We’ve all heard the story before: those Arab dictators may be mad with power, but at least they end up treating women better than Islamists do. The Arab world is sorted into states that are good-to-women and bad-to-women, with countries from Morocco to Qatar getting a pass for their supposed progressivism when it comes to feminist issues. In fact, this simplification masks the inequality that persists in these so-called “progressive” states. These authoritarian governments are tricking the world by showing off the few women found within their higher ranks as proof of their liberal stance on women’s issues. But these women are the exception, not the rule.
Take, for example, Bahrain’s Sameera Rajab, minister of state information and official spokesperson. Even as the Bahraini monarchy suppresses an ongoing uprising, it points to Rajab to insist on its inclusiveness and progressivism. Rajab’s position within the Bahraini regime is a standard case of the way states typically embrace feminist causes in the Gulf region. Because of her role in Bahraini government, she defies the dominant perception of Gulf women, which centers on sociopolitical passivity, seclusion, and subjection to patriarchal dominance. At the same time, Rajab’s position as the government’s spokesperson grants her heavy national and international exposure, benefitting her, as well. And, to make this all worse, local and foreign media have done nothing to challenge this convenient narrative.
The Daily Beast recently offered a perfect example of this principle in action by printing an effusive profile of Rajab by columnist Souad Mekhennet. Mekhennet adopts a liberal discourse on state feminism that furthers problematic perceptions of what a “free” Arab woman embodies while disregarding the realities of privilege and power in a country where a monarch reigns absolutely. Seizing upon stereotypical and inadequate measures of liberty, Mekhennet casts Sameera Rajab as an “unveiled” and “Shiite” woman comfortably sitting in Bahrain’s highest echelon. She fixates on Rajab’s “strong voice,” and points out that she wears her hair “uncovered” and chooses not “to wear makeup or high heels.” She latches onto a superficial conception of a “liberated Arab woman” in the same way that similar characteristics are cited to glorify other former and current female state figures in the region, such as Asma al-Assad, Egypt’s former first lady Suzanne Mubarak, Tunisia’s Leila Trabelsi, Queen Rania of Jordan, and Morocco’s Lalla Salma, among others. This is exactly the type of rhetoric the Bahraini regime would love the Western world to hear.
But the true status of women in Bahrain contrasts dramatically with the image Mekhennet and the Bahraini government aim to convey. Thousands of Bahraini women continue to be victims of a state with paralyzing income inequality that has made no real moves to improve their daily reality. Despite the characterization of Bahrain as a wealthy country, privilege and power remain deeply skewed along class lines. The Bahrain Center for Human Rights released a report that exposes the levels of poverty that plague Bahraini society. The report highlights that the income of the 5,200 wealthiest people in Bahrain averages $4.2 million. Meanwhile 200,000 of Bahrainis live in poverty, nearly half of the Bahraini population. Income inequality comes into heavy play in the context of an authoritarian state, such as Bahrain, where access to capital is jealously guarded by those in power.
Women are far from immune to this. According to the Bahrain Center for Human Rights’ report to the United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW), “Women [in Bahrain] have been the victims of power struggles, sectarian differences, mismanagement of the government, and unfair distribution of national wealth and resources.” Moreover, women in Bahrain have been victims of state repression, resulting in injuries and even deaths, such as the death of Bahiya Abdulrasool al-Aradi, who was shot on March 15, 2011 by members of Bahrain’s military as she was driving her car — a crime for which no one was held accountable. This is in addition to the ongoing detainment of women who oppose the regime’s policies, such as Nafeesa al-Asfoor and Zainab al-Khawaja. Al-Khawaja, for example, is serving time for peacefully protesting against the regime on multiple occasions.
Read on: http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2013/10/22/beware_of_the_middle_easts_fake_feminists?page=0,0
