Gender apartheid
Encyclopedia
The term gender apartheid, like sex apartheid, is a term used to describe economic and social sexual discrimination against women, including strict sex segregation
, as well as an "absence of justice for women in much of the non-Western world." It is used especially to describe treatment of women in Muslim societies. However, fundamentalist strains of Christianity
, Judaism
and Buddhism
also have been described as practicing "gender apartheid."
describes as "gender apartheid." Some human rights advocates have argued for sanctions against states practicing gender apartheid, similar to those imposed on South Africa under apartheid.
writes that the fundamentalist world view “singles out women’s status and her relations to society as the supreme test of the authenticity of the Islamic order.” This is symbolized by the institutions of Purdah
(physical separation of the sexes) and Awrah
(concealing the body with clothing). As in much of the world, institutions suppressing women were becoming less powerful until the resurgence of Islamic fundamentalism at the end of the 20th century. Walid Phares
writes that Marxism
in the Soviet Union
nations and China
and "secular anticlericalism" in Turkey
forced women to "integrate themselves into an antireligious society" resulting in a backlash of "gender apartheid" by Islamic fundamentalists. He notes that other religions also have "witnessed similar historical struggles." Phyllis Chesler
describes Islamic gender apartheid as being "characterized by normalized daughter- and wife-battering, forced veiling, female genital mutilation, polygamy, purdah, (the segregation or sequestration of women), arranged marriage, child marriage, first cousin marriage" and punishment for not complying with these. Several Muslim nations have been criticized for practicing "gender apartheid":
Afghanistan
, under Taliban religious leadership, has been characterized by feminist
groups and others as a "gender apartheid" system where women are segregated from men in public and do not enjoy legal equality or equal access to employment or education. The Feminist Majority Foundation
launched a "Campaign for Afghan Women & Girls" denouncing gender apartheid. According to the Women's Human Rights Resource Programme of the University of Toronto
Bora Laskin
Law Library "Throughout the duration of Taliban rule in Afghanistan, the term "Gender Apartheid" was used by a number of women's rights advocates to convey the message that the rights violations experience by Afghan women were in substance no different than those experienced by blacks in Apartheid South Africa."
In 2006 Marina Mahathir, the daughter of Malaysia's former Prime Minister, and a campaigner for women's rights, described the status of Muslim
women in Malaysia as similar to that of Black South Africans under apartheid. She stated "In our country, there is an insidious growing form of apartheid among Malaysian women, that between Muslim and non-Muslim women." The Malaysian Muslim Professionals Forum criticized her comments stating "Her prejudiced views and assumptions smack of ignorance of the objectives and methodology of the Sharia, and a slavish capitulation to western feminism's notions of women's rights, gender equality and sexuality." Dr Harlina Halizah Siraj, women's chief of the reform group Jamaah Islah Malaysia
said "Women in Malaysia are given unlimited opportunities to obtain high education level, we are free to choose our profession and career besides enjoying high standard of living with our families."
Saudi Arabia
's practices with respect women have been referred to as "gender apartheid". Women’s rights activist Wajiha Al-Huwaidar describes Saudi Arabia as the ‘gender apartheid kingdom.’ Azar Majedi, of the Centre for Women and Socialism, attributes sexual apartheid in Saudi Arabia to political Islam: "Women are the first victims of political Islam and Islamic terrorist gangs. Sexual apartheid, stoning, compulsory Islamic veil and covering and stripping women of all rights are the fruits of this reactionary and fascistic movement." According to The Guardian
, "[i]n the kingdom of Saudi Arabia, sexual apartheid rules": "The kingdom's sexual apartheid is enforced, in a crude fashion, by the religious police, the mutawa. Thuggish, bigoted and with little real training in Islamic law, they are much feared in some areas but also increasingly ridiculed. In Jeddah
- a more laid-back city than Riyadh
- they are rarely seen nowadays.
or the Roman Catholic Church
. See, for example, Patricia Budd Kepler in her 1978 Theology Today article "Women Clergy and the Cultural Order". Courtney W. Howland describes the patriarchal family structure of evangelical Christian churches in America as maintaining gender apartheid.
, who worked as a journalist in Japan, described it as a "society of 'gender apartheid.'" Peter Gran writes that the treatment of prostitutes in many societies is gender apartheid upheld by the state. Attorney Gloria Allred
called the Boy Scouts of America refusal to admit girls "gender apartheid."
Sex segregation
Sex segregation is the separation of people according to their sex.The term gender apartheid also has been applied to segregation of people by gender, implying that it is sexual discrimination...
, as well as an "absence of justice for women in much of the non-Western world." It is used especially to describe treatment of women in Muslim societies. However, fundamentalist strains of Christianity
Christianity
Christianity is a monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus as presented in canonical gospels and other New Testament writings...
, Judaism
Judaism
Judaism ) is the "religion, philosophy, and way of life" of the Jewish people...
and Buddhism
Buddhism
Buddhism is a religion and philosophy encompassing a variety of traditions, beliefs and practices, largely based on teachings attributed to Siddhartha Gautama, commonly known as the Buddha . The Buddha lived and taught in the northeastern Indian subcontinent some time between the 6th and 4th...
also have been described as practicing "gender apartheid."
