United Nations Quotes

This was a very unusual statement for a major party, established, politician to make in a Muslim Arab nation where sexism is not only culturally entrenched, but strongly religiously enforced.]

Turkey, the only Islamic nation where women have equal rights, made huge developmental and reform strides immediately after Ataturk reformed Turkish society and gave women the vote, freed them from veils and chadors, educated them and gave them equal employment rights. Turkey moved from an impoverished 3rd world nation to a modern industrialized democracy.

This statement is referring to the custom of women covering their eyes whenever a man who they did not know passed them. Turks did not ever use Burkas the way some other Muslim countries do, but they wore headscarves and covered their eyes when a strange man appeared. This was a shocking statement in a sexist Islamic culture. Although the process of modernization and reform in Turkey was relatively bloodless, Ataturk was prepared to and did use force to defend it. This and many others made the role of women not only uniquely equal in the Islamic world, but women were suddenly elevated to the level of most Western nations and in voting rights were ahead of most. He used his own family to set an example. See {584503}.

Jinnah was a modern Islamic reformer as this quotation demonstrates. Pakistan is not as backward as most of the Arab Islamic countries on the role of women. There are many Pakistani businesswomen and professionals. Pakistan has even had a female president. However, the fundamentalist Islamic forces that dominate the culture constantly preach and advocate the literal interpretation and following of Sharia which calls for a traditional, subservient traditional role for women; “honor killings” are common; “a rapist cannot be convicted on a female victims testimony; there are calls for the killing of adulteresses and other primitive throwbacks. Jinnah’s vision has not come to pass yet.

Prior to WWII there were few women in the labor force, and the traditional “values” of American society relegated women to be homemakers. However with so many men under arms, there were not enough workers to achieve the war production that was necessary. So changes had to be made in public attitudes, not only towards women working, but the nature of the work that they are capable of and ought to be doing. So the government took a proactive role in changing public attitudes towards women in the workforce. It was a successful effort, and the sociological and psychological effects are still felt, half a century later. See {584781}.

The importance of women in the Hamas, fundamentalist vision is to function as a brood mare to “manufacture” men and then to bring them up which at least requires something more than their bodies. The role of women in producing other women however is never mentioned as important.

Women were not, in the decisions of Canadian courts “Persons.” As such they were not allowed to serve as public officials and legislators. In 1929 the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council reversed previous interpretations and declared women eligible for all public offices. It became known as “The Persons Case.” Murphy then wrote her argument. Murphy wrote serious non-fiction under her own name and novels under the pseudonym Janey Canuck.

See Belva Lockwood {609865} for the view of the woman who lobbied heavily for the law and became the first woman to practice before the Supreme Court.

Despite this pronouncement which kept Caliphs from being female, modern Islamic states (Pakistan, Indonesia) have had female Presidents.

Jinnah was a modern Islamist who saw the role of females in a modern context. He, like the Indian Hindu leaders were in a sense products of the West and Western government and education. He would be very surprised that in his Pakistan men can murder their female relatives who they believe have dishonored the family, or that women would not be educated in the Madrassas, or that authorities could sentence a female relative of a man deemed guilty of seduction to be gang raped, but that is what happens in modern Pakistan. Jinnah and many of the early leaders believed that their new government could modernize Islam but the control and influence went the other way. Pakistan became a religiously dominated autocracy rather than the democracy that Jinnah foresaw.