• Addressing discrimination - by  Amneh Badran

• Democratization of the Muslim world through women - by  Merve Kavakci

• We have to struggle to have a voice - an interview with  Nasreen Mustafa Sideek

Give peace a chance: women speak out
by Shulamit Aloni

At times of popular insurrection, revolt, revolution, war of liberation or existential war, even in conservative societies--male societies where women have no voice and no presence and are invisible--here too women participate in the struggle.

For the most part they are delegated to take care of services, maintaining the family, the community, education and hygiene. But there are always intelligent women, leaders, beginning with the Prophetess Deborah or the Prophetess Hulda, who penetrate the leadership and whose voices are heard.

Shulamit Aloni is the founder of the Movement for Human Rights and Peace in Israel and was chair of the Meretz Party from its founding until 1996. She was minister of education and culture in the Rabin government.

BI: What are the unique qualities that women can bring to the political realm?

Badran: I think what we try to do is to add new elements to the political discourse. These elements include respect for human rights, policies that achieve social justice, and equality. This, in particular, is very important when it comes to Palestine, because Palestinians have been affected by decades of racist discrimination. In order to reach a settlement between two equals, you have to address the issue of discrimination.

Women are usually those who suffer most in war and conflict, and are also usually those ignored and neglected in the process of peacemaking, even though they have to live the consequences of an agreement. We are very much conscious of human rights and the public's participation in the process, while the process is ongoing. This means that civil society, including women's groups, must have a say in the type of agreement and settlement that comes to pass. The settlement that is reached should reflect the needs of the majority and civil society on both sides.

This is what makes a feminist approach different from the male approach, which is based mainly on power politics and territorial concessions. We want to promote a model of political dialogue that is as transparent as possible, aware of the asymmetry of power between occupier and occupied, aware of the need for confidence building, and ready to be a courageous voice when everyone else is hesitant.

BI: Where has this worked in your dialogue with Bat Shalom, your Israeli partners?

Badran: The fact that we have survived from 1994 until today is a success, because this means that political dialogue has brought us to the minimum foundation of confidence and commitment towards a joint venture for peace.

We were courageous enough to raise the slogan of "Sharing Jerusalem" in 1997. Everyone blamed us and accused us of being politically naïve. Now the majority talks about sharing Jerusalem, with East Jerusalem a capital for Palestine and West Jerusalem a capital for Israel. We didn't go into detail, and we still believe that there are the issues of refugees and of Palestinian property to be solved, but we set the principle at a time when Jerusalem was a taboo.

BI: But you had trouble getting to that point. How did you build that consensus?

Badran: We were fighting from within, but intensive political dialogue brought us to that position. Most people discussed such matters in Europe and the United States in second-track diplomacy programs, but we were the ones who gave it to the grassroots and addressed it locally. Women on our board belong to both the grassroots and political elite.

The other thing that we have managed to produce is that we know the end result [of negotiations]. We know that what we want is a two state solution, and a Palestinian state on the land of 1967. We talk about sharing Jerusalem and that East Jerusalem is part of the occupied territories, about dismantling settlements and having a just resolution to the question of refugees according to the related UN resolutions.

The political establishment of Israel is not going to profess the end result; it wants to maneuver during the process. What we [Palestinians] will get is some kind of dwarf. This is the process that the Palestinians have been trapped in by accepting to negotiate something where the end result is unclear.

BI: It must have taken a long time to build the kind of trust that you have with your Israeli partners.

Badran: I am not saying that we have complete trust. But we have the minimum trust to keep us moving forward. We are only hundreds. But to have hundreds in times like these seems like an achievement. Peace Now [a group on the Israeli left], has managed to do one demonstration over the last three years. We do a weekly demonstration, a vigil in front of the Old City's New Gate--on the armistice line.

Where are we going? I don't know. I know that we are headed for worse times. With the establishment of the apartheid wall, what we might witness is a unilateral settlement by Israel and this could persist for many decades to come. We will be within an apartheid system in the state of Israel, but within the occupied territories.

BI: If you had to write a progress report for Palestinian women after three years of Intifada, what would it say?

Badran: The situation of all Palestinians has gotten worse and the role of Palestinian women in this Intifada is limited. It is limited because this was the natural product of eight years of the Oslo agreements where political parties and grassroots organizations were weakened. Nongovernmental organizations [NGOs] were established and the Palestinian grassroots organizations were depoliticized into the form of NGOs.

This is one aspect. The other is the kind of leadership, which hasn't been gender sensitive and which hasn't brought women into the circles of decision-making. But women were not alone in this--all of civil society was cut out of the process. What we have seen is a process of decision-making that has been limited to a group of men, a group of men who are of like minds. Also, the form of the Intifada has hindered women from participating.

