What oppresses and imprisons women - the veil or mini-skirt?

[Guest guest]

LIVING ISLAM

 

When I joined the team of " Living Islam " , my perception of Islam was

dominated by prejudice and ignorance, and I found its treatment of

women abhorrent. To me the veil symbolized the oppression of women,

making them invisible, anonymous and voiceless, and the cause of this

oppression lay in the will to perpetuate the family and maintain a

patriarchal framework - the very basis of an Islamic Society. I

thought women were entirely submerged by divine justification of

their role as wife and mother.

 

" Living Islam " was filmed over two years in 19 different countries

and on location I was a lone female in an otherwise male team. I was

aware that I especially should behave appropriately. In my mind,

women were to be neither seen nor heard. My first trip took me to

Mali - to an untypical Muslim community in the bush. Making sure to

cover every bit of naked flesh while the men wandered around in short

sleeves, I wondered what rooms I was permitted to enter and who I was

permitted to talk to. But I also wondered whether my new-found

meekness was not in part a reaction to the overpowering atmosphere of

the patriarchal society I found my self in. Was this how Muslim women

felt - resignation in the face of impossible odds?

 

The first Muslim woman I met in Mali was far removed from my

preconception about the Muslim female. She was the wife of a Shaikh

dedicated to converting pagan villagers to Islam. A sophisticated,

well-educated woman, previously married to a diplomat, she had

renounced a Western lifestyle for a life in purdah. In my eyes she

had sentenced herself to life imprisonment. But here was no prisoner,

no poor downtrodden slave. A sharp intelligent and influential woman

stood before me, clearly the one " who wore trousers " round here. Her

seclusion gave her a status of honour and allowed her to exercise

control from behind closed doors without confrontation. She was the

bargainer, the head of the household, and the manager of her

husband's affairs and schedule.

 

The emancipated woman in the West faces the conflict between

confirmation of her femininity and the privileges that she associates

with it, and repudiation of the confines of her female role and all

the limitations that men want her to assume. From where I stood, this

woman had transformed those limitations into privileges.

 

On my next trip to northern Nigeria I met two more women who would

alter my views even further. These were two women from the household

of Shaikh Zakzaky, a fervent preacher of Jihad who urges his

supporters to follow the example of Iran and replace the

imperialistic western regime with an Islamic state. Zeenah Ibraheem,

Zakzaky's wife and Fatima Yunus, her friend, had agreed to be

interviewed about the role of women in Islam. They were in purdah and

would only speak to another woman. The producer asked me to interview

them. I was nervous apart from the fact that I had never interviewed

anyone before. I was worried that my feminist sympathies would

antagonize the women. But it was precisely those sympathies that

Zeenah and Fatima themselves were questioning.

 

Once again, the women were educated and articulate. And once again

they had rejected the Western lifestyle which I considered so

superior to Islam in its treatment of women.

 

As I took my seat on a carpet in the courtyard, the invisible

boundary between men and women was a welcome partition, and within

this boundary womanhood reigned supreme. This was a sharp contrast

with the feelings from the previous days in locations where my

presence had been acceptable only as an " honourary man " . We had been

filming the medieval theatrics of the 'Salla' celebrations that

marked the end of Ramadan. Men, men, men everywhere: 500,000 men

gathered for prayer on the morning of the Salla, men pouring into the

inner courtyard of the Emir of Kano's inner courtyard to pay homage -

I was grateful to be allowed to witness these events but at what

price? The complete annihilation of my female identity?

 

But now I was taking the reins because of my sex. No more the feeling

of inferiority and exclusion, as a novice in things Islamic

surrounded by a team of experts, as a woman in a patriarchal society.

Now the men were excluded. Apart from the cameraman and sound

recordist, they were encouraged to stand well back. The cameraman

covered his head and the camera with a black cloth - his very own

veil. I was now in a world where the men had no voice.

 

The women talked and in their answers I saw the seeds of my own

reevaluations. They argued that the veil signified their rejection of

an unacceptable system of values which debased women while Islam

elevated women to a position of honour and respect. " It is not

liberation where you say women should go naked. It is just

oppression, because men want to see them naked. " Just as to us the

veil represents Muslim oppression, to them miniskirts and plunging

necklines represent oppression. They said that men are cheating women

in the West. They let us believe we're liberated but enslave us to

the male gaze. However much I insist on the right to choose what I

wear, I cannot deny that the choice is often dictated by what will

make my body more attractive to men. Women cannot separate their

identity from their appearance and so we remain trapped in the

traditional feminine world, where the rules are written by men.

 

By choosing to wear the veil, these women were making a conscious

decision to define their role in society and their relationship with

men. That relationship appeared to be based more on exchange and

mutual respect (a respect that was often lacking in the personal

relationships I saw in the West), than the master/servant scenario I

had anticipated. The veil to them signified visual confirmation of

their religious commitment, in which men and women were united, and

for Zeenah and Fatima an even stronger commitment to a political

ideal.

 

So were my notions of oppression in the form of the veil disqualified?

If my definition of equality was free will then I could no longer

define that oppression as a symptom of Islam. The women had all

exercised their right to choose. To some extent, they were freer than

me - I had less control over my destiny. I could no longer point at

them and say they were oppressed and I was not. My life was

Influenced by male approval as theirs - but the element of choice had

been taken out of mine. Their situations and their arguments had,

after all, served to highlight shortcomings in my view of my own

liberty.

 

Living Islam

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