Controlling Women: Male Guardians, Sexual Harassment, and Religion

Apologists for the harassment of women in public will sometimes whine that women who dress "provocatively" are simply "asking for it." The truth is, though, that how a woman dresses just isn't very important. This has been made clear in Egypt, conservatively religious country where women tend to dress very conservatively and modestly in accordance with traditional Muslim principles.

If modest clothing were a protection from male abuse and harassment, Egypt would reveal it — but in truth Egypt reveals exactly the opposite. According to a recent survey, 62 percent of Egyptian men admitted to sexually harassing women in public while 83 percent of Egyptian women reported experiencing sexual harassment while being out in public. For half of Egyptian women, sexual harassment is a daily problem.

The forms of harassment reported by Egyptian men, whose country attracts millions of foreign tourists each year, include touching or ogling women, shouting sexually explicit remarks, and exposing their genitals to women. ...Only 2.4 percent of Egyptian women reported it to the police, with most saying they did not believe anyone would help. Some feared reporting harassment would hurt their reputations. "The vast majority of women did nothing when confronted with sexual harassment," the survey said, adding that most Egyptian women believed the victim should "remain silent".

Some 53 percent of men blamed women for bringing on sexual harassment, saying they enjoyed it or were dressed in a way deemed indecent. Some women agreed. "Out of Egyptian women and men interviewed, most believe that women who wear tight clothes deserve to be harassed," the survey said. It added most agreed women should be home by 8 p.m. The survey said most of the Egyptian women who told of being harassed said they were dressed conservatively, with the majority wearing the Islamic headscarf.

Source: Reuters (via I Blame the Patriarchy)

Both men and women tend to blame the women for being harassed, but most women report that harassment occurs despite being dressed modestly and conservatively. Did I say "despite?" That word presumes some connection between dress and being harassed, but no such connection exist. A stronger connection likely exists with the fact that Egypt is a religiously conservative nation where women's roles and rights are severely curtailed.

If sexual harassment of women is simply another form of social control of women, then what we find in Egypt is pretty much what we should expect. It would be very interesting to have study that compared religious beliefs, attitudes towards women, and attitudes towards sexual harassment of women. Who would be willing to bet against an outcome showing that those with more traditional, religious attitudes about what a "woman's place" is will be more likely to blame the victims of sexual harassment?

At I Blame the Patriarchy, Citizen Jane lists just a few of the behaviors which have resulted in her being accused of being promiscuous:

• stretching
• having nipples that get perky when it’s cold
• wearing knee-high boots
• wearing red
• walking “sensuously” (what?)
• wearing rabbit ears on Halloween (with a baggy sweater and jeans)
• wearing purple shoes
• bending over to pick something up
• reaching up to get something high up

Basically, being out in public is enough for some men to treat women as promiscuous, available, slutty, etc. This is no surprise if we step back and realize that so many men automatically assume that women exist for little more than male sexual activity. Although traditional religion frowns upon promiscuity, it does tend to treat women as little more than receptacles for male sex.

In that context, women who step outside their prescribed, divinely-ordained roles, need to be put back in their place. Laws are one means for doing this, but social pressure, stigmatization, and bullying can often be even more effective. Catcalling and sexual harassment pressure women to change behavior, bully them into making them feel afraid to step outside social boundaries, stigmatize them into feeling unclean, and remind them that they are objects of sexual behavior.

Amananta brings up what I think is probably one of the most important issues:

I’ve been sexually harassed while siting eating in a restaurant while wearing an ankle length dress and visibly, hugely, pregnant.

I’ve been sexually harassed while wearing a high necked shirt and a loose, flowing, mid-calf length smock in the middle of the day.

The only common factor I can think of in any of the many, many incidents I’ve been harassed was that I was outside my home without a man. Simply being identifiably female and not accompanied by a daddy-husband-owner is enough to mark one as an acceptable target of abuse. (Being inside the home with the daddy-husband-owner doesn’t protect women either, of course.)

There is nothing a female can do to avoid being sexually harassed on the street unless it is to refuse to go outside without clinging to the arm of an appropriately aggressive seeming male. This is an unacceptable limitation to almost all women, and frankly impossible for most.

So, in order to be safe from sexual harassment, it's best for women to only go out in public when accompanied by a man... where have I heard that before? Oh, yeah, that's like the restrictions traditionally imposed on Muslim women: no public appearances or travel except when accompanied by their nearest male relative. In Saudi Arabia, belief in the importance of such restrictions is so strong that they consider it an "improvement" to transition to electronic surveillance of and permissions for women:

Under existing law, in order to travel alone whether for medical treatment, education or leisure, a Saudi woman — whatever her age — needs to present an approval document from her guardian that must be issued months in advance by the Passport Department. But some women have expressed difficulties in traveling even when they have the approval. Many told Arab News that despite the law being in force, its application varies from person to person.

Despite the fact that the law permits “older women” to travel on their own, Fowziah, 41, a high school principal, brings her husband to the airport each time to give her permission verbally to leave. She said that her husband was not willing to give her a valid paper for one year that would allow her to travel alone. The law does not specify at what age a woman becomes “older.”

Two sisters Najla’a and Jihan, in their late 20s, related their experience when they went to London for a short course. “My father was out of town and the airport staff refused to accept our 22-year-old brother as guardian who could give us permission to travel,” said Najla’a, who works in the media. “The airport staff insisted that my father go to the nearest police station and send a fax to the airport giving his approval!” she said.

Source: Arab News (via The Apostate)

Under the Islam of Saudi Arabia — a form of Islam which they are exporting around the world thanks to the money you spend on petroleum products like gasoline — grown women of any age must have a guardian. Grown women of any age are forbidden from making their own decision to travel to seek medical treatment — they must first get the permission of their guardian and then be able to prove that they have permission wherever they go. This is something you do to children, not autonomous adults. Do you need any more evidence that this sort of Islam treats women as unequal and inferior to men?

This system creates extensive hardships and problems for women, but rather than dispense from the system entirely — because that would be immoral under Islam — Saudi Arabia instead wants to modernize it in order to create an electronic record of permission from a guardian. This way, women will be able to more easily prove that they are not daring to travel on their own or presuming to using their own judgment about what's best for them. Apparently, women are supposed to appreciate and be thankful that the state is trying to make things easier for their guardians.

Many women feel the introduction of the online clearance document is too little. They say the document does not solve the problem as the clearance will still be given by the man. “Not all women will be able to get permission when the man is not convinced or just feels like not giving it,” said Amal Khalifah, a psychiatrist and women’s and children’s activist.

Just how different is the attitude behind this from the attitude behind those who think that it is appropriate to sexually harass women for no other reason than that they are in public without a man accompanying them? There are plenty of differences in terms of practical effects, but in the end we keep coming back to the same thing: men who believe that women must be controlled, limited, and restricted because if they start making their own decision, they will create a danger for the entire social order.

One of the greatest evils perpetrated by religion — and one which religion continues to inflict on the world — is the idea that half of the world's population is inferior because they lack dangling external genitalia. Not every religion is equally bad on this score and many liberal religious believers are trying to move past it, but the simple fact is that patriarchy and misogyny are written deeply in the traditions of most of the world's religions.

That can't be changed and, sadly, even many the liberals who disagree with it make the mistake of trying to simply "reinterpret" problematic traditions instead of simply denouncing them and moving on. This is one of the many failings of liberal religion and why, in the end, liberal religion is an inadequate alternative to conservative and fundamentalist religions. It's an improvement, there's no question about it, but it continues to retain too many of the same infections which plague traditional religion.