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One man's patriarchy is another man's inconvenience: Muslim women have a proud tradition of activism. Why, then, are they so often misrepresented.

Article Excerpt
The shedding of crocodile tears over Muslim women has come to characterise the rhetoric of many feminists, journalists and government departments. The plight of Muslim women has become a paradigm of victimhood. Australian commentary on Muslim women has targeted them, both blaming them for their disadvantage and rendering their resistance to oppression invisible. Thus Pamela Bone in 'Throw off those veils! How can we see eye to eye with people who hide their faces?' (the Age, 25/11/01) implies that Muslim women who cover their faces and eyes are difficult to trust, and a symmetry exists between veiled women in Australia and women living under Taliban rule. Instead of seeing Muslim women as one group among many disadvantaged groups in Australia, Muslim women's identity and their experience have been misrepresented through a conflation of Islam, gendered forms of oppression and veiling.

The situation of Muslim women globally is too complex and contradictory for one critique. In some nations Muslim women experience horrendous forms of violence and oppression, often under the label of Islam. In the name of Islam, nations such as Iran and Saudi Arabia have justified draconian legislation regulating almost every aspect of women's lives: everything from dress code to personal conduct is considered the domain of the State and nonconformity is punished as a crime against the State. Without denying the inequities women face, the position of women in some Muslim countries is complicated by some unexpected facts. In neighboring Muslim nations women occupy positions of power in significant social and political institutions. Women in Syria and Tunisia, for example, hold 10.4 per cent and 11.5 per cent respectively of seats in parliament, comparable to both the United States at 12 per cent and France at 11.8 per cent. In Tunisia, 24 per cent of magistrates are women. Moreover, there are other promising gains. Tunisia's penal code now defines domestic violence as aggravated assault and carries a heavier penalty than assaults between individuals with non-familial relations. As part of Syria's efforts to move women into the labor force, maternity leave and national childcare are provided by the State. Since 2000, Egyptian courts have struck down statutes that prohibit a woman from travelling without...

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