Knowing that my regular post day, Thursday, was quickly sneaking up on me, I frantically searched the internet for something to cover. I used the keywords “Muslim women”, “media,” “news,” and finally “Pakistani women” (trying to cover South Asia). And the majority of the stories I came across in news were very negative. Most of the coverage was on the absolute pitiful and frightful situations of Muslim women in Muslim countries. Whether it be acid burnings and being set on fire, being killed by militants, or being prohibited from voting, the abuse of Muslim women rang out loud and clear.
I ended up quite depressed but also extremely furious – furious at the societies that allow such horrific treatment and oppression of women. I tried to rationalize. I tried to find fault in the reports, hoping that maybe I could say that the coverage was somehow unfair, racist, or Islamophobic. Hoping that maybe I could say the reports were not taking issues of poverty and illiteracy into account (both of which do play a role). And some of the comments posted on the stories fit the bill, but I could not come to see the coverage itself as racist or hateful because all I could see was the pain of Muslim women and the entitlement of the men hurting them. And so today I decided to post as a devil’s advocate. I want to ask the questions that may be on the minds of those on the “outside” looking in. How can Muslim women answer these questions? What if we have these same questions?
First I ask, is it wrong for the media to report such occurrences? I remember when the Mukhtaran Mai case became internationally known many Pakistanis were upset that it had received as much international attention as it did. Many reminded us of how so many women in the West were raped as well; that this was not Pakistani phenomenon. Indeed rape is not a Pakistani, or Muslim, phenomenon. However, to have rape designated as legal punishment, even if it is tribal retribution, is not very common. And one of the main reasons the Pakistani authorities even did anything to punish her rapists was because of the intense international attention. No doubt human and women’s rights groups in Pakistan would have worked to help her regardless, but those in power only bent to international pressure, not domestic, or human for that matter.
Additionally, we on MMW often complain about the depiction of Saudi women that paint them as juvenile, helpless, and oppressed. Of course, if the media only focus on the negative then those unfamiliar will view women in that manner. And this is how stereotypes begin. However, the reality is that women in Saudi Arabia are treated like juveniles by their own government. Not allowed to drive or leave the home without male accompaniment is awfully close to being treated like underage individuals who cannot make decisions for themselves. Considering no other country in the world treats women in such a manner would this not seem odd and news worthy? Do the Saudis not deserve this attention so that they can somehow be made aware that the rest of the world thinks their legislated treatment of women is cruel and unusual?
Very often when Western media reports such incidences, the information has been retrieved from local sources – papers, television, internet. Therefore, much of their information has already made it to the media in some form. Local reporters and journalists have also found it news worthy. If not local media, then human rights organizations have pointed it out. In which case it has reached such a severe level that it has become a human rights violation. Can we then blame the media for pointing it out? Should the ill treatment of women not make the news? When a woman is murdered in Canada by her partner it does, after all, make the news. When a young girl is abducted, molested, and/or murdered it does make the news. So then why not when it happens to women in Muslim countries? Especially when the act appears to be mandated by someone in power.
And finally, so many of the men who commit these horrible acts justify it using Islam. Or rather abusing Islam. “Women can’t drive because it may lead to a breaking down of Islamic moral values.” “Men can kill their sisters, daughters, mothers because Islam says it’s acceptable to do so to protect the family’s honour.” “Hadith tell us that a woman’s intelligence is less than that of a man’s therefore women need to be controlled.” Never mind that none of these Islamic “teachings” appear in the Qur’an, and that the aforementioned hadith is considered weak. However, when Muslims themselves are telling “outsiders” that such behaviour is acceptable and encouraged in Islam, how can we expect non-Muslims to question them? To ask them if indeed such beliefs are a part of Islam. Especially when very often those justifying have sheikh or Imam attached to their name.
Now I do know the problems with generalizations of “other” cultures and people. I understand the huge problems associated with such ways of viewing the world. And I do not condone them. However, it may be important to think through these issues presented today. They make many uncomfortable and even angry. However, change needs to occur within the community and until we face our own demons how will we rid our people of them?
