Against political Islam : Women's liberation is not a luxury for rich countries

Iran in fight

This article, dated September 2005 and published on the site of ICAHK (International Campaign Against Honor Killings) on the blog Yasmina 17 not specific to Iran, but is a good answer to the designs of some "anti-imperialist left" against the claims of Iranian women and more generally all those with stripes of political Islam.

From the Maghreb to the Middle East, Caucasus Pakistan, everyone says "Arab-Muslim[1] "Faces the rise of what is called political Islam, integrism or fundamentalism. We use the term political Islam, term that best defines, according to U.S, this heterogeneous stream. Indeed, the common point of all these groups or parties, whether the FIS and the GIA in Algeria, Hamas and Islamic Jihad in Palestine, Hezbollah in Lebanon, Taliban in Afghanistan, etc. is that they are based on the strict interpretation of Islam as the basis of their political project. We will seek further analyze in more detail the current, with their differences, and also their common points. Note that this current, with organizations such as the UOIF (Union of Islamic Organizations of France), theorists like Tariq Ramadan, also tries to locate in immigration "from Islam" in Europe in general, and in the immigrant working class in particular. In the current period, characterized by an offensive of the middle class and position in the best defensive proletarian, it is indeed not surprising that reactionary ideas are gaining ground, and in all countries (he just has to see the rise of racism, xenophobia, superstitions of all kinds in the imperialist countries). What, On the other hand, is more amazing, is that the extreme left groups, claiming Marxism[2] or anarchism, have some indulgence for Islamist reactionaries, up support in the name of "anti-imperialism" or "anti-racism".

Political Islam, a reactionary current

Political Islam is a motley nebula of groups and politico-religious parties. There are as many Shiites as Sunnis, legal and legalistic parties and armed groups, anti-American and other pro-American organizations, some organizations, like Hezbollah, serving the interests of Syria, financed by Iran or Saudi Arabia. In countries like Iraq or Afghanistan, on trouve des islamistes a hand in the Courts fantoches au service of Imperialism and in the combat here Guerilla Imperialism. In Algeria, rivalries between the GIA and the FIS have turned into armed conflict between these two groups. Short, divisions and subdivisions are many in this movement. However, in addition to their ideological base, the strictest possible reading of the Qur'an and Sunnah as a political foundation, there are other similarities between these groups. In a text dating 1992, Palestinian feminist group Al-Fanar[3] described as follows "fundamental assertions of fundamentalism" :

« 1. The crisis of the Arab society -, by nature, is Islamic (according fundamentalist) and even constitutes "a naturally Islamic society" - was born from the fact that the company distanced itself from the divine commandments of Islam and its elite have been infected with a Western origin Jahaliyah. It is generally thought that the Jahaliyah term refers to the pre-Islamic period. In fact, this term does not refer to a specific historical period, but rather in a context where society is governed by laws "man-made" and not by divine laws.

2. Arab society can only be saved by the struggle for an Islamic state, including the Arab peoples are the basic elements ; a state where Sharia, (Islamic law) will be the only law, interpreted by the Supreme Ulimah, not by a secular government.

3. Democracy, legality, national liberation, Socialism and communism are the agents of "cultural imperialism" whose aim is to destroy Islam, to conquer the materialist Jahaliyah, hedonistic and individualistic.

4. All movements that adhere to the principles above (democracy, etc.) are the enemies of Islam and therefore, also, Arab society. According fundamentalists, the proof is that Muslims as members of other communities collaborate in these movements. The struggle for the triumph of these values ​​is corrupt and vile and must be fought.

5. The height of Western corruption, according fundamentalist, is feminism and women's liberation movement, that combine egalitarian and democratic values ​​and apply to women. Women who are active in these movements are corrupt and licentious, and are renegade which it is permissible to shed the blood. In addition, All this applies to any person who supports.

