Salzburg Global Fellow Jamila-Aisha Sanguila identifies five ways to empower Muslim women in the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao
Violent extremism persists as one of the leading causes of conflict in the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao. The existing and ongoing conflict in Mindanao provides an ideal context for radicalization to take root.
Some scholars have assessed the primary drivers of violence and radicalization among Muslims in the Philippines as illiteracy, poverty, weak rule of law, inadequate social services, and limited economic opportunities. Unfortunately, these factors have created an environment in which radical thought and further violence can thrive.
Violent extremist groups continuously recruit Muslim women to carry out attacks, bombings, and extremist propaganda in the Philippines and elsewhere in Southeast Asia. Thus, it is no surprise that the emerging faces of radicalized extremists are women (wives, widows, and female children), who are moving up to take a more active role in terror networks alongside their male counterparts.
Women play key roles as recruiters, finance and logistics facilitators, snipers, and suicide bombers. In addition, extremist groups often use women as propaganda, sensationalizing women as victims, to encourage men to join their activities.
However, we should recognize that Muslim women are also a prime resource in bringing positive change and fostering a long-term solution to extremism and radicalism. They are essential to the success of preventing violent extremism and of building peace at the grassroots.
In my engagements with various and uniquely diverse women since the early part of my career as a university instructor and as a local peace practitioner, I have realized the importance of Islamic feminism in empowering Muslim women.
As a graduate of gender studies, I am inspired by this discourse and practice within an Islamic paradigm. Islamic feminism primarily draws on Quranic re-interpretation. Motivated by the Islamic methodology of ijtihad (critical investigation of religious sources) and utilizing the core tool of tafsir (exegesis), Islamic feminists such as Badran, Esack, Mir-Hosseini, Najmabadi, and Yamani subjected the Quran to fresh scrutiny around questions of women and gender.
As a discourse, it can motivate Muslim women to engage to their full potential with other women in developing interventions to prevent violent extremism in Mindanao. At its best, local Muslim women can understand cultural sensitivities and gender dynamics in their communities. In turn, they can promote inclusive, sustainable, and culturally sensitive community-based approaches in countering extremism and radicalism. There are several ways to motivate them:
Support Madrasa Education
Muslim families and communities in Mindanao are less reluctant to allow their female children to attend madrasas than enter secular state schools. Moderate madrasas are safe and friendly spaces for school girls to acquire education, offering both religious and practical subjects in their curriculum to give every girl, especially those from low-income families, a chance for education.
Popularize the Code of Muslim Personal Laws of the Philippines
Women have often been unaware of the laws or legal principles that protect their interests. While there have been programs that help teach Muslim women about their legal rights as enunciated in national constitutions and state law, there have been insufficient efforts to make Muslim women aware of their rights and protections within Shariah law. To better understand the rights and duties of Muslim women in the Philippines, the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao Parliament, through its Women’s Commission, Ministry of Basic, Higher and Technical Education, and Darul-Ifta, should find ways to disseminate the Code of Muslim Personal Laws better.
Provide Economic Opportunity
A community-driven women-led livelihood project or micro-financing in accordance with Islamic schemes is key to keeping women from falling prey to enticements held out by extremists. These programs offer financial security for females and their families. General aid programs at times are not sustainable and are short-term solutions only, especially here in Mindanao. In our context, community-driven women-led livelihood projects and micro-financing in accordance with Islamic schemes can work better in our area. Many Muslim women in Mindanao are business-minded, so it would be good to train them to start their own businesses and connect them to markets. I think this is one way of creating economic opportunities for women.
Open and Extend Women-Led Forums
Create spaces (training, workshops, conferences, study groups, dialogues) for articulating, examining, and seeking solutions to grievances and injustices perpetrated against women as a group. Women and others in the community would educate others about their grievances and their ideas for ameliorating situations.
Promote Empowerment
Engage local Muslim women leaders who are active in education, cultural arenas, religious activities, peace processes, and the media to promote women’s empowerment.
By integrating Islamic feminism, we can inspire Muslim women to be agents of positive change and prevent violent extremism in the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao.
Jamila-Aisha Sanguila is the founder of Women Empowered to Act for Dialogue and Peace in Mindanao, Philippines. She is a Salzburg Global Fellow and is currently taking part in the Asia Peace Innovators Forum
