MIDDLE EAST
N THIS REALITY, a women's world is limited to the four walls of her home, she cannot go out unless accompanied by a family member or covered by the chador or the veil. Her world is made up of forced marriages, of "crimes of honor" and other current practices preserved by families, codified in law, reproduced by social institutions and defended by all — whether in the name of religion, or that of protecting the family. The persistence of such antiquated beliefs over the centuries is a result of the deformed and backward development of our which creates a situation where the most sophisticated forms of progress coexist with the most backward social
It is clear that the religious factor is a sizeable obstacle to the liberation of Arab women. But what has allowed this ideology to persist in spite of the social upheavals which have taken place in the centuries between Islam's emergence and
Pointing to Islam as the only factor capable of explaining the situation of Arab women today would be a very partial and dangerous evaluation. One might think that the entry of these societies' into the framework of capitalist production would mean the beginning of the end of old family relationships and the breakdown of the traditional concepts found in pre-capitalist
But women in these societies were not able to leave the tribal framework for one that was more adapted to the needs of the capitalist market — as occurred in the West — precisely because these new relationships of production were introduced from outside and did not, in fact, involve a transformation of existing social relations as a whole. Capitalist development in the region was deformed, and it had a contradictory impact on the socio-economic structure. It was in the local bourgeoisie's interests to preserve pre-capitalist structures and, in particular, the religious superstructure. Islam serves, in effect, regulating force for this dependent bourgeoisie, and a safety valve for the potential explosions of discontent due to the workpoverty and misery.
Chasm between rural and urban areas
The region's integration into the world capitalist market had contradictory effects on the situation of women. New economic relations permitted them to escape some aspects of their oppression, but at the same time, strengthened and exploited traditional attitudes towards women.
However, the changes that affected Arab society with the introduction of capitalism did not have a single homogeneous effect on all parts of it, because they were linked 14 to the needs of the local market, and its needs were linked to those of imperialism. International Viewpoint #158 • March 6, 1989
It is clear, for example, that the situation of women in the Gulf states is very different from that in the majority of Arab countries. This is due to the enormous weight of the still dominant pre-capitalist tribal structure, in spite of today's modernization as a result of the oil revenues.
There are also differences within each itself, in particular that of the chasm opened up between rural and urban
Pre-capitalist economic relations persist in the countryside, but the cities have grown enormously, and peasants are not able to compete with capitalist production and its sophisticated methods. Families have been forced to emigrate to the towns, and this exodus has had contradictory effects on women.
Role of the family in Arab societies
On the one hand, their situation is improved because they have the possibility of getting an education, finding a job, having relative economic independence and breaking out of their isolation. But they find themselves in contradiction with the traditional vision of women's role in society. On the other hand, market requirements impose a new exploitation on them as women, in addition to their domestic
The family plays an irreplaceable role in the structure of our Arab societies, all the more so as there is still production in the countryside - wage relations are not firmly in place there, and the family has therefore not disappeared as a unit of production. It can continue to exercise power over women, who, despite having won a measure of economic independence, hesitate to break with the family circle because of the pressure of social, historical and religious traditions.
Women's status must be viewed differently depending upon their class. Bourgeois women are privileged: they are educated, have greater freedom, and are involved with a much more extended network of people. This is due to the weaker influence of religion and traditional values and to the influence of Western culture. In the "lower" classes, where illiteracy and misery are the common denominator, religion and traditional values are a refuge from the bleakness and even the hostility
Women are also denied their political rights — even today in some of our countries women do not have the right to vote, and in the rest of the countries there are virtually no women in the leaderships of political movements, even nationalist or progressive ones.
Women's virginity is still considered as a concern of the whole family, and "crimes of honour" frequently take place. As the law does not consider these crimes in the ordinary sense, they are punished very lightly. A man who kills his sister or
Women i
WOMEN in the Arab count oppression that are among tr seen as inferior from birth. Th these chains have come up and in order to attain what is under unrelenting social, mat
LINA out the consent of her family, will, in Arab countries with the most advanced legal systems, get no more than three months in prison, and some countries refuse to view this as a crime at
Polygamy is a tradition which is still solidly entrenched, and its current decline is probably more due to the economic difficulty of keeping two or more women. Apart from the Personal Laws in Tunisia and Somalia, the other Arab codes of law all permit it and consider it to be part of
Women have no say at all in terms of marriage or divorce. Marriage — as defined by the Islamic sharia and the Personal Laws in some Arab countries - is
March 6, 1989 • #158 International Viewpoint the Arab
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suffer discrimination and rst in the world. Women are who have attempted to break ist their friends and family, le's birthright, they must live and psychological pressure.
contracted in the presence of two partners, but in reality it requires the agreement of the man and the guardian of the woman, who has only a formal presence. Women are always considered minors under the guardianship of other male family
Dowry is a necessary condition of marriage, since the family is a whole economic unit, and the loss of one of its members deprives it of income. Its continuation today, in spite of the decline of traditional values, reveals the persistence of some of the worst tribal customs in these societies.
