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Arabs at Home and in the World
Edited by
Karla M. McKanders
First published 2019
by Routledge
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN
and by Routledge
52 Vanderbilt Avenue, New York, NY 10017
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa
business
© 2019 selection and editorial matter, Karla M. McKanders; individual
chapters, the contributors
The right of Karla M. McKanders to be identified as the author of the
editorial material, and of the authors for their individual chapters, has
been asserted in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright,
Designs and Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced
or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means,
now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording,
or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in
writing from the publishers.
Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks
or registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and
explanation without intent to infringe.
British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
A catalog record has been requested for this book
Foreword vii
A dr i e n K . W i n g
Introduction xi
K a r l a M . M c K a n de r s
Acknowledgments xvii
List of contributors xix
Part I
Defining gender and human rights for Arabs at home
and throughout the diaspora 1
Part II
At home: Arab Spring, gender, and human rights 55
Bibliography 179
Index 181
Foreword
Adrien K. Wing
I got involved in the Arab world because of love. It was not love of the region,
an academic subject, or the Arabic language. I did not know anything about
these things. It was love of a man, my then-boyfriend Enrico, that motivated me.
In 1982, he was a brand-new doctor who volunteered to go into a war zone in
Beirut, Lebanon. We were young and in love, and so I went with him. While he
was busy treating patients, I assisted the overworked staff in many areas. While
I was mainly an administrator, I did hands-on work as well. We were very short
of nurses. So one of the tasks I ended up doing was helping out in the burn unit.
Patients had been hit by phosphorous bombs, leading to very nasty burrowing
injuries, including second- and third-degree burns. I will never forget holding
on to a young boy as staff ripped dried gauze from his wounds. He writhed and
screamed in horrific pain, “Mama, mama,” and leaned into me for comfort. On
that day, I became an Arab mother.
I often wonder what happened to that boy, especially since immediately after
Rico and I left the area, a terrible massacre took place right where we had been
working and living—the Sabra and Shatila Palestinian refugee camps of West
Beirut. Countless men, women, and children were killed, including patients at
our hospital.
My life changed forever as a result of that summer. Partly in memory of those
whose fate I will never know, I was determined to rectify my ignorance and help
educate others. For more than thirty-five years since then, as an international
law professor, I have specialized in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA)
region, including teaching a course I created entitled “Law in the Muslim
World.” I have conducted research, presented lectures, and authored dozens of
publications. I have led many delegations and visited countries including Egypt,
Israel, Indonesia, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Morocco, Palestine, Qatar, Sudan,
Turkey, Tunisia, United Arab Emirates, Bosnia, and Kosovo. I have had the
privilege of advising the founding fathers and mothers of three constitutions, in-
cluding one in the MENA area—the Palestinian Basic Law. As a women’s rights
scholar, I have placed a special emphasis on Arab women’s rights. In particular,
as a critical race feminist scholar, I have been most interested in the intersections
of gender, race/ethnicity, discrimination, and human rights focusing on law in
the Muslim world.
viii Foreword
On a personal level, one of my surrogate daughters is a Muslim who wears a
hijab. In particular and in part because of my daughter’s situation confronting
Islamophobia, I have also always been involved in advocating for improving the
treatment of Muslim women within the United States as well.
Given my long-term interests, I attended a relevant panel presentation at the
Law and Society Conference in Mexico City during spring 2017. The event was
entitled The Impact of Gender, Identity, and Human Rights in Times of Conflict
and Revolution for Arabs throughout the Diaspora. The speakers were all nota-
ble scholars in the field of gender and human rights from the MENA as well
as from the United States. They included Mutaz M. Qafisheh (Hebron Uni-
versity); Louise Cainkar (Marquette University); Karla McKanders (Vanderbilt
University); Fatima Sadiqi (University of Fez); Halla Shoaibi (Birzeit University);
Valorie K. Vojdik (University of Tennessee College of Law); and Moha Ennaji
(Sidi Mohamed Ben Abdellah University). In particular, I had known one of
the panelists, Dr. Cainkar, since 1982, and have read and admired her work
throughout her career. The scholars came together in an International Research
Collaborative to explore the impact of conflict upon gender inequalities and the
limitations of, and possibilities for, enforcement of international human rights in
the region and globally. The quality of their collective voices was very impressive.
