|
Duke feminist gives thumbs up to Taliban
By Cinnamon Stillwell
September 27, 2004
Afghanistan’s Taliban was one of the most oppressive regimes in the world, and
doubly so when it came to women’s rights. For years, various activists
expressed concern about the situation of Afghan women and supported the efforts
of RAWA, the Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan [1], to try
and affect reform. So when the opportunity arose to overthrow that brutal
regime, it was expected that RAWA activists would naturally back the
insurrection.
However, it turned out these activists were more opposed to U.S. military
intervention than they were in favor of getting rid of the Taliban, even if it
meant that Afghanistan’s women remained in a state of perpetual slavery. And
among those who subscribe to such views is Duke University Professor Miriam
Cooke. Cooke is a Professor of Asian and African Languages and Literature and
President of the Association for Middle East Women’s Studies, an international
organization staunchly opposed to what they call on their website the “new
imperialism,”[2] and a disciple of the theory of post-colonialism. [3] Cooke is
also a strong proponent of “Islamic feminism.”[4]
Islamic feminism holds that Muslim women should enact social change from within
the confines of their own culture and religion. Western powers are viewed as
having purely imperialistic designs and, as a result, their intervention is
unwelcome. Such is the “logic” that caused Cooke, a longtime proponent of
Muslim women writers, activists, and intellectuals, to oppose the U.S.
overthrow of the Taliban, as well as the democratization of the Middle East.
During a talk at a forum on the future of Iraq at the John Hope Franklin Center
on March 26th, 2003, [5] Cooke rejected the liberation of Afghan women as a
reason to go to war. Rather than being grateful for calling attention to the
suffering of fellow women, she castigated First Lady Laura Bush for her radio
address on behalf of the women of Afghanistan. Cooke accused Laura Bush of
furthering “the imperial project in her highly gendered appeal to a world
conscience.”
Of course, this never was the principal reason for overthrowing the Taliban,
but rather a welcome side effect. As for the al-Qaeda terrorist training camps
dotting the Afghanistan countryside, Cooke said nothing. She is equally silent
today on the ten million Afghans who are now registered to vote - forty percent
of them women - in the upcoming election.[6]
In the same talk, Cooke mocked “the campaign to democratize the Middle East,”
that she claimed, “deployed women as victims to save or to empower.” Empowering
Muslim women would seem to be a good thing, but according to Cooke, if Western
interests are involved, women’s liberation is no longer valid. Cooke opposed
the war in Iraq for this very reason, fatalistically predicting that Iraqi
women would end up “like the Shiite women who were driven out of their homes in
southern Iraq in March, 1991, to enter refugee camps in Saudi Arabia and then
went on to exilic futures outside the Middle East.”[7]
In fact, none of this happened and the numbers of asylum-seekers from Iraq and
Afghanistan have been drastically reduced from pre-war levels.[8] Most
importantly, no longer are Iraqi women captive to Saddam Hussein's rape rooms,
or to having their husbands taken away in the middle of night.[9] And six
female ministers in the new Iraqi government demonstrate that women are making
strides in that country.[10] But for Cooke, none of this seems to matter. All
that matters is keeping those nasty “imperialists” (America) at bay.
So what exactly does Cooke have to offer to Muslim women as a concrete course
of action to better their lives? It turns out, not much. Not only are her ideas
vague and overly academic, all too often she falls back on concepts steeped in
the terminology of Islamism. For instance, throughout her career, Cooke has
written extensively about the idea of a “women’s jihad.”
During a lecture at Wellesley College in November, 2003, Cooke elaborated on
this concept. [11] This jihad, she maintained, is not for an “Islamist state,”
but rather for “an Islamic community.” Subscribing to a pacifist model, she
insisted that women’s role within the Islamic world should be “drawing
attention to the consequences of war, not advocating violence.” Yet somewhat
contradictorily, she also sanctioned, “the defense of the community when
attacked by outsiders.” Which outsiders exactly she was referring to is
unknown; but it's a safe guess that American soldiers and their allies were
involved.
Indeed, Israeli civilians appear to be fair game for this “women’s jihad.” When
Wafa Idris, a 27-year old Palestinian woman, perpetrated a suicide bombing,
killing an 80 year-old man in January, 2000, Cooke’s thesis about women and war
were put to the test. But Cooke managed to justify this atrocity by falling
back on her old “blame the imperialists” mindset. In typically garbled
language, Cooke said, “for those of us who really are concerned with women’s
role in the Arab public square, in the way in which women have been trying to
empower themselves vis-à-vis the U.S., vis-à-vis old colonial powers,
vis-à-vis their own men, the situation has become so desperate that now
women’s participation in war is a mark of absolute hopelessness. [12]
As usual, Cooke jumps through hoops to blame anyone other than the culture that
created suicide bombers - female or otherwise. And she conveniently overlooks
the use of sexism in Palestinian society to coerce women into becoming suicide
bombers as penance for the shame of having sex out of wedlock, being raped or
unable to marry.