Imbued with these assertions, fundamentalism works to preserve and strengthen the patriarchal society and its institutions ; and more specifically of the patriarchal family, which is the basic unit of the patriarchal social order "on private property". This relationship clearly transpires in demagogic claims of fundamentalism, Firstly, promotes equality and wants people to be satisfied with little, And on the other hand, promotes charity and wants the rich assist poor. In other words, do charity replace the need to transform the existing social order. »

These "fundamental assertions of fundamentalism" may indeed define the set of organizations claiming to political Islam, whether related or opposite to imperialism. And this is how, wherever political Islam influences, it employs the most violent methods against the workers' movement, communist, freethinkers and more broadly progressive. Since their origins, Muslim Brothers consider "international communism" as one of their main enemies, and this anti-communism Islamist has never denied. In January 1995, GIA publishes a statement in which he asks, in exchange for the end of the war, Algerian government to "ban all communist parties and atheists as evidence of the will power to fight the enemies of God[4] », Speaking of the Palestinian nationalist movements, Hamas says in its charter that "encourages as long as they do not pay allegiance to the communist East and the Crusaders of the West [5]», without speaking, more recently, multiple fatwas of the alleged Iraqi "resistance" condemning many activists Communist workers to death, Fatwas unfortunately acted upon. Picking up the theses of classical racist anti-Semitism, Hamas as other groups of political Islam, considers that "the Jews" were behind the French Revolution or the October Revolution 1917. Moreover, it should be noted that even when they are attacking imperialism, groups of political Islam, like any Bourgeois and reactionary fraction, always prefer an alliance with imperialism that socialism. When working Uprising 1991 a Iraq, was able to attend a "holy alliance" of Islamists, des baasistes, Kurdish nationalism and imperialism against the proletariat. Saudi Arabia, countries where there is the most obscurantist Islamism and finances many Islamic groups around the world, has always been an ally of US imperialism, and we must not forget that the al-Qaeda network and the Taliban were trained and financed by the US when it came to fighting the Red Army in Afghanistan.

In 1980, Giscard did not err when he explained : "To fight communism we need to oppose an ideology. West, we have nothing. This is why we must support Islam ". Support to religion, the opium of the people, support to fundamentalist currents of political Islam, there is only one step, the imperialist leaders have not bothered to cross : and if US support for the Taliban in Afghanistan is known, It may be recalled that the State of Israel has encouraged the development of Hamas in the mid 70. "" The Islamic associations and the university received all the encouragement the military government "in charge of the administration of the West Bank and Gaza, wrote in October 1987, Israeli weekly, Koteret Rashit, quoted by the World 18 November 1987, adding that they "were allowed to bring money from abroad" . The Islamists create orphanages and clinics, set up a school network, confections workshops for female employment, and provide financial assistance to the needy. a one 1978, they create an "Islamic University" in Gaza. Rashit added Koteret : "The military government was convinced that these activities would weaken the PLO and the leftist organizations in Gaza. »End 1992, there were six hundred mosques in Gaza. And it is so, thanks to Mossad, Islamists have spun their webs, in the shade of ruthless repression hitting the Fatah and Palestinian left " [6].

The anti-feminism, cement of political Islam

There is another point of fundamental agreement of the various currents of political Islam, point on which it bases the bulk of its action and its propaganda, whether Islamist factions pro- or anti-American, it is his hatred of women. Thus Al-Fanar says :

"The fundamentalist movement rejects nationalism while participating in the struggle for national liberation ; abhors democracy while being in favor of elections ; rejects the principle of national equality while using the same principle when the masses are fighting for access ; condemns luxury while financing its newspapers by advertising Western goods such as luxury cars, men's underwear, etc. ; hate the sport as "barbaric Western values" while forming Islamic football teams. However, the question of the liberation and equality of women is the only one on which the Islamic movement is not prepared at all to compromise. Without hesitation or compromise, the movement implements its assertion that the status accorded to women in Islam is the most correct and best (provided "that they know to stand in their place"). For fundamentalists, the women's liberation movement is the central enemy, because the whole patriarchal society, which defends the existence fundamentalism, based on the oppression of women. »

