Thread by @karimabennoune

To counter some of the disappointing & predictable responses to heroic #protests in #Iran, incl in #academia, I share my recent essay which calls on academics to avoid undercutting dissident #feminist voices, incl those of #Muslim heritage

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(Long) Thread

Concepts like Orientalism & Islamophobia, originally responding to realities of past & present subordination, are now sometimes used by Western critical intellectuals to discipline those who exercise their equal right to be critical of their own contexts..
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while deeply committed to those contexts..
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3/23

For example, Iranian WHRD @AlinejadMasih, who campaigns against the imposition of hijab in #Iran & who experienced imprisonment & corporal punishment before being forced into exile, recounts that, “in the West I am told that if I share my stories then I will cause Islamophobia.."

@AlinejadMasih continues: "..I am a woman from the Middle East and I am scared of Islamic laws. . . Phobia is an irrational fear but my fear . . is rational, so let us talk.”

Cited in: bit.ly/3yh1JI9

I quote feminists from & descended from the Global South who agree..

#Algerian #feminist Cherifa Kheddar @RedhaLeila argues in the same vein:

"what is shocking is all the resistance to accepting #FreedomOfExpression related to the right of a #Muslim woman to protect her physical & psychological well-being using the universal means available"

Cherifa Kheddar @RedhaLeila:

"What shocks me are attempts to prevent #Muslim #women from enjoying their universal #humanrights so as to defend themselves"

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7/23

Cherifa Kheddar @RedhaLeila speaks as “a victim from #Algeria from the 1990s who suffered violence at the hands of other Muslims, a victim who could not count on support of Western intellectuals who were busy defending religious & cultural specificities"

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I argue that "It is misguided to suggest that because of the history of colonialism & its sequelae, people in & descended from the Global South must not ask hard questions about their own societies or collectives today."

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9/23

"Why are only certain people deemed to have the right to be critical of their own contexts, in which they are deeply invested?"

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10/23

"In some theoretical approaches..formerly colonized people have no internal politics of their own, becoming tropes in ideological battles elsewhere. It is, after all, all about the West."

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11/23

Senegalese #feminist sociologist Fatou Sow argues: “we need to think about the impact of colonialism & neo-colonialism, but there are times when I want to get out of this box . . to recognize that I have all the rights in the world to have critical definitions of who I am myself”

Pragna Patel warns that ignoring such complexity leads to:"denial of women's everyday struggles for freedom, secularism & #HumanRights rooted in their material realities & spells profound danger, not only for the lives of individual women, but 4 the survival of #feminism itself"

Western theorists often overlook the growing critiques of some "critical" approaches by feminists in & descended from the Global South..

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14/23

Feminist writers & scholars like Sadia Abbas, Marieme Hélie-Lucas, @mariztadros @feministdissent argue against paradigms they view as distorting the complex realities & minimizing the suffering of #women in the contexts they are from & study or advocate about

15/23

Their work deserves wide consideration

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See also: @AgagBoudjahlat @GitaSahgal, Afiya Zia etc.

16/23

1 decolonial perspective is increasingly seen 2 cover the field. Yet, there are many writing from stances deeply critical of colonialism who occupy different positionalities, incl universalist, modernist, & secular anti-racist feminists, who are being erased in academic discourse

Yemeni-Egyptian-Swiss scholar @ElhamManea writes that “a paradigm of thinking that has become characteristic of Western academic post-colonial & post-modernist discourse . . insists on treating people as ‘homogeneous groups,’ essentialising their cultures & religions . .

18/23

. .[and] underestimating the human rights consequences of their academic discourse.”

Perhaps one of the many lessons we must learn from #Iranian women activists today is how much is at stake in #HumanRights terms in how we frame & respond to existential struggles like theirs

We must listen to #Iranian women activists on the ground & in exile, & reshape our paradigms to include their analysis, not treat them as tropes

They have the equal right to be critical of their own context

They deserve to be heard

They urgently need thoughtful solidarity

This is a key moment to build on diverse global feminist traditions & listen to their advocates around the world. It is vital to find multi-directional stances, recognize a multiplicity of concerns & axes of power, challenge local & global power-holders..
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..and reconstruct an unwavering commitment to the universality of women's human rights everywhere.

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22/23

The article is called: Multi-Directionality & Universality: Global Feminisms & Intl Law in the 21st Century

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Thanks to @AJIL_andUnbound for publishing it.

23/23