Women’s activism and politicized religion in South
Asia, New York 1998.
S. Lateef, Muslim women in India. Political and private
realities 1890s–1980s, New Delhi 1990.
F. Mernissi, The fundamentalist obsession with women,
Lahore 1975.
——,Beyond the veil. Male-female dynamics in modern
Muslim society, Bloomington, Ind. 1987.
S. Sutherland (ed.), Bridging worlds. Studies on women in
South Asia, New Delhi 1992.
UNESCO reports, <www.unescap.org/huset/women/
reports>.
S. White, Arguing with the crocodile. Gender and class in
Bangladesh, Dhaka 1992.
Sudha RatanSub-Saharan AfricaWomen in predominantly Muslim societies in
Sub-Saharan Africa have been part of the move-
ments that have shaped the African political land-
scape from the pre-independence period of the late
1950s and 1960s up until today. Recent develop-
ments have shown that Muslim women are assum-
ing political leadership today as they did during the
nationalist movements.
In Kenya, for example, Muslim women in the
late 1950s were involved through the Muslim
Women’s Institute and Moslem Women’s Cultural
Association in a movement to petition the colonial
authorities to scrap legislation that did not allow
coastal women, who were primarily Muslim, to
vote. They argued against the voting policy on the
grounds that it was discriminatory because women
in other parts of the country were allowed to vote
after 1956. Once this victory was won, they initi-
ated campaigns to get women to vote.
In Tanganyika (today Tanzania), Muslim women
such as Bibi Titi were leaders of the independence
movement from the outset, while others were
socialized into political activities through dance
groups, networks of food sellers and other self-
employed women. Because they were organized as
Muslim women into such groups they were consid-
ered harmless by the colonial authorities and easily
eluded their suspicions. Nevertheless, these women
formed the backbone of the nationalist movement
and were critical to the success of the Tanganyika
African National Union (TANU) and its women’s
wing that led the country to independence.
In the post-independence period up until the
mid-1980s, women throughout Africa were active
in the politically motivated and patronage driven
women’s wings and mass women’s organizations
that dominated women’s mobilization at the national
level. They were typically led by female relatives of
sub-saharan africa 561state and party leaders, and primarily served the
ruling party by garnering votes, and serving social
functions of dancing, singing, and cooking food for
party dignitaries.
In the mid 1980s new movements emerged that
were distinct from these earlier women’s organiza-
tions which had been tied to the single party. The
new organizations were autonomous from the rul-
ing party in terms of leadership, funding, and agen-
das. They took up issues ranging from increasing
women’s political presence, women’s education and
literacy, reproductive rights issues, to women’s legal
rights in areas of inheritance, marriage, divorce,
land ownership, and citizenship. Some organiza-
tions addressed issues such as violence against
women, domestic violence, and sexual harassment.
In Senegal, Kenya, Mali, Burkina Faso, and Chad
there have been major initiatives to end the practice
of female genital mutilation (FGM). Women have
sought legislative and constitutional changes to im-
prove the status of women.
In some countries women’s organizations ad-
dressed the disparaging portrayal of women in the
media. In Tanzania, Muslim women were members
and leaders of the new generation of women’s
rights organizations. The very earliest of these new
organizations, founded in 1979, the Tanzania Media
Women’s Association (TAMWA), was formed by
Muslim women and had a strong Muslim women’s
presence in its leadership.
The 1990s also saw the beginnings of a new wave
of movements attempting to bring about multi-
partyism, civilian rule, and democratization in
Africa. Women in predominantly Muslim countries
were at the forefront of these movements. In Mali,
thousands of demonstrating women and children
were shot at by forces of President Moussa Traoré
in a series of events that led to his downfall in 1991.
In Sierra Leone, women were the only group to
openly defy soldiers as they demonstrated to
demand that free elections be held when rumors
began to circulate that the military might postpone
the February 1996 elections. In Conakry, Guinea,
women organized a sit-in in front of the presiden-
tial palace in a support of a 1990 general strike of
workers and student demonstrations, and to pro-
test at the economic crisis, which they blamed on
the country’s leadership. In Niger, several thousand
women demonstrated in protest at the exclusion of
women representatives from the preparatory com-
mission charged with organizing the national con-
ference in 1991 (only one woman was included out
of 68 delegates). In the end, five women were added
to the delegate list of the national conference to
decide on the country’s future.