“Saving” Muslim Women from Their Own Culture: Three Case Studies of Humanitarian Intervention
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.18533/jah.v10i08.2171Keywords:
Muslim, Humanitarianism, WomenAbstract
After the attacks of September 11, 2001 and the initiation of the War on Terror, the image of oppressed Muslim women has been used to justify foreign intervention into Islamic worlds. Yet this portrayal is not new. It dates back to origins of humanitarianism, its tendency to universalize its concepts and identifying women as helpless victims. This paper analyzes the effectiveness of humanitarian efforts inspired by Western principles of emancipation in comparison with indigenous relief efforts. Specifically, cases relating to Muslim women will be shown to exemplify general problems associated with humanitarian efforts on behalf of “other women.” This paper argues that Western humanitarian interventions are at risk of being ineffective acts of cultural imperialism, and that interventions by local women’s agencies, combined with international support and media coverage, yield much better results. In the end it proposes that international aid work should be grounded in the local cultures, whereas local NGOs should adopt Western modes of operating.
References
Adalian, R. P. (1992). Armenian genocide (1915-1923). In M. N. Dobkowski, I. Wallimann, A. Palmer, A. Rosenberg, E. Silverman, S. M. Bolkosky, A. Rubin, R. Adalian, L. H. Legters, & E. Markusen (Eds.), Genocide in Our Time: An Annotated Bibliography with Analytical Introductions (pp. 86-88). Pierian Press.
Bose, P. (2017). From humanitarian intervention to the beautifying mission: Afghan women and beauty without borders. Genders 1998-2013. https://www.colorado.edu/gendersarchive1998-2013/2010/01/03/humanitarian-intervention-beautifying-mission-afghan-women-and-beauty-without-borders
Bush, L. (2001). Text: Laura Bush on Taliban oppression of women. The Washington Post. https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/nation/specials/attacked/transcripts/laurabushtext_111701.html.
Cision PRWeb. (2013). Malala Yousafzai speaks today and announces Malala fund to support girls' access to education. https://www.prweb.com/releases/2013/2/prweb10393724.htm
Court, A., Usman, M., & Livelli, K. (2011). Questions over Greg Mortenson's stories. CBS News. https://www.cbsnews.com/news/questions-over-greg-mortensons-stories-19-04-2011/
de Vries, M. L. (2012). Justin Vaïsse, Neoconservatism: The biography of a movement, trans. Arthur Goldhammer (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2011, $19.95). Pp. 376. isbn978 0 6740 5051 8. Journal of American Studies, 46(4).
Hessler, P. (2011). What mortenson got wrong. The New Yorker. https://www.newyorker.com/news/news-desk/what-mortenson-got-wrong
Hiram, D. (2019). Deema Hiram, Education champion: Malala Fund. Malala Fund. https://malala.org/champions/deema-hiram
Hirji, F. (2021). Claiming our space: Muslim women, activism, and social media. Islamophobia Studies Journal, 6(1), 78-92.
Maumoon, D. (1999, 1999/10/01). Islamism and gender activism: Muslim women's quest for autonomy. Journal of Muslim Minority Affairs, 19(2), 269-283.
Mortenson, G., & Relin, D. O. (2010). Three cups of tea: One man's mission to fight terrorism and build nations--one school at a time. W F Howes.
Moyn, S. (2020). Human Rights and Humanitarianization. In M. N. Barnett (Ed.), Humanitarianism and Human Rights: A World of Differences? (pp. 33-48). Cambridge University Press. https://doi.org/DOI: 10.1017/9781108872485.002
Peiss, K. (2002). Educating the eye of the beholder: American cosmetics abroad. Daedalus, 131(4), 101-109.
Rushe, D., & Burke, J. (2011). Three cups of tea author greg mortenson in schools fraud row. The Guardian. https://www.theguardian.com/books/2011/apr/18/greg-mortenson-three-cups-tea
Sieff, K. (2014). Mortenson returns to Afghanistan, trying to move past his 'three cups of tea' disgrace”. The Washington Post. https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/asia_pacific/mortenson-returns-to-afghanistan-trying-to-move-past-his-three-cups-of-tea-disgrace/2014/10/12/9774ae90-402f-11e4-b03f-de718edeb92f_story.html
Vaïsse, J. (2011). Neoconservatism: The biography of a movement. Harvard University Press.
Watenpaugh, K. D. (2010). The league of nations' rescue of Armenian genocide survivors and the making of modern humanitarianism, 1920–1927. The American historical review, 115(5), 1315-1339.
Wertheim, S. (2010). A solution from hell: the United States and the rise of humanitarian interventionism, 1991–2003. Journal of genocide research, 12(3-4), 149-172.
Downloads
Published
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2021 Siyu Li
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
Authors who publish with this journal agree to the following terms:
- Authors retain copyright and grant the journal right of first publication with the work simultaneously licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution License that allows others to share the work with an acknowledgement of the work's authorship and initial publication in this journal.
- Authors are able to enter into separate, additional contractual arrangements for the non-exclusive distribution of the journal's published version of the work (e.g., post it to an institutional repository or publish it in a book), with an acknowledgement of its initial publication in this journal.
- Authors are permitted and encouraged to post their work online (e.g., in institutional repositories or on their website) prior to and during the submission process, as it can lead to productive exchanges, as well as earlier and greater citation of published work (See The Effect of Open Access).
