The challenge of fundamentalisms

Reproductive Health Matters

Volumn 4, Issue 8, 1996, Pages 55-69

  Freedman, Lynn P ^a  

^a Columbia School of Public Health ^*  (United States)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

EID: 0006817148     PISSN: 09688080     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1016/S0968-8080(96)90302-X     Document Type: Article

References (65)

1. Germain A and Kyte R, 1995. The Cairo Consensus: The Right Agenda for the Right Time. International Women's Health Coalition, New York.
2. Hodgson D and Watkins SC, 1996. Population controllers and feminists: strange bedmates at Cairo? Paper presented at annual meeting of Population Association of America, 9-11 May, New Orleans.
3. Ammerman NT, 1991. North American Protestant fundamentalism. Fundamentalism Observed. Marty ME and Appleby RS (eds). University of Chicago Press, Chicago; Bendroth ML, 1993. Fundamentalism and Gender: 1875 to the Present. Yale University Press, New Haven.
4. Ammerman NT, 1991. North American Protestant fundamentalism. Fundamentalism Observed. Marty ME and Appleby RS (eds). University of Chicago Press, Chicago; Bendroth ML, 1993. Fundamentalism and Gender: 1875 to the Present. Yale University Press, New Haven.
5. For a spirited condemnation of both the term and the concept generally, see Harris JM, 1994. 'Fundamentalism': objections from a modern Jewish historian. Fundamentalism & Gender. Hawley JS (ed). Oxford University Press, New York. For a review of the debate in the context of Islam specifically, see Al-Azm SJ, 1993 and 1994. Islamic fundamentalism reconsidered: a critical outline of problems, ideas and approaches. South Asia Bulletin. Part I:XII(1,2), Part II:XIV(1). For a discussion from the activist perspective, see WAF Journal 1(5), particularly Pieterse JN. Fundamentalism discourses: enemy images; and Sahgal G and Yuval-Davis N. The uses of fundamentalism.
6. For a spirited condemnation of both the term and the concept generally, see Harris JM, 1994. 'Fundamentalism': objections from a modern Jewish historian. Fundamentalism & Gender. Hawley JS (ed). Oxford University Press, New York. For a review of the debate in the context of Islam specifically, see Al-Azm SJ, 1993 and 1994. Islamic fundamentalism reconsidered: a critical outline of problems, ideas and approaches. South Asia Bulletin. Part I:XII(1,2), Part II:XIV(1). For a discussion from the activist perspective, see WAF Journal 1(5), particularly Pieterse JN. Fundamentalism discourses: enemy images; and Sahgal G and Yuval-Davis N. The uses of fundamentalism.
7. For a spirited condemnation of both the term and the concept generally, see Harris JM, 1994. 'Fundamentalism': objections from a modern Jewish historian. Fundamentalism & Gender. Hawley JS (ed). Oxford University Press, New York. For a review of the debate in the context of Islam specifically, see Al-Azm SJ, 1993 and 1994. Islamic fundamentalism reconsidered: a critical outline of problems, ideas and approaches. South Asia Bulletin. Part I:XII(1,2), Part II:XIV(1). For a discussion from the activist perspective, see WAF Journal 1(5), particularly Pieterse JN. Fundamentalism discourses: enemy images; and Sahgal G and Yuval-Davis N. The uses of fundamentalism.
8. For a spirited condemnation of both the term and the concept generally, see Harris JM, 1994. 'Fundamentalism': objections from a modern Jewish historian. Fundamentalism & Gender. Hawley JS (ed). Oxford University Press, New York. For a review of the debate in the context of Islam specifically, see Al-Azm SJ, 1993 and 1994. Islamic fundamentalism reconsidered: a critical outline of problems, ideas and approaches. South Asia Bulletin. Part I:XII(1,2), Part II:XIV(1). For a discussion from the activist perspective, see WAF Journal 1(5), particularly Pieterse JN. Fundamentalism discourses: enemy images; and Sahgal G and Yuval-Davis N. The uses of fundamentalism.
