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Sharabi, Hisham. Neopatriarchy: A Theory of Distorted Change in Arab Society. (New York : Oxford University Press, 1988)
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Hisham Sharabi's Neopatriarchy (1988) stands apart from the work of many Palestinian socialists of his generation by delving deeply into a taboo. Not only does Sharabi critique the gendered norms of Arab society - itself common among socialist and progressive thinkers of his era - but he develops a theory, rooted in Western feminist thinking, to explain both the continued perpetuation of what he views as female subjugation throughout the Arab world and the general socioeconomic malaise charateristic of the region post independence.
Sharabi opens by arguing that the nahda, if it were deemed to cover the mid-to-late nineteenth century to the present, "would coincide with neopatriarchal society" (6). He further divides this vision of the nahda (commonly periodized as ending by the 1930s or 1940s at the very latest) into three general time periods: the Ottoman period, ending with WWI; the period of European colonization, ending with WWII; and the postindependence period, which extended from the end of WWII to the date of his writing (6).
Sharabi argues that, unlike the western Renaissance to which it is often compared, the nahda did not "constitute a general cultural break in the sense the European renaissance did; for on the one hand, it did not achieve a genuine transcendence of inherited structures of thought and social (including economic and political) organization, and on the other, it failed to grasp the true nature of modernity" (6, emphasis added). Delving into a form of psychoanalytic discourse, he continues:
Neopatriarchal society as a dependent, nonmodern socioeconomic structure represents the quintessentially underdeveloped society. Its most pervasive characteristic is a kind of generalized, persistent, and seemingly insurmountable impotence: it is incapable of performing as an integrated social of political system, as an economy, or as a military structure. Possessing all the external trappings of modernity, this society nevertheless lacks the inner force, organization, and consciousness which characterize truly modern formations (7, emphasis added).
Such a searing indictment was, incidentally, not uncommon from Sharabi, an outspoken critic of the PLO and other Arab political institutions, who frequently, along with Edward Said, tangled with Yasser Arafat in public debates over loyalty and freedom of speech.
This is not a clearly "feminist" book, despite its theoretical grounding. It, instead, a critique of contemporary Arab patriarchy that is focused on patriarchs. As Sharabi notes,
"a central psychosocial feature of this type of society, whether it is conservative of progressive, is the dominance of the Father (patriarch), the center around which the national as well as the natural family are organized. Thus between ruler and ruled, between fathe and child, there exist only vertical relations: in both setting the paternal will is the absolute will, mediated in both the society and the family by a forced consensus based on ritual and coercion. Significantly, the most advanced and functional aspect of the neopatriarchal state (in both conservative and 'progressive' regimes) is its internal security apparatus, the mukhabarat. A two-state system prevails in all neopatriarchal regimes, a military0beuaucractic structure alongside a secret police structure, and the latter dominates everyday life, serving as the ultimate regulator of civil and political existence. Thus in social practice ordinary citizens not only are arbitrarily deprived of some of their basic rights but are the virtual prisoners of the state, the objects of its capricious and ever-present violence, much as citizens once were under the classical of Ottoman sultanate. As we shall see, the neopatriarchal state, regardless of its legal and political forms and structures, is in many ways no more than a modernized version of the traditional patriarchal sultanate. (7)
Sharabi insists that the first nahdah never completed its chief intellectual work, as Arab culture remains ossified and rigidly authoritarian, not having adopted true democratic, egalitarian principles or broad-minded scientific and intellectual rigor. Like many modern Arab intellectuals, Sharabi is both ardently feminist and socialist, though Neopatriarchy articulates a much more expansive call for social change than gender egalitarianism alone, and is not limited to a critique of gender roles within Arab society (though it should be emphasized that they do comprise a portion of his critique).[1] The book is an argument against the dogmatic and inflexible nominal “traditionalism” exemplified in Arab society through the resistance to social and ideological change and through the structuring of society – from the level of the family to the level of government – according to strict, authoritarian hierarchy.[2]
It is notable that this central concept – of a society with some of the trappings of modernity but stagnant and retrenched beneath its veneer – goes by several different names. Sharabi dubs it “neopatriarchy.” Mohammad Arkoun calls the same phenomenon a “dogmatic closed system.” Tunisian philosopher Mohamed Turki expands:
The neo-patriarchal system – which may look modern from the outside, but is in fact patriarchal – holds fast to certain consolidated structures of rule and resists any change in the balance of political power. This is why these neo-patriarchal structures – which may seem modern, but are in fact nothing more than modernistic – remain a sham. It takes more than this to be modern.
Being modern is a project that has many facets and necessitates many changes too. It begins with the rule of law, includes human rights and goes right up to economic, political and social structures, which should all be open. This is not the case with either neo-patriarchates or patriarchates.[3]
[1]
It may be of interest that Arab feminists mounted the most strident criticisms
of Sharabi’s book, concerned that his bleak characterization of contemporary
Arab society’s hierarchical and authoritarian nature removes the possibility of
agency from Arab women. See, e.g., Suad Joseph, Intimate Selving in Arab Families (1999).
[2]
See Sharabi, Neopatriarchy.
[3]
Mohamad Turki. http://en.qantara.de/wcsite.php?wc_c=19263&wc_id=20381
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