South African apartheid
The word "apartheid" - for "apart" - originated in South Africa under racial apartheid. Among other things, the government forbade African women from living with their husbands who worked in the mines, which Ali MazruiAli Mazrui
Ali Al'amin Mazrui is an academic and political writer on African and Islamic studies and North-South relations. He is an Albert Schweitzer Professor in the Humanities and the Director of the Institute of Global Cultural Studies at Binghamton University in Binghamton, New York.-Education:Mazrui...
describes as "gender apartheid." Some human rights advocates have argued for sanctions against states practicing gender apartheid, similar to those imposed on South Africa under apartheid.
Gender segregation in Islam
Women's rights activist Mahnaz AfkhamiMahnaz Afkhami
Mahnaz Afkhami , is Founder and President of Women's Learning Partnership . She is also the Executive Director of Foundation for Iranian Studies and former Minister of Women's Affairs of Iran...
writes that the fundamentalist world view “singles out women’s status and her relations to society as the supreme test of the authenticity of the Islamic order.” This is symbolized by the institutions of Purdah
Purdah
Purdah or pardeh is the practice of concealing women from men. According to one definition:This takes two forms: physical segregation of the sexes, and the requirement for women to cover their bodies and conceal their form....
(physical separation of the sexes) and Awrah
Awrah
Awrah or Awrat is a term used within Islam which denotes the intimate parts of the body, for both men and women, which must be covered with clothing. Exposing the awrah is unlawful in Islam and is regarded as sin...
(concealing the body with clothing). As in much of the world, institutions suppressing women were becoming less powerful until the resurgence of Islamic fundamentalism at the end of the 20th century. Walid Phares
Walid Phares
Walid Phares an American scholar of Lebanese origins, he is a professor and commentator on global terrorism and Middle Eastern affairs.Phares has testified before committees of the U.S. State, Justice, Defense and Homeland Security Departments, the United States Congress, the European Parliament,...
writes that Marxism
Marxism
Marxism is an economic and sociopolitical worldview and method of socioeconomic inquiry that centers upon a materialist interpretation of history, a dialectical view of social change, and an analysis and critique of the development of capitalism. Marxism was pioneered in the early to mid 19th...
in the Soviet Union
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
nations and China
China
Chinese civilization may refer to:* China for more general discussion of the country.* Chinese culture* Greater China, the transnational community of ethnic Chinese.* History of China* Sinosphere, the area historically affected by Chinese culture...
and "secular anticlericalism" in Turkey
Turkey
Turkey , known officially as the Republic of Turkey , is a Eurasian country located in Western Asia and in East Thrace in Southeastern Europe...
forced women to "integrate themselves into an antireligious society" resulting in a backlash of "gender apartheid" by Islamic fundamentalists. He notes that other religions also have "witnessed similar historical struggles." Phyllis Chesler
Phyllis Chesler
Phyllis Chesler is an American writer, psychotherapist, and professor emerita of psychology and women's studies at the College of Staten Island...
describes Islamic gender apartheid as being "characterized by normalized daughter- and wife-battering, forced veiling, female genital mutilation, polygamy, purdah, (the segregation or sequestration of women), arranged marriage, child marriage, first cousin marriage" and punishment for not complying with these. Several Muslim nations have been criticized for practicing "gender apartheid":
Afghanistan
Afghanistan
Afghanistan , officially the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, is a landlocked country located in the centre of Asia, forming South Asia, Central Asia and the Middle East. With a population of about 29 million, it has an area of , making it the 42nd most populous and 41st largest nation in the world...
, under Taliban religious leadership, has been characterized by feminist
Feminism
Feminism is a collection of movements aimed at defining, establishing, and defending equal political, economic, and social rights and equal opportunities for women. Its concepts overlap with those of women's rights...
groups and others as a "gender apartheid" system where women are segregated from men in public and do not enjoy legal equality or equal access to employment or education. The Feminist Majority Foundation
Feminist Majority Foundation
The Feminist Majority Foundation is a non-profit organization in the United States dedicated to Women's Equality, Reproductive Health and Non-Violence, headquartered in Arlington County, Virginia. The name Feminist Majority comes from a 1986 Newsweek/Gallup public opinion poll in which 56 percent...
launched a "Campaign for Afghan Women & Girls" denouncing gender apartheid. According to the Women's Human Rights Resource Programme of the University of Toronto
University of Toronto
The University of Toronto is a public research university in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, situated on the grounds that surround Queen's Park. It was founded by royal charter in 1827 as King's College, the first institution of higher learning in Upper Canada...
Bora Laskin
Bora Laskin
Bora Laskin, PC, CC, FRSC was a Canadian jurist, who served on the Supreme Court of Canada for fourteen years, including a decade as its Chief Justice.-Early life:...
Law Library "Throughout the duration of Taliban rule in Afghanistan, the term "Gender Apartheid" was used by a number of women's rights advocates to convey the message that the rights violations experience by Afghan women were in substance no different than those experienced by blacks in Apartheid South Africa."
