Abstract
Of Virgins and Martyrs: Women and Sexuality in Global Conflict is a captivatingly titled book by political sociologist David Jacobson that explores current discourses on gender, sexuality, religion and conflict. He argues that women and sexuality are enduring motifs in religiously motivated violence. The battle over women’s bodies animates how the “West” is contrasted to the “Muslim world” in a conflict between interest-based and honor-based societies. He writes, “what we see in the current turbulence within patriarchal communities is a broader backlash against these cultural violations inflicted by globalization. Interest is trespassing on honor and honor is resisting with blunt ferocity” (p. 4). While I am rather uncomfortable with broad generalizations such as this, Jacobson builds his case on a more nuanced platform, deftly walking a very thin line. He cautions the reader that this clash is not simply an Islamic phenomenon. Instead, he writes that it is a “broader patriarchal reaction; varying in degrees of severity” (p. 4) most closely associated with tribal patriarchy. He distinguishes Islam and the broader Muslim community from Islamism and its more radical segments that espouse “Islamic patriarchy”—a political Islam most associated with high degrees of tribal patriarchy and violence against women.
The book is subdivided in four parts and 10 chapters, and the sheer breadth of issues that scaffold the thesis is immense. He builds his case by including biblical stories, art history, analysis of criminal verdicts, conversations around sartorial trends, veiling, female genital cutting, and honor killings, to name just a few. More specifically, in part I he examines the roots of biblical patriarchy in the greater Middle East, which is also the birthplace of Abrahamic religions, wherein masculinity was measured in terms of fighting prowess and ability to control women’s bodies and sexuality. In the second part, Jacobson examines the rise of individualism and self-interest in sixteenth-century Western Europe. In the third, he sketches a compelling portrait of globalization as an important agent in diffusing the values of individualism and self-interest. Globalization, in addition to far-reaching economic and political changes, fashions the “adventurous self,” which is deeply subversive of traditional patriarchy (p. 9). The unfolding crisis of masculinity generates violent backlash and renewed vigor to undermine women’s rights.
In the fourth and final segment of the book, Jacobson examines the immigrant communities of Europe and, in closing, argues that the French models of multiculturalism are more robust than the Anglo-American models. He uses the Tribal Patriarchy scale to explain the proclivity to religiously motivated violence. While countries are assigned a score, the index also applies to individuals as he suggests that the values represented in the scale persist even among immigrants who have been away from the “homeland” for two or three generations.
Though a fascinating reading, I was often left wondering how, and if at all, the findings can be used to explain intraregional variations as well as patriarchal tensions within “Western” and/or secular spaces. Can the Tribal Patriarchy Index be utilized to understand, say, the hypermasculinist stances of radical non-Muslim supremacist groups or even polygamist groups within the “West”? How can one understand the progressive politics of feminist groups within the region Jacobson terms the “Middle East,” and their fearless activism? How do we make sense of the prevalence of predatory sexual violence within “liberal-secular” institutional spaces in the “West”? Here I can’t help but think of a recent documentary, The Invisible War by Kirby Dick, that catalogues the prevalence of sexual violence within the American military. Undoubtedly, these cases are examples of institutional patriarchy. I would wonder how discourses of individual/self-interest versus honor/community play out in these contexts.
The breadth of engagement in terms of issues, space, time, geography, and history it traverses is the book’s strength as well as a chink in the armor. I see this book as a thought-provoking read, not only for the attempts it makes to explain complex global issues of gender, sexuality, and violence but also for its ability to leave the reader with more questions. With an accessible prose peppered with rich imagery, it has something to offer to every reader and is guaranteed a wide range of audiences across academic and nonacademic spaces as well as disciplinary boundaries. It is likely to interest scholars from sociology, gender studies, global studies, and international relations among others. In the end, I couldn’t agree more with Jacobson’s idea that “women are now at the heart of the world’s most dangerous quarrel” (p. 2). But, sadly enough, weren’t they always?