9/11, Islamphobia and it's Impact on Security and Gender

            Marchand (2009) discuss the impact of 9/11 on the development projects and excluding gender out of the development programs as security issues made its way on the top of development agenda. On the discussion about 9/11, I came across with the below articles on Islamophobia and its impact on security and gender.

Ø  Rubin, Alissa. 2016. From Bikinis to Burkinis, Regulating What Women Wear. New York Times, August 27. http://www.nytimes.com/2016/08/28/world/europe/france-burkini-bikini-ban.html?_r=0

Ø  Chrisafis, Angelique. 2016. French PM Suggests Naked Breasts Represent France Better Than a Headscarf. The Guardian, August 30. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/aug/30/france-manuel-valls-breasts-headscarf-burkini-ban-row

It is interesting and at the same time shocking that how such actions are coming from the top level and promoting a culture of hatred through politicians’ speeches or Policies banning some certain activities to suppress minority groups. At the same time, these leaders are sitting on the development policy tables all together to wash gender out of the development process and add security while they are the ones causing these issues in the first place and promote violence.

Islamophobia is not a new phenomenon, but Post 9/11 the biases and promoting violence against Muslims and those who are perceived to be Muslims increased dramatically (Gohir, 2015). At the time that security issues disqualified role gender in the development discourse post 9/11, in the ideologies like Islamophobia women became one of the primary victims of it and Muslim women’s wearing/dress code or Hijab is one of the main factor putting them in the position to be exposed to these hate crimes.

Rubin (2016) highlights these practice of violence and how most of the target victims are women because of their identity, gender, and religion (Rubin, 2016). She discusses the enforcement of legislation in France to ban burkinis and other attire (vail and Burqa) that Muslim women are wearing. This is not the first incident targeting Muslim women based on their wearing and religion; there are many other cases in different Western countries that women are mistreated because of their religion, practices, and clothing. Many European countries came up with policies that prohibit women from wearing vail and religious costumes in public and such appearance can cause different types of hate crimes and discrimination against them (Rubin, 2016). These policies on the dress choices for Muslim women are limiting their participation in the society, at the same time, it is a practice of white supremacy and othering (Gohair, 2015).

Discussing women’s wearing, it is a very controversial topic as it keeps changing over time. At the time that France is looking to ban burkinis, bikinis are only getting to its 70th anniversary from the days that in many countries women were prohibited from wearing revealing clothes or swimwear (bikini) in public (Rubin, 2016). Women choosing a specific type of wearing is not only about their appearance, but it is about their autonomous choices about their lives (Gohir, 2015) & (Rubin, 2016). This issue of targeting women’s wearing, and women’s body is not only about Islamophobia or other ideologies that come to practice, but it is another way of practicing patriarchy. Looking throughout the history of patriarchy and male domination, women continue to face oppression in different forms, and women’s business became everyone’s business which takes away the agency from them and silences their voice as independent human beings who can have control over their bodies and choices (Solnit, 2017). Studying women in the different context in a society, there will always be some othering, exclusion, and discrimination because of the gender stereotypes and patriarchy. At the current world that highly whistles blow the practice of human rights, it raises a question if the human rights are also women’s rights which in most cases it is undermined. 

While women’s agency is one of the hallmarks of the contemporary, post-colonial and transnational feminist who are more concerned with the ideology of agency of those who were subordinated or othered, Chrisafis (2016) highlights a speech from French prime minister that suggesting “naked breasts are more representative of France then a head scarf” (Chrisafis, 2016). Acts like this show that despite the struggles by the feminist scholars to promote inclusiveness and global sisterhood, the geopolitics and patriarchy are still practicing superiority and power to marginalize minorities based on their background, gender, race, and ethnicity (Marchand & Runyan, 2010).

In conclusion, different components play a part in the perpetuation of the Islamophobia which has a sustainable impact on global peacemaking and development through the promotion of violence, discrimination, and hatred. These act of violence is explicitly impacting women’s venerability due to their gender and appearance which is not only limiting their choices, but also take away their identities and agencies.

References

Chrisafis, A. (2016). French PM suggests naked breasts represent France better than a

headscarf. The Guardian, 13.

Gohir, S. (2015). The Veil Ban in Europe: Gender Equality or Gendered Islamophobia. Geo. J.

Int'l Aff., 16, 24.

Marchand, M. H., & Runyan, A. S. (2010). Gender and global restructuring: Sightings, sites and

resistances. Routledge.

Marchand, M. H. (2009). The Future of Gender and Development after 9/11: insights from

postcolonial feminism and transnationalism. Third World Quarterly, 30(5), 921-935.

Rubin, A. J. (2016). From bikinis to burkinis, regulating what women wear. The New York

Times, 27.

Solnit, R., & de la Calzada, P. (2017). The mother of all questions. Chicago, IL: Haymarket

Books.