An entire encyclopedia would not suffice to summarize all crimes, in every country, by Islamist militants against women. in Palestine, The Hamas's, dice its origins, promised the return of housewives, launched campaigns to impose the hijab, opposes any attempt to improve the status of women, and refers to feminist activists as "Westernized, supported by Western organizations in order to destroy the Islamic nation based on the family unit, by inciting riot and revolt "[7]. And the words of anti-feminists order to add acts of terror, as was most recently shown running Yousra by Hamas killers in Gaza in April 2005. And so we talked about the crime at the time, it is not an isolated case, Islamists constitutes "policies of morals" in different localities of the Gaza Strip and West Bank. In Algeria, FIS as the GIA have made their priority target women, terrorizing those who refused the prison of hijab, then raping and murdering thousands of women. Islamist warlords, if they are puritans when it comes to women's sexuality, write fatwas favoring rape. So, in September 1997, the emir of the GIA publishes a fatwa stating "In the name of Allah the Merciful, the woman belongs to you when you gave Emir. Make what you want. She jarya (slave)[8]. "And Iraq, at the congress of the Mujahideen held at the Fallujah 20 October 2004, Abdulla Al-Janabi and Falluja Islamic Council issued a fatwa decreeing that the Mujahideen must rape the girls from the age 10 years, before they are by the Americans ! Regarding Iraq, we note that the two opposing currents of political Islam, those who collaborate with the occupation and those involved in the alleged "resistance", have at least one common point, that of being supportive of women's oppression. While the "resistant" murder of women because they refuse to be locked under the hijab, because they want to work, study and show some independence from patriarchal power, pro-American Islamists seek to impose a constitution based on Sharia. As written Yanar Mohammed, President of the Organization for Freedom of Women in Iraq : "The draft constitution mentions in his article 14, the repeal of the current law and merely refers to family law, in addition to the Islamic Sharia and other religious codes in Iraq. In other words, it makes women vulnerable to all forms of inequality and social discrimination, and makes them second class citizens, halves of human beings. [9]"And in Northwest Pakistan, a coalition of Islamist parties in power have continued to attack the USA, while denying such women to attend examinations where the jury would be male.

Note that on the issue of women, European Islamists do not say anything other than their stooges Maghreb or Mashreq. Thus the European Council of Fatwa and Research has published the Tawhid editions 2002, its "Legal Notice European Muslims"[10] where we read :

"The husband has the right to forbid his wife to visit a specific woman, Muslim or not, if he fears this wrong door or harm his wife or his children, or his married life [11]»

or

"This modesty is a praiseworthy quality both in men than in women, but it is even more in women and more consistent with his feminine nature. That's what that, usually, it does not take the initiative to speak to men who are foreign, (…) The important thing is that the Act does not prohibit a woman talking to a man or vice versa in case of need, if the words are within the limits of lawful and consistent with its standards. [12]»

We could also add examples of profoundly anti-feminist character, and even wider anti-women (is it necessary to take the examples of Saudi laws, Iranian or Afghanistan ?), of political Islam, and we could also develop other reactionary themes of this movement. For course, this movement is deeply homophobic, anti-Semite, and the concept of unity of the umma (the community of believers), like all ideologies-classist, rejects any autonomy of the working class. However, anti-feminism is the most important ideological cement of political Islam.

current motley, where there is both an expression of middle-class frustration and popular face layers imperialist domination and corruption of states up, support existing bourgeois state (like Syria if Hezbollah), of Iran et même de régimes féodaux (Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates), the refusal of "progress" seen as a form of "colonialism" and therefore the defense of the Middle ageuses traditions, sometimes ally, sometimes opposite to Western imperialism, dressed in a speech apparently "revolutionary" reactionary designs, mass movement in some countries, have parties, armed groups, charitable organizations and various networks, this movement is not unlike fascism. We do not see one fundamental difference : in Europe, Fascism appeared in the heart of the imperialist countries, while political Islam grows in not dominated. So we do not answer the question whether the term fascism, or green fascism, truly or not apply to political Islam[13], but it should be borne in mind the similarities between the two movements. And if the Islamist movement in itself forms a motley, each group claiming is itself a tote aspirations and sometimes contradictory interests. If there are interests of certain states, dominant feudal cliques, bourgeoises fractions, and warlords, these groups manage to exploit the working classes of frustration for a mass audience. Or, respectful of private property and their wealthy financiers, Islamist groups can bring to the masses an improvement in their living conditions, hence the need to offer to their base to evacuate their frustrations by attacking women. In this sense, Islamist groups can, according to the interests of their funders and ambitions of their leaders, accept all reversals jacket, says Taliban "moderates" can ally with US imperialism, but there is a point in their program that will never change, their anti-feminism, their contempt for women. In this sense, anti-feminism to political Islam plays the same role cement has played Semitism in Nazism.

