All our hearts ached for the victims of the devastating tsunami a few of years ago. One of the worst natural disasters in recent history. Many people asked why such a horrible thing would happen. How could so many innocent lives be taken like that? Who knows why things like this happen. Who knows God’s plan. Who knows why God planned that.
Well, it seems some people in Indonesia do know why it happened and have found the culprits. Yay! Actual people to blame. But guess whose fault it is? Well, no, not the West. Not directly at least, though one could argue there may be an indirect connection. Anyhow, guess again. That’s right! WOMEN!
Why is that not a surprise to me? According to my friend, and journalist, Natasha Fatah, the right-wing conservatives of Banda Aceh have been blaming the women of the town for the calamity. In her article, Religion and natural disasters shouldn’t mix, Fatah tells us how, following the tsunami, the local sharia-pushing conservatives found the perfect opportunity among the terror-ridden residents to spread their version of events. According to them it was the immorality of the women that caused God to punish them. To protect from further disasters they forced many restrictions on the woman. These self appointed morality police banned night time concerts so women would not be out at night and movie theatres were closed so that men and women would not be in the same dark space.
What was their proof? That’s right. They had proof. The naked dead bodies of women from the disaster. When the force of the water hit these women, for many it ripped the clothes (sarongs and nightgowns) off their bodies. However, these guardians of Islam provided an alternate explanation saying that they were naked because of their immorality and this was God’s way of punishing them, as well as everyone else for allowing them to be immoral.
Now this is getting to be an extremely old story. Whenever so-called Islamic law is implemented the first victims are always women. Always. They are the prey for the perverted, testosterone-thirsty (because real men, who follow the example of the Prophet (pbuh), would never behave this way), estrogen-hating ‘mullahs.’ Women are less powerful than men. They are easy targets. Easy to push around and bully. Their bodies are vessels for a very weak, fragile, and restless morality which, if not carefully watched, will find the first opportunity to escape into the real world to cause chaos, or fitna (disorder or chaos), among society. Therefore, they, like little, naive children, need to be instructed and ordered so that they do not harm themselves or others.
Fatah, in her article, quite aptly points out the ‘female body as battleground’ phenomenon.
A woman’s body is always the easiest battleground for religious zealots. It’s hard to monitor honesty and morality but it’s easy to chastise a woman if her hair is showing, if her clothes are too tight, if she’s talking to a man in private, if she’s out after 9 p.m.
For centuries it seems the female body has become a political battleground around the world. No part of the world is guiltless. Whether it be using rape as a weapon of war or telling women how to dress, this is an international and ageless tragedy. However, in recent times it seems Muslim countries have made the female body a favourite playground for their war games. Iran and Saudi Arabia tell women she must cover her body from head to toe. In Saudi Arabia she must have a male relative accompany her body when outside the home, her body must not drive – all to guard the morality of society, all to control this sexual being who was created to wreak havoc.*
Turkey tells women they must not cover their heads so that the rest of Europe does not see them as extremist or sympathetic to the fundamentalists. After all, we all know that only those extreme women wear the hijab.**
Women everywhere are told to veil for two common reasons. The first is to protect the morality of the Muslim Ummah. The morality of the Muslim Ummah lies in her body. If she uncovers her hair her sexuality will be released to wreak havoc and will lead to the ultimate destruction of the Ummah. The second, to pledge allegiance to other Muslims and demonstrate solidarity. The hijab is a clear label of Muslim-ness. It clearly tells the whole world you are a Muslim. Therefore, to show the Ummah’s pride and confidence Muslim women must cover.
Just as these occurrences in Indonesia point out, the female body is still a ripe and ‘fertile’ battleground. Used to instill fear in people’s hearts, her body terrifies men into oppressing. This makes this tactic extremely successful for those in the business of using bodies. How and when we will be able to defeat this is one question I wish we could answer but unfortunately this plague seems impossible eradicate.
* Read Fatima Mernissi’s description of Imam Al-Ghazali’s interpretation of female sexuality. The idea of woman as fitna-causing originate with him. Mernissi, F. (1987). Beyond the veil: Male-female dynamics in modern Muslim society. Bloomington : Indiana University.
**Editor’s Note: This is SARCASM. Don’t get uppity.
I believe that Muslim men are by nature weak and pathetic creatures that cannot bear the burden of morality and just actions…so place their share on the heads of women….then accuse women of failing to carry the burden adequately to save the whole ummah from moral bankruptcy and degeneration. i find the fact that women more often then not can carry the additional burden…whether by choice or force…shows just how strong and morally capable we are…men are just too blind to see that we can be just as good if not better with twice the burden then they will ever have…..if only we could convert that into positive action.By we I mean any women that finds herself having to carry more than her fair share of the moral responsibility of the ummah…
Coolred38, I understand where you’re coming from. I agree that women unfairly bear the brunt of responsibility for morality and “honor”. We’re the first ones to sacrifice our wants or needs for the better of others, partly because we want to or because we’re expected to. But I don’t think it’s fair to place all of the blame for this on all men everywhere. Men DO win out in our current cultures’ structural patriarchy (which was formed by men), but we are ALL weak and pathetic creatures. The lack of responsibility this institutional patriarchy puts on men is what causes weakness in men; institutional and traditional societal discrimination against women in the form of withholding agency and power causes weakness in women. Everybody loses out with unequal gender roles; women just happen to lose out harder.
