This piece was written by both Sobia and Krista
After getting all of that sarcasm out of our systems two weeks ago, we decided it might be useful to put together a list of actual guidelines for writing about Muslims. Of course, this is mostly just wishful thinking, because if reporters actually seemed willing to adhere to guidelines like this, then there would be no need for this blog. But here are some suggestions anyway.
A lot of this isn’t new stuff, as you’ll see from the many MMW posts that we link to, which illustrate some of our guidelines in more detail.
So, here you go: the shockingly un-sarcastic version of “How to Write About Muslims.”
Rule #1: Don’t assume that Muslim women need to be saved, or that you know how to save them.
By making this assumption, what one is essentially doing is:
- Assuming that all Muslim women are somehow oppressed at the hands of their fellow Muslims. The Muslim community is just as diverse as any other. By generalizing in such a way, one maligns the entire community, including the women. This is offensive to the many women who are treated with respect and equality by their fellow Muslims, including Muslim men. This assumption also ignores the forms of oppression that Muslim women may be facing from outside of the Muslim community, such as racism and Islamophobia (or even war and occupation, in cases like Iraq and Afghanistan), which for some women can be much more disastrous than anything they experience from their Muslim community.
- Assuming that Muslim women can’t take care of themselves. This is very patronizing. Muslim women have agency, and a great deal of it. Throughout history and today, Muslim women have been taking various forms of leadership. In situations where women are being oppressed, they are resisting in all sort of ways that the media doesn’t always think about. Additionally, most Muslim countries have Muslim women’s organizations that are working hard to support themselves and other women.
- Assuming that what you’re going to do for them is going to be helpful. The assumption is that you know better than them what’s good for them. It also suggests that you are actually in a position to help them, which might not be true.
These two posts by Faith go into more detail about what is wrong with making these assumptions.
Rule #2:Rather than assuming you know what Muslim women’s lives are like, try asking them.
Too often, writers write about Muslim women without ever having tried to find out what Muslim women’s lives are like from their perspective. This is poor research, and feeds into the problematic assumptions discussed in Rule #1. Do your homework, and try hard to connect to the specific women that you are writing about. Even if you are writing about women in another country, try to connect to women’s organisations in that country. At the very least, try to connect to women from that country who are living in your own community.
Rule #3: Be careful of who you talk to regarding Islam and/or Muslim women.
Don’t assume, just because someone is Muslim, that all Muslims will agree with them or that they represent all Muslims. For example, Muslims who have made a career out of calling other Muslims Islamists, and who base their credibility on the number of other Muslims who don’t like them, are not a good source of information. Generally, people who work within an Islamic framework, as opposed to always bashing Islam, are more likely to understand the Muslim community.
If you’re looking for information on Islam and Muslims, works by the following people might be of interest: Dr. Jasmin Zine, Dr. Asifa Quraishi (discussed here on MMW), Dr. Amina Wadud, Dr. Asma Barlas, Dr. Tariq Ramadan, and Imam Shabbir Ally. (Note that neither we nor MMW necessarily endorses everything that any of these people say. See also the comment section of this post for some more suggestions of people who can represent Muslims.)
Rule #4: Understand that Muslims are just like anyone else in terms of their belief systems. Not everything a Muslim does has to do with Islam.
Although Islam may play an important role in the lives of many Muslims, this does not mean that every action a Muslim takes, good or bad, is related to his/her religion. Believing everything a Muslim does must be related to Islam is the same as believing that everything a Christian, Jew, Hindu, or Sikh does is related to their religions. As irrational and nonsensical as this seems for these religious groups, it should seem equally as nonsensical to apply this belief to Muslims. Muslims, just like all other people, are impacted and influenced by many aspects of their contexts – culture, economy, employment, relationships, health, etc. The ways in which Muslims behave, just like the ways in which all people behave, are influenced by the many experiences in our lives, just one of which is religion. To assume that a Muslim’s behaviour is based on his/her religion alone is assuming that Muslims live in a vacuum which is devoid of culture, economy, patriarchy, social problems, health issues, etc. Here is an example of taking Muslims out of their context and blaming Islam for their behaviour.
Rule #5: Understand that there is no such thing as a “Muslim culture.” Muslims come from a variety of cultures, and culture is dynamic – it’s constantly changing.
Muslim culture does not exist. There is no one region of the world from which Muslims hail. Don’t take our word for it. Ask any researcher in cross-cultural studies (psychology, sociology, etc) and they will tell you that a Muslim culture does not exist.
