Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
I noted some discomfort in interviews with CAIR staff, which suggested some ongo-
ing tensions within CAIR on gender issues that staff did not want to discuss with me.
One CAIR staff member told me that she felt proud to be a “strong woman” working at
CAIR, but she remarked that it was “also sometimes difficult to be a woman” in a lead-
ership role in CAIR. Another woman revealed that she had dealt with “serious gender
stuff” while working at CAIR's national office. I asked for clarification, as to whether
shemeant“usualgenderissuesaboutwomeninleadership,orsomethingmoreserious?”
She replied, “More serious gender stuff,” and I took her to mean that she had experien-
ced sexual harassment (she was uncomfortable discussing this, so I did not press for ex-
tensive details). One man told me that he personally did not know of “gender issues” at
CAIR,buthedidacknowledge thattheroleofwomenformanyMuslims wasa“touchy
issueforsomeinthecommunity.”Inshort,thereissomecompellingevidencethatthere
isaratherstrong“glassceiling”atCAIR,withveryfewwomeninthetopleadershippo-
sitions. Women who have been in executive positions have experienced discomfort, and
at least one resigned after only one year at the national office. The difficulty for women
at CAIR might help to explain why several other nationally prominent Muslim Americ-
an advocacy organizations have been founded by women, and why staff at those organ-
izations seem to include women almost exclusively. One such organization is Karamah:
Muslim Women Lawyers for Human Rights.
The Division of Labor between Organizations Confronting Gendered
Vulnerabilities
The contrasts between Karamah and CAIR are extensive. Karamah is a relatively small
organization, with a smaller grassroots presence. Karamah's mission statement (and in-
deed its name) both mention Muslim women specifically, while CAIR's list of Core
Principles mentions only support for “equal and complementary rights and responsibil-
ities for men and women” (CAIR 2011; Karamah 2012). While CAIR was founded by
a group of men, Karamah grew out of the Feminist Arab American Network, an activist
group founded in the 1980s (the same founder started each group). Technically, Kara-
mah's founding predates CAIR with an official start date of 1993, but Karamah did not
undertake much U.S.-based advocacy work until 2001. The organization was born dur-
ing the UN's “Decade for Women,” at a time when many secular NGOs were pushing
a focus on the “oppression of Muslim women,” and Karamah's founders saw a need to
provide a vehicle for Muslim women to speak for themselves. Whether the executive
staff has intentionally been limited to mostly women is unclear, and although three men
served on the organization's board of directors in 2008, most of the executive staff have
been women throughout the organization's history (Karamah 2008).
