india
In contrast to Pakistan and Bangladesh the Mus-
lims in India had the disadvantage of being a
minority community. Muslim women were doubly
disadvantaged. Lacking national or visionary lead-
ership, the voices and experiences of Muslim
women are represented by male Muslims claiming
to represent the entire community. The restrictive
agendas of Islamist organizations like Jamiat-e-
Ulema Hind and Jamaat-e-Islami, which focus on
retention of Sharì≠a laws, have limited Indian gov-
ernments’ capacity to take legislative measures to
end discrimination in personal laws for Muslim
women. Sharì≠a laws became a major contested
issue in the late 1980s when the Supreme Court
passed a judgment in favor of women. It was sup-
ported by women’s organizations but rejected by
the Islamist parties. The 1990s, however, saw the
emergence of Muslim civil society organizations
such as the Muslim Intelligentsia Forum that ques-
tioned the authority of Muslim political and reli-
gious leaders. The National Commission for
Women held a series of public hearings on Muslim
women to highlight the economic problems faced
by them. Several Muslim women also started to dis-
cuss specific reforms in Muslim personal laws.
These efforts symbolize Muslims’ determination to
challenge existing Sharì≠a laws and renegotiate
ideas on women’s rights.
Conclusion
What are the challenges for Muslim women’s
civic and political engagement in South Asia? First,
for the majority of Muslim women, poverty, illiter-
acy, lack of education, employment, and income
still remain the major constraints. Upper-middle-
class women dominate among activists and leaders.
Second, the gradual erosion of the elite’s commit-
ment to secular ideology and the ascendance of reli-
gious extremists since the 1980s pose another
threat. In Pakistan and Bangladesh the power of
Islamist forces has gradually increased under the
patronage of military regimes supported by the
United States. The democratically elected govern-
ments in the 1990s did not vigorously defend secu-
lar ideology, as did the founding fathers. Finally,
increasing corruption of electoral politics (for
example, the dominant role of black money and
muscle men to capture votes) deters women’s par-
ticipation in democratic parties (Jahan 1994).
Women’s organizations pursue multiple strate-
gies to address these challenges. They consistently
demand greater investment in social sectors to
reduce gender gaps in human development. Many
NGOs also address these issues. Often women’s
turkey 55organizations are the lone voices protesting at the
extremist religious organizations. However, the
women’s organizations have yet to devise effective
strategies to counter political corruption, which
has excluded the majority of women from partici-
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Women’s activism and politicized religion in South
Asia, New York 1998.Rounaq JahanTurkeyIt is widely argued that civil society flourished in
Turkey in the 1980s. Social scientists estimate that
there were approximately 60,000 associations by
the late 1990s and that women’s organizations con-
stituted 0.3 percent of all non-governmental organ-
izations (NGOs) (Kalaycıo(lu 2002, Pusch 2003).
In 2000, there were 179 registered women’s NGOs
(Pusch 2000, 483). Women’s activism in the public
realm contributed to the democratization process
in the country, particularly through its resonance in
public discourse, regardless of ideological stand or
numerical strength. If democracy is self-rule, women
contributed to democratization in the country by
challenging the state and demanding that state
institutions respond to women’s needs as women
defined these needs themselves. In a context with a
strong state tradition where state defined what the
best interests of its citizens were, such a challenge
was a significant step in self-rule. At another level,
women’s activism within civil society contributed
to the process of democratization by helping liber-
alize the polity. A liberal context where individ-
ual, civil, or sociopolitical rights are respected is a