Salaam Alaikum,What about the women who cover their hair because they believe God wants them to? That’s why I cover mine and I’m sure I’m not alone.
Safiya: True there are women who cover their hair because they believe God wants them to. But I guess my question would be why do women believe this? Who is telling them that this is what God wants? Because there is no place in the Qur’an that says that women must cover their heads. At no time did God actually tell women Himself (by that I mean through the Qur’an) that we must cover our heads. So why is this being told to women? coolred38:It’s true that Muslim men are portrayed as weak BUT I don’t think they actually are. Both men and women have been created with weaknesses and strengths but we have also been given will power and the ability to reason and think things through. I think this idea of men being weaker is propoganda to allow men to get away with things. You know “oh he couldn’t help raping her – he’s weak.” I think by saying they are weak is allowing them to get away with unjust actions. They are not weak and have the capability to treat women equally and with respect. Many choose not to and then use the myth of male weakness as an excuse. And some women even use this as an excuse for men.
Fatima mernissi is not even a practising muslim.So according to you, a hardly practising muslim is more right than Imam Ghazali – perhaps one of the greatest islamic scholars of all time ?Astaghfirullah !!!
Anonymous, only Allah can judge whether Mernissi is a Muslim. She identifies as one, and that is good enough for you and I.
Sorry ladies….the first part of my post was more cynical than actual fact…of course not all men are like that and not all women are shining pillars of moral light…it was just a basic generalization that I consider a “hidden truth used as an excuse” about the ummah. Where God tells us that we each bear our own burden seems to not have any impact on the Muslim society today….since Muslim men must generally bear the burden of feeling ineffectual and powerless living under oppressive govts and dictatorships…Muslim women bear the burden of husbands/fathers/brothers etc that can only wield power in their own homes against the women in their families in order to get that powerful manly feeling. should have been more clear…thank you
Oooooh, girl, THAT’S a comment I can definitely get behind!
Annoymous:It seems you have some special two way connection to God. If you can, just like God, know who is a Muslim and who is not, either you have God-like powers or God is talking to you. Now that deserves an Astaghfarullah! Imam Ghazali was a human – he is falliable. To place on him on such a high pedestal is making him God like – which in case you didn’t know is haram. Because he was human who did not have any divine connection like the Prophet, we have every right to criticize his interpretation. And we should. If we don’t then we are in danger of following, then worshiping a human. Why the astaghfarullah? Not questioning a human’s interpretation deserves an astaghfarullah!!!coolred38:Very well said!
Duniya – It’s called a sahih hadith. Whether you choose to accept that hadith or not is one thing, but the repeated implication that women who wear hijab are in some way deluded or victimised is really tiresome.Also, one should not relying on the word of one scholar to insult someone, particularly someone of the stature of Imam Al Ghazali. Respecting someone’s work is not putting them on a pedestal and to slander someone so viciously in a throwaway line is very sad.I’ve read a few things here that I’ve disappointed me and I’ve held my silence, not wanting to cause any fitna. However, I’m starting to feel this blog is less like an inclusive space for all muslim women and more like a clique.
Safiya–constructive critiques are welcome and appreciated. Obviously, we all have our own viewpoints, but I don’t want you to hold your tongue if you don’t agree with something. Maintaining a welcoming environment is difficult, especially when there are so many different viewpoints on all stops of the continuum. But speaking out when you feel unwelcome is important and it helps us realize that we don’t all share the same viewpoints, which is the whole…eh…point.
Looking back through the comments, I do have to take issue with one of Duniya’s statements: the comment “Who is telling them that this [wearing hejab] is what God wants?” can be construed very patronizingly, as if all Muslim women are getting fed stuff without questioning it. I don’t think it’s fair to assume that women who wear hejab are just drinking in what others are telling them without question (though there are many adherents of organized religion—both male and female—that do just this), when many of them come to the assertion that God wants them to cover themselves a certain way through their own careful study. And though there are many people who believe that God never specifically instructed women to cover their heads in the Qur’an, we have to accept that there are women who believe that God has.
The only I reason I said this was to push the idea that we need look at the message critically. And by criticism I mean really analyze the message. I was not trying to be patronizing and if I was I apologize. What I was saying was that we need to be critical of all messages and really think about where and from who they are coming. If we are fine with where they are coming from then accept the message. But if not then don’t. I am not fine with where the message is coming from so I don’t accept it as truth. If you are comfortable with the source then you choose to accept it. That’s fine. However, I still think we need to be aware of the source of messages regardless of what the message is. I guess its the feminist in me. I was simply trying to present to safiya another way of looking at things, not to say that all women who wear the hijab are being duped.