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Women against FundamentalismSource: Review of African Political Economy, No. 52, Fundamentalism in Africa: Religion andPolitics (Nov., 1991), pp. 114-115Published by: Taylor & Francis, Ltd.Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/4005965 .

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114 Review of African Political Economy

- and urged the Community and its member states to use their influence to ensure respect for the Plan is of great importance. It is also heartening to learn that the US Congress granted $15 million to MINURSO and $8 million to the UNHCR, and that there was criti- cism of Moroccan tactics and the attempt to alter the basis of the elec- toral list. But, if the referendum is seriously delayed, as now seems likely, and the extemal pressure from the international community on Morocco to conform to the agreed basis of the UN Peace Plan slackens as attention switches to the 'other' Peace Process in the Middle East, the occupying power will be in a stronger position to dictate the terms of a final settlement 'out of court'.

If this occurs, the entire UN involve- ment will be shown to have been a cruel farce and all talk of a strength- ened role for the United Nations in 'the new world order' revealed even more clearly as a smoke-screen to obscure the cynical realpolitik of the states which dominate the Security Council.

David Seddon is at the University of East Anglia, UK.

Bilbliographic Note

For an introduction to the Saharawis' struggle for independence, see Tony Hodges, Western Sahara: The Roots of a Desert War, (Lawrence Hill, Westport, Conn., 1983). For discussions in this journal, see: John Howe, 'Western Sahara: a War Zone',ROAPE,no.11:84-92, 1976; DavidSeddon, 'Morocco and the Western Sahara', ROAPE, no.38:24-47,1987; 'Polisario and the Struggle for the Western Sahara: RecentDevelopments, 1987- 1989', ROAPE, no.45/46:132-42.

Women Against Fundamentalism Women Against Fundamentalism was launched in 1989 as a network to challenge the rise of fundamentalism in all religions. Women's groups in- volved in this campaign include Southall Black Sisters, Brent Asian Women's Refuge and the Iranian Wom- en's Organisation in Britain.

Fundamentalism appears in many dif- ferent forms in religions throughout the world but at the heart of all fundamentalist agendas is the control of women's minds and bodies. All religious fundamentalists support the patriarchal family as a central agent of such control. They view women as

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Brefing: Women Against Fundamentalism 115

embodying the morals and traditional values of the family and the whole community. We must resist the in- creasing control that fundamentalism imposes on all our lives. It means that we must take up issues such as repro- ductive rights and fight both to safe- guard and extend abortion rights and to resist enforced sterilisation. We must struggle against the body of religious belief which denies us our right to determine our own sexuality and justi- fies violence against women.

In Britain today, resistance to funda- mentalism involves a struggle against the state and against religious leader- ships. We must challenge the assump- tion that minorities in this country exist as unified, internally homogenous groups. This view assumes that wom- en's voices are represented by the 'community leaders' and denies them an independent voice. We also reject the multi-cultural consensus forged by sections of all political parties, which would deliver women's futures into the hands of fundamentalist 'commu- nity leaders' by seeing them as repre- sentatives of the community as a whole.

New legislation has allowed funda- mentalist forces in all religious space to organise for their demands. The Edu- cation Reform Act has reimposed the Christian assembly in state schools, alienating many non-Christian par- ents. At the same time, the extension of state aid to non-Christian schools is promised. This is a disturbing develop- ment for all those who have fought to improve state education. All religious schools have a deeply conformist idea of the role of women. They will deny girls opportunities which they are just beginning to seize. Thus the need to struggle against fundamentalism is at the forefront of the political agenda in

Britain, especially for women. More specifically we call for:

* An end to state funding of religious schools and the imposition of par- ticular religious education by the state, induding Christian assemblies within state schools.

* A development of a social policy that addresses the needs of women, and which does not attempt to deal with them on the basis of racist and sexist assumptions as to how they are expected to behave according to their particular racial or cultural origin.

Women Against Fundamentalism seeks

* to challenge and organise against manifestations of fundamentalism including: defending individual women and women's organisations against attacks by fundamentalists; providing non-religiously based ref- uges and protection for women ex- periencing violence inside and outside the home; disseminating in- formation within Britain and outside both about fundamentalist activities affecting women and about our at- tempts to organise against them.

* to examine the effects of policies (e.g. pro-family or multi-cultural) which result in the denial of women's independent existence.

* to study the common strands of fundamentalism in all religions and their linkage to sexual, ethnic, dass and political divisions within British society.

* to look at international links and examples and work in solidarity with similar movements in other countries.

Women Against Fundamentalism pro- duce a Bulletin. They can be reached at BM Box 2706, London WCI 3XX; phone (081) 571-9595.

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