exposed to as many viewpoints as there are participants, and [mashallah 3layna] we have many participants. We hope to be privileged enough to see, at the end of the conference, a tapestry of feminist perspectives. The picture that emerges in the end will be open to interpretation by all of us, each in our own way. We have no desire to end up with a unanimous view of things.”

True to the defining characteristics of a feminist researcher, Makdisi posed a series of pertinent questions that she saw the conference as attempting to answer. Among them are questions like: what is the rightful place for feminism in a part of the world such as ours, where many of our populations have continued to suffer in the face of wars, sieges, violence, security states, debilitating poverty, and overcrowded cities? Where is the place of feminism in societies where radical religious fundamentalisms are making greater advances into the ordinary lives of people, where our land and our culture is continuously under relentless attack and subversion?

Makdisi spoke to the worries and challenges of many of us young feminists when she stated the conventional arguments used to silence us: Can we or should we, as women, make separate women’s rights demands in our societies? “We are often told to wait for the right moment,” she said, “and that now is not our time. We are told to be patient and our moment will come when “this” or “that” crisis ends. We are also constantly told to stop copying the “West.” We are accused of complicity with cultural imperialism or of undermining the family and its warmth. They – and sadly sometimes “they” includes other women – address us feminists as if we were children with no mind of our own, no history or culture of our own.”

Makdisi stressed, in her own response to these questions, that it is our duty to make our own demands, to continue struggling for human dignity especially that we belong to Arab culture and that we have seen what we have seen because we are richer for our experiences and should have greater criticisms to offer. Makdisi also reiterated her thanks to everyone who supported the organization of the conference, especially Dr. Maher Jarrar of the Anis Makdisi Literature Program at AUB, and gave a special and warm welcome to participants hailing from Bir Zeit University and other institutions in occupied Palestine.

Rafif Sidawi of Bahithat then introduced Mervat F. Hatem, Ph.D., a Professor of Political Science at Howard University in Washington D.C., and author of several papers and publications on the topic of feminism. She is also on the board of Women and Memory Forum in Egypt.

Professor Mervat Hatem

Professor Hatem framed her keynote address by adapting the Freudian question “what do women want?” into “what do women want from feminism and what do they want from each other?” She defined feminism as a collection of analytical and critical tools that deepens the understanding of women’s needs and enhances their strategies for equality.

Hatem also outlined some of the greater debates and timely challenges that she hopes will be addressed during the panels in the days to come. Drawing on a history of gender equality battles over the past centuries in places like Egypt, Tunisia, Saudi Arabia, and Kuwait, Hatem chose 3 main points to highlight:

1. There is a critical need to re-evaluate the voices of women in our Arab history, which is entirely biased towards men even when it comes to advances in women’s rights.
2. It is our mission to criticize the views of Arab “modernity” that were born out of colonial histories and to also criticize governmentalities that used motherhood in the service of nation-building, boxing women into that familial role.
3. We must also critically take on the feminist debates and political divisions of secular vs. religious feminists and women, of the middle class in particular.

Hatem also spoke about women’s rights and the Arab governments in the post-independence era, after the formation of Arab states. The assumption became that the state would protect women and give them their rights, which to some extent it did, and women – particularly middle class women – gained rights to education, work, and politics in return for state legitimacy. Some Arab governments were thus able to convince women that they were being progressive in allowing them to vote and to run for office, for example. Gulf countries tried to imitate these experiences to a lesser degree of success because entire communities living in “modernized” Gulf states – both men and women – were without political rights and representation.

Hatem also described what she called “femocrats,” women chosen by governments to fill top bureaucratic positions – not because the state cares about women’s rights, but in order to tokenize women’s participation in politics. The government thus retains a huge degree of control over women.

Women’s rights activists continue to face great oppression in our countries, such as the targeted attacks of women in public demonstrations in Egypt, the tarnishing of reputations of activists in Tunisia, and the direct violence against women during the civil war in Algeria.

In the light of such phenomena, we, as feminists, are faced with pressing organizing questions like: What strategies can we use as women to gain political ground without losing control over our agendas? Can we or should we build new relations with our Arab governments? In Hatem’s view, alliances are necessary among women themselves – across national boundaries to counter challenges imposed by states.

The topic of Muslim Feminism is a crucial one for us to address during this conference, Hatem asserted. The dominance of the secularist discourse of Arab feminism has led many to believe that secularism is the only solution to women’s problems. We should challenge such views and allow room for different feminisms, particularly Islamic Feminism, to emerge. Muslim feminists would still be able to deny the projects of Islamic nation-building while, at the same time, promoting Islamic Feminism. It is always dangerous when any feminist discourse claims to be the only correct discourse. Hatem affirmed that she refused discourses around the veil for example, which, in the name of feminism, deny Muslim women the right to their own choices.

Hatem ended her opening speech on a hopeful note, saying that Arab women and their feminisms have come a long way. “Our journey is not over,” she said. “There is a lot we want to accomplish, and when I see you all with me, here, tonight, I have hope that we will be successful.”

The keynote address was received warmly by the audience and sparked great debate and a few disagreements from participants in the room. The Q & A session was cut short, however, for time constraints, with the expectation that opinions building on Professor Hatem’s speech will be raised during the panels in the coming 3 days.

This blog post was written by Nadine Moawad and Rania Ignatios of the Feminist Collective.