Women's Empowerment and the Feminization of Poverty among

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alternatives and the ability to have chosen otherwise,” based on Amaryta Sen’s focus of ‘power’within empowerment (Kabeer, 1999: 437; Sen, 1985).In the field of development, this equation between power and choice requires the input ofgender subjectivity to complete the conceptualization of women’s empowerment. The importanceof a gender ‘lens’ to examine the gender-poverty nexus stems from the common misconception thatgender is synonymous with women. As gender does refer to the multidimensional process ofimages, ideas, differences, and hierarchies becoming socially institutionalized practices, using agender lens keeps away from solidifying gendered poverty concepts that are in reality diversified bythe varying circumstances of social groups (Davids and Driel, 2010: 108). Importantly, GADresearcher Sylvia Chant further connects gendered subjectivities across different levels, domainsand cultural understandings as the “way people imagine and experience the nature and value of theembodied, gendered self, and how they orient themselves within a set of relationships thatpractically and ethically define a complex moral terrain” (2010: 37). Processes of economic andpolitical transformations can both undermine and solidify current cultural and socialunderstandings, which shape gendered subjectivities, particularly in societies where differences ofpower and choice pervade social relations (Ibid.: 38).The reality of gender subjectivity gives way to a notion of self that sacrifices individuality toaccommodate imposed gender roles. In studies of gender alienation, societies can negate gender of‘the other’ and lose appreciation, respect, and tolerance of ‘the other,’ an aspect advanced by DanielGhanim in his gender studies of violence in the Middle East (2009: 79). As the concept ofempowerment includes a process of change in the image of self, it inherently requires a healthyrelationship to ‘the other.’ Ghanim argues that the social constructions of masculinity and femininityexaggerate differences and oppositions between categories of active males and passive females,which does not afford “a healthy socially existing self and unconstrained interactions with the other,[which] are both basic human rights that any society should guarantee its citizens, regardless oftheir sex” (Ibid.: 79).An example of such a disruptive societal structure that forces women to live a dividedprivate and public life is patriarchy, which Dwyer and Bruce argue as repressive of women’ssexuality, emotions, aspirations, and individualities on both a gender and generational level (1988:193). In anthropological literature on sexuality, patriarchal society holds a double-standard norm ofheterosexual relationships in that female sexual activity is prevalent to shame and dishonor, “a verycommon societal response to the sexual maturation of males and females” (Davis, 1989: 133).5
In recognition of the importance of both Chant’s cross-cultural consideration of gendersubjectivity and Dwyer and Bruce’s assertion that the denial of a natural right like sexuality canmake it “easy for society to deny other natural rights such as access to wealth and decision-makingcapabilities,” it is vital to note the Islamic feminism approach toward women’s empowerment inorder to then contextualize the present study on the Muslim society of rural Morocco (Dwyer andBruce, 1988: 192). A strong opposition between secular feminism and Islamic feminism thrives infeminist reform models, leaving no middle-ground in the debate. The Qur’anic interpretation ofgender equality remains the theoretical core of Islamic feminism (Badran, 2006). Secular feministslike Haideh Moghissi present a valid deconstruction of the merits of Islamic feminism in the contextof social theory as “an apologist philosophy that serves to undermine the liberal goals of secularfeminism while legitimating an inherently unjust religion” (Ibid.).Through his comparative analysis of the grassroots movement of family code reforms acrossthe Maghreb, Brian Archer demonstrates how secular feminism may be a reasonable challenge toIslamic feminism; however, he more convincingly shows the gains that Muslim women are makingvia an Islamic feminist framework (Archer, 2007: 50). In the example of Moroccan women’sempowerment, the Islamic feminist reform model used in the 2004 Moudawana 1 reforms “seeks toutilize the egalitarian tenets of Islam as a basis upon which to expose and undermine the unjustnature of misogynistic family laws; it engenders progressive change” (Ibid.). Theoretically,“attempts at reforming family laws anywhere in Islamic societies can never be a truly feministendeavor, seeing how any legal changes would occur within a politico-socio-religious system inwhich men wield ultimate control” (Ibid.: 51). Moghissi opposes Islamic feminists for ignoring the“very real suffering experienced by Muslim women whose agency is genuinely stifled byoppressive norms and practices” (1999: 43).I fault secular feminism in practice in the Moroccan example only, because it “seeks todefine all women primarily in terms of their gender, often at the expense of one’s religiousidentity….a rejection of what for many Muslim women forms the core of their selfidentity”(Archer, 2007: 57). Alternatively, Islamic feminism is a legitimate and effective movementtoward women’s empowerment in Muslim societies, because it’s an ideology that “expresslyacknowledges that for many Muslim women, their self-identity as believers precedes their genderedidentification” (Ibid.: 53). The 2004 revision of Moudawana made it “the most gender-egalitarianShar’ia-grounded civil code” (Badran, 2006). Ultimately, the Moroccan Islamic feminist reformmodel sparked an “inter-Islamic phenomenon produced by Muslims at various locations around the1Moudawana is the Moroccan Islamic Code of Personal Status and Inheritance, also referred to as Family Code.6
Page 4 and 5: I. INTRODUCTIONAttitudes about gend
Page 6: II. ANALYSIS OF EXISTING LITERATURE
Page 11 and 12: women’s empowerment, the feminiza
Page 13 and 14: “Although women are often victims
Page 15 and 16: III. METHODOLOGYThis chapter begins
Page 17 and 18: Phase IOf the four phases of my pri
Page 19 and 20: acutely aware of the limitations of
Page 21 and 22: Despite the very recent historical
Page 23 and 24: (Ibid.: 716). In sum, de jure Mouda
Page 25 and 26: change which requires a period of a
Page 27 and 28: Cultural situationAnalyzing Morocca
Page 29 and 30: defiance of tradition, and society
Page 31 and 32: there is faith in the city’s life
Page 33 and 34: originally from Agadir, Ouled Berhi
Page 35 and 36: Dwyer’s observation that “a str
Page 37 and 38: Social networksSocial networks can
Page 39 and 40: dimension. When asked to identify h
Page 41 and 42: VI. CONCLUSIONThe participatory res
Page 43: BIBLIOGRAPHYAbiad, N. (2008) Sharia
Page 46 and 47: McIlwaine, C. (2012c) “Women’s
Page 48 and 49: InterviewsEch Chenna, Aicha, Presid
Page 50: Appendix B - Focus groupAimTo find

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