From colonialism to independence

The main argument against Islamist militant feminists is to accuse them of being "westernized, supported by Western organizations in order to destroy the Islamic nation based on the family unit ", Wholesale they would be a kind of Trojan horse of imperialism or colonialism. Or, colonialism, exactly, never broke or even sought to break the patriarchal oppression of reports in the dominated countries. In Algeria, for example, French colonialism never abolished polygamy, repudiation or wider Islamic and traditional law applied before colonization. Note also that the laws of the particular personal status continue to apply in the French overseas territories, as the application of a local Muslim law in Mayotte or customary law in New Caledonia for the "natives", or for immigrant women, as demonstrated by the Franco-Moroccan Convention 1981 which states that "the reference to the law of either State means the internal law in that State to the exclusion of private international law" (art. 3). In other words, a Moroccan woman in France will be governed, in case of family conflict, filiation conflict, by the Moroccan Personal Status Code. In the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, Israeli occupation has certainly imposed many restrictions on movement for the Palestinian population, but nothing has challenged discriminatory laws against women from the Jordanian or Egyptian law. an Afghanistan, US occupation does not prevent violence against women are common, or even stoning (in May 2005, a woman 29 years was sentenced to death by a court and stoned in Urgu district for adultery[14]) and do not even talk about Iraq, where was with the blessing of imperialism that puts into place a constitution against women. Also, as Islamist warlords may well compromise with imperialism, it has not advanced one iota the situation of women in the dominated countries.

Of course, the anti-feminist cement, as the politico-religious basis, of political Islam could not find an echo in the countries of Muslim culture because these companies remained patriarchal and religious. L’Islam, in itself, is not reactionary or anti-feminist than other religions, not more intolerant than Christianity and Judaism, for example. In Turkey, with the nationalist bourgeois revolution led on the ruins of the Ottoman Empire, Ataturk made the Turkish state a secular state and has brought advances regarding the rights of women. Turkish women were given the vote in 1934, ie ten years before the French women. In Arab countries, on the contrary, national liberation movements after the war have, nowhere, imposed secularism and even less equality between men and women. Magida Salman, in his text "Arab women" says :

"The division of the Arab world by the European imperialist powers led to the emergence of a nationalist consciousness, the centerpiece of which was the desire to reassert the Arab unity destroyed by "Westerners". This consciousness was manifested by a commitment to previous unifying elements Division : language, customs and religion experienced as cultural tradition. Islam thus became a component of the bourgeois nationalist consciousness. Arab women suffered from this reaction that had the effect of limiting the changes that could occur in their condition by contact with European society and the peoples' struggle for the liberation of the European imperialist yoke. [15]»

So, if colonialism did not advance the status of women, it is the same national liberation movements. Magida Salman says although this situation by analyzing the social basis of national liberation movements in the Arab world in the aftermath of World War II.

"These movements have come to power either through coups organized by young military officers or by the action of political parties essentially formed by the lower middle class. The bourgeois regimes established by the struggles and anti-imperialist movements in the Arab world, were often forced to take drastic action against imperialist intransigence. They had to so rely not only on the urban petty bourgeoisie but also the peasantry and the working class even, in a certain way, mobilize workers and peasants. But it was also necessary to ensure that the radicalization and the popular mobilization does not accentuate the class struggle, that the uprising could be contained within limits compatible with the maintenance of the capitalist mode of production. The formula for achieving this delicate balance was well chosen : Islamic socialism. In other words, socialism for the masses, Islam for the survival of capitalism. »

In this sense, maintaining religion as state ideology with, as a corollary, patriarchal oppression of women, was a necessity for the nationalist petty bourgeoisie to maintain capitalist exploitation. And in terms of Algeria, we can recall what were the positions of this "Islamic socialism" (which of course is socialist only in name) compared to the emancipation of women : in 1967, the official newspaper "El Mujahid" explained :

"Our socialism rests on the pillars of Islam and not on women's emancipation with her makeup, her hairstyles and beauty products, which opens the way to unbridled passions harmful to humanity ".

In 1965, the magazine "El Jaish" wondered :

"What would happen to manhood and the Algerian glory, Arab-Islamic national nature of our dynamic youth, how our young people would they feel, if they saw their sisters foreign arms that are their enemies and the enemies of the Arab nation as a whole ? ».

