That’s the question that Steve Clemons asks of both Hillary and Barack. The recent spat over the picture of Barack in traditional Somali should force the nation (but it probably won’t) to look at why the hell we’re so afraid of having a Muslim, or anyone else who doesn’t proclaim Jesus Christ as their lord and savior, in the White House. Here’s a link to the article on Huffington Post.
Archive for February, 2008
What’s Wrong with Having a Muslim President?
Equality lip service
My professor was reading Arab poetry to my class today and the poetry made extenstive of allegory of animals to represent humans. He mentioned Animal Farm and this made me think of the famous quote from the book in which Napoleon the boar says “All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others.” Often, when Muslims are giving da’wah and presenting Islam to the media, we speak of the equality between men and women in Islam. We proclaim that Islam gave women rights they had not enjoyed before Islam. We speak of how women have so many rights in Islam and that the oppression of Muslim women is simply a perversion of Islam. Men and women really are equal in Islam. Granted, I agree with all these points, if not fully, then at least partially. However, we often speak of these points without really reflecting on these points or even being serious about implementing equality.
As I do my research on Muslim women converts (or reverts if you prefer), it becomes rather obvious how much we give lip service to the idea of gender equality. Reverts are told that gender equality does exist, that what they have been told in the media about women in Islam is not representative of “real Islam”. However, once these converts enter Islam, the reality is often different from the ideal. Women converts realize that they are expected to fit into “Islamic” gender norms that are often not equal at all. Find it weird and un-equal that you have pray behind a partition or worse yet, in a different room; that you’re told that your voice is awrah and so tempting to men; that you’re expected to get married right away and starting having children; that you’re told that women really shouldn’t even be in the masjid? I find it un-equal and hypocritical and many reverts often find this confusing at the least and hypocritical at the worse. Thus, they face various options of dealing with this realization. They cannot have this realization at all and simply not think about the issue. They can say things like “women in Islam are equal but different” meaning that the sexes are complementary to each other but different and that equality doesn’t mean being exactly alike in everything. As I began to really get into the deen as a younger adult, this is the view I took. It allowed me to say that both genders were equal while looking over glaring inequalities.
There is another option that reverts and Muslim women can take. They can examine these contradictions for themselves and demand that Muslims not be hypocritical in gender relations. Muslims have become like the animals of Animal Farm. We proclaim that all Muslims are equal. What we should really say is “All Muslims are equal but some Muslims are more equal than others.” Organizations in the US that often claim to speak on the behalf of Muslims take no real concrete actions to address the gender inequality that exists for sisters in the US. They are very vocal when it comes to civil rights abuses against Muslims by the federal government and yet incredibly silent on gender equality. Even worse, some leaders of these organizations express support for gender inequality. For instance, a director of the Islamic Society of North America (ISNA) in Canada, made a comment a couple of years ago about women and niqab. He said “I think if a woman is so pretty that she would attract attention to herself, she should cover her face.” If leaders of the leading organizations for Muslims are making statements like this, then it isn’t surprising when they do not speak out against the gender injustice that is committed in Muslim community. Organizations like ISNA, ICNA, and CAIR need to held accountable for promoting gender equality. These organizations claim to speak for the “Muslims community”. They give da’wah to non-Muslims, including women. They present information about “gender issues” to potential Muslims. Members of these organizations attend masajid around the country so they know what is happening in them.
Unfortunately, these organizations are not held responsible because many Muslims have no real issue with gender inequality in the ummah. We are told that the gender inequality that we see is not real gender inequality, that it is what God and the Prophet (saws) has mandated. Even when there is no mandate for a practice, it is defended. For instance, some Muslims have defended partitions, even though there is no precedent for it in the Qur’an or Sunnah by saying that the current ummah does have the same level of piety and control as the Prophet (saws) and his companions (ra). I have been given this excuse from men and women.
How can we be upset when we are criticized for our treatment of women and yet find various ways to justify gender inequality? We say that all Muslims are equal regardless of gender but in actuality some Muslims (men) are more equal than others (women). We can’t give lip service to gender equality and expect others to see that as equality. Either we practice equality or we don’t.
From Amy’s Blog via Yasmin’s blog
I saw this picture on Amy’s blog and it pretty much describes how I felt yesterday. Without getting too personal, I came to the end of that time, so I feel really emotional and really tired still. I went to a masjid to make salat and prayed in the main musalla behind the brothers. I was fine until some–trying real hard not to call him a name that is not polite–brother put up a stupid, freaking partition right in the middle of the salat. What the hell! No one else seemed to care but him. I gave him the look of the devil while he was doing it. It totally distracted my salat. I mean it’s not even policy to have a partition. On Monday, I will talk to the president of the masjid and ask to make a sign, announcement, something to tell brothers not to put up partitions when a sister doesn’t request one. I understand that some sisters want “privacy” (whatever that means but that’s another post) but I don’t mind praying without a partition at all. I didn’t want the partition! I mean why would he just assume that the partition should be put up when I didn’t ask for it!? Ughh! That really made me mad for so much of the evening. It almost made me not want to go to jumaah but you know not going to the masjid is part of the problem. Brother do this because women are pretty much invisible in the masjid.
