Posted: September 13th, 2017

Do Muslim women really need saving? Anthropoligical reflections on cultural r… Lila Abu-Lughod American Anthropologist; Sep 2002; 104, 3; Research Library Core

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Do Muslim women really need saving? Anthropoligical reflections on cultural r…
Lila Abu-Lughod
American Anthropologist; Sep 2002; 104, 3; Research Library Core
pg. 783
P LlLA ABU-LUGHOD
Ethics Forum: September 11 and Ethnographic Responsibility
Do Muslim Women Really Need Savmg?
Anthropological Reflections on Cultural
RelatIVIsm and Its Others
ABSTRACT This article explores the ethics of the current “War on Terrorism,” asking whether anthropology, the discipline devoted
to understanding and dealing with cultural difference, can provide us with critical purchase on the justifications made for American
intervention in Afghanistan in terms of liberating, or saving, Afghan women. I look first at the dangers of reifying culture, apparent in
the tendencies to plaster neat cultural icons like the Muslim woman over messy historical and political dynamics. Then, calling attention
to the resonances of contemporary discourses on equality, freedom, and rights with earlier colonial and missionary rhetoric on Muslim
women, I argue that we need to develop, instead, a serious appreciation of differences among women in the world-as products Of
different histories, expressions of different circumstances, and manifestations of differently structured desires. Further, I argue that
rather than seeking to “save” others (with the superiority it implies and the violences it would entail) we might better think in terms of
(1) working with them in situations that we recognize as always subject to historical transformation and (2) considering our own larger
responsibilities to address the forms Of global injustice that are powerful shapers of the worlds in which they find themselves. I develop
many of these arguments about the limits Of “cultural relativism ” through a consideration of the burqa and the many meanings of veil-
ing in the Muslim world. [Keywordsz cultural relativism, Muslim women, Afghanistan war, freedom, global injustice, colonialism]
WHAT ARE THE ETHICS of the current “War on studies programs where “transnational feminism” is now
Terrorism,” a war that justifies itself by purport- being taken seriously, it has a certain integrity (see Satire 2001).
ing to liberate, or save, Afghan women? Does anthropol- My discomfort led me to reflect on why, as feminists in
ogy have anything to offer in our search for a viable posi- or from the West, or Simply as people Who haVe concerns
tion to take regarding this rationale for war? about women’s lives, we need to be wary of this response to
Iwas led to pose the question of my title in part because the events and aftermath of September 11, 2001. I want to
of the way I personally experienced the response to the U.S. point out the minefields-a metaphor that is sadly too apt
war in Afghanistan. Like many colleagues whose work has for a country like Afghanistan, with the world’s highest
focused on women and gender in the Middle East, Iwas del- number of mines per capita-of this obsession with the
uged with invitations to speak-not just on news programs plight of Muslim women. I hope to Show some way through
but also to various departments at colleges and universities, them using insights from anthropology, the discipline whose
especially women’s studies programs, Why did this not please charge has been to understand and manage cultural differ-
me, a scholar who has devoted more than 20 years of her life ence. At the same time, I want to remain critical of anthro-
to this subject and who has some complicated persona] con- pology’s complicity in the reification of cultural difference.
nection to this identity? Here was an opportunity to spread
the word, disseminate my knowledge, and correct misunder- CULTURAL EXPLANATIONS AND THE MOB’L’ZATION
standings. The urgent search for knowledge about our sister 0′: WOMEN
women of cover” (as President George Bush so marvelously It is easier to see why one should be skeptical about the fo-
called them) is laudable and when it comes from women’s cus on the “Muslim woman” if one begins with the US.
AMERICAN ANTHROPOLOGIST iO4(3):783-790. COPYRIGHT © 2002, AMERICAN ANTHROPOLOGICAL ASSOCIATION
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.

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