Feminist anti-forced-marriage laws enable surveillance of Muslim communities.

Evidence

This exploration of the geopolitical terrain in which we find ourselves illustrates the dire need to reject such explanations that locate patriarchy in pre-modernity and that position Western feminists as poised to help their Muslim sisters into modernity. As we shall see in the next two chapters, Western nations, pressed by feminists, have enthusiastically responded to the call to save Muslim women from their violent families. The enacting of legislation against forced marriages and banning of faith-based arbitration have enabled Western parliaments to claim the high ground as progressive and feminist. At the same time, Western states win the unqualified right to engage in practices of surveillance of Muslim communities, practices that intensely regulate the movements of Muslim men. The regular management of immigrant populations receives a boost in this environment and the way is paved for the immigrant and the refugee as exceptions, banished to places beyond full citizenship. — Sherene Razack, Casting Out, 250 (#corroborates, via linked claim)

Producing a civilized Europe and a stigmatized and closely watched non-West, these laws and policies foreclose a consideration of other factors that operate in the lives of Muslim youth. For example, they do not foster a positive climate in which Muslim youth and more progressive Muslims can internally contest patriarchal narratives. Instead, they polarize. Like Storhaug’s handbook for Muslim girls on the perils of their culture, they do not imagine what an educational approach that promoted more positive ideas of Islam might actually accomplish. Instead of considering school dropout among young Muslims as a clear indicator of Muslim cultural deficit, we might consider, as so much schooling literature has shown, that schools in fact fail racial minorities through an inattention to their specific educational needs, and through a school climate of racial hostility. Teaching young Muslims about the superiority of European culture increases this racial divide and does not respond to educational needs more directly connected to their mastery of the curriculum and to the hostility of the school environment. It may well be that laws and policies such as those currently being considered stigmatize and exacerbate tensions within communities more than they actually give rise to the conditions under which less violence might occur. — Sherene Razack, Casting Out, 316 (#complicates, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Criminalizing forced marriage deters Muslim youth from seeking help; Saving Muslim women legislation legitimizes surveillance of Muslim communities — Sherene Razack, Casting Out: The Eviction of Muslims…, 250; Private citizens’ surveillance creates gendered exclusion of Muslims from public space — Saher Selod, Forever Suspect_ Racialized…, 345 (+9 more)

Broader Connections

• Saving Muslim women legislation legitimizes surveillance of Muslim communities #corroborates (1.00) — Sherene Razack, Casting Out, 250
• Anti-forced-marriage law polarizes communities more than it reduces violence #complicates (0.78) — Sherene Razack, Casting Out, 316