I agree with you entirely sister. But as one scholar said to me, ‘muslim men have failed muslim women’. That’s what the issue is coming down to here. Men have been given the right and duty of protecting and maintaining women, and upholding the rights of the weak and vulnerable in society. But they have failed to do that. In addition, many ill educated scholars have jumped on the mysogynist bandwagon by giving a male bias/ slant to certain hadith and ayat and they remain largely unchallenged. So in short there’s been a failure in leadership and scholarship. And to an extent, a crises in masculinity. However, women are not completely innocent in this either. They can sometimes be complicit in these acts of violence too, for example mothers against daughter in laws, or remaining quiet when we know someone close to us is violent, or out of control and beating someone up etc. We have failed in demanding our God given rights too. How many times have we been told to shut up, and we shut up because we think that’s what we should do? Or worse we’re told to have patience in violent marriages, even if he kills us because it’s the virtuous thing to do. Why haven’t we as mothers, brought up our sons to respect women? Aren’t we the first school for a child?Anyway, to cut the story short, the way out of this is education – and female scholarship. There is a very good example of Aisha (ra) correcting Abu Huraira (ra), when he quotes a hadith out of context. It is well known that Aisha (ra) was an expert on hadith and the sahaba would learn from her. Where does this happen in the world today? We need more women to stand up, and be counted amongst the fuqaha. The revival of this ummah will only come about through the women.Finally, men need find their islamic sense of masculinity again – rooted in chivalry and not in violence, subgugation and oppression of women. And you can’t blame poverty or use it as an excuse, because the Prophetic society was the poorest society. They went without food for days and even fought jihad in that state. I think it’s right that the media report these issues as otherwise no one will take notice and it will just get brushed under the carpet. People will just pretend it doesn’t exist, or it doesn’t happen in their part of the world. Some of the most extreme instances of violence and abuse have been put to an end, because it was reported in the media! We can’t do dawah until we get our house in order first. And until we sort ourselves out first, we will only get the leaders we deserve
Tough questions. A few thoughts…I was in a workshop last week where we were talking about Muslims who draw attention to oppression committed by Muslims in the name of Islam. The speaker was saying that on one hand, there is certainly a responsibility to denounce that oppression, and to expose it if such exposure is going to help (more on that in a second.) On the other hand, it is also critical to be aware of the very real issue of Islamophobia, and the fact that one’s comments can often easily be taken as fuel for hatred and fear of Muslims. It’s not to say we (or media in general) shouldn’t speak about problems that are happening, but I think it is definitely important to give more context, so that speaking out doesn’t put other Muslims in a more vulnerable position.I also think it’s problematic to assume that widespread media reports or public outcries are always what’s helpful or needed in these situations. There are certainly cases where it helps to have media attention or international pressure, but there are others where such attention could actually backfire and even be contrary to the interests of the women involved. Asifa Quraishi has written/spoken about this, in the context where international publicity took the discussion away from “wow, this practice is really un-Islamic, let’s look at what Islam really says” into more of a tone of “wow, look at those Muslims, they’re so barbaric.” She’s talked about a case in Nigeria where a woman was to be lashed, and she felt that the well-intentioned but uninformed international reaction that came up actually polarised the debate. The woman ended up being lashed a week earlier than originally planned (which she attributed largely to the polarised debate that came up), which cut off the efforts of Muslims who were putting together a challenge based on Islamic legal principles, which might have been more relevant and potentially more effective in that situation. This is NOT to say that the people who lashed her weren’t wrong – but the international pressure/awareness about the case may have actually caused more harm than good.Last, I think it’s really important that any kind of attempts at solidarity (or standing up against human rights violations) are made in collaboration with those whose rights are apparently being violated, and according to what they define as the most important issues that they want addressed. We see this, for example, with allll those people who freak out about the burqa in Afghanistan and want to “liberate” women from it. Many of these people, on the other hand, don’t want to have anything to do with challenging war, occupation, or other issues that are oppressing Afghan women just as much (if not more.) In their enthusiasm to liberate Afghan women from their clothing, a lot of western activists have ended up totally ignoring the actual priorities expressed by Afghan women, which I think is detrimental.Anyway, I’m getting off topic, and this is getting long! But in terms of your question about whether it’s wrong for the media to report these things – it’s not wrong, necessarily – but the context in which it’s done, and even the way that it gets taken up by human rights groups, is often really problematic, and I think that’s something we need to be careful of, and ready to critique.
