Globalization, Militarism, and Women's Collective Action
Val Moghadam
...For example, security means something rather different to women than it does to states. What security is there for women when Islamic fundamentalists come to power? This is something that feminists in Algeria, Morocco, and Tunisia, as well as in Turkey, have long understood. In Tunisia in the late 1980s and early 1990s, feminists were quick to recognize the danger posed by the emerging fundamentalist movement, and they formed networks with their sisters in Morocco and Algeria to bring pressure on states to challenge the growing fundamentalist influence. In Turkey, feminist groups were among the most vocal critics of the coalition government that brought the Islamic leader Erbakan to power in the mid-1990s. In Algeria, feminists have struggled valiantly to keep fundamentalists out of power. Some of their positions have been misunderstood and criticized. Western observers criticized Algerian feminists for their support of the government's decision to nullify the results of the 1991 elections of a fundamentalist political group. And yet, only a quarter of the Algerian electorate had participated in the elections, and the Algerian fundamentalists had already shown themselves to be anti-democratic, misogynistic, and violent in the years before the elections. Should women's human rights and their security be swept aside in the name of dubious electoral politics? Throughout the years, Algerian feminists have maintained a tough stance--"No Dialogue with the Fundamentalists"--even while the government has tried to end the violence by reaching out to certain Islamic groups. Meanwhile, in Morocco this year, feminists and fundamentalists have been in opposing camps over the proposed National Action Plan for the Advancement of Women....
<http://muse.jhu.edu/journals/nwsa_journal/v013/13.2moghadam.html> <http://muse.jhu.edu/journals/nwsa_journal/v013/13.2moghadam.pdf> *****
In a previous post, I mentioned the Algerian example with regard to democracy and women's rights, to the effect that it may very well take undemocratic measures -- i.e., measures that violate formal democracy, for instance, nullification of election results -- to safeguard women's rights in short terms. The above passage from Val Moghadam's article describes the kind of situation I had in mind. -- Yoshie
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