Inside the Gender Jihad: Women's Reform in Islam by Amina Wadud Page B
Authors: Amina Wadud
Tags: Religión, General, Social Science, Islam, womens studies, Feminism & Feminist Theory, Sexuality & Gender Studies, Islamic Studies
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of mutual discussion, but fails miserably on how mutually to enhance the overall ethical grounding of living religious traditions and the catastrophe this world has become.
Joan C. Tronto 56 raises valuable and inspirational ideas about politically
incorporating the voluntary moral contributions of nurturance and care – historically and currently performed primarily by women in the private sector. In the Muslim world, these contributions, especially their voluntary nature, are used to define and confine women’s identities relative only in
terms of
families. They are never looked at as detailed aspects of moral
agency indispensable to human well-being and equally available for men and women to practice or implement. Tronto considers them transform- ative aspects of policy and governance even so far as to define the citizen as a care-worker. This removes the private and often privileged access that mostly male wage earners have to support networks integral to developing human well-being. As so deftly explained by Terri Apter, “Men often do get, when they marry, a partner who looks after their domestic needs, cares for their children, accommodates their changing occupational needs, and puts family responsibilities first and foremost. The ‘woman behind the man’ is the wife who takes care of everything else, so the man can concentrate on
44 inside the gender jihad
his career.” 57 In most families the cost of maintaining care and the contri- butions of care-givers and care-workers are not realistically calculated in terms of the developments of public policies and economic theory. The ones who fulfill those contributions perform while invisible. Tronto challenges the inequity of defining the citizen in terms of production, wage-earning, and consumption when she politicizes an ethics of care as essential to comprehensive social justice. 58
Sharon Welch agrees with this ethics of care in her work. 59 She thinks
outside the box of each human being as a discrete entity responsible only for obtaining their piece of an ever-shrinking pie of global resources. Welch describes the patriarchal ethic as outdated with its “equation of responsible action and control – the assumption that it is possible to guarantee the efficacy of one’s actions.” She analyzes “the political correlates of this assumption addressing particularly the monopoly of power that one must have if one defines action as the ability to attain, without substantial
modification, desired results.” 60
Instead of apathy and despair leading to
non-action “when faced with a problem too big to be solved alone or within the foreseeable future,” 61 she suggests a feminist ethic of risk in response to such grand global predicaments. The best we can hope for is collective participation as a continual process contributing toward more
holistic engagement in ethical practices that
end the “uneven rhythm of
social change,” which is so disheartening that it can lead to “cynicism and despair”since“in some situations we cannot prevail.” 62 She found inspiration to challenge the “presumptions of Western moral theories” while working with African-American women and men toward “alternative constructions of the aim of moral reasoning, the morality of rights or the morality of care and responsibility.” 63 This ethics of risk is correlated to “a theology of divine immanence, that reinforces” it “and the passion for justice,” 64 challenging us “to relinquish ‘power over’ others” and inviting us “to participate in ‘power with’.” Like Welch suggests here, I have experienced the joy of working with women’s collectives in a process-oriented challenge to gender oppression among Muslims. Nevertheless, I do not expect to see gender oppression eradicated in my lifetime. My work is part of the process; the results are truly in the hands of Allah in concert with human agents of free moral choice.
Muslims accept
Joan C. Tronto 56 raises valuable and inspirational ideas about politically
incorporating the voluntary moral contributions of nurturance and care – historically and currently performed primarily by women in the private sector. In the Muslim world, these contributions, especially their voluntary nature, are used to define and confine women’s identities relative only in
terms of
families. They are never looked at as detailed aspects of moral
agency indispensable to human well-being and equally available for men and women to practice or implement. Tronto considers them transform- ative aspects of policy and governance even so far as to define the citizen as a care-worker. This removes the private and often privileged access that mostly male wage earners have to support networks integral to developing human well-being. As so deftly explained by Terri Apter, “Men often do get, when they marry, a partner who looks after their domestic needs, cares for their children, accommodates their changing occupational needs, and puts family responsibilities first and foremost. The ‘woman behind the man’ is the wife who takes care of everything else, so the man can concentrate on
44 inside the gender jihad
his career.” 57 In most families the cost of maintaining care and the contri- butions of care-givers and care-workers are not realistically calculated in terms of the developments of public policies and economic theory. The ones who fulfill those contributions perform while invisible. Tronto challenges the inequity of defining the citizen in terms of production, wage-earning, and consumption when she politicizes an ethics of care as essential to comprehensive social justice. 58
Sharon Welch agrees with this ethics of care in her work. 59 She thinks
outside the box of each human being as a discrete entity responsible only for obtaining their piece of an ever-shrinking pie of global resources. Welch describes the patriarchal ethic as outdated with its “equation of responsible action and control – the assumption that it is possible to guarantee the efficacy of one’s actions.” She analyzes “the political correlates of this assumption addressing particularly the monopoly of power that one must have if one defines action as the ability to attain, without substantial
modification, desired results.” 60
Instead of apathy and despair leading to
non-action “when faced with a problem too big to be solved alone or within the foreseeable future,” 61 she suggests a feminist ethic of risk in response to such grand global predicaments. The best we can hope for is collective participation as a continual process contributing toward more
holistic engagement in ethical practices that
end the “uneven rhythm of
social change,” which is so disheartening that it can lead to “cynicism and despair”since“in some situations we cannot prevail.” 62 She found inspiration to challenge the “presumptions of Western moral theories” while working with African-American women and men toward “alternative constructions of the aim of moral reasoning, the morality of rights or the morality of care and responsibility.” 63 This ethics of risk is correlated to “a theology of divine immanence, that reinforces” it “and the passion for justice,” 64 challenging us “to relinquish ‘power over’ others” and inviting us “to participate in ‘power with’.” Like Welch suggests here, I have experienced the joy of working with women’s collectives in a process-oriented challenge to gender oppression among Muslims. Nevertheless, I do not expect to see gender oppression eradicated in my lifetime. My work is part of the process; the results are truly in the hands of Allah in concert with human agents of free moral choice.
Muslims accept
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