Feeling out of sync with some feminists
I’ve been thinking about this a lot lately. I embrace the goals of feminism, which includes the equality of women and men and achieving a better quality of life for all women. That being said, it seems that lately, I have felt at odds with some feminists over how this can be achieved. I’m sure part of this is due to the fact that I am religious and a woman of color. Sometimes, I feel as if some feminists want women who have to contend with the “matrix of oppression” to only focus on gender oppression. Also, I sometimes differ on what gender oppression actually is.
An example of having women choose gender oppression over other forms of oppression is this op-ed piece by Gloria Steinem in the NY Times. As a black woman, I was actually offended by Steinem views. She does a lot of double talk in the article. On the one hand, she claims repeatedly in the article that gender is the hardest barrier to overcome, in fact, harder than race. Yet she also claims that she doesn’t want to compare oppressions. I was left wondering who Steinem was actually trying to address. It surely couldn’t have been black women. I would never say that Barrack has it easier than Hillary simply because he is male. I cannot ignore the fact that he is half black, and thus seen as black in this country. I cannot ignore that his race may be just as much a barrier to him getting elected as Hillary’s gender. Yet Steinem asserts that Barrack has an easier time with voters because he’s a man. She can think this because she will never have to deal with racism. She still has white privilege and for her to ignore the white privilege that both she and Hillary have, despite their gender, is extremely problematic to me. She wrote this op-ed before Bill Clinton used some pretty racist tactics against Barrack so maybe she really didn’t understand how much race is being used against Barrack. However, I really don’t think she is that naive. I pointed out this op-ed as an example of what I think is still wrong with the mindset of some feminists. I just think that even today, many white feminists still have a really hard time understanding that sexism doesn’t trump all the other “isms”. I also realize that Steinem’s article is also a reflection of class and generation divide as well. Maybe sexism is the only ism that some white feminists have to deal with it but that doesn’t mean it trumps the others. Until all feminists embrace this point, I think that feminism will still be viewed with suspicion, especially among many African American women, who see feminism as a “white woman” thing.
As to my point about many feminists being secular, I think that this can alienate women who believe in the rights of women but who are also religious. At times, I feel that my religious views are often at odds with the views of secular feminists. An example of this is sexuality. I do think that women’s sexuality is often used to oppress women. I write about this a lot on my other blog, Muslimnista. Women’s sexuality is often controlled by men. This is why we have honor killings and fgm and people who are still firmly against birth control. These are all ways that to control women’s sexuality and continue sexism or outright misogyny. That being said, I find myself disagreeing on some other views about sexuality. For instance, abstinence. I honestly don’t cringe at abstinence being taught at school (although I do cringe at sexual misinformation being taught but that is another post for another day). I can’t lie and say that I won’t teach my future daughters and sons (if Allah blesses me with children) that they should remain celibate until marriage. As a Muslim, I feel that this is an obligation for me. Yet, I have met and read feminists who are very much against abstinence being taught in schools. The reasons they have are understandable. For much too long, and even presently, women’s reputations have been linked to their sexuality in a way that men’s have not. I believe that this is wrong. However, I have to admit that I sometimes feel uncomfortable when people bash abstinence programs or when people bash religions for promoting abstinence. I don’t think that sexual freedom has to to equate to pre-marital sex. I don’t think we should guilt trip girls who have had sex but I’m not going to encourage them to have sex either. I just can’t.
Also, I sometimes feel that some feminists lack a spiritual base. I think that spirituality can be liberating and that spirituality can help women to deal with the oppression that we face. I’m not necessarily advocating that all women start going to church or the masjid but I do think that having a spiritual framework helps in the struggle over oppression. Perhaps some feminists are apprehensive to embrace spirituality because religion has been used to oppress women for centuries. Again, this is understandable. My issue is when my religion is seen as being a barrier against being feminist. I find a comfort in Islam and Islam gives me a refuge against the gender, racial, and class oppression that I often face. Some feminists honestly cannot appreciate this at all.
I could write some other reasons why I have felt isolated from “mainstream” feminists but those are the biggest reasons. This is why all discourses of feminism need to be given more attention. All feminists have to realize that women do not live in a bubble where their gender is the only identity but one of many.