In 2006 Marina Mahathir, the daughter of Malaysia's former Prime Minister, and a campaigner for women's rights, described the status of Muslim
Muslim
A Muslim, also spelled Moslem, is an adherent of Islam, a monotheistic, Abrahamic religion based on the Quran, which Muslims consider the verbatim word of God as revealed to prophet Muhammad. "Muslim" is the Arabic term for "submitter" .Muslims believe that God is one and incomparable...
women in Malaysia as similar to that of Black South Africans under apartheid. She stated "In our country, there is an insidious growing form of apartheid among Malaysian women, that between Muslim and non-Muslim women." The Malaysian Muslim Professionals Forum criticized her comments stating "Her prejudiced views and assumptions smack of ignorance of the objectives and methodology of the Sharia, and a slavish capitulation to western feminism's notions of women's rights, gender equality and sexuality." Dr Harlina Halizah Siraj, women's chief of the reform group Jamaah Islah Malaysia
Jamaah Islah Malaysia
-Establishment:Pertubuhan Jamaah Islah Malaysia is an NGO in Malaysia. The organisation was officially registered on Friday July 27, 1990 when its registration was accepted by The Registrar of Society, Malaysia...
said "Women in Malaysia are given unlimited opportunities to obtain high education level, we are free to choose our profession and career besides enjoying high standard of living with our families."
Saudi Arabia
Saudi Arabia
The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia , commonly known in British English as Saudi Arabia and in Arabic as as-Sa‘ūdiyyah , is the largest state in Western Asia by land area, constituting the bulk of the Arabian Peninsula, and the second-largest in the Arab World...
's practices with respect women have been referred to as "gender apartheid". Women’s rights activist Wajiha Al-Huwaidar describes Saudi Arabia as the ‘gender apartheid kingdom.’ Azar Majedi, of the Centre for Women and Socialism, attributes sexual apartheid in Saudi Arabia to political Islam: "Women are the first victims of political Islam and Islamic terrorist gangs. Sexual apartheid, stoning, compulsory Islamic veil and covering and stripping women of all rights are the fruits of this reactionary and fascistic movement." According to The Guardian
The Guardian
The Guardian, formerly known as The Manchester Guardian , is a British national daily newspaper in the Berliner format...
, "[i]n the kingdom of Saudi Arabia, sexual apartheid rules": "The kingdom's sexual apartheid is enforced, in a crude fashion, by the religious police, the mutawa. Thuggish, bigoted and with little real training in Islamic law, they are much feared in some areas but also increasingly ridiculed. In Jeddah
Jeddah
Jeddah, Jiddah, Jidda, or Jedda is a city located on the coast of the Red Sea and is the major urban center of western Saudi Arabia. It is the largest city in Makkah Province, the largest sea port on the Red Sea, and the second largest city in Saudi Arabia after the capital city, Riyadh. The...
- a more laid-back city than Riyadh
Riyadh
Riyadh is the capital and largest city of Saudi Arabia. It is also the capital of Riyadh Province, and belongs to the historical regions of Najd and Al-Yamama. It is situated in the center of the Arabian Peninsula on a large plateau, and is home to 5,254,560 people, and the urban center of a...
- they are rarely seen nowadays.
Christian churches
The terms gender apartheid and sexual apartheid have also been used to describe differential treatment of women in institutions such as the Church of EnglandChurch of England
The Church of England is the officially established Christian church in England and the Mother Church of the worldwide Anglican Communion. The church considers itself within the tradition of Western Christianity and dates its formal establishment principally to the mission to England by St...
or the Roman Catholic Church
Roman Catholic Church
The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the world's largest Christian church, with over a billion members. Led by the Pope, it defines its mission as spreading the gospel of Jesus Christ, administering the sacraments and exercising charity...
. See, for example, Patricia Budd Kepler in her 1978 Theology Today article "Women Clergy and the Cultural Order". Courtney W. Howland describes the patriarchal family structure of evangelical Christian churches in America as maintaining gender apartheid.
Other uses
Nora EphronNora Ephron
Nora Ephron is an American film director, producer, screenwriter, novelist, playwright, journalist, author, and blogger.She is best known for her romantic comedies and is a triple nominee for the Academy Award for Writing Original Screenplay; for Silkwood, When Harry Met Sally... and Sleepless in...
, who worked as a journalist in Japan, described it as a "society of 'gender apartheid.'" Peter Gran writes that the treatment of prostitutes in many societies is gender apartheid upheld by the state. Attorney Gloria Allred
Gloria Allred
Gloria Rachel Allred is an American lawyer noted for taking high-profile and often controversial cases, particulary those involving the protection of women's rights.-Early life:...
called the Boy Scouts of America refusal to admit girls "gender apartheid."
External links
- Against Sexual Apartheid in Iran Interview with Azar MajediAzar MajediAzar Majedi is an Iranian communist activist, Chairperson of Organization for Women's Liberation and one of the leaders of the Worker-Communist Party of Iran.-External links:* * * * Interview with Azar Majedi...
of Workers Communist Party of Iran