Beyond teaching her own courses, Cooke is very active in Duke’s Islamic Studies
Department. She is co-director of the university’s Center for the Study of
Muslim Networks (CSMN), [13] as well as being involved in the 2003-2004
Carolina Seminar on Comparative Islamic Studies.[14] She accompanied a group of
students on a trip to Lebanon in 2002 [15] and has taken part in various local
film festivals in the past few years.[16] As such, Cooke has a lot of influence
over the way Duke students experience Islamic culture and particularly its
relationship to women.
Unfortunately, instead of learning about women’s liberation, these students are
receiving a lesson in women’s oppression, and especially oppression caused by
the United States. And as long as Islamic studies professors like Miriam Cooke
serve as apologists for backwardness and repression, they will continue being
part of the problem instead of the solution.
NOTES
[1] Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan (RAWA):
http://rawa.fancymarketing.net/index.html
[2] Association for Middle East Women’s Studies:
http://www.amews.org/announcements/valmessage.htm
[3] Kay S. Hymowitz, “Why Feminism is AWOL on Islam,” City Journal, Winter
2003. City-Journal.org: http://www.city-journal.org/html/13_1_why_feminism.html
[4] Omaima Abou-Bakr, “Islamic Feminism? What's in a Name?” Association for
Middle East Women's Studies, MEWS Review Articles, Winter/Spring 2001:
http://www.amews.org/review/reviewarticles/islamicfeminism.htm
[5] Miriam Cooke, “Crusade! I Mean Democracy! You Know: Women!” Duke News,
April3,2003:http://www.dukenews.duke.edu/dukenews.duke.edu/news/opinion7c2b.html?id=1587&catid=2&cpg=opinion.asp
[6] “Powell on Afghanistan,” Voice of America, September
20,2004,VOA.com:http://www.voanews.com/Editorials/article.cfm?objectID=1636F244-CAB8-4D3F-A3A0A853913DA385&title=9%2F20%2F04%20-%20POWELL%20ON%20AFGHANISTAN%20%20
[7] Miriam Cooke, “Crusade! I Mean Democracy! You Know: Women!” Duke News,
April3,2003:http://www.dukenews.duke.edu/dukenews.duke.edu/news/opinion7c2b.html?id=1587&catid=2&cpg=opinion.asp
[8] Jeff Jacoby, “What's Going on in Iraq?” June 21, 2004. Townhall.com:
http://www.townhall.com/columnists/jeffjacoby/jj20040621.shtml
[9] Office of International Women's Issues, “Iraqi Women Under Saddam’s Regime:
A Population Silenced,” Fact Sheet, March 20, 2003. U.S. Department of State:
http://www.state.gov/g/wi/rls/18877.htm
[10] “Iraqi Women Celebrate Larger Presence in New Government,” Agency
France-Presse, June
15,2004.Yahoo!News.comhttp://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/afp/20040615/lf_afp/iraq_transition_women_040615153309
[11] Nitya Nayar, “Cooke Discusses North African Women’s Notions of Jihad,” The
Wellesley News, November 13, 2003:
http://www.wellesley.edu/Newspaper/archives/10137/articles/10137n5.html
[12] Arts & Sciences and Trinity College News, Miriam Cooke, June 2003:
http://www.aas.duke.edu/news/faculty/cooke.php
[13] Center for the Study of Muslim Networks, Duke University:
http://www.duke.edu/web/muslimnets/csmn_about.html
[14] Carolina Seminar on Comparative Islamic Studies, Upcoming Events on the
Middle East and Muslim Civilizations, 2003-2004:
http://www.unc.edu/depts/islamsem/2004.htm
[15] “Learning in Lebanon,” Duke Magazine, May-June 2002:
http://www.dukemagazine.duke.edu/dukemag/issues/050602/depgaz3.html
[16] David M. Lewkowict, “Staff, Students ‘Duke’ It Out Over Film Festival,”
March 12, 2003, FoxNews.com: http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,80849,00.html
Copyright 1999-2004, Front Page. All rights reserved. No content may
be reproduced in whole or part without written permission. Please contact
us via the link below for re-print and syndication policies.
|
|
 |