Muslims hail from a variety of different cultures. Researchers also say that culture is a dynamic phenomenon. Every culture is dynamic and is constantly changing. Hence, the cultures from which Muslims hail are also changing. What may have happened in a culture 50 years ago, may not necessarily happen today. And just like North American culture, cultures around the world, are diverse. People of various cultures are not blindly following their cultures. Just as North Americans are not drones acting in ways dictated to them by their culture, similarly Muslims do not mindlessly follow their respective cultures.
Rule #6: Don’t create a dichotomy between “Muslim” and “Canadian” (or “American,” “British,” etc.), or between “Muslim” and “Western.”
See here for one example of why this is problematic. There are a lot of Muslims who also identify as Western, Canadian, American, and so on. Talking about Canadians and Muslims as if the categories are mutually exclusive reinforces the idea of an irreconcilable divide between Islam and the West, and erases the identities of the many Muslims who feel connected to both categories.
Rule #7: Tone it down! Be mindful of the language you use.
Language is a powerful tool that can shape people’s perceptions, and can have far-reaching implications for the way that people are seen. For example, last week we had a discussion about the ways that terms like “honour killing” and “terrorist” are being used in relation to the recent murder of Aasiya Hassan (and see here and here for other discussions on the term “honour killing.”) Terms like these can easily be used to portray all Muslims (and the cultures that Muslims are assumed to come from) as violent, scary, oppressed, dangerous, and so on. It’s useful for fearmongering, but often antithetical to responsible journalism.
And please, please stop trying to make up clever titles involving some play on the word “veil.” It’s been done. Ad nauseum. (See Rule #9.)
Rule #8: Take responsibility for the consequences of your writing.
If you do decide to write in ways that seem to generalize, patronize, insult, or demonize a whole group of people then take responsibility for your words and realize that people will be offended and upset. Do not be surprised when people feel insulted, demonized, or patronized by your words. And do not be surprised when they critique it on blogs, or write seething letters to the editor.
Rule #9: Leave the headscarf alone.
The headscarf is really not a big issue for a lot of Muslim women. And most Muslim women would really appreciate it if the media would figure this out soon. Muslim women wear or don’t wear the headscarf for a variety of reasons. Many Muslim women who wear the headscarf believe it is their religous obligation, while others wear it to increase their spirituality, while others wear it as an expression of their modesty, while others wear it for political reasons, and others still for all of the above. Many Muslim also do not wear the hijab because they feel it is not a religious obligation. Whatever their beliefs may be, for Muslim women the headscarf is a personal and private choice. A choice they have the right and ability to make. By assuming that the headscarf is somehow problematic, one undermines the agency of the women who have chosen to either wear or not wear the headscarf.
Even for women who are in situations where headscarves are imposed, they are probably having lots of other things imposed on them too. The obsessive and often exclusive focus on the scarf is still reductive and misses the point.
Really, it’s getting old. Give it a rest.
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Tags: media, Muslims, writing guide
great post! Short, simple and effective.
love this post, every single rule! i will undoubtedly be referring people to this in future discussions.
“And please, please stop trying to make up clever titles involving some play on the word “veil.” It’s been done. Ad nauseum.”
this made me laugh! how true, it seems some people think this is actually a *requirement* for writing about Muslim women.
I just sent this to a woman who posted some badly-framed questions about hijab in a modest fashion community I’m part of. It’s great!
Oh man, this should be sent to every media outlet!
Thanks everyone for the comments!
@ Meg, let us know how that woman reacts to it!
By the way, I forgot to mention this in the post, but are there any rules that any of you would add to this list?
Maybe an awareness that there are tons of different sects in Islam, and they all have their own interpretations on gendered practices.
This is such a great post! I second Jamerican’s comment. This should be sent to every media outlet.
Wow, another great post I wish some of the people I target for my photoshopping pleasure would read. I’m still very happy I found this site and I hope I’m not breaking any of your rules! I do talk to many and various Muslims (and co-blog with an Egyptian Muslim) about these issues almost daily it seems as my mail has become a bursting dam rather than the slow trickle it once was!
