In Cynthia Enloe’s Chapter “Updating the Gendered Empire”, she observes the ways the government operates in regimes like that of Afghanistan and Iraq, very few think of researching women, but in reality it is important to study femininity in order to see the varieties of masculinity that come as a result. The problem with most governments is that they are still primarily masculinized, being that the representation of women is scarce due to their lack of education in many countries. Afghanistan and Iraq do not have a strong approach in their promotion in female education and although for example Iraq no longer has Sadam Hussein in power, very little has been done to help in the advancement of women due to the continuance of the masculinized nature of the government. Their are about two female representatives in the government committee in Afghanistan and of these two, one was shot and killed. Kabul which is the surviving female diplomat has received explicit threats, such as the beating of her son, in order to pull out of the government. Once again this is an explicit ways in which women in power in these countries continue to be harassed thus discouraging many women from taking these positions of power if their well-being is put at risk. Those educated Afghan and Iraqi women ask to be fully autonomous and effective citizens by being able to change the constitution and implementing rights for women such as: a mandatory education, freedom of speech, be able to vote and run for office, equal representation, etc. Unfortunately since there is a low number of female diplomats they hardly have a voice when it comes to ratifying their constitution. In Iraq many women activists were outraged to find out that not one of those few female diplomats were included in the committee towards ratifying Iraq’s new constitution. This goes to show how women are shunned by the political sphere, thus if they are shunned in knowing what goes on in the government since they are not allowed to participate. This brings in to play another issue in which this lack of knowledge/involvement, may produce lack of female interest since they think that their voices will not be heard then why put the effort. This lack of female support was especially seen at a rally in August 2003 made by the OWFI (Organization of Women’s freedom in Iraq) in which 60 people came out to demonstrate on the issue of violence against women. Unfortunately although this issue was crucial to women, there were more men involved. Then one must study the spheres in which women express their opinions which are more closely related with private spheres. The author gives the example of a beauty parlor shop in Iraq where women do discuss politics and are comfortable enough to voice their opinions among other women because they know their views will be heard and taken into account. This is the problem with these types of governments which do not make it a comfortable/equal environment for women to break out of the private sphere and partake in the public/political sphere. The United States supposedly has been trying to make strides in facilitating this for the women in these countries, yet very little advancements have been noticed. If anything there is a retrogression that is occurring as the author talks about how the older generation seemed to be able to get better education than the younger generation which is probably due to the theorizing that “With some wars and postwartimes women’s sphere of economic, social, and even political influence widens. With other wars and postwartimes those spheres dramatically shrink. The key casual factor here is whether the war-waging and postwar government is masculinist” (p. 297). Is the War in Iraq, which is fueled by a strong masculinized force, necessarily helping the advancement and liberation of women?
In the article by Lila Abu-Lughod, she talks about this liberation that the United States wants to help the women of Afghanistan and Iraq accomplish, but then their comes into question whether they really want that type of liberation. Since the American culture is completely different from those cultures in the middle east it is difficult to come up with a common ground to define the same type of liberation. The elimination of the Burka is stressed by the United States as a major factor towards eliminating the oppression of women and being able to give them a sense of personhood, and although some Afghan/Iraqi women may agree, there are other that will not let go of these symbolic cultural/religious traditions. Thus comes into question whether these Muslim women need saving. This is a difficult task, especially for the United States in coming to understand the immense differences in the women of these cultures from American women and their different views on how these Afghan/Iraqi women seek to achieve equality/liberation. The U.S. has to be knowledgable and understand their culture first, in order to even begin to help the people in it.
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