The term gender apartheid, like sex apartheid, is a term used to describe economic and social sexual discrimination against women, including strict sex segregation,[1] as well as an "absence of justice for women in much of the non-Western world."[2] It is used especially to describe treatment of women in Muslim societies. However, fundamentalist strains of Christianity, Judaism and Buddhism also have been described as practicing "gender apartheid."[3][4]
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The word "apartheid" - for "apart" - originated in South Africa under racial apartheid. Among other things, the government forbade African women from living with their husbands who worked in the mines, which Ali Mazrui describes as "gender apartheid."[5] Some human rights advocates have argued for sanctions against states practicing gender apartheid, similar to those imposed on South Africa under apartheid.[6][2]
Women's rights activist Mahnaz Afkhami writes that the fundamentalist world view “singles out women’s status and her relations to society as the supreme test of the authenticity of the Islamic order.” This is symbolized by the institutions of Purdah (physical separation of the sexes) and Awrah (concealing the body with clothing). As in much of the world, institutions suppressing women were becoming less powerful until the resurgence of Islamic fundamentalism at the end of the 20th century.[7] Walid Phares writes that Marxism in the Soviet Union nations and China and "secular anticlericalism" in Turkey forced women to "integrate themselves into an antireligious society" resulting in a backlash of "gender apartheid" by Islamic fundamentalists. He notes that other religions also have "witnessed similar historical struggles."[8] Phyllis Chesler describes Islamic gender apartheid as being "characterized by normalized daughter- and wife-battering, forced veiling, female genital mutilation, polygamy, purdah, (the segregation or sequestration of women), arranged marriage, child marriage, first cousin marriage" and punishment for not complying with these.[9] Several Muslim nations have been criticized for practicing "gender apartheid":
Afghanistan, under Taliban religious leadership, has been characterized by feminist groups and others as a "gender apartheid" system where women are segregated from men in public and do not enjoy legal equality or equal access to employment or education.[10] The Feminist Majority Foundation launched a "Campaign for Afghan Women & Girls" denouncing gender apartheid.[11] According to the Women's Human Rights Resource Programme of the University of Toronto Bora Laskin Law Library "Throughout the duration of Taliban rule in Afghanistan, the term "Gender Apartheid" was used by a number of women's rights advocates to convey the message that the rights violations experience by Afghan women were in substance no different than those experienced by blacks in Apartheid South Africa." [12]
In 2006 Marina Mahathir, the daughter of Malaysia's former Prime Minister, and a campaigner for women's rights, described the status of Muslim women in Malaysia as similar to that of Black South Africans under apartheid. She stated "In our country, there is an insidious growing form of apartheid among Malaysian women, that between Muslim and non-Muslim women."[13][14] The Malaysian Muslim Professionals Forum criticized her comments stating "Her prejudiced views and assumptions smack of ignorance of the objectives and methodology of the Sharia, and a slavish capitulation to western feminism's notions of women's rights, gender equality and sexuality." Dr Harlina Halizah Siraj, women's chief of the reform group Jamaah Islah Malaysia said "Women in Malaysia are given unlimited opportunities to obtain high education level, we are free to choose our profession and career besides enjoying high standard of living with our families."[13]
Saudi Arabia's practices with respect women have been referred to as "gender apartheid".[15][16] Women’s rights activist Wajiha Al-Huwaidar describes Saudi Arabia as the ‘gender apartheid kingdom.’[17] Azar Majedi, of the Centre for Women and Socialism, attributes sexual apartheid in Saudi Arabia to political Islam: "Women are the first victims of political Islam and Islamic terrorist gangs. Sexual apartheid, stoning, compulsory Islamic veil and covering and stripping women of all rights are the fruits of this reactionary and fascistic movement."[18] According to The Guardian, "[i]n the kingdom of Saudi Arabia, sexual apartheid rules": "The kingdom's sexual apartheid is enforced, in a crude fashion, by the religious police, the mutawa. Thuggish, bigoted and with little real training in Islamic law, they are much feared in some areas but also increasingly ridiculed. In Jeddah - a more laid-back city than Riyadh - they are rarely seen nowadays.[19]
The terms gender apartheid and sexual apartheid have also been used to describe differential treatment of women in institutions such as the Church of England[20] or the Roman Catholic Church. See, for example, Patricia Budd Kepler in her 1978 Theology Today article "Women Clergy and the Cultural Order".[21] Courtney W. Howland describes the patriarchal family structure of evangelical Christian churches in America as maintaining gender apartheid.[22]
Nora Ephron, who worked as a journalist in Japan, described it as a "society of 'gender apartheid.'"[23] Peter Gran writes that the treatment of prostitutes in many societies is gender apartheid upheld by the state.[24] Attorney Gloria Allred called the Boy Scouts of America refusal to admit girls "gender apartheid."[25]