I was subsequently delighted when the Law and Society Association panel
chair and discussant, Professor Karla McKanders, whom I have known for a
number of years, asked if I would do the foreword to the volume associated
with the panel. As editor, McKanders has produced a highly significant and
timely volume. Globally, we are at a potentially critical moment regarding the
treatment of individuals of Arab descent. Many years past the broken promise
of the Arab Spring, we are mired in the intersection of ongoing armed conflicts,
dictatorial regimes, underemployed frustrated youth, and overwhelming migra-
tions from some Muslim-majority countries. Women remain at the bottom in
all the s ocieties—educationally, economically, politically, legally, and culturally,
while gay men continue to experience discrimination at the intersection of their
religion and nationality in obtaining basic human rights and equality.
This volume utilizes diverse interdisciplinary perspectives of scholars whose
work is grounded as academics with an activist perspective and connection with
their communities of concern. The authors in this volume focus on the intercon-
nections in the research in the following areas: (1) legal strategies to address the
gendered impact of conflict and uprisings throughout the region; (2) the role of
gender in secular and religious interpretations of the law in Islamic contexts in
Morocco; (3) gender and inward and outward migration in the MENA region
focusing on Morocco and the United States; (4) the discriminatory application
of the Refugee Convention against male refugees in conceptualizing persecu-
tion and vulnerability; (5) women’s role in the MENA revolution and gendered
conceptions of justice; and (6) gender, family, and domestic violence laws in
Morocco and Palestine.
The volume is particularly useful in utilizing examples that critique and exam-
ine the utility of human rights law to address contemporary issues through legal
Foreword ix
and extralegal strategies aimed at diminishing human suffering and helping to
transform the structural, social, and cultural conditions that impede women’s
access to human rights. Each chapter is focused on examining the challenges
in utilizing international law and human rights to advance human rights in the
MENA region. The volume engages in activist- and solution-oriented discus-
sion, which seeks to not only describe and analyze but also contemplate how
systemic change in conflict and postconflict systems can protect and promote
gender and human rights.
This anthology makes a powerful contribution to existing literature in several
fields. It is wonderful for those who are like I was thirty-five years ago, lacking
any knowledge of the issues in the MENA region. It is equally useful for those
wanting more specialized information.
Introduction
Karla M. McKanders
The complexities of the uprisings, political conflicts, and wars in the Middle East
and North Africa (MENA) have had a resounding impact on human rights on
individuals of Arab descent:
Much of the news reporting and analysis of the Middle East seems to lurch
from one crisis to another on the basis of whatever crisis has the most visi-
bility on a given day. Sometimes the focus is Yemen, other times it is ISIS,
Assad, or terrorism outside the region.1
This volume was first conceived with the creation of an International Research
Collaborative (IRC) on “The Politics of Gender, Identity, and Human Rights
for Arabs at Home and in Diaspora” in conjunction with the Law and Society
Association—an interdisciplinary scholarly organization committed to s ocial,
scientific, interpretive, and historical analyses of law across multiple social
contexts. The Law and Society Association, along with the National Science
Foundation, funded the IRC to bring together a collaborative group of interna-
tional, multinational, and multidisciplinary scholars. Our IRC brought together
international scholars from the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) and the
United States to explore struggles at the intersection of gender and human rights
for Arabs at home and around the world. The IRC collaboration focused on
The research collaborative first met at the 2016 Law and Society conference in
New Orleans, Louisiana, where the authors presented on a panel titled “Gender
Inequalities and Enforcement of Human Rights in the MENA Region.” In May
2017, the following year, the IRC met at the International Law and Society
conference in Mexico City, Mexico, where the authors participated in a round-
table discussion engaging the audience on the intersection of gender and human
rights in the MENA region.