This reference to Islam and "traditional values" also continues always to be used by the states of the Arab world to call for "national unity" to the risks of social backlash. As in France and more widely in Western Europe, politicians call for racist demagoguery against immigrants, States of the world "Arab-Muslim" use religious demagogy, Antifeminist or homophobic. The arrest of 52 Egyptian homosexuals in the night 11 the 12 May 2001, has helped to create a kind of sacred union against homosexuality, power besides being almost past arrests for "anti-imperialist action". The newspaper Al-Maasa, close to the government, and indicated that these homosexuals have "imported their perverse ideas of a European group". And Egyptian journalist, Rose al Youssef, going to write "Israel is heavily involved in the case".

As one can see, the currents of political Islam are often, as often for far-right movements, a radicalization of the dominant ideology. In states that consider Sharia law is a pillar of the right, Islamists demand the strict application and bloodiest of that right, in patriarchal societies, Islamists claim the defense of these social structures and the strengthening of this oppression.

A thinly veiled colonialism ?

If Western far left was absolutely right to fight against colonialism, during the war in Algeria for example, some groups, On the other hand, have sunk into opportunism against national liberation movements. Thus, in some Marxist or anarchist publications, not only the limits of nationalism were not denounced, but these petty bourgeois movements by nature were painted in red. The Third World, fashionable in the years 70, even theorized that national liberation movements would replace the world proletariat as an engine of social transformation. There is always this aspect, for example vis-à-vis the Palestinian national movement, les critiques vis-à-vis the PLO étant Always généralement mal-view in the extreme left-Western. and yet ! The PLO begins most of his official statements by "the name of God, the merciful, the merciful ", is not of a different nature than other national liberation movements. He is not here to develop a critical national liberation movements-either, but you can just remember that all these movements, by precisely based on "national unity" (including current claiming the "Marxism", as the Maoists and their theory of the "bloc of four classes [16]»), not only are a-classist and aim Single proletarian with a layer of the middle class, but that also, unlike the revolutionary workers' movement[17], do not seek to combat racial prejudice, Chauvinists or gender, among the people.

Affirming, "Your wives are as a tilth you ; go to your fields as [and when] you want it "[18], the Qur'an makes an analogy between the woman and the earth, analogy that is found in most nationalist movements, including of course in Europe. Women shaved at the Liberation in France on suspicion of having sex with a German or gang rape by Serbian soldiers in Bosnia and Herzegovina from the same logic. The body of the woman is not his, but it is the property of the country. Also, if colonialism did not break the patriarchal and tribal structures, men strengthened their power over women, justifying it in the name of defending the "honor of the fatherland". So, when Hamas began its campaign, first in the Gaza Strip, then in the West Bank, to impose the hijab on women, the National Directorate Unified Uprising waited more than a year and a half to denounce the violence committed by Islamists[19] against women. Even worse, graffiti signed Fatah were associated with the campaign to conceal Hamas Palestinian. In the same way, l'OLP, or components called "left" of Palestinian nationalism, have launched magnitude campaigns against so-called "honor crimes" or against domestic violence.

Marxism, a, from its origins, considered that the proletariat's struggle against capitalism, abolishing the existing order, was to build a new society, the communism, which would also be broken patriarchal oppression. And, in Europe, almost all of the left-wing organizations say they support feminist movements and regularly denounce sexism or machismo of French society in their publications, some even have secretariats or commissions 'women'. Marx strong inflows, Engels, Clara Zetkin, Alexandra Kollontaï, other classics of Marxism and feminism years 70, one would hope that all of the far left is the side of women born "Muslim" against political Islam. Of course, organizations like Lutte Ouvrière and the Anarchist Federation had no ambiguity on this issue. But others, On the other hand, have a caring attitude vis-à-vis political Islam, especially vis-à-vis Hamas or the alleged Iraqi "resistance" in the name of "anti-imperialism". The current which theorizes that the more benevolence with political Islam, is that represented in Britain by the SWP (Socialist Workers Party). It is this current, during the civil war in Algeria, launched the slogan "With the state never, with the Islamists sometimes ", who, with the reactionaries of the Arab European League, organized the 27 mars 2004 a commemorative event in honor of Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, Hamas founder liquidated five days earlier by the Israeli army[20] in Amsterdam, or influence in France Jeunesses Revolutionary Communists and a minority tendency of the LCR who demonstrated with Islamist organizations to the "right to wear the hijab". And beyond this clearly identifiable current[21], there are activists and even activists, Marxists, anarchists or feminists, who see nothing scandalous that a Tariq Ramadan is invited to a Social Forum and clearly refuse to fight the patriarchal oppression of women "born Muslim" and groups of political Islam. Most of the time, it is only a refusal by omission. Compared to Palestine for example, which caused so much ink in the extreme left press, how many lines denounce the situation of women in this country ? Yet there are several women's organizations in Palestine, but it is rarely discussed in the Marxist or libertarian publications. Worst, sometimes militant, by progressive addition when it comes to women in France, consider denounce Hamas crimes and "honor killings" would "make the game of Zionism". As, at another time, denounce the Moscow trials would be "playing the game of imperialism" ?

