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Tag: Muslim Women

From Istanbul, with love

From Istanbul, with love

By Ceylan Ozbudak

I am a European, a woman, and a Muslim resident of Istanbul. In a Muslim land, I enjoy a life of freedom and opportunity in a modern, beautiful city, which has been Muslim since 1453. If I am accused of a crime, I have all the due process rights of anyone in Philadelphia or Sydney or Montreal. If I want to travel, I have a car. I have a challenging occupation, a comfortable home; access to the press, and the vote. I enjoy more liberties than any reasonable person would care to exercise. With these blessings, it’s hard not to be puzzled at the great hue and cry, which the sections of the Western press often create about the lack of full democracy or human rights in Turkey. If we in Turkey are not good enough, then which nation among Muslims is acceptable? And as Arabs cry for freedom and democracy after the Arab spring, if not Turkey, which Muslim nation should they emulate?

Istanbul sits below waters, which descend from Russia through the Black Sea, and flows above from the Aegean, which derive from currents of the Mediterranean and the Nile. The northern flows meet at Marmara, a placid inland sea, which at once divides and connects Asian and European Istanbul at the Bridge of Bosphorus. Like these confluent waters and this bridge, Constantinople (the old name for Istanbul) has been for many centuries a site of conflicts, division, resolution, and peace. Likewise, we who live here carry within our souls all the colliding currents of thought and power, which have coursed about our planet these last one thousand years. And somehow, we have reconciled them all into a harmonious celebration of life that marries Islam and the West. From women’s rights to religious freedom we offer a model for our Arab neighbors.

Since the end of the First World War, the West has largely banished religious sentiment to the margins of public life. In doing so, it has torn away the roots of its own political foundations and dissolved any predicate for unity of a people who were formerly “one nation under God.” Last month at this time, Rhode Island Governor Lincoln Chaffee was afraid to call a five -meter high spruce tree a “Christmas tree” when the people of his state placed it in the legislature. Am I the only one who finds it ironic that in 2011, Muslim officials in Egypt attended the Christmas Eve vigil at the Coptic Church in Alexandria? Or that MB officials attended Coptic Christians celebrations in Cairo 2012? Where is there more religious liberty? In Times Square? Or in Tahrir Square?

Failed U.S. diplomacy

If there is any lesson from 2012, it is a notice to the world that from Libya, to Egypt, to Syria, to Afghanistan the American diplomatic approach has failed, alienated itself from the peoples of Middle East.

Ceylan Ozbudak

To those of us observing U.S foreign policy from the Middle East, the working principle of American diplomacy since President Woodrow Wilson seems to be an assumption that religion is inimical to democratic institutions and civil rights. To add irony to this error, this Wilsonian American assumption—that religion and pluralism cannot coexist—is probably the greatest obstacle to America’s efforts to foster democracy, human rights and friendship in the Islamic world today. Ours is a region in which Islam is central to our lives, but that is not to say we support extremism. Far from it.

If there is any lesson from 2012, it is a notice to the world that from Libya, to Egypt, to Syria, to Afghanistan the American diplomatic approach has failed, alienated itself from the peoples of Middle East. Polls show that this American president’s popularity is lower than that of the last. No one who denies the role of religion in such a conservative region is ever going to enjoy the trust of Middle Eastern nations. Until this lesson sinks into the American political mind, its only influence is going to come from the power of the purse, and from the force of arms. I want to see the U.S as a force for good in our region – appreciated by people here. America cannot afford to alienate the entire Muslim world of 1.6 billion people and then just drone strike its way out of regional conflicts.

Yes, there are brain washed radicals in the Middle East—distempered souls who press Islam into service as a tool of violence and disorder. The most credible alternative to rising Islamist radicalism in Mali, Syria, Libya, Tunisia and unfortunately Egypt, is the Turkish Islamic model. Here, liberal political principles in the Qur’an, maintaining the role of religion in national life, afford protection to all religious or non-religious groups without segregation. The example of Istanbul illustrates that a society ordered according to the Qur’an is not an obstacle to democracy and civil liberty in any way. This model should not be unfamiliar to educated American minds, because it is essentially similar to the old American ideals of “e pluribus unum;” and “one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.”