Oh man, that cracks me up your rule about assuming that Muslim women need to be “saved”! And so applicable to too many groups from leftist women’s rights groups to the right-wingers who only care about any Muslims at all (at least in a positive light!) if the Muslim in question is a.) facing a death sentence b.) facing imprisonment or c.) facing action for writing a blog denigrating Islam outside the U.S. The “counter-jihadosphere”, as I always call it, never fails to crack me up (as you highlighted beautifully in your “satirical” post on this issue) as they hate all Muslims and assume that they’re all “spouting taqiyya” until one happens to be killed by “creeping sharia” or “honor killings”. I am going ahead (I’m not a doctor) and diagnosing several bloggers as having bad cases of this “creeping sharia” as it seems to be an epidemic only visible to “counter-jihadosphere-members”.
OK, yes, I’m long-winded, even though I’m typing. I know, shut up Lex, you’ve said it all. But thanks again for another post that you claim is “shockingly un-sarcastic” yet still manages to amuse, and may the media anywhere listen to your suggestions. Should I break any, just come over and yell at me. I’m getting more and more used to being yelled at, so I won’t mind at all.
This is all really great! Thanks to Krista and Sobia for writing this wonderful piece. More people need to read this because these mistakes are made far too often. I Love #6. Islam needs to stop being perceived as “foreign.”
I liked this piece of advise: “And please, please stop trying to make up clever titles involving some play on the word ‘veil.’”
I know, right? lol, “Beneath the Veil,” “Under the Veil” “Unveiling Islam”… Seriously, how many “veils” need to be “unveiled?”
Tag Team back again, haha I love it. # 6 is something we really need to watch out for.
Also, please, please stop assuming that we all follow Shari’ah. And stay away from interpreting it, “Under Shariah law a Muslim can or can’t..” unless it’s ABSOLUTELY necessary in your story. And if that’s the case please back it up with a credible source. Stop making it seem like Shariah is a blanket law in all Middle Eastern countries.
Similar to Rule 2: Don’t assume that you understand Islam/the Quran/sharia better than Muslims.
A few years ago I was at a talk by a British politician, who’s a really good guy who spends a lot of his time trying to stop asylum seekers getting deported, in which he was asked about niqab because it was a bit of a hot topic at the time and he said that he thought the best way to deal with it was to discuss with Muslim women about how it wasn’t required by the Quran. I wondered how he’d feel about me taking him to one side and explaining how his practice of Anglo-Catholicism might not have a very strong Biblical basis.
Another rule I’d add might be more of an issue in the UK. Don’t blame all antisemitism on Muslims; don’t blame all Islamophobia on Jews. Don’t assume that antisemitism and Islamophobia are mutually exclusive. I’ve seen too many people try to set up an antagonism between Jews and Muslims which conveniently leaves their non-Jewish non-Muslim selves free of any blame.
Good post. As a non-Muslim, white, American feminist, I’ve wanted to write a piece to other non-Muslim American (or just Western) feminists along the same lines. Unfortunately, I see a lot of Western feminists who can’t accept that a Muslim woman can be happy and independent, even if she wears a head scarf, so often misinterpreted as an unyielding symbol of oppression. (Though you say not to address it — and I agree with your reasons — if I ever write this piece, I would need to. Because I want to deal with Western feminist presumptions – one to another – I would need to address the topic that so many of them seem unable to get past.
In other words, my goal is not to judge Muslim women, but to address western feminist prejudgment.
Lastly, your line about actually talking to Muslim women rather than speculating at their lives is so important. I have a lot of Muslim girl friends and fine that other non-muslim Americans often ask me stupid questions about them, EVEN IF THEY KNOW THEM. As if I must be a go-between, or interpret into our-speak. Since we live in Kentucky, my friends here seem to always be getting assaulted by Bible-thumpers looking to convert an exotic sinner. I think they view it as triple-points if they can try to convert a Muslim, though I’ve never seen/heard of them approaching the guys, just girls. Fortunately, my friends are magnanimous and laugh it off.
Update: The woman who posted asking annoying questions didn’t respond. Either she didn’t read it, or she was sick or arguing with people, because several people called her out on her assumptions before I got to it. The best part of the whole experience was that a bunch of women telling her off weren’t Muslim. This particular modest fashion community has a lot of women of different religious traditions willing to stand up for each other.
Oh, thanks for this great post! I’m not much of a writer, but have definitely caught myself making these sorts of assumptions and inaccurate statements in my head. Much appreciated.
“Another rule I’d add might be more of an issue in the UK. Don’t blame all antisemitism on Muslims; don’t blame all Islamophobia on Jews. Don’t assume that antisemitism and Islamophobia are mutually exclusive. I’ve seen too many people try to set up an antagonism between Jews and Muslims which conveniently leaves their non-Jewish non-Muslim selves free of any blame.”
