Rached Ghannouchi Quotes
Tunisia's democratic development depends on removing the obstacles that women fact in all fields.
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.]
"From Political Islam to Muslim Democracy", Foreign Affairs, September / October 2016
Sourced by: Eigen's Political and Historical Quotations
In a country like Saudi Arabia, such a statement would be very radical. However, before the Arab Spring in Tunisia, that country was much more modern than most Arab nations and headscarfs were not required nor was there much social pressure for them except in the rural areas. So this was a status quo statement opposing the Islamic Parties which advocated mandatory traditional dress for women.
She was chiding the Egyptian military who in the Arab Spring, turned on demonstrators and soldiers in the middle of the central square stripped a female demonstrator half naked and beat her badly;
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.
Some Muslim women in Holland are virtual prisoners of their husbands and families. Many are beaten in conformity with a fundamentalist interpretation of the Koran. Some are even killed. Under previous concepts of Dutch tolerance and respect for pluralism the Muslims in Holland were not interfered with. However, due to her efforts, the rights of the women are now taking a higher priority and are not being subjugated to tolerance of Islam generally.
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.
It would take almost a thousand years for the relationship between women’s role in society, standard of living, poverty and development would be recognized by all but the most fundamentalist religious orders. Yet, at the flowering of Islamic intellectualism, the idea was discussed.
Given the time, this was an amazing demand. Fuller preceded all the more famous American feminists and was an inspiration to them.
This is one of the most positive statements about women and women’s rights to emanate from a leader of a Muslim Middle Eastern nation.
Puglia was an anti feminist. The stoa was the city square where men commonly congregated and discussed politicis.
Rached Ghannouchi, also spelled Rachid al-Ghannouchi or Rached el-Ghannouchi, is a Tunisian politician and thinker, co-founder of the Ennahdha Party and serving as its "intellectual leader". He was born Rashad Khriji (راشد الخريجي).
