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Reproductive Health Matters
An international journal on sexual and reproductive health and rights
Volume 4, 1996 - Issue 8: Fundamentalism and reproductive rights
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Original Articles

The Challenge of Fundamentalisms

Pages 55-69 | Published online: 01 Nov 1996

References

  • R. Germain, Kyte. The Cairo Consensus: The Right Agenda for the Right rime. 1995; International Women's Health Coalition: New York.
  • D. Hodgson, S.C. Watkins. Population controllers and feminists: strange bedmates at Cairo?. Paper presented at annual meeting of Population Association of Americ. 9–11 May, New Orleans 1996
  • N.T. Ammerman, M.E. Marty, R.S. Appleby. North American Protestant fundamentalism. Fundamentalism Observed. 1991; University of Chicago Press: Chicago M.L. Bendroth. Fundamentalism and Gender: 1875 to the Present. 1993; Yale University Press: New Haven.
  • For a spirited condemnation of both the term and the concept generally, se. J.M. Harris. ‘Fundamentalism’: objections from a modern Jewish historian. J.S. Hawley. Fundamentalism & Gender. 1994; Oxford University Press: New York S.J. Al-Azm. Islamic fundamentalism reconsidered: a critical outline of problems, ideas and approaches. For a review of the debate in the context of Islam specifically, se. South Asia Bulletin. XII(1,2): 1993. Part I. S.J. Al-Azm. Islamic f undamentalism reconsidered: a critical outline of problems, ideas and approaches. South Asia Bulletin. XIV(1): 1994. Part II For a discussion from the activist perspective, se, WAF Joumal. 1(5), particularly Pieterse JN. Fundamentalism discourses: enemy images; and Sahgal G and Yuval-Davis N. The uses of fundamentalis.
  • Of course, the fact that the phenomenon may be real, does not itself justify the choice of the particular word ‘fundamentalist.’ While bordering dangerously on misnomer (because of the implication that something ‘fundamental’ is also ‘authentic’), I would agree with Marty and Appleby (from whom the phrase ‘family resemblances’ is borrowed) that there is no perfect word available, that alternative suggestions have even more serious defects, and that in any event the term is already firmly entrenched in popular usage-in short, ‘fundamentalism is here to stay.’ Marty and Appleby (eds), [3] abov.
  • Perhaps the most comprehensive of these is The Fundamentalism Project, sponsored by the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Marty and Appleby (eds), [3] abov.
  • For example, proceedings of the workshop ‘The political uses of religion, ethnicity and culture,’ NGO Forum, ICPD, sponsored by Women Living Under Muslim Laws, Women Against Fundamentalism, and Catholics for a Free Choice. Portions in WAFJournal 7:13–15 and Women's Health Journal 1/96; Full transcripts on file with the author. Als. G. Sahgal, N. Yuval-Davis. Refusing Holy Orders: Women and Fundamentalism in Britain. 1992; Virago Press: London.
  • Eg. S.I. Ahmed. Blasphemy bill: revenging the war of liberation?. Sanglap: Attack on Fundamentals. 4: 1995; Ain O Salish Kendra: Dhaka, Bangladesh, (Aug). Reprinted i. Fatwas Against Women in Bangladesh. 1996; Grabels, France.
  • See the essays i. M.E. Marty, R.S. Appleby. Fundamentalism and Society. Reclaiming the Sciences, the Family, and Education. 1993; University of Chicago Press: Chicago.
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  • L. Mani. Contentious traditions: the debate on sati in colonial India. K. Sangari, S. Vaid. Recasting Women: Essays in Indian Colonial History. 1990; Rutgers University Press: New Brunswick NJ.
  • Contentious traditions: the debate on sati in colonial Indi. K. Sangari, S. Vaid. Recasting Women: Essays in Indian Colonial History. 1990; Rutgers University Press: New Brunswick NJ, 115.
  • J.S. Hawley. Hinduism: sati and its defenders. J.S. Hawley. Fundamentalism & Gender. 1994; Oxford University Press: New York.
  • C.B. Strozier. Religious militancy or ‘fundamentalism’. J. Kelsay, S.B. Twiss. Religion and Human Rights. 1994; Project on Religion and Human Rights: New York.
  • Ahmad M. 1991. Islamic fundamentalism in South Asia: the Jamat-i-Islami and the Tablighi Jamaat. In Marty and Appleby [3] abov.
  • Quoted in Hitchcock J,1993. Catholic activist conservatism in the United States. In Marty and Appleby [3] abov.
