Background Of Oppression In Feminism

Background of oppression in feminism

Introduction

To understand feminism now imposed in Tunisia we have to go back to the nucleus of the political development of the Maghreb (word that defines the most western part of the Middle East) is linked, on the one hand, a tribal origin, based on the role of the family groupas the core of power, to a transnational background, that is to say of the State, built on the Islamic religion. From the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, a conflict between the local realities that preserve the traditions and the attempt of the State to reinvent and transform the nation to a western model in order to obtain a stronger and stronger power to obtain a stronger and centralized power to obtain a stronger and centralized power.

Developing

These tensions served as a basis to consolidate an interpretation of Islam according to which women had to stay away from all the most critical sectors of active consolidated society. The idea of gender equality (although supported as by some Islamic currents) was considered unorthodox and occupied a background for centuries, giving way to other interpretations rooted in the patriarchal model. In the Islamic world, the sacred and the profane, the public and the private often join: the law that regulates social life is a prominent component of religion and vice versa. 

The indisputable supremacy of men crystallizes in an absolute and infallible dogma that describes the conception of society, justice and the correct relationship between sexes.

Such dominant male order has been specifically reflected in unequal legal norms, hegemonic political speeches and in the strict clue of the role of women. The concept of "unifying structural cohesion" or "effective kinship" effectively describes this type of social relationship, since all economic and political roles converge with the patriarchal line.

It was within this family context that the role of women and their subordination was predominantly formed. Marriage, for example, was considered a private contract between two families where the consent of women did not constitute an indispensable requirement, the principle of unity associated with the patriarchal line was legally protected and secured by tribal and family institutions, also throughof a clear social division of roles and action spaces. "Men and angels work for unity," says a Tunisian proverb, "women and the demon for division". 

What is defined as a "logic of the enclosure" (made up of the physical and symbolic division of the spaces reserved for women, as well as by the veil) takes legal substance in the isolation of the women of the succession dynamics. The consecrated separation to which the woman was inevitably subjected caused a form of social insecurity and symbolic alienation in which the institution of domination could physically mold bodies and spaces, in other words, religion and the State go hand inof the other, this was for 200 years.

Supported the social weight in the family and in the religion something that has not marked well for women, with a community that clings to conserve the norms and an indifferent state that wants to perpetuate power in the male sex justifying in a misogynist religion andmacho to take advantage of it. The difficulty of female visibility was obscured, since the woman was encased to a role and identity to gender convenience, marked not only by law, religion and politics by invisible, making changes not only redefine the same law but alsoTo the female gender too.

Western colonialism and feminism. In 1881 – with the treaty of BARD – the French authorities did not dare to adopt a concrete position on the Family Code, since any intervention on the subject would undoubtedly have instantly inflamed the anti -colonial feelings. If the family code and women’s rights were excluded from political discussion, it is undeniable that the strong influence given by settlers to Tunisian civil society has contributed (both by analogy and by antithesis) to determine the subsequent development on thesubject and frame the debate narrative.

Western feminism, which claimed to "free" the Tunisians from their submission, affirmed that Islam was inherently oppressive for women and that, having its foundation in institutions such as veil and segregation, caused the backwardness of society. These inferiority symbols should be removed to allow Tunisians to free themselves from the degradation and oppression of Islam, advancing towards civilization. With a deeply colonialist approach and the male imaginary about women lead to the construction of a conceptual reality that goes through a paternalistic and patriarchal approach.

As well as for a process of "orientation" of the East, based on a contradiction for which the East cannot represent himself and, therefore, must be represented. The overlap of these two forms of symbolic and political violence constitutes the construction of the image of "Third World Woman", the subordination of women to a homogeneous category of oppressed, therefore, there is a double exclusion that relegateswomen both in colonial and patriarchal processes. 

In other words the Third World Woman is the disadvantaged woman to save, in both cases, he is denied the possibility of any form of empowerment, of taking the floor and representing herself. In particular, during the first years of Protectorate, Western feminism was an auxiliary tool of colonialism, so much that it morally justified aggression against local cultures, as well as the idea of the superiority of society, European politics and religion. To encourage and promote an imaginary paradoxically patriarchal of the Tunisians, so oppressed as to save them. 

The people advanced instead towards a strongly interconnected nationalist feminism with the traditional and religious background, promoting a specific female subjectivity in terms of a broader social, cultural and religious renewal, for example, the rejection of the veil, although it was strongly promoted by theWestern, soon assumed autonomous tones, meanings and deeply local objectives. So you can say that, with the end of colonialism, but with the influence that the West leaves, you can reach the end of paternalism and the arrival of feminism? Unfortunately not.

With the exit of colonialism came new paternalistic voices that, although they led Tunisia to rethink the legal status of women, but without really exceeding the deep contradictions associated with persistent social and religious prejudices. But how feminism can subsist in a country where dogma and state go hand in. State feminism really feminism?

The woman represented a key element within the legal system to lead the entire country to modernity, Bourguiba (president of Tunisia, but at that time candidate), aware of the role of amendments to the Family Code in the formation of the State, madeThe emancipation of women in the nucleus of their own political propaganda (hypocritically speaking), always emphasizing their coherence with religious principles. The marriage was reformed, the polygamy was abolished and the figure of the "marriage guardian".

(The male representative who could replace the wife during the stipulated in the contract), the divorce procedure was subject to the judgment of a court and the responsibility of the spouses turned towards more equitable terms. On the other hand, the least significant changes referred to the right of inheritance, independence, such as the Society of Muslim women, the Muslim Union of Tunisian Women – predominantly active within a religious framework also due to strategic considerations -, the Women’s Unionand the union of Tunisian women. 

However, none of these movements participated or took into account for the reform of the code, almost denying the existence of this type of social mobilization, while a limited interest in the effective implementation of equality at the social level was shown. In addition, also within the code a high degree of inequality persisted: its norms were "protective", aimed at reducing discrimination without being egalitarian. The women were taken as symbols of the nation, but only men were called to represent the State and be their active citizens. 

The price to be paid for anyone who would seek to carry out independent battles for women’s rights was extremely high, and such movements were often subject to strong forms of oppression. For this reason, many feminist agreed to limit the self-determination of their battles adhering to state feminism, trying to continue working easier. The National Union of Tunisian Women (UNFT) consolidated the official rupture discourse with tradition.

conclusion

The support provided by the feminism of the State to Bourguiba’s struggle against the use of Hiyab and Safseri – prohibited in schools – is emblematic: the same year when women obtained the right to vote, acting within a series of ambiguitiesAnd concessions, Bourguiba broke with the religious tradition while maintaining respect for the patriarchal norm. It was never proposed to question the superiority of man, nor the traditionally structured family.