The roundtable discussions ultimately led to this edited volume where we
critically analyze the politics of representation and how human rights discourse
can capitalize on or challenge gender-based categorizations. While we started
out as conference copresenters, in the process of working on this volume, we
have created an edited volume that will make a significant contribution to exist-
ing law and society scholarship on gender and human rights for individuals of
Arab descent.
xviii Acknowledgments
During this project, it is evident that we share a passion for rigorous, engaged
research that elevates international human rights instruments to live up to their
promise of gender equality; to improve the legal institutions enforcing human
rights norms; and to raise consciousness at the intersection of gender, identity,
and human rights as it relates to Arabs at home and internationally.
I am indebted to friends and colleagues who have provided valuable insights
along the way. Destiny Birdsong was very helpful in her editing since several of
the authors are not native English speakers. Birdsong made many suggestions for
clarity and coherent structure of the chapters. I would like to thank my research
assistants Samuel Jolly and Jasmine Johnson for the countless hours verifying
and formatting endnotes and the bibliography.
Most of all, I want to thank all of my family and friends who have provided
me with endless support.
List of contributors
Bodies are never naked; they are always clothed with meaning. But the meanings
may be reconstructed by imperialism and globalization.1
Introduction
Few body-covering (or uncovering) behaviors have brought on more debate,
legal restrictions, court cases, harassment, and assaults in the West over the past
twenty years than the act of women covering their bodies.2 The scholarly litera-
ture on women’s right (or non-right) to freely wear hijab (Muslim hair covering
and modest clothing) tends to focus on nation-states, laws, and court cases in
which her right to do so has been denied (e.g., France, Turkey, and Switzerland).
Such bans are defended mainly on the premise that hijab violates national com-
mitments to liberal secularism, although Christian rhythms and modes of com-
portment are the presumed norms hidden beneath this legislation.3 This chapter
analyzes Western responses to hijab from a wholly different, human rights ap-
proach. By examining social practices in a country, the United States, where
the right to wear hijab is not legally denied, it locates public actions that seek to
discipline, demonize, discriminate against, harass, or otherwise harm women
wearing hijab as human rights abuses. Similar to legal bans, these social control
actions block the full equality of Muslim women; deny them equal protection,
freedom of movement, and human dignity; and deter their social advancement.
Utilizing the lens of the scholarly literature on hegemonic masculinity, fem-
ininity, and gender-based violence, this chapter argues that public attacks on
women in hijab should be seen as acts of gender policing. Women in hijab defy
dominant notions of femininity and suppress hegemonic heterosexual male ac-
cess to their bodies. Furthermore, as is the case with Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual,
Transgender, and Queer (“LGBTQ”) persons, their gender nonconformity is
challenged and policed by dominant groups—in many cases, white women. Cit-
ing intersectionality studies, this chapter argues that Western interpretations of
hijab as an inferior practice that embodies women’s submission rather than their
agency are not objective but rather laden with white supremacy. This chapter fur-
ther maintains that the disciplining of Muslim women in hijab enforces global
hierarchies of power.
4 Louise Cainkar
Data to support my arguments are drawn from two sociological studies I
conducted over the past fifteen years. One study was conducted between 2003
and 2006, and includes interviews with more than one hundred adult Arab and
Muslim women and men living across the Chicago metropolitan area, as well as
secondary data from across the United States. In that study, I found that Muslim
women reported being harassed, followed, or assaulted at more than twice the
rate of men and that nearly all of the female victims wore hijab. I also found that
a woman in hijab was present in more than half of the cases where men reported
hate acts. These findings were surprising, given that the dominant narratives of
the day were of the relationship between Islam, terrorism, and male bodies, and
because male subject were often the focus of state antiterror policies. Addition-
ally, I found that the majority of perpetrators were white women, which signaled
to me that matters of culture and gender hegemonies, not terrorism, played key
roles in these attacks.
