By Sara Ghanawi | Staff Writer
The feminist movement has always been the subject of contentious debate in the world. People disagreed on its essence, importance, goals, strategies, and premises. Although downplaying the significance of the fight for women’s rights has always been the case, there are novel opinions surfacing that claim that this fight is no longer necessary because men and women are no longer treated unequally.
As a matter of historical fact, the feminist movement has generated great contributions to where we are now with women’s rights. Suffrage has become a basic right in most countries of the world. There has been more attention given to women’s contraceptive rights, as well as workplace equality, with legal reforms prohibiting discrimination on the basis of sex in gaining equal access to employment opportunities, promotions, and equal pay. Also, the rates of women in all levels of education have surged tremendously.
So, are people right for claiming that, to some extent, men and women are finally equal? When a student can sit in their school classroom and see that the class is almost equally divided between girls and boys, how can you teach them that we should still fight for women’s rights to education? To a certain degree, this sounds counterintuitive. For people who view the issue from the perspective of a first world democratic country, the incentive behind the feminist cause would be tenuous nowadays.
However, what people should realize is that such major advances in women’s rights are almost exclusively witnessed in first world democratic countries. Although these countries still haven’t completely attained equality between men and women, they are still many steps ahead of countries grappling to reach basic women rights. At the same time, although third world countries have benefited partially from the feminist movement, women’s rights abuse still occurs heinously on a daily basis.
The complexity of this issue requires a critical eye to restore the willingness to fight for the advancement of women’s rights. A critical eye to notice that, in many parts of the world, women are still struggling with many challenges and abuses.
The Arab world is just one of other communities where there is ongoing violence towards women. Just recently, Lebanon witnessed two horrific cases of gender-based violence. Few weeks ago, a woman was murdered by her husband who shot her 10 times, allegedly for finding photos of her without the hijab on her phone. The victim’s brother took the side of the murderer as he pridefully claimed that the husband did what he would’ve done on his behalf. He also expressed that the murderer helped wash his shame away and retain their family’s honor. Honor killings never left the scene in most Arab countries, where horrendous patriarchal mentalities have been ingrained in the minds of the people for generations.
Another gruesome case of gender-based violence in Lebanon was reported by a journalist just two weeks ago. A young woman was raped on the Beirut Waterfront while jogging, highlighting the lack of security and protection for women who are constantly finding themselves in vulnerable situations.
Other cases of femicide took place in Egypt. Almost a year ago, a man killed a young lady for refusing his marriage proposal, which prompted several others to follow in his footsteps.
These are only a few cases that received publicity, with hundreds more crimes happening that don’t get to reach the media spotlight.
Some individuals may be hesitant to acknowledge such crimes, or to support efforts to address them, because they do not agree with the tactics or views of activists in postfeminist spaces who are calling for novel rights like growing body hair or “freeing the nipple.” What these people fail to recognize is that not all women’s rights advocates agree with this westernized feminism either. In fact, there is no widely agreed upon definition of feminism amongst activists.
Yet, the lack of consensus on feminist principles should not prevent us from recognizing and fighting against the egregious mistreatment of women especially in non-Western parts of the world. While it is true that feminism helped women in developed countries achieve significant gains in terms of gender equality, yet, the women who need it the most, benefited from it the least. That discrepancy is for different reasons, yet it is not a reflection of the fundamental validity of such movements, and it cannot diminish the significance of its underlying principles and the premises of women’s rights. Rather, it underscores the ongoing need for continued advocacy and activism on behalf of all women.
Ultimately, regardless of whether you label yourself a feminist or not, and whether you agree with the direction that the women’s rights movement is taking or not, your support for righteous causes to eradicate misogyny where it’s most needed shouldn’t be affected.