This piece was written by Guest Contributor Asma T. Uddin.
Asra Nomani’s recent piece in Marie Claire, “My Big Fat Muslim Wedding”, underscored everything that is wrong with Marie Claire’s coverage of Islam and Muslim women. Nomani’s piece was a confused narrative at best, conflating culture with religion and individual bad experiences with larger truths about entire faiths. A story that should have been about Nomani’s conflicted path to love somehow became a treatise on Islam and love generally, suggesting that all Muslim men and women follow similarly conflicted, contradictory paths. Western ways of premarital intercourse and freedom to marry without regard to religious frameworks are presented as the higher moral ground.
A similar sort of paternalism is rampant throughout Marie Claire’s treatment of Muslim women. Time and again, the image we see emerging from this magazine is that of Muslim women as sequestered, brainwashed, and victimized if by no one else than their own naïve, unknowing selves. Almost all of Marie Claire’s stories dealing with Islam or Muslims have to do with Muslim women either oppressed by or complicit in terrorism and extremism. Women who choose to embrace Islam are belittled, and Islam, in the process, is portrayed as attractive to only lost and desperate souls. On the flip side, Malika, the female jihadist in “Love in the Time of Terror” reflects the danger of Muslim female strength, while purportedly more respectable brands of strong females have spurned Islam to some degree or another (think Ayaan Hirsi Ali).
Consider, for example, Paul Cruickshank’s piece, “I Married a Terrorist”, the story of Maureen, a Belgian woman who met a non-practicing Muslim man at a bar and started dating him, their affair a whirlwind of partying. Somewhere amidst all the clubbing, Maureen began feeling empty, overwhelmed by her crazy ways. Her emptiness prompted curiosity about religion, and she began asking her boyfriend, Rachid, about Islam, of which he himself was ignorant.
This where the story about Maureen begins to reveal its anti-Islamic and sexist undertones; as Cruickshank describes Maureen’s mosque visits in search of knowledge, he notes, “[l]ike many young women with few career prospects, Maureen was in search of a sense of purpose, something to believe in.”
In that one sentence, Cruickshank reveals a number of troubling assumptions and biases: Women without careers are purposeless. Maureen’s curiosity and interest in Islam was necessarily rooted in her lack of career prospects, suggesting in itself that Maureen must be uneducated and even gullible.
The complexity of a spiritual quest and the attraction of Islam to rational minds are lost in this one simplistic sentence. The biases in that one sentence frame the story that follows and is repeated throughout it. Cruickshank goes on to describe Maureen’s conversion and how her excitement led to Rachid’s return to his religion. Rachid and Maureen end up turning to “fundamentalist” religious leaders for guidance, and one day Maureen decides to don the all-encompassing burqa on the basis of her conviction that Islam requires it.
As Cruickshank makes his way through Maureen’s stories–whether they be of her belief in the utility of the burqa or her disbelief that her husband, accused by Belgian police of aiding in the Madrid bombings, was implicated–he continues to reflect an astonishment, almost disbelief, that Maureen really believes what she’s telling him. There’s a sense that Maureen is blinded, almost brainwashed, by forces greater than herself, partly owing to female weaknesses and partly to the force of her fundamentalist beliefs and community.
Describing Maureen’s new husband, Ayoub, as a “moderate” Muslim – as reflected, apparently, by his easy-going personality and clean-shaven face – Cruickshank writes, “But despite Ayoub’s positive influence, traces of Maureen’s old views linger.” Because Maureen “refuses to describe her years wearing the burka as a mistake”, the reader gets the idea that Maureen doesn’t really know what is right or wrong, or what type of influence a scary, oppressive Islam had on her.
While “I Married a Terrorist” emphasizes the victimization of Muslim women by their own naïveté, many of Marie Claire’s other stories on Islam repeat the mantra over and over again that Muslim women need to be saved by greater, external forces, most often Islam itself. Admittedly, there are social conditions in the Muslim world that affect women adversely and need to be addressed, but Marie Claire’s treatment of these topics lacks in nuance and complexity, leaving the reader to pity Muslim women simply for their being Muslim.
Consider Jan Goodwin’s, “Honor Suicides in Turkey”. According to Goodwin, as a response to more stringent laws against honor killings (apparently initiated merely so that Turkey can prove itself worthy of admission into the EU) many families in Turkey are foregoing honor killings by asking women to commit suicide instead–thus the term, “honor suicide”. Nowhere in her piece does Goodwin discuss cultural factors, or the fact that honor killing occurs among some minority communities in Turkey rather than being a mainstream phenomenon. Instead, honor killings and suicides are clumped into the same group as headscarves and female illiteracy, the entire group being symptomatic of Turkey’s Islamist government. Muslim women are the losers in this country, all because of their and their country’s Islam.