The second study was conducted in 2011 and was composed of interviews
with ninety-three Arab American teenagers living transnationally in Palestine,
Jordan, and Yemen. When describing their younger years in the United States,
I found more accounts of verbal and physical assaults on women in hijab—
this time, observed by children and, once again, mainly perpetrated by white
women.4 In sum, these studies demonstrate that attacks on women in hijab must
be explained intersectionally, at the juncture of anti-Muslim sentiments and
intra-gender policing.
This chapter contains five sections. Section “Gender policing, gender-based
violence, and hegemonic masculinity” reviews the literature on gender policing,
gender-based violence, and hegemonic masculinity, and finds that the literature
supports the proposition that Muslim women who cover their hair and bodies
stand as affronts to hegemonic masculinity and femininity. Section “Race and
women of color critique of dominant feminism’s erasures” examines hijab through
the lens of intersectionality theory and shows that from the standpoint of white
supremacy, hijab is interpreted as being representative of an inferior religion and
way of life. Section “Cartographies of gender performance” discusses how the hi-
jab can racialize women’s bodies and act as a form of cultural racism, as well as the
ways in which attacks on women in hijab in changing social contexts are related to
global hierarchies of masculinities. Section “Changes in domestic climate: 2008
to present” examines the experiences of women wearing hijab in the United States
who were subject to hate incidents between 2001 and the present. This section
focuses on two sociological studies I conducted over the past fifteen years and
on more recent media stories related to hate crimes perpetrated against Muslim
women, noting similarities and differences between post 9/11 hate acts and more
recent ones. Section “International human rights and its instrument’s failure to
address attacks on Muslim women in hijab as gender-based violence” analyzes
how international human rights and its instrumentalities have failed to recognize
and address attacks on Muslim women in hijab as gender-based violence.
Whether through law or acts of social control, Muslim women who wear hijab
are placed into socially subordinate and vulnerable positions. In the context of
Hegemonic femininity and hijab 5
the United States, known to be a highly religious nation,5 which is significantly
different from Europe, hostile actions against women in hijab are viewed as vi-
olations of religious freedom; when recorded as hate crimes, they are labeled
anti-Muslim attacks. However, when viewed from the perspective of “gender
policing” and gender-based violence, the difference between legal bans and so-
cial control through harassment, disciplining, and violence withers away, taking
on a symmetry in meaning and outcome; as such, the secular versus religious
context loses some of its meaning. In both contexts, women who do not con-
form to grounded notions of hegemonic femininity—gender performances
that satisfy the desires and gaze of hegemonic masculinity or, in the case of the
gender-based hate crimes I outline here, hegemonic femininity—they are disci-
plined: one legally and one extralegally.
— Ja tappaako se?
— On.
— Vähän hauleja lahjoitan, tuossa on, ota, mutta älä näytä äidillesi
ennen minun takaisintuloani, muuten hän luulee sitä ruudiksi ja
kuolee pelästyksestä sekä antaa teille selkään.
— Nappulaa?
— Se käy päinsä.
3.
Koulupoika
— On myös Perezvon!
— Veijareita.
— Koulupoikia.
— Tekeekö kipeätä?
— Kyllä sitäkin!
— Hyvästi, Matvei.
— Kuinka niin?
— Peloittaako sinua?
— Niin, ei sinun.
— Ketä?
— Tšižovia.
— Mistä minä sen tiedän? Nyt niillä riittää huutamista iltaan asti.
Minusta on hauskaa pudistella hölmöjä kaikissa
yhteiskuntakerroksissa. Kas tuossakin seisoo tomppeli, tuo
talonpoika. Huomaa, sanotaan: »Ei ole mitään tyhmempää kuin
tyhmä ranskalainen», mutta kyllä venäläinenkin fysionomia puhuu
puolestaan. No, eikö tuon kasvoihin ole kirjoitettu, että hän on hölmö,
tuon talonpojan, mitä?
— Ehkäpä oletkin.
— Hyvästi mies.
— Hyvästi.
4.
Žutška