  • On the relationship between the discourse of Hindutva, women, law and communal politics in India, se. R. Kapur, B. Cossman. Communalising gender, engendering community: women, legal discourse, and the Saffron Agenda. T. Sarkar, U. Butalia. Women & Right-Wing Movements: Indian Experiences. 1995; Zed Books: New Jersey B. Cossman, R. Kapur. Secularism: bench-marked by Hindu Right. On the critically important relationship betwee. Hindutva. and current legal and political discourse about secularism in India se. Economic and Political Weekly. 1996; 2613–2630. 21 Sept.
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  • For a description of this overall strategy, se. F. Shaheed. Networking for change: the role of women's groups in initiating dialogue on women's issues. M. Afkhami. Faith & Freedom: Women's Human Rights in the Muslim World. 1995; Syracuse University Press: Syracuse NY, For a specific example of diversity in actual laws and practices, se. Chart of Customary Practices in Pakistan in Comparison with Statutory Law. 1995; Women & Law Pakistan Country Project: Shirkat Gah, Lahore.
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  • An important issue beyond the scope of this paper is the extent to which women are attracted to and participate in fundamentalist movements, even when such movements adopt agendas which include explicit controls over their ability to make choices about key aspects of their live.
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  • Washington Post. 23 August. 1992. Hawley and Proudfoot note that ‘fundamentalist rhetoric is often tinged with the suggestion that homosexuality is an inevitable consequence of modernism- a sign of the dishonor and downright emasculation that the collapse of traditional values visits on secular societies. In Introduction, Hawley JS (ed). [4] abov.
  • The strand of US right-wing ideology that focuses on the ‘racial purity’ of white, Christian civilisation fords a comfortable home among ‘Patriot’ groups, such as those subscribing to the Phineas Priesthood, who justify murders and hate crimes with reference to a Biblical passag. (numbers. 25:1–18) which they interpret as condoning murder to prevent racial mixing in violation of ‘God's law’. Paul Hill, confessed murderer of a doctor at a US abortion clinic, was among those calling for such ‘Phineas actions’. Terrorists in the name of God and rac. Klanwatch Intelligence Report. 1996; 83(Aug).
  • S. Amin, S. Hossain. Women's reproductive rights and the politics of fundamentalism: a view from Bangladesh. American University Law Review. 44(4): 1995; 1319–1343. see also [8] abov.
  • I am grateful to Mahnaz Afkhami, executive director, Sisterhood Is Global Institute, for articulating this aspect of fundamentalists’ strategies and for several of the examples used here.
  • Religious human rights in the world today: a report on the 1994 Atlanta conference. Emory International Law Review. 10: 1995; 53–193. (1. A. An-Naim. The dichotomy between religious and secular discourse in Islamic societies. & Freedom: Women's Human Rights in the Muslim World Afkhami, Faith, M. 1995; Syracuse University Press: Syracuse NY.
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  • S. Greenhalgh. The social construction of population science: an intellectual, institutional, and political history of twentieth-century demography. Comparative Studies in Society and History. 38(1): 1996; 26–66.
  • Greenhalgh goes on to critique ‘diffusion theory’, the rationale used in family planning work to justify the programmatic focus on spreading contraceptives, and draws this conclusion: ‘Through its silence about the structures that support diffusion and its implicit assumption that the place of origin is superior to the place of destination, the notion of diffusion in fact supports a political project, that of justifying efforts to spread modern contraceptives to benighted “traditional” people. Unintentional though it may be, demographic research serves the political goal of “making them more like us.” In [441 abov.
  • A. Razzaq, A. Keynote paper. Seminar on the Cairo Conference on Population and Development: Human Rights and Moral Issue. 1994. Quoted in Amin and Hossain. [38] abov.

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