Muslim Democracy

This idea has been kicking around in the back of my head for a couple of months now, and something just gelled, so I'm going to try to spit it out.

The idea was triggered by stories of the oppression of Muslim women in highly religious Middle Eastern countries, namely Afghanistan under the Taliban, where they must never go outside without being completely covered with a Burka, and without having a male relative with them. They can't vote, go to school or hold a job (with a few exceptions). Also, there was a discussion in another blog (No Pain No Gain) that got me thinking about this again recently, and caused this idea to gel in my head.

Part of the problem, obviously, is that they can't vote, so they have virtually no say in the laws that are passed to govern them. We could just let them have the vote, and this is probably what will happen, but obviously there is a lot of cultural opposition to this, at least among the men, and I don't like the idea of forcing western solutions to problems on everyone else in the world. What worked for us may not necessarily be the best fit for everyone else, and if we insist that our solution is the best one and force everyone else to adopt it, then we miss out on the possibility that someone might come up with a better idea.

I don't pretend to know a lot about Muslim culture, but I just want to propose this idea and see what people, mostly Muslim people, think of it.

What if a Muslim country, say Afghanistan, implemented a democracy with two governments, one entirely made up of men, and the other entirely made up of women? Men could only vote for officials in their government, and women could only vote for officials in theirs. Also, men and women would only have to abide by the laws dictated by their respective governments.

The two governments don't have to be structured the same way, or hold elections at the same time, or have similar numbers of officials. They each can be structured according to the way their constituents want.

Of course, the two governments couldn't be completely independent. The laws they pass would have to be coordinated with each other. In fact, just for efficiency, you would probably have a large body of laws that apply to both. For example, after a divorce, you couldn't have the men's government deciding that the husband gets to keep the house, and the women's government deciding that the wife gets the house.

Another way might be to have a single government with both men's and women's halves. In this idea, for every male representative, there would be a female counterpart. Again, the men in the country could only vote on male officials, and women on female officials. Then they would work together to pass a single body of laws.

Why do I think that this system might work better in Muslim countries than simply allowing women to vote or run for office?

Well, first of all, if we simply let women vote, they will still be governed by men, even if they are men that the women helped elect. Second, there will be a lot of pressure by male family members to vote for men who will support the traditional laws. And if we let women run for office, they will still be in the minority. But, if women can form their own government, we will suddenly have an entire female government formed at once. Also, and I'm not sure of this, but I think the men will consider it beneath their dignity to involve themselves too deeply in women's affairs, so they will not put nearly so much pressure on the women to vote a certain way.

Also, and again I'm not sure of this, but I would imagine that there is already a fairly well developed power structure among women, at least within a single household or family, with the matriarch dictating rules to the younger or less powerful women in the family. This female government could be considered a natural outgrowth of this. I think this might make the formation of such a government more palatable to men.

The women also wouldn't be ruling over the men, with I think a lot of Muslim men might find objectionable.

So what do people think? I'm sure the idea could use a lot of fine tuning, but does it seem like something that would even remotely work? Does it provide any advantages to the Muslim ethos over a traditional western style democracy?

Thanks for reading,
LeRoy