Summary: Is Islam Misogynistic?, Investing in Education, Microcredit: The Financial Revolution: Chapters 9–11

Chapter 9: Is Islam Misogynistic?

Chapter 9 explains that in some highly conservative religious nations, such as Afghanistan, women are denied health care because their male relatives will not allow them to see male doctors and there are no female doctors available. Conservative Muslim societies are also more likely to engage in honor killings, insist on arranged marriages for young girls, demand that women wear a head-to-toe burka, and deny women an education or any role outside the home. “Muslims in some countries just don’t believe in equality,” Kristof and WuDunn assert. Moreover, women in such countries have been taught to espouse these oppressive rules, which arise far more from the national culture than from religious teachings.

The authors contend that Islam, as presented in the Koran, is not fundamentally a misogynistic religion and does not teach the denigration of women, though it does describe some types of gender inequality. The Prophet Muhmmad’s (Mohammed) daughter led an army in rebellion; his wife ran her own business. For its time, Muslim feminists argue, the Koran was progressive, so Muslims should accept more modern forms of progressivism, especially regarding women’s role in society. Some Muslim countries are indeed responding to the need for such modernization: in Iran, Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, and Morocco, women make up the majority of university students.

Ellaha was a teenager who was imprisoned in Kabul, Afghanistan, for having a boyfriend, though she’d never had sex with him. She had refused to marry her cousin, as directed by the men in her family. At work, Ellaha did so well she was offered a scholarship to a Canadian university. Her outraged family locked her up in a room and beat her, and after one week of such treatment, Ellaha agreed to marry her cousin. However, she just couldn’t bring herself to go through with it, and she ran away from home. She was soon arrested and jailed.

Kristof and WuDunn explain that because women are devalued in communities like Ellaha’s and because female infants may either be killed or die from neglect, there are not enough women in these societies for the larger population of men to marry. The authors suggest that sexual frustration and anger likely turn these “extra” young men to prostitutes or rape and to lashing out violently. They cite studies showing that such young men sometimes channel their anger and frustration by joining terrorist organizations. 

Aid groups working in nations such as Afghanistan have learned to keep a low profile and hire local people to run the aid programs they fund. In this way, local people in rural areas come to accept the aid program and the good it does. Local mullahs are more likely to support programs directed by people in the local community. For example, Sakena Yacoobi runs the Afghan Institute of Learning, which operates schools for girls and female refugees in rural communities. The “underground” schools are kept secret from the ruling Taliban government. Thousands of refugee girls have attended her secret schools, and some are being trained as teachers. Sakena has also branched out to establish mobile health clinics that provide contraception to rural women and men. The authors describe Sakena as one of the most successful social entrepreneurs in Afghanistan.

Chapter 10: Investing in Education

The need for investment in girls’ education is the focus of Chapter 10. In many countries, Kristof and WuDunn observe, fathers believe it a waste of money to educate their daughters. In very poor communities, young girls must work to help feed their families, so school is out of the question. Monetary support from rich Westerners, the authors suggest, can have a life-changing effect on uneducated girls. They give the example of Dai Manju, whose isolated community in China built a school with the help of donations from abroad. Dai used her education to become a successful accountant and eventually started her own business.

Sometimes, Kristof and WuDunn point out, simple problems pose supposedly insuperable obstacles to girls’ education. Many African girls, for instance, avoid school after they start to menstruate because they have no access to sanitary pads or tampons. FemCare, sponsored by a US corporation, donated thousands of pads to girls in Africa and built toilets for them. These simple actions increased school attendance among African girls.

In other cases, bribery keeps girls in school. When the Mexican government began paying families for keeping their girls in school, attendance increased. The “bribe” also incentivized families to provide regular health care for their daughters. Because the money was given directly to the family, the program was not plagued by corruption. Similar programs have been initiated in Africa, where the “bribes” may not be monetary but nutritional. These programs show that girls are more likely to stay in school if they’re fed there. Other programs pay students directly to stay in school and provide them with free textbooks.

Kristof and WuDunn stress that Westerners who want to help girls in developing nations must know the culture, family structure, and religion of the local people they’re trying to help. Too often, Western interference is resented or ignored because it is incompatible with the religion or culture of the people it’s trying to help. If aid money is spent without regard for local culture and beliefs, it’s often ignored and wasted. When a Welsh woman dedicated herself to educating girls in Africa, she made sure that the face of her organization, Camfed, was local people who were embedded in the culture. Money and other benefits were provided directly to local people, a practice that prevented corruption and the sexual abuse of girls by male teachers. All the organization’s workers were local, and one of them eventually became Camfed’s executive director.