There are thus multiple levels of victimization expressed in Marie Claire’s coverage of Muslim women, ranging from self-victimization (Islam as the answer for desperate, lost souls and only those souls), to falling prey to female weaknesses (Islam as attractive to only stupid, career-barren women), to being the inevitable victim of the ominous Islam of one’s family, society, and government. All of this adds up to Marie Claire’s distorted view of Muslim women.
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Tags: Islamophobia, Marie Claire, sexism
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Great article. but it really boils down to the fact that MARIE CLAIRE is a magazine for fashion-conscious, shallow bimbos. Yeah, I said it.
I don’t expect anything better from a shallow bimbo mag.
Finally! Someone sees Asra Nomani’s warped projection of Islam the same way I do.
I’ve always felt that between her efforts at promoting Islamic reform and the airing of her sins, which would be wise to leave uncovered, she never really spoke for me, as a woman, nor as a muslim.
iA may Allah guide her to the right way, and allow her to progress in ways pleasing to Him.
Though I don’t subscribe to Marie Claire magazine, we get it at work. I was also taken aback by two of the articles I read about Muslim women. I remember thinking, this is the same ole tired, packaged nonsense. I’m ashamed that I never wrote a letter to the Editor. Thanks for doing this.
I don’t want to look stupid, but isn’t Turkey one of the more modernist Islamic states? I recall from my History of the Middle East class that Ataturk wanted a state that was independent of religion. How is Turkey a good example for them to use in regards to Religious extremism?
Assalaam-u-alaykum Wa Rahma,
A very good analysis!
The part about “Honour suicides” was quite humorous, i must say.
You know, this bit about Muslimahs who adhere to their religion being brainwashed has become so cliched. It seems to be one of the most important additions ever made in the ignorant lot’s vocabulary. Recently, in the comments to one of my posts I was told that I was brainwashed and was blindly following the Islam that men have interpreted. Furthermore, the ‘enlightened’ person remarked, ‘Have you ever thought why aren’t there any female prophets?’.
Islamophobes should stop wasting their time and ours with their futile and incoherent talks. Losers.
fee amaanillah
I’m going to separate the issue of Asra Nomani and the views on Marie Claire’s portrayal of Muslims in the magazine. There is a lot of material she has put out there that I simply haven’t read, though I don’t agree with all her views as far as what I do know. However, to say that, “Time and again, the image we see emerging from this magazine is that of Muslim women as sequestered, brainwashed, and victimized if by no one else than their own naïve, unknowing selves,” is I think grossly misleading. I’m a Muslim woman and I’ve worked at the magazine for over three years. For this particular piece, the editor went to great lengths to be sensitive towards other Muslims, and a lot was cut out in the initial draft if she felt it fell in a gray area. I felt this was Asra’s own personal story, and yes because it’s a fashion magazine there is going to be an element of sensationalization to attract its target, as magazines do. But because it’s her own essay there is a little more liberty taken — that’s the difference between a reported piece and an essay where personal feelings/perspectives are left in.
In the years I’ve worked there, I feel like this editor in particular goes out of her way to be sensitive to other cultures and religions. I’ve dealt with editors before who wouldn’t budge on rewording things I felt were very misleading, especially when it comes to Muslims.
As far as giving Asra a platform, I think this just goes to show the importance of Muslim women having a voice from varying perspectives, and the importance of writing and journalism taken more seriously within the community.
I’m also guessing you may have missed or ignored the Dubai roadshow piece where they showed everyday Muslim women talking about what they love about themselves. Or an essay they approached me to write about praying. All these things are left out in your sum analysis.
While not everyone may agree with the articles in MC, you also be cognizant that it’s a magazine that’s trying to show different perspectives — ones you may actually even appreciate.
I have been following MMW for the last few weeks. I think you folks are doing a great job on highlighting the pros and cons of media coverage and reporting of matters related to Muslim women. As a non-muslim reader, I find all your articles extremely thought-provoking, very helpful in breaking the stereotype and provide some very fascinating perspectives on complex issues. Keep up the good work!