So, for Iraq, the International Committee of the Fourth International, for example blames LO in these terms : "While the rise of resistance plunged governments in Washington and London in severe crisis, LO denounced a symbolic figures of this resistance, Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr ". How not surprising that the Trotskyists could be shocked that we denounce an enemy of the working class as Muqtada al-Sadr ! Al Sadr massacred women solely because they are women, and should not denounce it because it would be a symbolic figure of resistance ?!? And while groups that Marxists glorifies the alleged resistance, they forget that there is in this country a revolutionary communist current, the Communist Workers Party of Iraq, defending a class online, internationalist and feminist. It's clear, of course, each organization or activist can criticize compared to the line of WPI, debate and confrontation of viewpoints, the same controversy, is a tradition in the revolutionary workers' movement[22]. On the other hand, it is outrageous to discuss WPI positions by putting them on the same plane as those of the alleged "resistance", which means putting on the same plane a labor organization, friends, and enemies of the working class ! One can criticize the WPI is one thing, but there is another, when communist activists, labor activists, brothers and sisters class, are murdered by Islamic militants, to criticize the so-called "sectarianism" and the first to support the 'resistance' second ! These considerations should be the most basic class solidarity, and yet, several progressive or even revolutionary organizations of France have refused intervention Houzan Mahmoud, President of the Organization for Freedom of Women in Iraq and militant WPI, at the meeting against the war 20 mars 2004, fearing that her feminist discourse prey so too virulent to the assassins of political Islam !

And, during decolonization, one could believe that the comrades let themselves be dazzled by the vaguely socialist discourse of national liberation movement, even a blind man can see the deeply reactionary character, anti-communist and anti-feminist political Islam. Some comrades may think that national liberation would, in Palestine or Iraq, the first step ", requiring the largest unit, to allow, then address other issues such as women's liberation. In 1979 already, when the Iranian revolution, a non-negligible fraction of Iranian leftist thought that Khomeini would be a "progressive petty bourgeoisie" and that it was necessary to support the. and yet, everyone now knows what it means to the clerical regime for progressives, women and workers of Iran. Should we expect the same fate for women, workers and progressive Iraq or Palestine ?

The crimes committed by political Islam, in Algeria, an Iran, a Iraq, in Pakistan, Palestine and elsewhere, scream the need to refuse any alliance, even "tactical", "Provisional" or "critical" with the fundamentalist movement. Unless you consider that the class struggle would be valid in the West ? That feminism would be a luxury for the imperialist countries ? Why "born Muslim" women do not they have the same rights as women "European born" ? Should we "deconstruct gender" in Europe and elsewhere to accept the gender apartheid, and why not, on behalf of a reactionary relativism, accept even here for girls from immigrant ?

In his beautiful text, "Feminists, I write of Algiers "[23], responding to feminists, in France, demonstrating for wearing hijab, Wassyla Tamzali request :

"Fear of stigmatizing Christianity did not stop the struggle of feminists, essential for the conquest of the right to abortion and the freedom to dispose of his body. We were moving there at a much more serious and dogma out that the veil in Islam. Now, what is good for religion is not for the other ? Left, some left, feminists, some feminists, by their attitude, lead us to believe that the key to Islam is outside of thought. Can we say that leading feminist thought in general is not good to respect Muslim women say ? ».