Yes, this!
This is such a well-written, concise breakdown. It is the perfect companion to your hysterical piece from a few weeks ago. I will definitely be using it for future reference and passing it along.
I am a huge fan of your blog.
Excellent idea guys. Those in the media definitely need some guidance on this subject.
Just to add. Rule number 5 should also have “ISLAMIC culture” or country. This orientalist approach is reductive, and what worries me is it’s used a lot by journalists of all political backgrounds.
Rule #9: How true. I am just so sick of discussing the veil, as if there’s nothing else of importance to talk about. I’d like to add a brilliant quote by Nora El-Tahawy, a friend of mine:
“STOP FREAKING WRITING BOOKS THAT HAVE ‘Going Behind the Veil’ IN THEIR TITLE. Pseudo-feminists, let me save you a lot of time and a whole lot of bad writing: you want to know what’s behind the veil? Hair. Now can we move on?”
[...] Sobia and Krista urge the media to cut Muslim women some slack when writing about them: Rule #1: Don’t assume that Muslim women need to be saved, or that you know how to save them. Rule #2:Rather than assuming you know what Muslim women’s lives are like, try asking them. Rule #3: Be careful of who you talk to regarding Islam and/or Muslim women. Rule #4: Understand that Muslims are just like anyone else in terms of their belief systems. Not everything a Muslim does has to do with Islam. Rule #5: Understand that there is no such thing as a “Muslim culture.” Muslims come from a variety of cultures, and culture is dynamic – it’s constantly changing. Rule #6: Don’t create a dichotomy between “Muslim” and “Canadian” (or “American,” “British,” etc.), or between “Muslim” and “Western.” Rule #7: Tone it down! Be mindful of the language you use. Rule #8: Take responsibility for the consequences of your writing. Rule #9: Leave the headscarf alone. [...]
[...] Sobia en Krista [en] dringen er bij de media op aan om moslimvrouwen wat minder hard aan te pakken als ze over hen schrijven: Regel 1: Ga er niet automatisch van uit dat moslimvrouwen moeten worden gered of dat jij weet hoe je ze moet redden. Regel 2: Vraag moslimvrouwen hoe hun leven eruitziet in plaats van ervan uit te gaan dat je weet hoe het is. Regel 3: Let op met wie je over de islam en/of moslimvrouwen praat. Regel 4: Ga ervan uit dat moslims op dezelfde manier als ieder ander met hun geloof omgaan. Niet alles wat een moslim doet heeft met de islam te maken. Regel 5: Ga ervan uit dat “DE moslimcultuur” niet bestaat. Moslims komen uit allerlei verschillende culturen en cultuur is dynamisch: het verandert voortdurend. Regel 6: Creëer geen tweedeling tussen “moslim” en “Canadees” (of “Amerikaans”, “Brits”, enzovoort) of tussen “moslim” en “westers”. Regel 7: Overdrijf niet! Denk aan je taalgebruik. Regel 8: Neem verantwoordelijkheid voor de gevolgen van wat je schrijft. Regel 9: Blijf van de hoofddoek af. [...]
[...] AQSAZINE’s launch, highlighted an Arab arts festival in D.C., informed journalists about how they should REALLY write about Muslims, took issue with the Washington Times’ framing of the recent data on Muslim Americans, and [...]
[...] March 9, 2009 by Krista This piece was written by both Sobia and Krista and originally published at Muslimah Media Watch. [...]
[...] by Guest Contributors Sobia and Krista, originally published at Muslimah Media Watch [...]
Fantastic! You should come and talk about this as the Cineforum on Muslim Women and Leadership in London on 30th March. http://www.cineforum.co.uk.
The Cineforum is trying to change the perception of Muslim women in society – I especially love what you say about things other than religion impacting on who we are and what we’re interested in. My aspirations are to be surrounded by a loving family, to write a science fiction novel and to one day become a great media entrepreneur
Somewhere within that mix is the desire to achieve inner spiritual peace. But Sobia and Krista, you’re right – most non-Muslims only see some imaginary struggle I’m having with my faith. It’s actually quite insulting, it demeans us and limits us and it must be changed.
I’ve only just come across your blog, please do check out Cineforum and you’ll see lots of other Muslim media organisations involved. You must link in with us. Love what you’re tryng to do.
Jobeda
[...] fact, this article followed most of the rules that Sobia and I wrote about in our post on How to Write about Muslims. Muslim women are understood to have agency, and not to need saving by someone else. Landau [...]