Greater Western and Turkish cooperation in assisting Arabs build democratic nations will boost security and prosperity in our world. Solid majorities in Turkey, Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, Tunisia, and Pakistan have a favorable view of Turkey. Most people polled in the region also have a positive view of the Turkish Prime Minister Erdogan. No doubt Turkey needs reform in many sectors. But its equation with religion and politics is something that stands out as an asset for a religious region, and deserves greater western attention. The current focus on the crisis in Syria should not make us neglect the fact that Arab countries looking to embrace democracy are struggling to balance interpretations of Islam within a secular, modern state. It was Erdogan who spoke in public in Egypt among Muslim Brotherhood audiences about the importance of a secular state in maintaining freedom for Islam and other faiths. Egypt, and others, are not only in need this bold direction from Turkey, but require greater economic cooperation. I am proud to say Turkey has not only struck that balance perfectly, but we remain prepared to help others.
Ceylan Ozbudak is a Turkish political analyst, television presenter, and executive director of Building Bridges, an Istanbul-based NGO. She can be followed on Twitter via @ceylanozbudak

February 7, 2013
MUSLIM WOMEN AND SPORTS: A CONTESTED AREA

We can group Muslim sportswomen into three based on their participation in international games. The first group of women is composed of those who are not following the Islamic dress code, some of whom do not believe that such dress code (ie, headscarf) is Islamic. Historically, this group has been involved in international games for much longer than the other two, since modernists in many Muslim societies viewed sports as a means of breaking women’s segregation and including them in public life in the early 20th century. The first Muslim women attended the 1936 Berlin Olympics: Suat Aşeni and Halet Çambel represented Turkey in fencing, 36 years after first women were allowed to compete in the Olympic Games. Turkey, as a country which accepts international dress regulations for different branches of sports, does not have any problem in sending its successful sportswomen to the Olympic Games, as long as the sportswomen follow the international dress codes in sports.

Two female participants of Olympics from Turkey with other fencers, 1936. Image courtesy Sertac Sehlikoglu

The second group of Muslim women is composed of those who believe in modesty and prefer observing Islam in terms of the dress code as well. These women often face other rules, such as those in international games, which forbid their headscarf based on safety and security concerns. Muslim sports activists propose “safe hijabs” to negotiate with security concerns and suggest alternative styles for different branches. FIFA, for instance, was in contact with designers for an approvable headgear to be used in international soccer games when this article was being written.

A third group of Muslim women however, are not allowed to participate in sports, not because of their religious choices or international game regulations, but because of the regulations of their own country. Iranian sportswomen are an example to this, since the branches of sports Iranian women are allowed to participate are limited: Lida Fariman, Manije Kazemi (archery), Marjan Kalhor (skiing), and Sara Khoshjamal Fekri (taekwondo) are four examples, who have represented Iran in the Olympic games in earlier years within clothes regulated by their country. In these Iranian cases, the dress codes of the sport are in line with Iran’s national dress code for modesty to be preserved. Similarly, and unfortunately, there are countries, such as the Southeast Asian nation of Brunei, Saudi Arabia and Qatar, which have not sent any single woman to the Olympic games until 2012. Such outfit regulations influence female citizens of these countries whether the sportwomen themselves are Muslims or not, since they are bounded with the codes both at national and at international level.

What all these groups of Muslim women seem to be sharing is that their bodies are at the center of heated ideological, political, or religious debates and contestations at national and international platforms; as these women are subjected to different forms of idealized discourses and pressures (of secularist and Islamist patriarchies) on multiple fronts.