But I don't want to give the impression that women are not involved. There are many things that women do for which they are not recognized. I think that without Palestinian women as its backbone, Palestinian society would have collapsed long ago.

BI: US Senator George Mitchell once said that the Palestinian-Israeli conflict will end when Palestinian and Israeli women go to the streets and demand an end, as they did in Northern Ireland.

Badran: I don't mind demonstrating with Israeli women to ask for a just peace. But I wonder when the majority of Israeli women will be ready for justice, and when the Israeli community will be ready to see Palestinians as equals, as humans that have equal rights. I think this is the bottom line; if you see the other as human, you won't agree to occupy them.-Published 4/9/03©bitterlemons-international.org

Amneh Badran is director of the Jerusalem Center for Women, co-partner in the Jerusalem Link, a political umbrella also encompassing the Israeli women's organization Bat Shalom.

Global peace proponents are striving for a stable Middle East and democratic Islamic world. This urgency to democratize the region has emerged--conventional wisdom says--in the aftermath of the notorious attacks of 2024. Nevertheless, the democracy rhetoric is not new. It has long been voiced by political pundits in both the western and Muslim worlds, but has not always been bolstered by the political pressure necessary to produce democratic state building.

Taking exception with those intellectuals who proclaim that the Muslim world suffers from hatred of democracy and freedom, which are values promoted by the West and the United States in particular, many others believe that the real problem stems from the lack, rather than the hatred, of democracy and rule of law in the region. For in this part of the world (and perhaps not so easily discerned from the western hemisphere) peoples are challenged by systems that squelch and inhibit democratic values rather than inspire and promote them. While the peoples of Muslim countries are encouraged by the West to strive for the democratization of their societies on the one hand, on the other they remain stymied due to the lack of democratic mechanisms in the state machinery. Caught in between, demurring to their quasi-democratic regimes and the injustices they carry out, these peoples are too often dubbed opponents of democracy and freedom.

True democratization means the tackling of a vast number of issues in the continuum of human rights and freedom. Empowering women in the public sphere of the Muslim world and ameliorating the plight of "half" of the population through democratic values would certainly hasten democratization, if the tool is wielded wisely. Conversely, overlooking the difficulties germane to Muslim women that lie along the path of democratization, or espousing methodologies that are "foreign" to these more or less Islamic societies will only stall the process.

The undisputable evidence of infringements of women's basic rights, i.e. the lack of civic participation by women in the Muslim world, legitimately raises the question of religion's role. But in opposition to the preponderance of views that target Islam as the main source of women's lack of emancipation, I find the crux of the matter to be cultural values rooted in times as ancient as the pre-Islamic period, and intertwined with various misinterpretations of Islam in our feudalistic, male-dominated societies.

If Islamic teachings were to be interpreted without aberrations, I believe that they might be used as a means for "democratizing the minds" of peoples, acquainting them with democratic ideas and notions that would inevitably bring about the liberation of Muslim women and the expansion of the public space they occupy. Returning to original Muslim sources and exposing the truths pertinent to the civic and political participation of women in early Islamic history, such as the lives of Khadijah (may Allah be pleased with her) the beloved wife of the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) and a prominent trader of her time, and Zaynab (may Allah be pleased with her), who held the esteemed position of inspector of the social and political life of the souq, would establish Islam's clear position on the matter of women's role. Implicating Islam itself and predicating the process on Islamic values would not only dissolve the pervasive perception in the region of a meddlesome and intrusive West, thereby decreasing public resistance, but also facilitate the creation of an environment "within" that is conducive to accepting Islam's coexistence with democratic principles of government.

Such an approach would also benefit all Muslim nations by helping them to rectify common misconceptions concerning the plight of women in the public sphere, a plight that is rooted not in Islam, but in the dominant social and political culture. In this way, we can engender "Islamic" and yet "democratic" societies.-Published 4/9/03©bitterlemons-international.org

Merve Kavakci is a Turkish parliamentarian who was prevented from taking the oath of office and stripped of her citizenship after she refused to remove her Muslim headdress. She was recently a fellow at Harvard's Kennedy School of Government.

BI: What political role have women traditionally taken in your society?

Sideek: Iraq as a country has not settled since it was reconstructed after World War I. The significant instability continues today. Iraq in the sixties was much more socially, culturally and intellectually advanced than it is now. After the ousted regime came to power, things deteriorated even more. In the last 30 years, the role of women in Iraqi society under the former regime was abused. Women were used; even when they were put in a political position or given a venue to represent Iraqi women, they were very influenced by the former regime.

Iraqi Kurdistan has developed differently since it was separated from the rest of the country after the second Gulf War in 1991. An environment was created and protected by the international community that offered the opportunity for women to play a political role. In Kurdish society, women played a role in the resistance in opposing the regime and in the fight for democracy. We see that women are playing an active role in the parliament, in the government, in the academic sector, in civil society, in non-governmental organizations--and they are trying to affect policies.