I hardly ever read Marie Claire so I was unaware of the Islamophobic bent apparent within some of their articles. Thanks MMW for giving the heads up on this! (this makes up for you guys exposing me to Complex mag
Now I’ll know to scrutinize whatever future articles I come across of theirs regarding Muslim women. But I will admit that I did come across a good article of theirs once about Iraqi women refugees who resort to prostitution in Jordan:
http://www.marieclaire.com/world-reports/news/international/iraqi-refugees-prostitutes-sex
I thought Marie Claire was supposed to have social responsibility as their shtick? I seem to remember reading a lot about fair trade when I was reading a copy on a flight to London…
come ON…asra’s article was none of the things you claimed. it said nothing that was not 100% true. she made no untrue generalizations or conflated religion with culture at all. i am beginning to think that MMW only approves of highly subjective, biased media stating only that Islam is fantastic. seriously. i know people who have stopped reading this blog, including myself, because of tireless droning complaints about not biased coverage but about coverage that’s not biased the way you want it to be. not every article can talk about every muslim woman and highlight their diversity and their empowerment etc.
SA,
Well, it would be nice to see Marie Claire do an article about a Muslim woman without the complete focus on her “Muslimness”. For instance, can we have a Muslim woman speaking about finances, fashion (without the overplayed ‘Muslim-women-are-pushing-the enevlope-by-wearing-colorful-scarves dynamic’), real estate or something else. Both articles I read about Muslim women still had the exotic, oppressed, trying-to-free subtext.
SA — I really appreciated what you had to say. I don’t read enough Marie Claire to have an opinion about this issue (actually I haven’t read any of the articles mentioned) but I do appreciate different perspectives from first hand sources, even if they are outside of my worldview (actually, especially if they’re outside of my worldview.) Thanks for sharing with us.
Oh, and I’m going to have to take a MAJOR beef with the OP’s criticism on the honor suicide article.
I did not get the impression whatsoever that the article was in anyway blaming Islam. Perhaps it was blaming radical Islamist political resurgency — but as we all know, this isn’t Islam, and these political movements do have a negative impact on women’s status and rights. So what’s the problem? Are we not allowed to denounce radical Islamist/fundamentalist movements now because its equivilant to blaming Muslims?
Also, the article DID discuss cultural issues, which you claim it hadn’t. And while it is arguable whether honor suicides are a “mainstream phenomenon” (what does that mean, exactly? Its just those nasty Kurds so its not ‘real’ Turkey?), I’m confused as to what your point is. We can only discuss abhorrent social phenomenon if its ‘mainstream’? Well that dude who killed the hijabimartyr in Germany wasn’t ‘mainstream’ so any article about that is racist towards white people? The logic does not make sense.
Honor killings and suicides are a huge issue in Turkey and I’m glad that Marie Claire decided to publish something about it.
Guess, I’m a shallow bimbo, Broomstick, since I read fashion magazines and even worked at one once upon a time.
Not having Marie Claire lying around here in Kiev, though, I can’t comment either way on this piece. However, some of your statements about Maureen, the Belgian woman, did catch my eye.
I have to say, I feel that most people who actively turn to fundamentalism do lack purpose. Doesn’t mean that their circumstances and inner worlds aren’t complex as the next person’s, but if you crave that kind of rigidity, I think it’s almost a given that you’re trying to fill a pretty vast empty space. I don’t think there’s anything condescending about pointing that out. We all have empty spaces inside ourselves, and we fill them to the best of our ability. Religious fundamentalism offers a refuge in its relative simplicity. Most human beings, I would bet, feel better when they’re swept up in a singular fervour as opposed to dealing with doubt and temperance.
Judgment between religious fundamentalists and people who don’t adhere to their ways is a two-way street as well. I don’t doubt that the woman who told her daughter that Satan loves women in short skirts while staring at me (guess what I was wearing at the time?) felt really good about herself when making such a statement. Equally, I feel pretty good when I look at someone like that and recoil from the tedious minutiae of their rituals. We don’t, and can’t, embrace each other’s differences unquestioningly. Maybe the least we can do is leave each other alone.
The veneer of journalistic objectivity only takes you so far. Deep down inside, we all judge one another.
The was a great line in my mosque where I grewup. “If you do no believe in an islamic education for your kids try igorance instead.” That seems to fit Marie Claire’s article. Can a muslim women marry a nonmuslim? Yes, the punishment for adultory in islam for a man and woman is to marry another nonmuslim or someone who commits adultory. It is in the Quran.
Good points here, but what about Marie Claire’s viewpoint on women generally? Like most “women’s” magazines, it’s obsession with beauty products and fashion suggest that women’s true value is in their appearance. Ugh.