The fatwas regarding sports are very explanatory in understanding the “Islamic” attitudes. Although Islamic rules do not necessarily pose an obstacle to the participation of women in sports, they can shape the sporting experience of women as gendered subjects. All of the fatwas on Islamic web sites concerning physical exercise begin with the importance of sports for health and encourage individuals to be physically active with reference to hadiths, with minor warnings on violence, fanaticism, or hooliganism. When it comes to women’s involvement in sports, the fatwas start using a more regulative language in details. Almost all of the suggested regulations and rules about women’s involvement in sports are related to gender segregation, and, more importantly, bodily exposure. Fatwas specify several rules that must be followed: First, men and women must be segregated, since mixed environments may open channels for seduction, temptation and corruption. Fatwas reject any physical exercise that stir sexual urge or encourage moral perversion such as women practicing dancing and being watched by the public since each one of the these acts are coded as “sexual(ly appealing).” Indeed, those within Saudi Arabia who oppose the inclusion of women in sports do so because future implications and consequences of women’s involvement in sports might be un-Islamic although there is nothing in Islam that prohibits women from physical activity or even competitive sports.

Most of the time, the most convenient sport for Muslim sportswomen who have concerns about their body movements or Islamic veiling are the branches that do not require too much body movements – the movements which are perceived as ‘sexually appealing’ such as movement of hips (running) and breasts (jumping). The most popular sports for women from predominantly Muslim countries have been athletics, power lifting, fencing, archery, martial arts and table tennis. Such branches are more convenient especially if women are professionals and need to spend hours everyday for training. Women can easily find spaces for training and do not need to seek for special dedicated spaces.

via Muslim Women in SPORTS.

http://muslimwomeninsports.blogspot.com/

September 3, 2012
Joining a Dinner in a Muslim Brotherhood Home

By NICHOLAS D. KRISTOF
CAIRO

If you want to understand the Islamic forces that are gaining strength in Egypt and scaring people here and abroad, let me tell you about my dinner in the home of Muslim Brotherhood activists.

First, meet my hostess: Sondos Asem, a 24-year-old woman who is pretty much the opposite of the stereotypical bearded Brotherhood activist. Sondos is a middle-class graduate of the American University in Cairo, where I studied in the early 1980s (“that’s before I was born,” she said wonderingly, making me feel particularly decrepit).

She speaks perfect English, is writing a master’s thesis on social media, and helps run the Brotherhood’s English-language Twitter feed, @Ikhwanweb.

The Muslim Brotherhood has emerged as the dominant political party in parliamentary voting because of people like Sondos and her family. My interviews with supporters suggest that the Brotherhood is far more complex than the caricature that scares many Americans.

Sondos rails at the Western presumption that the Muslim Brotherhood would oppress women. She notes that her own mother, Manal Abul Hassan, is one of many female Muslim Brotherhood-affiliated candidates running for Parliament.

“It’s a big misconception that the Muslim Brotherhood marginalizes women,” Sondos said. “Fifty percent of the Brotherhood are women.”

I told Sondos that Westerners are fearful partly because they have watched the authorities oppress women in the name of Islam in countries such as Saudi Arabia, Iran and Afghanistan.

“I don’t think Egypt can ever be compared to Saudi Arabia or Iran or Afghanistan,” she replied. “We, as Egyptians, are religiously very moderate.” A much better model for Egypt, she said, is Turkey, where an Islamic party is presiding over an economic boom.

I asked about female circumcision, also called female genital mutilation, which is inflicted on the overwhelming majority of girls in Egypt. It is particularly common in conservative religious households and, to its credit, the Mubarak government made some effort to stop the practice. Many worry that a more democratic government won’t challenge a practice that has broad support.

“The Muslim Brotherhood is against the brutal practice of female circumcision,” Sondos said bluntly. She insisted that women over all would benefit from Brotherhood policies that focus on the poor: “We believe that a solution of women’s problems in Egyptian society is to solve the real causes, which are illiteracy, poverty and lack of education.”

I asked skeptically about alcohol, peace with Israel, and the veil. Sondos, who wears a hijab, insisted that the Brotherhood wasn’t considering any changes in these areas and that its priority is simply jobs.