The mention of dowry in the marriage contract shows its mercenary nature, the woman being nothing but merchandise.
Women do not have the right to divorce and are at the mercy of their husbands.
According to Sunni law, all a man has to do is repeat "I divorce you" and she is divorced. She is suddenly confronted with a new world where she will always be "guilty" of having been divorced. She is faced with the society's contempt for divorced women, exploitation in her workplace, and the fatigue of trying to take care of her children - if she has been allowed to keep them.
The above is only a brief look at some of the aspects of women's oppression in Arab countries. Missing from the list are such daily occurrences as insulting looks and hostile jokes in the streets, rapes, murders and the mental illnesses caused.
### Religion guarantees stability of regimes
With very few exceptions, civil law in this region does not deal with laws concerning personal status. In the majority of Arab countries this area of legislation is left to the religious institutions.
The separation of religion and state is a taboo subject for the region's governments. It could not be otherwise, given that it is religion that guarantees the stability of these regimes. The introduction of a Code of Personal Law by the Algerian government is a case in point: "This law is based on the Koran and public opinion... it is intended to be a response to the needs of development and the Arab-Islamic tradition." The law's Islamic and Koranic inspiration destroys any even vague hope of ameliorating women's status and
Countries like Syria, Iraq, Morocco and Tunisia have instituted similar Codes of Personal Law that are not opposed to the Islamic sharia — women do not have the right to decide about their marriages, a guardian is required, divorce is only a man's right, and where a woman can ask for one, she must present justifications and
Tunisia is a special case. Its reformist Code, promulgated in 1956, proclaims men and women equal in theory and does in fact give women rights like abortion and the availability of contraceptives without women needing the authorization of their husbands. The Code is favorable to women in that it abolished polygamy, and marriage and divorce can be contracted by the woman herself.
But women are still legally minors: an unmarried woman is the legal responsibility of her father until she is wed (Article 46), whereas a boy is responsible for himself once he is sixteen. Moreover, the Code continues to sanction the obligatory dowry, and forbids women to marry non-
These, along with other practices. mean that a Tunisian woman, whether married or divorced, is kept in an inferior position, considered as non-productive, incapable of providing for her own needs or of deciding
MIDDLE EAST
Lebanon is the only Arab country not to have a single Code of Personal Law. There are seventeen recognized religions, and each community applies its own laws in terms of marriage, divorce and inheritance. The fact that Personal Laws are thus left to community leaders and imams is but one aspect of the confessional structure of
The recognition of these communities first appears in Law 60 under the French mandate in 1936. This legislation ceded prerogatives over laws concerning personal status to the leading religious bodies. Beyond the differences in each religion, the Codes of Personal Law bore certain resemblances to each other, particularly in
As far as marriage is concerned, the Family Code backs up the religious laws of Christians and Muslims since these say that women owe their husbands obedience. Divorce is only attainable, according to the Islamic sharia, on the demand of the man, and even without the woman's consent. According to the Sunnis, a man can divorce his wife without recourse to the law, whereas for the Shi'ites, a woman can demand divorce if it was part of the marriage contract provisions. But it is rare for a woman to invoke this once married.
For Christians, divorce is authorized (except for Catholics) at the demand of one of the spouses, but its use remains very limited. As for inheritance, if the 1959 law decrees men and women equal, this does not penetrate the Muslim community, where the Islamic sharia states that "one man is worth two women." From these examples it is obvious that, whatever their faith, Lebanese women experience an oppression very similar to that of their Arab sisters in Demand for a secular state is vital for women
The demand for a secular state is vital for Arab women. The bourgeois feminist movements which have arisen here have not taken a direct and radical approach to this problem, and the tone of their demands has remained timid and hardly worried the religious and political powers that
Worse still, the Arab Communist parties, which were established throughout the region and sometimes had a mass audience, showed no interest in the question at all. As a result of their reformism and religious opportunism, they did not dare raise the slightest democratic program containing, for backward countries like ours, a demand for secularism. 1. The sharia is the religious law comprising the whole of the obligations that derive from Koran and the Sunna (the tradition of the prophet's teachings). It embrac-
C i aspects of the individual and ollective life of 15
Muslims.