kalikshama
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Fundamentalism - A Very Short Introduction
...Several recent studies suggest that sex or, more specifically, the
control of female sexuality looms large in the language employed by
fundamentalists.
The wave of animalism which is sweeping over the world
today, and the degradation of the modern dance, the sensualism
of the modern theatre, the glorification of the flesh in
modern styles, and the sex suggestion of modern literature,
the substitution of dogs for babies, the appalling divorce evil,
have all come about because of this degrading philosophy of
animalism which evolution is spreading over the earth.
(J. R. Straton, Searchlight, 7/12, February 1924)
In the 1920s, American fundamentalists like John R. Straton
explicitly linked the public expression of female sexuality to the
corrosive effects of Darwinism, or what he preferred to call,
polemically, ‘animalism’.
Revolutionary Islamist groups like the Fedayan-i Islam denounce
unveiled women in similar, if more dramatic, language: ‘Flames of
passion rise from the naked bodies of immoral women and burn
humanity to ashes’, causing young men to neglect their work. More
than half the provisions of a 1981 law introduced in the Islamic
Republic to codify Koranic prescriptions – 107 out of 195 articles –
were concerned with sexual activities, ranging from the prosecution
of adultery and homosexuality to preventing unrelated persons of
the same sex lying naked under a blanket.
Reisebrodt sees the obsessive concern with sexuality common to
American and Iranian fundamentalisms as a reaction to broader
anxieties resulting from rural displacement and economic change.
Fundamentalism, in his view, is a protest against the assault on
patriarchal principles in the family, economy, and politics. The
symptoms of patriarchal decline, he argues, manifest themselves
primarily in the spheres of the family and sexual morality; but the
underlying causes may lie in those very processes the sociologist
Max Weber regarded as integral to modernity: the expansion of
large-scale ‘rationalized’ operations, entailing formalized and
codified relationships, at the expense of small businesses based on
intimate paternalistic relations between employers and employees.
In resisting such aspects of what Weber famously called ‘the
disenchantment of the world’, fundamentalisms may appear to be
anti-modern. But reality forces them to absorb many of modernity’s
salient features.
According to Riesebrodt, what fundamentalists cannot prevent in
the way of structural transformation they attempt to impose
symbolically. A gender-based division of labour is found in nearly all
pre-modern societies. Under today’s conditions it can no longer be
sustained by traditional domestic arrangements, since in most
modern societies women are required in the workforce. Instead,
segregation is achieved by symbolic means such as sartorial coding
– long hair and skirts for American women, with ‘Christian’ haircuts
(short back and sides) for their menfolk; the veil in its various forms
for Muslim women and the beard, a mark of sex and piety, for
Muslim men. These forms of public religiosity may mask, but do not
necessarily reverse or even delay, the processes of secularization.
Family values are fundamental to religious thought and behaviour
in nearly all traditions. At times when social or political changes
affect the family, religions are liable to react as though they are
being undermined at their very foundations. However, given the
varied social worlds in which fundamentalists actually operate, the
results are far from being uniform. Nor are they necessarily
reactionary or conservative.
In Latin America, where men often abandon their children, the
patriarchal ideology promoted by evangelical churches encourages
them to be more responsible fathers. Women, the voiceless group
in the region, find in evangelical and Pentecostal communities the
space and opportunity to exercise their gifts, while their husbands
are encouraged to encounter a relational and affective part of
themselves denied by the traditional ‘macho’ culture. Similarly,
Japanese New Religions, some of which were founded by female
prophets, theoretically reinforce ideals of male dominance while
actually allowing women more active and participatory roles than
traditional Buddhism and Shinto. In Sri Lanka, a women’s
Buddhist movement, the dasa-sil-mata, has campaigned to restore
a long-defunct order of Buddhist nuns, against resistance from
several male-dominated Buddhist organizations. Even in Iran,
where many female workers were purged after the 1979
revolution, the situation is not unambiguous, as the revolution has
encouraged the emergence of middle-class feminists determined
to reinterpret Islam as empowering them rather than restricting
their activities.
In the Islamic world particularly, the issue has been confused by the
symbolism of the veil and its ambiguities. In the 20th century,
women’s emancipation in Egypt, Iran, and other Muslim countries
was symbolized by the abandoning of the veil by upper-class women
under the influence of Western culture, or in some cases its
abolition by reforming autocrats. Abolished by decree by unpopular
governments, the veil could easily be transformed into an emblem
of cultural or political resistance. In Algeria, veiled Muslim women
played an active part in the struggle for independence against
France. In Egypt, observers have noted that the fundamentalist
ideology which insists on veiling for women may actually reflect an
emancipation from family bonds, rather than an endorsement of
them. Young women who wear the hijab (veil or religious dress) no
longer seek their parents’ permission to visit mosques or attend
religious meetings. Allah replaces the father as the ultimate
authority for individuals, while stressing their obligations to the
wider community.
At the same time, real horror stories abound. A recent example has
been the fate of women in Afghanistan, a landlocked, mountainous
country where patriarchal tribal customs have retained their hold
for much longer than elsewhere. Among the Ghizlai, the women are
secluded from non-mahrams —men other than fathers or brothers
to whom they could be married. Among the Pushtuns, a bride who
does not bleed on her wedding night may be killed by her father or
brothers. ‘Honour killings’ for alleged sexual misconduct by women
are far from being limited to mountainous, tribal regions: they
occur in many other parts of the world, and though Jordan, Egypt,
Syria, and Iraq furnish numerous examples, honour killings are far
from being confined to Muslim societies. The culture of ‘honour and
shame’, in which masculine honour and identity are predicated on
female virtue, was until recently just as prevalent in Catholic Spain
and Sicily, and the Orthodox Balkans, as it in Muslim lands.
...
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Women and fundamentalist religions - 
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