|
|
|
Map of Asia |
Email this citationCIAO DATE: 02/03
From Margin to Center : Theorizing Women's Political Participation from Activism on the Margins to Political Power at the Center
Patricia Martinez
December 2000
Abstract
'Islamic states were called upon to ensure the political rights of women as guaranteed by Islam in one of the resolutions of a Seminar organized in 1980 by the International Commission of Jurists, the University of Kuwait and the Union of Arab Lawyers. These political rights included women's right to vote, to nominate themselves for election, to be appointed to public posts, and to participate in decision-making.'
Twenty years later in the largest Muslim nation in the world, Ibu Gedong Bagoes Oka, an eighty-year old Indonesian activist from Bali and member of the MPR (the Majelis Permusyawaratan Rakyat or the Indonesian Parliament) insisted, "Women must strive to achieve political power. How else are they going to change their conditions significantly? But where are the women?"
Since most Muslim nations do not deny women basic access to education, health services and the vote, Ibu Gedong_s question highlighted a lack amidst a sense of wellbeing and achievement. Although women throughout the Muslim world are more visible in public life, their power as decision-makers who wield political clout or who govern is still not commensurate with their significance and contributions to their nations. The ramifications of this insignificant representation of half the population are considerable. In societies that are patriarchal or in those that are not gender-sensitive, vital issues for women such as equal pay for equal work, or urgent problems such as sexual crimes, domestic violence, and sexual harassment, which affect women most of all, are addressed by a muted voice. :
The possibilities and problems that constrain women's empowerment through public office are complex, yet few studies have explored this area. The political participation of women in nations that define themselves as Islamic must be analyzed beyond the simplistic, biased notion that it is because Islam contains them. Muslim women are empowered and empower themselves at the intersection of a confluence of forces that include authoritarian and paternalistic states, as well as the ambivalence of women themselves about a political or public role.
This paper offers an analysis of a turning point in women's activism in Malaysia when a group of Muslim and non-Muslim women known as the Women's Candidacy Initiative (WCI) contested the general elections of November 1999. The candidate was a Muslim woman who stood on a platform of issues shaped largely by women's agendas. I limit myself to this one case study to enable a more detailed analysis than would a survey across Islamic sources or Muslim nations. However, the analyses and reflections about the attempt to move from activism on the margins to political power at the center of public life by a women's group in Malaysia are offered as paradigmatic: for finding parallels and relevance beyond Malaysia or the issues of women in Islam.
The paper has three sections. The first section on context explores aspects of Islamization with a focus on how Islam evolves in particular histories and places and thus includes an inherent heterogeneity and diversity. This understanding is enabling for Muslim women who forge supportive and working relationships with non-Muslims, since this dynamic is sometimes condemned in the false dichotomies of Islam versus Secularism. The section on context also describes the Women's Agenda for Change (WAC), the most comprehensive document by women in Malaysia which was launched in May 1999. The WAC could be described as the culmination of efforts by women's NGOs in Malaysia. The document is significant because it not only addresses problems, needs, concerns and issues for women, but it covers 11 areas that also envision the nation beyond social justice issues for women.
The second section comprises a detailed description and analysis of the trajectory of the WCI, including the ambivalence of activists over the transition from activism on the margins to achieving political power in Parliament.
Finally, the paper offers concluding reflections. These reflections explore possibilities and problems in three areas:
- the constraining and misleading binaries of Islam versus Secularism.
- an analysis of one aspect of women's activism, which is that it is contained and scripted by the state, and an exploration of the need to see beyond the state
- the need for voter education, drawing parallels and pointing to the useful experience of women in Indonesia in effecting voter education.