9. For a spirited condemnation of both the term and the concept generally, see Harris JM, 1994. 'Fundamentalism': objections from a modern Jewish historian. Fundamentalism & Gender. Hawley JS (ed). Oxford University Press, New York. For a review of the debate in the context of Islam specifically, see Al-Azm SJ, 1993 and 1994. Islamic fundamentalism reconsidered: a critical outline of problems, ideas and approaches. South Asia Bulletin. Part I:XII(1,2), Part II:XIV(1). For a discussion from the activist perspective, see WAF Journal 1(5), particularly Pieterse JN. Fundamentalism discourses: enemy images; and Sahgal G and Yuval-Davis N. The uses of fundamentalism.
10. Of course, the fact that the phenomenon may be real, does not itself justify the choice of the particular word 'fundamentalist.' While bordering dangerously on misnomer (because of the implication that something 'fundamental' is also 'authentic'), I would agree with Marty and Appleby (from whom e phrase 'family resemblances' is borrowed) that there is no perfect word available, that alternative suggestions have even more serious defects, and that in any event the term is already firmly entrenched in popular usage - in short, 'fundamentalism' is here to stay.' Marty and Appleby (eds), [3] above.
11. Perhaps the most comprehensive of these is The Fundamentalism Project, sponsored by the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Marty and Appleby (eds), [3] above.
12. For example, proceedings of the workshop 'The political uses of religion, ethnicity and culture,' NGO Forum, ICPD, sponsored by Women Living Under Muslim Laws, Women Against Fundamentalism, and Catholics for a Free Choice. Portions in WAF Journal 7:13-15 and Women's Health Journal 1/96; Full transcripts on file with the author. Also Sahgal G and Yuval-Davis N (eds), 1992. Refusing Holy Orders: Women and Fundamentalism in Britain. Virago Press, London.
13. For example, proceedings of the workshop 'The political uses of religion, ethnicity and culture,' NGO Forum, ICPD, sponsored by Women Living Under Muslim Laws, Women Against Fundamentalism, and Catholics for a Free Choice. Portions in WAF Journal 7:13-15 and Women's Health Journal 1/96; Full transcripts on file with the author. Also Sahgal G and Yuval-Davis N (eds), 1992. Refusing Holy Orders: Women and Fundamentalism in Britain. Virago Press, London.
14. For example, proceedings of the workshop 'The political uses of religion, ethnicity and culture,' NGO Forum, ICPD, sponsored by Women Living Under Muslim Laws, Women Against Fundamentalism, and Catholics for a Free Choice. Portions in WAF Journal 7:13-15 and Women's Health Journal 1/96; Full transcripts on file with the author. Also Sahgal G and Yuval-Davis N (eds), 1992. Refusing Holy Orders: Women and Fundamentalism in Britain. Virago Press, London.
15. Eg. Ahmed SI, 1995. Blasphemy bill: revenging the war of liberation? Sanglap: Attack on Fundamentals. 4(Aug). Ain O Salish Kendra, Dhaka, Bangladesh. Reprinted in Fatwas Against Women in Bangladesh. 1996. Women Living Under Muslim Laws, Grabels, France.
16. Eg. Ahmed SI, 1995. Blasphemy bill: revenging the war of liberation? Sanglap: Attack on Fundamentals. 4(Aug). Ain O Salish Kendra, Dhaka, Bangladesh. Reprinted in Fatwas Against Women in Bangladesh. 1996. Women Living Under Muslim Laws, Grabels, France.
17. See the essays in Marty ME and Appleby RS (eds), 1993. Fundamentalism and Society: Reclaiming the Sciences, the Family, and Education. University of Chicago Press, Chicago.
18. Huntington S, 1993. The clash of civilizations? Foreign Affairs. Summer.
19. McClintock A, 1996. Imperial Leather: Race, Gender and Sexuality in the Colonial Conquest Routledge, New York; Ahmed L, 1992. Women and nder in Islam. Yale University Press, New Haven. The instrumental use of women as the repository and protectors of culture and community identity did not end with the demise of formal colonialism, nor was it unique to the colonial situation. Today, women continue to be both targets and tools in the struggle. See Moghadam V (ed), 1994. Identity Politics & Women: Cultural Reassertions and Feminisms in International Perspective. Westview Press, Boulder CO.