Chapter 11: Microcredit: The Financial Revolution

When Saima Muhammad bore a second daughter, her husband wanted to take another wife who would give him sons. Saima, a resident of Lahore, Pakistan, feared she’d be abandoned. She joined a women’s solidarity group, the Kashf Foundation, from whom she obtained a small loan to start a business. Chapter 11 describes how Saima’s embroidery business grew and brought needed money into the family. Her husband stopped looking for a second wife. Saima’s business expanded until she had 30 women working for her. She paid off her husband’s debts and started saving for her daughters’ education. She began to lend money at interest to other women seeking self-employment.

Kashf is a microlending organization that lends small amounts of money to women to help them earn for themselves and their families. Roshanch Zafar started Kashf to help poor Pakistani women. To avoid delinquent loans, all the women in a loan group agree to be responsible for repaying each other’s loans if one of them defaults. Group members vet all borrowers, so default is rare. Roshanch, another highly successful social entrepreneur, branched out and started selling health and life insurance to poor Pakistanis. Then she started her own bank because she knew how important having savings was to the well-being of poor working people, especially women.

Kristof and WuDunn explain why lending money to poor women is typically more effective than lending to poor men. Roshanch learned—and studies have confirmed—that women tend to spend loan money on creating a business and on helping their families. Too often, money lent to poor men is instead spent on alcohol, tobacco, or prostitutes. Moreover, in many societies where microlending is an important source of capital, men consider money spent on girls’ education a waste of cash. The authors also argue that laws should be rewritten to benefit women: a widow and her children should inherit her husband’s assets, not the husband’s brothers, as is the case in some countries. They also promote the election of women to high public office, though they advise that female political leaders should have intimate knowledge of the lives of the poor. Often, women in positions of political leadership come from the elite class and have little understanding of the poor people in their country—those who most need the government’s help.

Goretti Nyabenda worked on her farm in Burundi alongside her husband, but the family remained poor. When she was not working, Goretti’s husband kept her “a prisoner in her hut.” She was miserable until she learned about the programs run by the aid organization CARE. When her husband refused to let her attend CARE meetings, Goretti snuck out and went anyway. The local group of women in CARE work together tending each other’s farms. At every meeting, each woman donates the equivalent of ten cents, and when the money is pooled, it’s lent to one member who invests it by starting a business. Goretti borrowed two dollars and started a banana beer business, which became wildly successful. She soon expanded into selling other goods. Goretti’s husband changed both his attitude and his behavior as a result of her success; he’s proud of the money her business is bringing in for the family.

Analysis: Is Islam Misogynistic?, Investing in Education, Microcredit: The Financial Revolution: Chapters 9–11

In some conservative Muslim countries, Kristof and WuDunn point out, women are treated as expendable beings. The oppression of women in these countries generally arises from the society’s culture, however, not from the teachings of Islam per se. The Koran does advise women to be modest, but it does not demand the draconian oppression of women as seen in nations such as Pakistan and Afghanistan. Thus, the Muslim religion itself is not the source of oppression or the extreme gender inequality found in these nations.

Nonetheless, international aid is most effective if it gains acceptance and cultural approval with the local community. Outside aid workers are not trusted because they’re often ignorant of the culture and needs of poor, rural communities. When, instead, local women become the face of these aid programs, they—and their communities—are often empowered to improve their lives in their own way based on their culture and local needs. The empowerment of these women leaders, once accepted by the community, sometimes leads to the expansion of rights, such as the acceptance of girls getting an education. Educated girls often have smaller families and value their daughters, a result that might correct the demographic imbalance of these societies.

Investing in girls’ education empowers women because educated women often go on to be productive participants in the economy. As women enter the workforce, the nation’s economy benefits, as do the women’s families and communities. Education and earning power often raise the perceived value of women within society; they’re no longer devalued. Despite the connotations attached to the term bribery, direct cash incentives to attend school are also helpful in that they mitigate poverty, a known barrier to gender equality.

Microcredit is another important tool in empowering women. Most women who get microloans, often just a few dollars, start and eventually grow successful businesses. The money earned helps women’s families and earns them greater respect among their relatives and neighbors. Thus, microcredit programs undercut biased notions that women are not self-sufficient or must depend on men. Microcredit also helps create economic equality within households, communities, and nations.