[ Post a Response | Bunnies On Strike board ]
Posted by Asra Noman on February 6, 2006, 4:47 pm, in reply to ""Mohammed was a Feminist" by Asra Noman 1" *MJ:* You've said before that "Intolerance toward women is like the *AN:* When we think about Islamic feminism, it is not just about women's *MJ:* In what ways do you think U.S. Muslim women's concerns differ from *AN:* I think that we don't have as much threat to our physical and *MJ:* What role do American Muslim women play in the international *AN:* Personally I get so much of my inspiration from women in other *MJ:* Some critics have charged that Islamic feminism is unduly *AN:* Talk to me 20 years ago and I had a complete sense of illegitimacy *MJ:* In that sense, when you look ahead to your idea for the Islamic *AN:* I think there's probably going to be a lot of differences when it *MJ:* And what about women and men who are not Muslim. What role do they *AN:* One of our greatest challenges here in America [is that] But we're standing up for women in the community and we're saying, "This
Link: Mother Jones . com
83.84.50.118
In our world the men stand with us. And they know that we need them and
we know that we need them. Other men turn on them. They are ostracized,
they're mocked, they're ridiculed. They go through their own hell for
supporting us. But they back us up and we definitely are stronger
because of it.
canary in the coal mine for intolerance toward other people."
rights. It's about a more progressive and tolerant expression of Islam
in the world for all people. It's about kindness and goodness to all
people. Women's rights is one aspect of it, it's not the end-all, but I
also think that the women's issue is the strongest entry point that
we've got to challenging extremism. You raise a woman's issue and you
get the backs of the conservatives up against the wall faster than just
about any other issue in our community. It's the fastest path that we've
got to making change happen. If as women we stand up day in and day out,
day after day, then we really force the extremists to confront their
real ideas.
Muslim women in Africa and the Middle East?
economic livelihood as women in other parts of the world. But the
continuum is the same. The pressures on women to fit into a certain
image of a good Muslim girl is the same. The controls and rules are the
same, but there are different degrees of it. So, in America, a father
will threaten a daughter that he will disown her if she marries the
American boyfriend and in Pakistan she faces acid thrown on her face.
The power dynamic is the same, it just expresses itself differently.
Islamic feminist movement?
countries, so I don't feel like we are the leaders and I don't agree
with the notion that Americans can accomplish more or do more. These
women are so far ahead of where we are as American Muslims in affirming
and asserting their rights in the world. But I do think that what we can
uniquely do here in America is mobilize and galvanize a lot of these
ideas and resources. It's a war of ideas. We are very well supported in
this country by institutions, academic and nonprofit, that are already
in the field endorsing women's rights and tolerance. We have skills and
resources from growing up in America to raise funds or build websites or
publish papers or develop big picture plans. We can publish op-eds in
newspapers that get wide circulation to send strong messages out to the
world. The women in other communities have been the pioneers in this
work. They're putting out newsletters and guidebooks and media points,
but I believe that a lot of the war right now is on getting the ideas
out there through books and newspaper articles and interviews. In
America we've got the machinery to do that.
influenced by western social trends. And yet, women from the congress in
Barcelona say that this is a movement coming from within Islam. Do you
think that it's strictly one or the other, or could it possibly be both?
as an American Muslim. I felt like I wasn't authentic. But I don't
understand and I don't believe or subscribe to this idea that I don't
have a right to speak as a Muslim because I'm an American. I don't speak
Arabic, but Osama bin Laden does, and I don't consider him a more
authentic Muslim than I am. Being Muslim is to accept and honor the
diversity that we have in this world, culturally and physically and
linguistically, because that's what Islam teaches, that we are people of
many tribes. I think the American Muslim experience is of a different
tribe than the Saudi Muslim world, but that doesn't make us less than
anyone else.
Dream, why is collaboration among women from different countries so
important?
comes to implementation because that is going to be uniquely cultural.
Communities are all going to evolve differently from each other, but at
the conference we hit just about every hot button issue, like
homosexuality and women imams, capital punishment, terrorism, sex, and I
think in all of these, there's consensus out there. What's going to have
to get worked out is developing where there's common ground and then
allowing places where there's difference to get worked out over time.
have, if any?
pogressives don't always stand with the progressive Muslims because in
the interest of freedom of religion and civil liberties and political
correctness, they don't want to offend cultural choices by Muslims. I
know that people have gone to these interfaith sessions at different
mosques and they see that the women end up in the basement, but they
don't want to challenge anyone because they think, "Oh, well this is
your way."
/isn't/ our way, this isn't the right way, this isn't the Islamic way,"
and yet it's really hard for people who think of themselves at outsiders
to weigh in. We have to evolve all of us. When we stand up against
sexism and prejudice in a Muslim community, we're standing up against
ideas, not an entire group of people or the whole faith. We have to
mature and the larger American progressive community needs to mature
with us. Progressive Americans need to know that they really are needed
in this struggle to encourage more inclusive and tolerant expressions of
Islam in this world.
Message Thread:
« Back to thread
come see! come see! visit http://bunniesonstrike.cjb.net