20. McClintock A, 1996. Imperial Leather: Race, Gender and Sexuality in the Colonial Conquest Routledge, New York; Ahmed L, 1992. Women and nder in Islam. Yale University Press, New Haven. The instrumental use of women as the repository and protectors of culture and community identity did not end with the demise of formal colonialism, nor was it unique to the colonial situation. Today, women continue to be both targets and tools in the struggle. See Moghadam V (ed), 1994. Identity Politics & Women: Cultural Reassertions and Feminisms in International Perspective. Westview Press, Boulder CO.
21. McClintock A, 1996. Imperial Leather: Race, Gender and Sexuality in the Colonial Conquest Routledge, New York; Ahmed L, 1992. Women and nder in Islam. Yale University Press, New Haven. The instrumental use of women as the repository and protectors of culture and community identity did not end with the demise of formal colonialism, nor was it unique to the colonial situation. Today, women continue to be both targets and tools in the struggle. See Moghadam V (ed), 1994. Identity Politics & Women: Cultural Reassertions and Feminisms in International Perspective. Westview Press, Boulder CO.
22. Mani L, 1990. Contentious traditions: the debate on sati in colonial India. In Sangari K and Vaid S (eds). Recasting Women: Essays in Indian Colonial History. Rutgers University Press, New Brunswick NJ.
23. Sangari K and Vaid S (eds), 1990. (See [12] above), p.115.
24. Hawley JS, 1994. Hinduism: sati and its defenders. Fundamentalism & Gender. Hawley JS (ed). Oxford University Press, New York.
25. Strozier CB, 1994. Religious militancy or 'fundamentalism'. Religion and Human Rights. Kelsay J and Twiss SB (eds). Project on Religion and Human Rights, New York.
26. Ahmad M, 1991. Islamic fundamentalism in South Asia: the Jamat-i-Islami and the Tablighi Jamaat. In Marty and Appleby [3] above.
27. Quoted in Hitchcock J, 1993. Catholic activist conservatism in the United States. In Marty and Appleby [3] above.
28. On the relationship between the discourse of Hindutva, women, law and communal politics in India, see Kapur R and Cossman B, 1995. Communalising gender, engendering community: women, legal discourse, and the Saffron Agenda. Sarkar T and Butalia U (eds). Women & Right-Wing Movements: Indian Experiences. Zed Books, New Jersey. On the critically important relationship between Hindutva and current legal and political discourse about secularism in India see Cossman B and Kapur R, 1996. Secularism: bench-marked by Hindu Right. Economic and Political Weekly. 21 Sept:2613-30.
29. On the relationship between the discourse of Hindutva, women, law and communal politics in India, see Kapur R and Cossman B, 1995. Communalising gender, engendering community: women, legal discourse, and the Saffron Agenda. Sarkar T and Butalia U (eds). Women & Right-Wing Movements: Indian Experiences. Zed Books, New Jersey. On the critically important relationship between Hindutva and current legal and political discourse about secularism in India see Cossman B and Kapur R, 1996. Secularism: bench-marked by Hindu Right. Economic and Political Weekly. 21 Sept:2613-30.
30. Shaheed F, 1994. Controlled or autonomous: identity and the experience of Women Living Under Muslim Laws. Signs. 19(4):997-1019.
31. For a description of this overall strategy, see Shaheed F, 1995. Networking for change: the role of women's groups in initiating dialogue on women's issues. Faith & Freedom: Women's Human Rights in the Muslim World. Afkhami M (ed). Syracuse University Press, Syracuse NY. For a specific example of diversity in actual laws and practices, see Chart of Customary Practices in Pakistan in Comparison with Statutory Law. 1995; Women & Law Pakistan Country Project. Shirkat Gah, Lahore.
32. For a description of this overall strategy, see Shaheed F, 1995. Networking for change: the role of women's groups in initiating dialogue on women's issues. Faith & Freedom: Women's Human Rights in the Muslim World. Afkhami M (ed). Syracuse University Press, Syracuse NY. For a specific example of diversity in actual laws and practices, see Chart of Customary Practices in Pakistan in Comparison with Statutory Law. 1995; Women & Law Pakistan Country Project. Shirkat Gah, Lahore.