“Egyptians are now concerned about economic conditions,” she said. “They want to reform their economic system and to have jobs. They want to eliminate corruption.” Noting that alcohol supports the tourism industry, she added: “I don’t think any upcoming government will focus on banning anything.”

I told her that I would feel more reassured if some of my liberal Egyptian friends were not so wary of the Brotherhood. Some warn that the Brotherhood may be soothing today but that it has a violent and intolerant streak — and is utterly inexperienced in managing a modern economy.

Sondos looked exasperated. “We embrace moderate Islam,” she said. “We are not the ultra-conservatives that people in the West envision.”

I heard similar reassurances from other Brotherhood figures I interviewed, and I’m not sure what to think. But opinions vary, and I’m struck by the optimism I heard in some secular quarters: from Dr. Nawal El Saadawi, an 80-year-old leftist who is a hero of Egyptian feminism, and from Ahmed Zewail, the Egyptian-American scientist who won a Nobel Prize and is passionate about education.

Amr Moussa, a former foreign minister and Arab League secretary general who is a front-runner in the race for president, was similarly optimistic. He told me that whatever unfolds, Egypt will continue to seek good relations with the United States and will unquestionably stand by its peace treaty with Israel.

“You cannot conduct an adventurous foreign policy when you rebuild a country,” he said. “We must have the best of relations with the United States.”

When I raised American concerns that Egypt under the Muslim Brotherhood and the more extremist Salafis might replicate Iran, he was dismissive: “The experience of Iran will not be repeated in Egypt.”

I think he’s right. Revolutions are often messy, and it took Americans seven years from their victory in the American Revolution at Yorktown to get a ratified Constitution. Indonesia, after its 1998 revolution, felt very much like Egypt does today. It endured upheavals from a fundamentalist Islamic current, yet it pulled through.

So a bit of nervousness is fine, but let’s not overdo the hand-wringing — or lose perspective. What’s historic in Egypt today is not so much the rise of any one party as the apparent slow emergence of democracy in the heart of the Arab world.

via Joining a Dinner in a Muslim Brotherhood Home – NYTimes.com.

December 8, 2011
The WISE Women of Islam: What a Conference in Istanbul Can Tell Us About the Future of Women in the Muslim World

Fritz Lodge

Blogger

[Reported from the WISE Conference in Istanbul. All non-cited quotations or paraphrasings drawn from notes on the conference or interviews with WISE participants.]

The “fearful fatalistic apathy”, which a young Winston Churchill once noted amongst the “curses [of] Mohammedanism”, (Churchill, River Wars, 1899) has found frequent repetition over the years as one base assumption behind explanations as to precisely why a political revolution, like the Arab Spring, could never come to pass in the Muslim Middle East. A similar logic has often been applied to the concept that women in Islamic societies might strive to become anything other than the “absolute property of some man” (another Churchillian gem). Such apathy was, however, on poor display October 14 as some 170 Muslim women leaders gathered at the Marriott Hotel in Istanbul to attend a four-day conference organized by the Women’s Islamic Initiative in Spirituality and Equality (WISE) — an offshoot of the American Society for Muslim Advancement (ASMA) dedicated to promoting women’s rights in the Muslim world. Here, the word apathy does not spring easily to mind. As women from every far-flung province of Islam’s reach stream into the empty conference hall, the air hums with voices raised in vigorous conversation. Flowery greetings and small talk segue swiftly into meatier discussion. Stories are told, tactics exchanged, politics debated, and by the end of each speaking event lines for questioning stretch towards the door. It quickly becomes clear that four days will not be nearly enough to contain the vitality of this group. African, Asian or European, bareheaded or modestly garbed in flowered hijab (traditional head scarf), these women brim not with resigned fatalism but with energy, conviction and, incredibly, an overriding sense of optimism.