Of course, the extreme left has to fight against the occupation of Iraq, Palestine or Afghanistan, of course, revolutionaries must mobilize against imperialism, and primarily against French imperialism[24], but without forgetting that we are conducting a general fight, for communism, for the emancipation of humanity, This implies a struggle against political Islam. Those who maintain that there would be differences between the claims to defend the rights of women in Europe and in the dominated countries have not only a colonial worldview (like a woman, the grounds that it would be Arab, would not have the same aspirations to be free and treated as a human being than another !), more, by being conciliatory with Islamist groups, serve "useful idiots" to fascist currents and thus turn their backs to the emancipation of humanity that can not be done without breaking the oppression suffered by over half of the world population.

September 2005

PS : Two small thoughts on enders leftists over political Islam :

– We sometimes hear that the WPI does not "do anything against the occupation". Criticism unfounded, the WPI organizes workers, constitutes unions, helps organize women, hunting Islamists working class districts, etc. etc. The daily work of organization of the proletariat and of civil society may appear less "exciting" a media point of view that a guerrilla army, She was reactionary, less manly ?

– During the war in Yugoslavia or the exactions of the French army in Ivory Coast, all left-wing organizations, or almost, have, Well Named, denounced racism Milosevic and Gbagbo while denouncing imperialism. Nobody considered that the face of imperialism, Gbagbo had to support Milosevic or as is the case of the alleged Iraqi resistance or Hamas in Palestine. Is it because eventually, if racism is strongly condemned, gender discrimination, his, still seen as an "evil acceptable" ?

Like what, even in France, including in environments that want progressive, feminism remains a necessity.

[1] This term, generally used, be criticized, both because it encompasses one hand many non-Arab peoples (Turkish, Kurdish, fucked, Pakistani, Kabyle ...) and other non-Muslim minorities (druzes, Arab Christians, zoroastriens, etc.) not to mention atheists in these countries.

[2] For Marxism, we mean of course only the organizations claiming ds left opposition to Stalinism, not those who defend the revolution against bureaucratic or Chinese or Albanian variants.

[3] Al-Fanar "About fundamentalism in our country".

[4] Source : Humanity, 16 January 1995

[5] Article 25 Hamas's charter

[6] Hassane Zerrouky, « Hamas, Product Mossad ", "Humanity", 14 December 2001

[7] See Islah Jad, "The Palestinian side to Islamist movements", December 2004.

[8] Quoted by Martine Gozlan, "The sex of Allah", Publishing The Pocket Live, Paris 2004.

[9] Yanar Mohammed, "An inhuman constitution for women", 23 July 2005.

[10] Book prefaced by Tariq Ramadan that some, in the alter-globalization movement, continue to regard as a progressive !

[11] fatwa 32.

[12] fatwa 36.

[13] About this question, see the text of Azeri Sivayes (Worker Communist Party of Iran), "Groups of Iraqi religious resistance they are fascists ? »

[14] Source : Amnesty International

[15] Magida Salman, "The Arab Women ', December 1997, WLUML

[16] Maoist theory that the engine of transformation of society would be "the bloc of four classes" (proletariat, peasantry, petty bourgeoisie and national bourgeoisie)Theory ... which is of course a negation of Marxism !

[17] Decades of Stalinist against revolution and its influence on the labor movement may suggest otherwise. and yet ! In 1917, One of the first measures of the Soviet government, in a backward country like Russia, was to decriminalize homosexuality !

[18] The Koran, Surah 2, The cow

[19] See Remma Hamami, " The women, Hijab and the Intifada ".

[20] Voir The Fable of the illegal, may June 2004, «Cheikh Yassin, a "hero" and an "example" ? » :

[21] For a critique of the positions of this current, see "Class Struggle" 84, "When some of the extreme left is courting the Islamists'

[22] Rosa Luxemburg, for example, has not denied criticizing the strategy of the Bolsheviks, but it did comrade, affirming at the same time its full solidarity with the Russian Communists face the reaction.

[23] http://www.prochoix.org/pages.action/laicite/tamzali.html

[24] Mobilizing primarily against US imperialism, for example, which is the case of some leftist groups, often comes, in fact find themselves in the wake of French imperialism.