Blog si Feminis

“Feminism is western lifestyle. Therefore, as eastern
people, we are not to follow it because it is not our culture. It can
be added too that feminism is against Islamic teachings. Consequently,
as eastern Muslim, we are forbidden to give green light to feminism to
“intrude” our way of life.”

How often have you read such a statement? Or probably, how often have you stated such a doubt about feminism?
To
counter such a doubt (I just got such an accusation at my blog at
http://afemaleguest.multiply.com) in this writing, first of all I’d
like to cite the definition of culture I took from “World Book 2005”
(the digital version).

“Culture is a term used by
social scientists for a way of life. … People are not born with any
knowledge of a culture. They generally learn a culture by growing up in
a particular society. … Therefore, one of its characteristics is that
culture is acquired through learning, not through biological
inheritance. Children take on the culture in which they are raised
through enculturation.“

Hundred thousands years
ago, our ancestors moved from one place to another place. They could
move from the east to the west, or on the way around, from the west to
the east. They would bring their habits (read => culture) wherever
they would go. When the era of ‘nomad’ ended (this started especially
after women invented agriculture), they would develop their culture in
their respective place, based on their way of thinking. Different
places absolutely would create different ‘culture’.
Meanwhile,
gender bias has been on men’s minds since immemorial time. The
“invention” of some celestial religions would strengthen it since those
religions were “invented” by men. Therefore, no matter whether one
culture was developed in the east or in the west, apparently those
cultures had one similarity, the marginalization of women.
Perhaps
you still remember the glory of Islamic nations with their ‘cultures’
many centuries ago. Muslim scientists invented many things. However,
the fight among three Abrahamic faiths (to win “the prize” as the most
righteous religion) made those nations left behind. I assume that it
was due to the unnecessary fight. Therefore, when the western nations
progressed with their sciences, way of thinking, advanced inventions,
etc, the eastern nations were even in the dark age.
Related to
that, it is very understandable when women in the west started to
question why they were marginalized first while women in the east were
still ‘dumb’. However, to say that feminism ideology is ‘western’ and
that it is not appropriate for the eastern women, with reason that it
is not our culture is very shallow.
Started with the first women
summit in Seneca Falls in 1848, American women (read  western women)
began struggling for equality. The printing machine and publishing
companies obviously were more developed there rather than, in Indonesia
let’s say, in that era. Although those women were attacked by the cult
of true womanhood (where one of its tenet was that women were not
allowed to write because writing was men’s sphere), they still produced
writings to protest.
In Indonesia, around the same era, very few
women got their chance to get education. It is understandable then if
they could not pour out their protest in a form of writings. However,
we have one very good example of it, R.A. Kartini with her letters to
her Dutch friends. She protested why she could not continue her study
to a higher level. She also questioned why her fellow women citizens
were not allowed to get education at all. I believe many other women
also questioned similar things, only their protests were not recorded
appropriately.
It is also underestimating to say that women in the
east are not supposed to follow the struggle for equality. In other
words, it can be said that those women cannot perceive the unequal
treatment they get from the society, using ‘culture’ as the tool. (e.g.
by saying “feminism ideology is just not eastern culture.”)
At the
beginning of its ‘birth’, we know that feminism was proposed by white,
middle class women so that it did not really represent the whole women
in all nations. Therefore, to accommodate this lack, more kinds of
feminisms appeared, where one of them is multicultural feminism. Their
emergence apparently has made feminism ideology something down to
earth, something very common in women’s lives for women living in the
developing countries.
Culture is often used as a scapegoat to
refuse a new thing. It is ‘abused’ in a form that human being is not a
free creature to use their awareness to value something. As I have
cited above, culture is acquired through learning. There is no wrong
when someone has different way of thinking, or different value as long
as they do not harm the society. They have different ways to view
culture through their learning, using their common sense, and not just
passively follow what the crowd considers as ‘culture’.
To end
this writing, whether feminism ideology is western or eastern
‘culture’, it is no longer important. The more important thing is that
using our common sense and awareness to view a piece of culture is
appropriate for our lives or not. Afterwards, respect other people’s
values in the hope that they will respect our values too.
PT56 13.35 210108

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