But what exists is very minimal. Representation is still at three percent. We just need the political stability and personal security to be maintained.

BI: The experience of some women (in Palestine and Algeria, for example) has been that they play a very significant role in the national movement, but when the government takes shape, their role becomes diminished. You seem to be saying that you think Iraq could be different.

Sideek: I think that there is an opportunity. Obviously, we have to struggle to have a voice, to be represented. It won't be given to us on a plate, but there is enough awareness within Iraqi political parties, the Coalition Provisional Authority and the US that women should play a greater role. There is also bottom-up pressure from women's groups and organizations in Iraq that they need to be more represented.

BI: How does religion fit into this process?

Sideek: Iraq is a conservative traditional society, but it has always been a secular society. There is enough pressure within the society because of its multi-ethnicity and multi-religious nature not to allow religion to control the constitution. Having said that, after the fall of the regime, there are movements of a religious nature that are becoming active in the new Iraq. There are hundreds of political parties that are being formed and they each have their own political agenda. How much religion will affect the future will be an Iraqi issue.

Kurds have always called for a secular system of government and the separation of religion and state. The struggle for writing the new constitution for Iraq will be a significant one to maintain secularism, but how we can really protect the society from developing an extreme method of religion--that is something we all need to work for. Extremism is an attractive solution nowadays with the lack of stability and lack of personal security. We need to invest as soon as possible in the development of the political structure of Iraq, developing a secular constitution and investing in economic development because that will protect the society.

BI: Do you feel that you do things differently than your male counterparts?

Sideek: Because I am in charge of a very technical ministry, I deal with things in a really professional manner. Having said that, because my work involves public service delivery--water, education, roads--creating sustainable settlements for communities to move from dependency to self-sufficiency, I cannot avoid thinking of women and children and how my work affects the family as an institution. And as a woman, I do have a level of sensitivity towards women's needs. The impact on the female staff [is that] I encourage them as a byproduct of my current position. And of course, there is the overall example I set for the society.

BI: Are you in touch with and engaged in political discussion with women in other Middle Eastern communities?

Sideek: Unfortunately, because of the isolation of the country (which we still suffer from), I have not developed very deep relationships. I think that women have a lot to learn from each other. But in the few international venues that I have attended, it seems that women across the globe all suffer from the same problems. They all have to struggle to be heard and to make an impact. It is not an easy job and is still met with resistance, even in the most advanced communities. I think that the best thing that we can do is to support each other.

BI: It seems that the US is trying to transform the region, and certainly women's rights is one of these aspects. Do you think that this external role is valuable?

Sideek: The transformation of Iraq cannot happen if it doesn't involve the transformation of the society and the way that it looks at its members--women, men and youth. The transformation of Iraq can only be successful if we transform as a people, and that involves the way that society looks at the role of women.

Women in Iraq today represent more than 55 percent of the population. The level of education is high and the level of political and social awareness is very high. You cannot move on while ignoring 55 percent of society, especially because women have been the victims over the last 30 years. They were the ones who were used and abused and suffered from the loss of their husbands and brothers and fathers in war and executions.

How can we develop a constitution that protects women in all aspects? One idea is to have women's issues represented across sectors, or there is another proposal to have a special ministry for women. I would go with both; one does not exclude the other. Having a ministry for women could highlight the issues, but that is not enough. We have to have sensitivity to women across the sectors, and each should have a working group to deal with women's issues in detail.

BI: Are you hopeful about the future or are you worried about the coming period?

Sideek: We have to keep up hope. The moment that we saw the fall of the Baath regime was a moment of hope and allowed us to dream of a better and brighter future.

Since then, the continued destructive and terrorist acts worry us. But having come from an ethnic group that witnessed the worst that any dictatorship could do to its people, starting from displacing half a million people, destroying 90 percent of the infrastructure in the Kurdish region, taking away more than 200,000 men and killing them, I think that things will become better as long as we have removed the Baath regime.

However, it is very challenging to reconstruct a new Iraq with all the complexity of Iraqi society. There is a healing process that needs to take place among the different groups in society that were divided by the former regime. We should not leave [reconstruction] only to the Americans and the Brits. I would hope that neighboring regional powers could play a positive role. There is great advantage to regional integration. We are working together for the same goal: to fight terrorism, to build a just and fair society and to bring about social and economic development. Only through this can we fight lack of knowledge and lack of democracy in the Middle East area.-Published 4/9/03©bitterlemons-international.org

Nasreen Mustafa Sideek, Iraq's minister of public works, was the sole woman appointed to the new Iraqi government. A political prisoner of the Iraqi Baath regime at the age of 14, Sideek was interviewed by bitterlemons-international in her previous capacity as minister of reconstruction and development in the Kurdistan Regional Government.