THE PROGRESSIVE CONSERVATIVE, USA
An Online Journal of Political Commentary & Analysis
Volume XII, Issue # 78, May 21, 2010
Dr. Almon Leroy Way, Jr., Editor
Government Committed to & Acting in Accord with Conservative Principles
Ensures a Nation's Strength, Progress, & Prosperity
APOLOGIST FOR GENDER APARTHEID
By Reut Cohen
HUMAN RIGHTS & THE STATUS OF MIDDLE EASTERN WOMEN: WESTERN PROFESSORS OF MIDDLE EAST STUDIES AS
APOLOGISTS FOR THE SUBORDINATE STATUS OF WOMEN IN THE BACKWARD, BARBARIC, PATRIARCAL, MISOGYNISTIC, &
THEOCRATIC SOCIETIES OF THE MIDDLE EAST -- REFUSAL TO SEE ARAB WOMEN AS THE VICTIMS OF PATRIARCHY,
CULTURE, POLITICS, & RELIGION --FAILURE TO COMPREHEND THAT THERE ARE MORAL PRINCIPLES WHICH DEFINE BASIC
HUMAN RIGHTS & FREEDOMS
FULL STORY:
On May 7, 2010, UCLA's Center for Near Eastern Studies (CNES) and the Journal of Middle East Women's Studies
co-sponsored the lecture, "Rethinking Arab Women as 'Subjects.'" The talk was delivered by Suad Joseph, a
Lebanese-born professor of Anthropology and Women's Studies at UC-Davis, and President-elect of the Middle East
Studies Association (MESA), the principal professional organization for scholars of the region. Joseph, who has
co-edited a book with CNES Director Susan Slyomovics, is considered a pioneer in the field of Middle East Women's
Studies, an accolade which — as is, sadly, often the case — translates into apologetics for the oppression of Middle
Eastern women.
Professor Joseph announced she was perturbed about the title of her lecture; she couldn't decide whether "Arab"
was an appropriate term to use for identification purposes. Yet, she contradicted herself (and followed the Arabist
practice of her discipline) by referring to the Middle East exclusively as the "Arab world" and by questioning the
identities of Jews, Assyrians, Chaldeans, and other distinctive, regional minorities. Asking why these groups
perceive themselves as separate from Arabs, she ignored the fact that the answer to her question is readily apparent
both in the distinctive histories of theses peoples and in their persecution at the hands of Arab Muslim majorities.
The very term "Arab" — often used arbitrarily to describe anything Middle Eastern — is loaded with a perilous and
extreme nationalism that has made ethnic minorities such as Mizrahi Jews and Assyrians victims of the majority.
Joseph questioned, and at times denounced, studies examining the status quo of women in the Middle East. She
argued that the representation of Arab women as subjects is a "problematic category and necessary one," and that
there is serious fault with characterizations — particularly in Western research and media — of Arab women as the
victims of patriarchy, culture, politics, and religion. Instead, Joseph contended, notions of self are changing and
malleable.
Predictably for contemporary Middle East Studies, Joseph paid tribute to Edward Said's deeply flawed book
Orientalism, which helps explain her rejection of any implied Western superiority regarding women's rights. In
asserting that Westerners shouldn't assume women in the Middle East wish to imitate secular, Westernized women,
she encapsulated the ideology widespread on college campuses: multiculturalism, a form of cultural relativism that
denies the ability to judge non-Western cultures on their merits, and which, in practice, judges all non-Western
cultures as superior. She made no reference to universal human rights or to the possible reasons for rising Arab
immigration to secular European nations and to North America.
Joseph asserted that Arab women are the "most relationship-driven" of any with which she has worked. She
described Americans, in contrast, as less "relationship-driven" and American women as having fewer expectations
than their Arab counterparts. Joseph offered no factual evidence for either of these preposterous claims. Given the
grave circumstances under which many Arab women live, one would think it is they who are forced to have fewer
expectations and not, as Joseph contended, Western women.
Incredibly, Joseph theorized that Arab women want to be claimed by men, and therefore have no objection to being
subjects of a patriarchal and theocratic society in which their individual rights are abridged. The audience, which
appeared to consist mostly of Center for Near Eastern Studies and Women's Studies faculty, nodded their heads in
agreement with this troubling statement. In fact, those gathered reacted favorably to the lecture overall and asked no
challenging questions of the speaker. Overwhelming (if understated) evidence of the systematic and institutionalized
abuse of Middle Eastern women didn't seem to factor into the equation.
In many regions of the Middle East, the basic standing of women and the attitude of men towards them are pre-modern.
Were this not so, there would be no honor killings, female genital mutilation, child marriage, or legitimized wife-beating.
Moreover, the West should consider the disturbing social implications for its societies as these barbaric customs are
imported through Muslim immigration.
If I may end on a personal note: As a woman of Middle Eastern origin, the situation of women in the Middle East has
always fascinated and troubled me. Although I come from a very traditional Middle Eastern family — albeit Jewish —
the women in my family have always been empowered and independent. Therefore, I find it extremely difficult to come
to terms with the theory that Middle Eastern women are a different breed who welcome abuse for some twisted concept
of maintaining a "relationship-driven" society.
If one believes, as I do, in fundamental human rights, there are moral principles that define our basic freedoms. Middle
Eastern women's rights activists such as Shirin Ebadi and Ayaan Hirsi Ali do not excuse the misogynistic and
theocratic elements in their native countries. Instead, they demand freedom, even in the face of their abusers and of
Western apologists.
Unfortunately, Joseph's lecture belongs in the latter category, demonstrating yet again that Middle Eastern women
who seek intellectual and moral support from Western Professors of Middle East Studies will come away disappointed.
LINKS TO RELATED TOPICS:
Islamism & Jihadism -- The Threat of Radical Islam
Page Three
Page Two
Page One
Middle East -- Arabs, Arab States,
& Their Middle Eastern Neighbors
American Foreign Policy -- The Middle East
International Politics & World Disorder:
War, Peace, & Geopolitics in the Real World:
Foreign Affairs & U.S. National Security
Page Two
Page One
Islamist Terrorist Attacks on the U.S.A.
Osama bin Laden & the Islamist Declaration of War
Against the U.S.A. & Western Civilization
Islamist International Terrorism &
U.S. Intelligence Agencies
Counterterrorism & U.S. National Security
U.S. National Security Strategy
Reut Cohen is a journalist, researcher, and the publisher of ReutRCohen.com. She wrote this article for
Campus Watch, a project of the Middle East Forum.
The foregoing article by Reut Cohen was originally published in Front Page Magazine, May 21, 2010, and
Campus Watch, May 21, 2010, and
can be found on the Internet website maintained by the Middle East Forum, a foreign policy think tank which seeks to
define and promote American interests in the Middle East, defining U.S. interests to include fighting radical Islam,
working for Palestinian Arab acceptance of the State of Israel, improving the management of U.S. efforts to promote
constitutional democracy in the Middle East, reducing America's energy dependence on the Middle East, more robustly
asserting U.S. interests vis-à-vis Saudi Arabia, and countering the Iranian threat.
(URL: http://www.meforum.org/ 2657/apologist-for-gender-apartheid)
Republished with Permission of the Middle East Forum
Reprinted from the Middle East Forum News
mefnews@meforum.org (MEF NEWS)
May 21, 2010
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