Monday October 30, 2006

Please look beyond the veil

Comment by Dina Zaman

I WAS privileged to have been invited to the Ubud Writers Festival last month. After four days of interviews, being viewed as a “prototype” of Muslim feminism and being probed, I veered between two extremes – there were times when I felt like a recently launched laundry detergent and moments when I felt like an alien.

Heavens! Is the Muslim woman such an anomaly to the rest of the world?

Qaisra Shahraz, a British Muslim writer of Pakistani origin, and I had to lob a few comebacks and repartees as we navigated across discourses and debates on what it meant to be a Muslim woman in the 21st century.

Perhaps next time if I am asked to attend a similar conference in the future, I’ll stick two horns on my forehead and a forked tail on my behind. That, coupled with my identity as a hapless Muslim woman, should floor the audience.

But I am being cruel. I do not mean to mock my Western non-Muslim friends because their questions revealed a reality: so little is known of us.

All those books and media articles about Western women trapped in horrendous marriages with chauvinistic Muslim men and the traumas we have had to endure – they don’t endear us to the West, do they?

The general and deeply founded belief in the non-Muslim world is that we burqa-clad women are docile and get beaten 24 hours a day by chauvinistic Muslim men who treat us worse than slaves. It is a perception that needs to be abolished.

I am not denying the fact that we have a lot of problems – the list is endless – but there’s a lot of good that we have done too. How does one relay to the world the good work we have done, though?

Short of going on a media offensive and bombarding everyone with films, books and propaganda about how far Muslim women and men have come, perhaps a little green book on how Muslims should respond when asked questions would be handy.

You know: Our Missions. Objectives. Tagline. Unique Selling Point. Something like Chairman Mao’s Little Red Book.

What can a Muslim woman say when she is bombarded with questions such as if indeed Islam protected the rights of women, why then was there so much abuse?

She can lay the cards on the table and quote the Surahs, Hadiths and laws to prove that Islam does protect women and is a religion for feminists.

“If that’s true, then why are Muslim women treated so badly? Look at the problems we face in Europe and the Middle East!” a woman shouted at me.

It would be convenient to say that the problem lay with men. Evil, wicked men misusing the words of Allah to step on women. Bad, bad men! May they rot in hell! But in reality, we have ourselves to blame for too.

My answer to the woman who held on to me was that the reason Islam was revealed to citizens of patriarchal societies was precisely that: the religion was revealed to educate and set order in a lawless and chauvinistic Jahiliyah society. And the teachings are even more relevant now.

“Well, you got your work cut out for you, haven’t ya, girl?”

How do you stop yourself from becoming a cliché, a stereotype?

By cleaning up your own home first.

This means by going back to and fighting for the system that is already in place but has been maligned and abused for far too long. By empowering yourself through education. Employing yourself in the highest order. (None of these need rich, furry-faced older men to give you a good life.) By marrying good men who may have less money but respect women. By not accepting unacceptable behaviour in the name of love, children and society. They’re not paying your rent.

This also means that we have to look at ourselves in the mirror and face real-life issues that challenge us, whatever stripe or colour we are. No more sugar-coating. No more sweeping AIDs, abortion, sex, drugs under a rug. And, mothers, stop pestering your daughters to marry. They’ll marry when they are good and ready.

Part of dakwah is to have responsible, socially conscious daughters. Marriage may be about building a “mosque” but if a woman’s sole existence is that, and that society is led by infantile men, you’re looking at an Armageddon.

Women, married or single, have a responsibility to help their ummah, the rakyat. You don’t even have to be an activist: by simply teaching kindness and respect for the elders and others, you’re halfway there.

It must be sheer coincidence for as I wrote this essay, I came across an interesting article in Islamica Magazine (Issue 17, 2006) in which Mohja Kahf discusses the stereotypes and pitfalls facing Muslim women (writers). Muslim women are viewed as victims, mute, meek, veiled to the point of invisibility and their sexuality stifled.

Mohja Kahf suggested a few solutions to counter these, such as changing the script – don’t let anyone label you, don’t be scared of critics, keep a running critique of what’s wrong with the West and the Muslim world and cultivate your audience. Mind you, her suggestions were meant for Muslim women writers but I feel they are as relevant to non-writers.

Let’s look beyond the veil, which really is becoming tiring to explain. We are more than our clothes. And let’s realise this: our lives as Muslim women are not confined to just one society and faith only.

Remember this: women literally create societies. That’s a powerful thought, yes?

Dina Zaman is a Kuala Lumpur based writer.

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