There seems little evidence to support such confidence. Muslim women, especially those hailing from the countries of the Middle East and North Africa, remain notoriously underprivileged and underrepresented. A recent report released by Freedom House on women’s rights in those nations did find marginal gains — specifically in the fields of education, employment, and political participation. However, it remains the region where “the gap between the rights of men and those of women has been the most visible and severe.” This is hardly news for the women of WISE, nor is such iniquity exclusive to Islam’s heartland. Standing to speak before the conference, Sophia Abdi Noor — a member of Kenya’s 10th parliament- rattles off a list of offences. “I have been a victim myself,” she admits, “who has gone through female genital mutilation at a very tender age, who has lost her two friends in the operation… who was forced to marriage.” Later, when she ran for parliament, conservative Islamic leaders within the community convinced the president to disqualify Ms. Noor’s bid, despite her victory at the polls. “But”, she states to laughter from the crowd, “I did not stop at that!” She smiles triumphantly, “Now I am a member of parliament… and I am proud to tell you that I am one of the framers of the new constitution of Kenya!” This tone of dogged defiance in the face of adversity is one struck often and well here. From Suraya Pakzad, a fearless campaigner for women’s rights in Afghanistan, to Santanina Rasul, who remains the only Muslim woman to win a senate seat in the Philippines, each participant pairs tales of hardship and bias with the casual assumption that no obstacle is insurmountable.

That mentality is one which seems to define this gathering but what is, perhaps, most striking about WISE is the religious framework within which it operates. This is a Muslim women’s conference above all else and, in large part, it is this Islamic identity, which the organization seeks to empower. “Women are the glue that holds society together”, states Daisy Khan — WISE founder and executive director of ASMA — their status in the Muslim world must change but, Daisy notes, “Islam can effect that change.” That statement might seem antithetical to some, considering the frequency with which theological arguments are used to rationalize rights abuses in the Muslim world. However the women here maintain that, for the most part, these arguments represent only the manifestation of cultural and tribal mores in the guise of Islamic law. They argue that, contrary to popular perception, the six basic objectives which guide Sharia law — the protection and promotion of religion (al-din), life (al-nafs), mind (al-aql), family (al-nasl), wealth (al-mal), and dignity (al-‘ird) — provide the same fundamental rights to both men and women.

The promotion of Sharia interpretations refocused upon these universal values is one of WISE’s main objectives and the organization sponsors several programs aimed at balancing the narrative on woman’s place within Islam. One such program, the NOOR Educational Center run by Jamila Afghani, has experienced marked success in educating Afghani Imams on the religious illegality of common cultural practices such as early and forced marriage. While the Shura Council, WISE’s flagship project, brings together influential female leaders and scholars specializing in Islamic law to produce detailed and thoroughly sourced theological position statements on certain controversial elements of Sharia.

As Islamist parties stand poised to win a large share in government at upcoming elections in post-revolutionary Egypt and Tunisia, the promotion of an inclusive, non-restrictive approach to Sharia is particularly important. Efforts such as these, if spread successfully, have the potential to blunt the power of those who would use Islam as a weapon of repression, and inform those who would assert their intrinsic rights within the religion. However the tendency for Muslim women, bound by cultural and traditional norms, to censure themselves and prolong their own discrimination remains a major obstacle in efforts toward equality. Judge Kholoud al-Faqih — Palestine’s first Sharia court judge — underlined this dilemma during a panel on spiritual leadership, recalling her disappointment at the reaction of many women who, upon seeing a female judge, clicked their tongues in admonishment and sought out male judges to try their case. “It is very sad to see this” she says with a shrug, “because this is cultural baggage and doesn’t have anything to do with Islam.” So, perhaps, Churchill’s “fearful apathy” retains some of its power to convince the disenfranchised to stay that way. As long as it does, progress remains a distant prospect. Still, the events of the Arab spring should provide a lesson in the folly of underestimating the spark of individualism in the Islamic world. If the ladies of WISE 2011 are anything to go by, Muslim women may celebrate their own spring sooner than we think.

October 28, 2011