33. Anderson MR, 1993. Islamic law and the colonial encounter in British India. Arnold D and Robb P (eds). Institutions and Ideologies: A SOAS South Asia Reader. Curzon Press, London. Reprinted by Women Living Under Muslim Laws as Occasional Paper 7, (1996), quoting the text of The Hastings Plan of 1772.
34. Anderson MR, 1993. Islamic law and the colonial encounter in British India. Arnold D and Robb P (eds). Institutions and Ideologies: A SOAS South Asia Reader. Curzon Press, London. Reprinted by Women Living Under Muslim Laws as Occasional Paper 7, (1996), quoting the text of The Hastings Plan of 1772.
35. Hoodfar H, 1994. Devices and desires: population policy and gender roles in the Islamic Republic. Middle East Report. Sept-Oct.
36. Kamal S, 1995. Undermining women's rights. Sanglap: Attack on Fundamentals. 4(Aug). In [8] above; Fundamentalism and gender: a view from Bangladesh. Communalism Combat. 1996; April:5.
37. Kamal S, 1995. Undermining women's rights. Sanglap: Attack on Fundamentals. 4(Aug). In [8] above; Fundamentalism and gender: a view from Bangladesh. Communalism Combat. 1996; April:5.
38. An important issue beyond the scope of this paper is the extent which women are attracted to and participate in fundamentalist movements, even when such movements adopt agendas which include explicit controls over their ability to make choices about key aspects of their lives.
39. Conason J, Ross A and Cokorinos L, 1996. The Promise Keepers are coming: the third wave of the religious right. Nation. 7 October.
40. See Sabbah F, 1984. Woman in the Muslim Unconscious. Pergamon Press, New York.
41. Hawley JS, [14] above. Quoting Bhagavad Gita 1.41, as translated by Miller BS, 1986. The Bhagavad Gita. Columbia University Press, New York.
42. Hawley JS, [14] above. Quoting Bhagavad Gita 1.41, as translated by Miller BS, 1986. The Bhagavad Gita. Columbia University Press, New York.
43. Mernissi F, 1987. Femininity as subversion: reflections on the Muslim concept of nushuz. Speaking of Faith: Global Perspectives on Women, Religion and Social Change. Eck D and Jain D (eds). New Society Publishers, Philadelphia.
44. Papanek H, 1994. The ideal woman and the ideal society: control and autonomy in the construction of identity. In Moghadam (ed), [11] above.
45. Meznaric S, 1994. Gender as an ethno-marker: rape, war, and identity politics in the former Yugoslavia. In Moghadam (ed), [11] above; Women's Rights Project, 1995. The Human Rights Watch Global Report on Women's Human Rights. Human Rights Watch, New York.
46. Meznaric S, 1994. Gender as an ethno-marker: rape, war, and identity politics in the former Yugoslavia. In Moghadam (ed), [11] above; Women's Rights Project, 1995. The Human Rights Watch Global Report on Women's Human Rights. Human Rights Watch, New York.
47. Kannabiran V and Kannabiran K, 1995. The frying pan or the fire? Endangered identities, gendered institutions and women's survival. In Sarkar and Butalia (eds), [18] above.
48. Bennoune K, 1995. SOS Algeria: women's human rights under seige. In Afkhami (ed), [20] above.
49. Maunaguru S, 1995. Gendering Tamil nationalism: the construction of woman' in projects of protest and control. Unmaking the Nation: The Politics of y and History in Modem Sri Lanka. Jeganathan P and Ismail Q (eds). Social Scientists' Association, Colombo.
50. Eisenstein Z, 1996. Hatreds: Racialized and Sexualized Conflicts in the 21st Century, Routledge, New York.
51. Boston R, 1996. The Most Dangerous Man in America? Pat Robertson and the Rise of the Christian Coalition. Prometheus Books, Amherst NY.
52. Washington Post, 23 August 1992. Hawley and Proudfoot note that 'fundamentalist rhetoric is often tinged with the suggestion that homosexuality is an inevitable consequence of modernism - a sign of the dishonor and downright emasculation that the collapse of traditional values visits on secular societies.' In Introduction, Hawley JS (ed). [4] above.