I’m jumping on Krista’s bandwagon with this one. I agree wholeheartedly with what Farzana says about education, but something about the phrase “Men have been given the right and duty of protecting and maintaining women, and upholding the rights of the weak and vulnerable in society.” doesn’t sit well with me. Anyway, I think some of the problems surrounding media coverage of these issues isn’t that they’re covering them, but that they’re framing them as cultural issues, like “this is their culture, this is just how they are: they beat women, they mutilate them, etc.” The culture-clash angle is an imaginary duality; it’s not necessarily culture but PATRIARCHY, compounded by issues of colonialism, poverty, etc. I disagree that “you can’t blame poverty.” It’s not an excuse, but rather ONE of the many varied causes that comes together to make things inauspicious for women in West/South Asia.
Farzana:I agree with you. Especially on the point of how women can be complicit in violence against women. Either they agree with the act (such as a mother-in-law who instigates violence against her daughter-in-law who did not bring enough dowry), or they do not stand up against (such as a mother who allows her sons or husband to kill her daughter). This reminds of how a few years ago, in some Indian city (I’m thinking maybe Delhi) the cops rounded up all the mother-in-laws who had been accused of being involved in burning their daughter-in-laws. They had jail cell, at least, full of these women. During the Prophet’s time women had many powers. Just look at Khadija – his first wife. Not only was she a working woman but also much older than him. Muslims need to remember the lessons in that. Krista:You’re right. We do need to be careful not to give Islamophobes fodder. We don’t them using our words to justify their hate. But at the same time these issues need to be addressed. How can we do it so that we strike a balance and make sure we are trying to fix the problem while not stigmatizing Muslims further? I think the leadership should be taking the leading role in this. They could easily try to solve these problems from their mimbars, offices, literatures without bringing this to the attention of Islamophobes. We also have to be careful of who we make alliances with as well, to make sure those allies won’t use the information against us. Many minorities face these issues. For instance, many Black female rappers will hesitate to openly criticize their male counterparts for the misogyny in their music for fear of having their Black men further stigmatized and giving fodder to racists. Similarly, Muslims fear having their men stigmatized further so will not say or do anything. And this fear is perfectly valid. What we have to do is figure out some way to make sure we can work to solve the problem without stigmatizing our men.
Why Muslim men alone are condemned? What about the governments which call themselves OIC? some even have not given women voting rights,drive a car and walk alone.
Basically it is the thought that is basically common amongst Middleast
men that they have to protect the HONOUR OF THEIR WOMANFOLK at all cost as it involves their honour.
Captainjohann:
I’m not sure what you’re trying to say. What are the OIC goverments? I don’t know what OIC means.
I think what he’s try to say is that, in the media, the condition of women is always blamed on men rather than governments who make the rules.
BUT these governments are run by or dominated by the same men, so I understand the point, but don’t think it’s 100% airtight.
OIC could either mean “oil importing country” or “Organization of the Islamic Conference”? I’m assuming the former…?
This society comes into existence at a point of time when flag bearers of humanity and those sympathising with poor, downtrodden and weak were disparaged. Whatever my moisture laden eyes, in all these days, and me have witnessed and studied with utmost care attention had revealed the need to bring into implementation such a society and brimful them with jewels of knowledge and skill and let them realize rights.
My fellow countrymen and me waited for never ending wait but not a single soul came forward into arena ergo I and my weak and feeble hands, to spread and accomplish the mission of Hadrath Rasool (PBUH), have boarded a ship which has no rudder and sailor, sailing on a stormy sea left completely on the mercy of storms. But then I’m very optimistic that merciful people whose hearts ache at the misery of fellowmen and those whom Allah has made competent enough would certainly come forward and strengthen my arms and therefore mission of Rasool (PBUH) so that our society, which ages back, was the cradle of education, learning and skill, once again can hold firm grounds on this planet earth.
Coupled with this our mission is also to establish a society which could eradicate the malice of our hearts and impurity of our souls. Which should unite broken hearts into the never ending and the strongest of relations of love and brotherhood.
The member of this cult should be sophisticated in habits and should be opposed to hostility and rivalry. They should be a living effigy of humanity. They must be able to curb and suppress the spark. He should be a role model and should be free from selfish and jealous patriotism so that he may present such facts and realities in front of commoners on which the well being and cure of humanity should depend and also the security and prosperity of nation