PARADISE BENEATH HER FEET

A senior fellow at the U.S. Council on Foreign Relations explores human-rights advances in the most conservative Muslim states.

Western feminism, and with it, secularism as enforced in Muslim countries such as Turkey and Tunisia, often don’t stand a chance in most Arab states, writes Coleman. Tribal customs and patriarchal traditions run deep, while “women’s empowerment” is viewed as “nothing more than a slippery slope toward Western decadence and godless secularism, toward widespread adultery and prostitution and the end of family life.” The author believes that significant changes in women’s rights—the right to be educated, own property, work outside of the home, choose a marriage partner, even vote and drive—can only be achieved practically through Islamic feminism, “the promotion of women’s rights through Islamic discourse.” Some regard Islamic feminism as a major sellout for women, but Coleman observes small, important changes taking shape over the past decade in places with rigid interpretations of sharia, including Iran, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Saudi Arabia and Iraq. The chapter titled “Why Women Matter” establishes “the payoff from women’s rights,” namely what countries quickly learn when women are allowed access to education—birthrates drop, families are enriched and the cycle of poverty is often broken. The author visited microfinanciers in Pakistan experiencing great success lending to impoverished women; scoured the legacy of assassinated Pakistani politician Benazir Bhutto; followed the work of post-revolutionary feminists in Iran; interviewed newly elected women in the Afghan parliament; toured a ladies-only mall in strictly gender-segregated Saudi Arabia; and observed secular women’s groups in Iraq dealing with the Shia blowback after the fall of Saddam Hussein. Despite Coleman’s optimism, the persistence of gender gaps in literacy rates, polygamy, Pakistan’s punitive Hudood Ordinance, honor killings and body coverings do not bode well for Arab women’s emancipation.

An important update on the state of human rights that depresses as it uplifts.