Religious fundamentalism and the threat to women

Eva K. Sundari, School of Economics Center for Women Studies, Airlangga University, Surabaya

Recently, we have witnessed a large number of women holding street rallies, protesting the presidential decree on price hikes for fuel and utilities. In a patriarchal society, these hikes land a stronger blow on women than on men. Increasing living costs means added pressure on the domestic role of women, which is directly related to their practical needs.

Similarly, crowds of women also demonstrated against the plan of the United States and its allies to launch a military strike against Saddam Hussein. The mobilization of women was prompted by Islamic solidarity.

Interestingly, these two occasions for protests may both be viewed as a reaction against two global forces, the neo-liberal economy and (Islamic) fundamentalism, which share a similar feature, the marginalization of women.

For Indonesian women, the threat to the interest of women -- poor women in particular -- in this globalization era comes not only from the global economic policies sponsored by international financial institutions like the IMF or the World Bank, but also from religious fundamentalism.

The latter threat has a more significant effect on women, as it is directly related to the social position of women.

The collapse of socialism in the late 1980s not only paved the way for the neo-liberal forces, but also created a yawning ideological gap later filled by religious fundamentalism, whether based in Christianity, Hinduism, Judaism, Buddhism or Islam. Unlike the fundamentalist movement during the colonial period, which resisted colonizers, today's fundamentalist movement is a modern political movement based on religious tenets.

So, as befits a modern political movement, fundamentalism tries to win or consolidate power, through the language of religion, among other means.

Interestingly, all conservative religious movements share a patriarchal world view. Women have been made the target of religious, radical movements. In the West, this movement promotes a social agenda derived from patriarchal values, anti-abortion principles and restrictions on women's rights as moored in family values.

Besides having been domesticated, women in the East have also been made an object of the curtailment of their rights for access to social, economic, cultural and political arenas.

As is expected of religious fundamentalism, in Islamic fundamentalism, a fundamentalist regime has made women the primary target in its response to the post-Cold War identity crisis. This kind of regime usually politicizes and determines the standards of propriety in gender relationships. The Iranian feminist Haleh Afshar wrote that the outstanding character of Islamic fundamentalism -- and other religious fundamentalism -- is its emphasis on male domination, or the oppression, subordination and marginalization of women.

Meanwhile, the aggressiveness of the neo-liberal economy in accumulating capital can be highly pragmatic. This is why a neo- liberal economy may be applied to any political system, such as the Israeli or Kuwaiti regimes, the military rule of Myanmar or the democratic regime of South Africa.

In Indonesia, neo-liberal proponents once supported Abdurrahman Wahid as president, but in a matter of months they made an about-face and agreed to have him removed when they saw the threat he posed to capitalists' interests.

The neo-liberal scenario, through the package of structural adjustment programs -- including the removal of subsidies -- and free trade, has also dealt a blow on the interests of the poor in developing countries.

Data from various anti-globalization movements show that this scenario is more beneficial to capitalists in wealthy countries. Policies of privatization and the removal of subsidies have promoted the growth of trans-national businesses, but this goes hand-in-hand with an increase in women's workload.

Culturally, the impact on civil society is quite tragic. Under the pretext of facilitating neo-liberalism in developing countries, the role of the public has been weakened.

Fiscal decentralization, or regional autonomy in Indonesia, for example, has resulted in the erosion of the people's economic and social rights. Abuse of regional budgets by legislative and executive agencies have taken place, coupled with the policy to place the education and health sectors within the framework of regional autonomy following the World Trade Organization's General Agreement in Trade and Services (GATS).

It is only logical that issues later emerged as to how the state would fulfill its role to guarantee the rights of its people as mandated by the Constitution. For women, the collusion among the regional political elite can only aggravate the situation.

An alarming signal is the rising number of regional rulers working with local religious leaders to implement the functions of the state in the name of religion.

The marginalization of the minority, in this respect women, is usually a short-cut for the application of this political exercise. Nevertheless, apart from further lowering the status of women, the politicization of religion has the potential to worsen inter-minority conflicts and also encourages the emergence of an authoritarian government.

Given their pragmatism, the macroeconomic policies in the neo- liberal style, which are neither pro-poor nor gender-sensitive, often support the agenda of fundamentalism, albeit unwittingly. This obviously contradicts the concept of entitlement of the United Nations Development Program (UNDP).

Although UNDP promotes its human development global strategy by means of indicators called the Gender Development Index and Gender Empowerment Measure, at the same time, the two global counterproductive forces of neo-liberalism and fundamentalism operate in a more systematic fashion.

Life must be a celebration of all humankind. What option remains for the women's movement? The movement must be fully aware of the patriarchal agenda, as assumed either by neo- liberalism or fundamentalism.

The relationship between the two is complicated, as it is highly reliant on their interests in economic sources. In the case of a possible war in Iraq, the issues of oil and weapons of mass destruction have become the reported origin of the dispute.

History also teaches that in those countries where religion is included in the power structure, this condition will only lead to, and has already been proven to bring about human rights violations.

So protests against various legislations or policies drawn up in the name of religion -- particularly those which are gender- biased -- must start now, particularly at the grassroots level. The creation of a secular and democratic atmosphere is the only way to provide space for the struggle to enforce the human rights of women.

Efforts to expand the autonomic realm of women constitute the main strategy of a women's movement. This movement must also consistently promote tolerance, support justice, and must be both secular and humanistic in character.

This sounds like a cliche suggestion, but one which remains true throughout time -- and of course, it is easier said than done.