53. The strand of US right-wing ideology that focuses on the 'racial purity' of white, Christian civilisation finds a comfortable home among 'Patriot' groups, such as those subscribing to the Phineas Priesthood, who justify murders and hate crimes with reference to a Biblical passage (Numbers 25:1-18) which they interpret as condoning murder to prevent racial mixing in violation of 'God's law'. Paul Hill, confessed murderer of a doctor at a US abortion clinic, was among those calling for such 'Phineas actions'. Terrorists in the name of God and race. Klanwatch Intelligence Report. 1996; 83(Aug).
54. Amin S and Hossain S, 1995. Women's reproductive rights and the politics of fundamentalism: a view from Bangladesh. American University Law Review. 44(4):1319-43; see also [8] above.
55. I am grateful to Mahnaz Afkhami, executive director, Sisterhood Is Global Institute, for articulating this aspect of fundamentalists' strategies and eral of the examples used here.
56. Religious human rights in the world today: a report on the 1994 Atlanta conference. Emory International Law Review. 10(1):53-193. An-Naim A, 1995. The dichotomy between religious and secular discourse in Islamic societies. In Afkhami M (ed), [20] above.
57. Religious human rights in the world today: a report on the 1994 Atlanta conference. Emory International Law Review. 10(1):53-193. An-Naim A, 1995. The dichotomy between religious and secular discourse in Islamic societies. In Afkhami M (ed), [20] above.
58. Copelon R and Petchesky R, 1995. Toward an interdependent approach to reproductive and sexual rights as human rights: reflections on the ICPD and beyond. Schuler M (ed). From Basic Needs to Basic Rights. Women, Law & Development International, Washington DC.
59. Freedman L, 1995. Reflections on emerging frameworks of health and human rights. Health and Human Rights. 1(4):314-48.
60. Mertus J in collaboration with and Flowers N, 1995. Our Human Rights: A Manual for Women's Human Rights. Organising Committee, People's Decade for Human Rights Education, New York; Afkhami M and Vaziri H, 1996. Claiming Our Rights: A Manual for Women's Human Rights in Muslim Societies. Sisterhood Is Global Institute, Washington DC; Yamin AE, 1993. Empowering visions: toward a dialectical pedagogy of human rights. Human Rights Quarterly. 15:640-85.
61. Mertus J in collaboration with and Flowers N, 1995. Our Human Rights: A Manual for Women's Human Rights. Organising Committee, People's Decade for Human Rights Education, New York; Afkhami M and Vaziri H, 1996. Claiming Our Rights: A Manual for Women's Human Rights in Muslim Societies. Sisterhood Is Global Institute, Washington DC; Yamin AE, 1993. Empowering visions: toward a dialectical pedagogy of human rights. Human Rights Quarterly. 15:640-85.
62. Mertus J in collaboration with and Flowers N, 1995. Our Human Rights: A Manual for Women's Human Rights. Organising Committee, People's Decade for Human Rights Education, New York; Afkhami M and Vaziri H, 1996. Claiming Our Rights: A Manual for Women's Human Rights in Muslim Societies. Sisterhood Is Global Institute, Washington DC; Yamin AE, 1993. Empowering visions: toward a dialectical pedagogy of human rights. Human Rights Quarterly. 15:640-85.
63. Greenhalgh S, 1996. The social construction of population science: an intellectual, institutional, and political history of twentieth-century demography. Comparative Studies in Society and History. 38(1):26-66.
64. Greenhalgh goes on to critique 'diffusion theory', the rationale family planning work to justify the programmatic focus on spreading contraceptives, and draws this conclusion: 'Through its silence about the structures that support diffusion and its implicit assumption that the place of origin is superior to the place of destination, the notion of diffusion in fact supports a political project, that of justifying efforts to spread modern contraceptives to benighted "traditional" people. Unintentional though it may be, demographic research serves the political goal of "making them more like us."' In [44] above.
65. Razzaq A, 1994. Keynote paper. Seminar on the Cairo Conference on Population and Development: Human Rights and Moral Issues, Dhaka. Quoted in Amin and Hossain. [38] above.