I Am Not Oppressed

[ismnotwasm]

I am a proud Muslim-American woman, and I am tired. I am tired of being told that I am oppressed. That I have no voice. That I need to be liberated.

I am tired, and I am speaking out for the rights of my and other fellow Muslim sisters to be able to dress and be how they wish to be.

When I first heard about the 'titslamism' campaign that the radical feminist organization FEMEN was undertaking, I regarded it with apathy. Their original mission seemed to be intended to raise awareness around the Tunisian activist Amina Tyler, a woman who posted a photo of her bare breasts to the FEMEN Tunisia Facebook page and received backlash from the Tunisian government for doing so. As a result, FEMEN opted to begin protesting in front of Islamic centers around the world, baring their breasts in an effort to deal with Islamism.

Or so they purported.

In actuality, however, their campaign is not aligned with what they supposedly intended. FEMEN and its supporters have banked on what they feel is 'politically correct' these days to tap into: a healthy dose of Islamophobia with a heavy dash of sex appeal. Inna Shevchenko, the leader of FEMEN, backs up these allegations in a response she wrote addressing the very Muslim women who protested the efforts of her campaign to 'free' them:

So, sisters, (I prefer to talk to women anyway, even knowing that behind them are bearded men with knives). You say to us that you are against Femen, but we are here for you and for all of us, as women are the modern slaves and it's never a question of colour of skin. ... And you can put as many scarves as you want if you are free tomorrow to take it off and to put it back the next day but don't deny millions of your sisters who have fear behind their scarves, don't deny that there are million of your sisters who have been raped and killed because they are not following the wish of Allah!"
Wow.

As the very woman who is supposedly being 'freed' by these protests, I am offended and disgusted. As a covered Muslim woman, I am greeted on a daily basis with passersby who tell me that I no longer need to wear the headscarf because I am in America. In this exact statement supposedly freeing Muslim women from the clothes they seem 'forced' to don, there is a level of oppression being expressed, as though there is only one way to be 'free.' The same beliefs are employed in FEMEN's offensive and ultimately pointless protests.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/laila-alawa/i-am-not-oppressed_b_3052001.html

This topic continues to interest me because of its complexity--which was not apparent at first. I support the right to protest, naked or otherwise. It was never about breasts so much to me as the attention those breasts garnered, and why. Anyway, I have a Muslim friend who is both devout and liberal (he's from The Gambia--you should hear HIM on the topic of Margret Thatcher, he couldn't believe the American press was defending her record) I tease him and ask him when he's getting his 'second' wife. We have several co-workers from Israel, so there's a lot of good natured teasing that has developed---he dishes it out as well as takes it.

Anyway, he and I have had many talks, in his family, it's a responsibility to represent Islam accurately. One of the things we agree on is there are different forms of oppression, taking your clothes off can be as oppressive as covering up, depending on reasons and circumstance.

He said, when women from Iran fled after the fall of the Shah, women were not wearing the Hijab, but many of their daughters voluntarily DID when they grew up. He said this has happened in other Islamic cultures as well. His own wife does not cover. He said it is a sign of modesty, but in the sense of being humble, a spiritual modesty. (I forgot to ask him why men didn't cover their hair as well) Modesty is considered a virtue males and females in the Islamic religion.

FEMEN breaks my heart, they try so hard, risked so much in what will be an ultimately futile movement.

I am not religious, I find something I dislike in all religions. An Islamic fundamentalist state is a dangerous place for women. But that doesn't represent all Islamic women.

[BainsBane]

1. the Islamophobia on this site is pervasive

to the point that when I challenge it I am accused of supporting female circumcision and stoning women to death because that, they think, represents ALL of Islam. I've written many posts about this in GD. The sense of cultural superiority that many here feel is shocking to me. Even when challenged that their views are culturally imperialistic, they insist they support "freedom" vs. oppression.

[ismnotwasm]

4. Which is why I'm glad I have a friend to run things by

He is a kind, gentle man who has awesome sense of humor. He's also a nurse, being outnumbered bothers him not in the slightest.

Female circumcision is not an Islamic practice per se, it seems to have been in place prior to conversion. The Koran has little to say on it, and it's origins may have been a slight cut to the clitoral hood to increase sensitivity. It developed, over centuries into the horror it is now.

There are 2.2 billion people of the Islamic faith. A islamic cleric woth with shoddy credentials and henious opinions can issue a 'fatwa' which is NOT always in line with Islamic teaching, and certainly stoning doesn't represent the majority of modern Muslims.

[BainsBane]

2. On the question of voice

I wrote this last week.
http://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1002&pid=2628711

[ismnotwasm]

5. Nice!

[BainsBane]

3. The Affair of the headscarf in France

I just received notice of a conference this weekend I will try to attend. Here is one of the panel presentations:

Islam and the French Republic: the Affair of the Muslim Headscarf (1989-2004)
Carine Bourget, French and Italian, The University of Arizona
In the second half of the twentieth century, France became home to a substantial Muslim minority. One of the most salient and long lasting effects of the phenomenon of immigration from North Africa to France will be to have moved Islam up to the rank of second religion of France.

The “affair of the scarf,” sparked in 1989 when Muslim girls were expelled from their public school for refusing to remove their scarves, started a national debate that culminated into the 2004 law that bans certain religious signs in public schools. This talk will give an overview of the development of the affair, and delineate the other issues that played into the debate, as both the French public school and the Muslim scarf became symbols for various crises affecting France. In addition, it examines how Arab writers living in France have presented the affair of the scarf in non-fiction writings.

If anyone in the Twin Cities are is interested, the full conference program is available here: http://ias.umn.edu/outcomes/symposia/mediterranean-conference-2013/program/

[ismnotwasm]

6. Oh, what I wouldn't give.

That sounds awesome.

[BainsBane]

8. my car won't start so I'm missing the talk right now

pretty pissed actually.

[seabeyond]

7. personally,

i do not trust the org. i do not know who funds, who established, creates and has the power. i am tired of it being a mans game, objectifies women for his goals, and we women buying into it. first

when femen using naked to go after Berlusconi and putin, two of the biggest creep males, that makes me say either there is NO thinking thru the effects and repercussion toward women. women. hte people they are suppose to be backing. or.... there is some fuckin game i am not knowing about that is really to take women back a couple steps.

all the men on the board that cheer femen are the men that call us militant.

the whole "bootcamp" of femen with the few girls is to be as angry and ugly in protest that they can. that takes from reason and effectiveness. makes the men on du totaly hypocrites. and we certainly have seen them prove themselves in all their feminism and progressiveness as a tool against feminists on du. to the very top. acting like we do not know what the fuck is going on.

and no. using tits to get attention with no brains take us back steps.

it is ALL insulting our intelligence.