Getting to know the Sexual Muslimah

May 8, 2013 By

When I converted to Islam, before Love Inshallah (which Merium reviewed last year) and Sex and the Citadel, I was immersed in a religious culture that had an ambivalent relationship with sex and sexuality. While the women in my community occasionally discussed matters of “lawful” vs. “prohibited” when it came to sex, they were also making use of Alberta’s Bill 44 to take their daughters out of sexual education classes, which some of them considered immoral and dangerous.

As a teenager, I received intense sexual education because my parents had been teenaged parents. However, this was not the norm in my culture. In Mexico, and many Latin American countries, sex is taboo. While dating is common, talking about sex is considered shameful and let alone discussing women’s pleasure and women’s ownership of their bodies. By the time I was a teenager, unplanned parenthood was at its peak, sexual transmitted diseases (STDs) were running wild and the boundaries of sexual abuse and harassment were quite blurry. My country had entered a historical time where sexual liberation was preached by many, but it did not come with access to education. In other words, sex was everywhere, from advertisements to movies, sex shops started opening up and contraceptives became legal, but only a few knew how to use condoms or what an IUD was. It’s likely that fewer still knew how to recognize sexual harassment and abuse, and just a very limited number of them would know what to do in such a case.

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Are “Latina” Muslim Women the New Face of Islam?

February 26, 2013 By

What do you think when you hear the word Latin? Or Latina, to be more exact? Spicy? Or perhaps “loud,” “flamboyant” and “sexy”? Maybe the word just inspires images of women like Salma Hayek and J-Lo. Many of us are, sadly, very familiar with the image of what “Latinas” are supposed to look like. Just think of bombshell Gloria from Modern Family, hyper-sexual Gabrielle Solis from Desperate Housewives or Michelle Rodríguez, the sexy tomboy, from Fast and Furious.

Sofia Vergara vs Eva Longoria – via Flickr.com

As a Latin American woman, these stereotypes have always bothered me, especially because, in some cases, the stereotypes surrounding “Latinas” are often perpetrated by some high-profile Latin Americans themselves who tend to abide by the sexualized stereotypes even outside their TV or movie characters.

Personally, I prefer the term Latin American to “Latina” which I see as a Western creation that conjures up these stereotypes.

Several things bother me about how Latin American women are portrayed in the media. It is not only that most of us look nothing like the women mentioned above, but also that I hate labels. I do not see myself as a bombshell, let alone as a hyper-sexual woman looking to please Western men. I do not see my self in the “Latina” image, which I see as a creation of the patriarchal Western imagination. Instead, I like to think of myself as a plain and simple Latin American woman… no one’s fantasy or stereotype.

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Finding Common Ground in Gender Equality and Democracy: Shirin Ebadi and Nadia Al-Sakkaf Speak in Mexico

November 14, 2012 By

Last July, Mexico had elections. Six years ago, the Mexican conservative government was accused  of electoral fraud to maintain power, while this year the party that ruled Mexico for over 70 years through undemocratic elections has returned to power. Very much like the “democratic” regimes in the Middle East, Mexico has never really known democracy. Whether it is the American government “preferring” certain candidates, irregularities in elections, or the plain and simple effects of poverty and economic disparity, democracy has proven to be a never-coming reality in Mexico. This year, the election was, and it is still, surrounded by talks of a “Mexican Spring” led by the student movement in Mexico.

It was to this scenario that Shirin Ebadi and Nadia Al-Sakkaf arrived last week. The Ciudad de las Ideas 2012 (City of Ideas 2012) is an event that brings along intellectuals, journalists, artists, activists, scientist and politicians to discuss current issues and present challenging topics.

Both women, coming from what nowadays are known in Mexico as some of the most “oppressive” countries in the world, came along to draw parallels between the situation of their own respective countries and that of their audience. Although I wasn’t able to attend the talks myself, and the videos are not online, I was able to get a sense of what the two women said through some of the media coverage of the event. [Read more...]

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When Barbie Became Muslim

September 5, 2012 By

Growing up in Mexico City in the 90’s meant for me that I grew up in a completely different context from my parents. Since my parent’s generation did not have the luxury of foreign products, due to the economic restrictions on international goods, my parents grew up with yellow pencils made in Mexico and traditional ceramic and fabric dolls with braids and ribbons. Later, the economic shift towards neoliberal models and NAFTA brought along McDonald’s, Walmart and, of course, Barbie!

Mexican ribbon-dolls. Via Pinterest. 

By the time I was five, all I wanted was a Barbie. My parents, while disappointed, succumbed to TV advertising, peer pressure, and the crushing of the traditional doll artisan workshops in the country. One of the worse parts was that MATTEL did not bother “adapting” Barbie to her new home… American Barbie was sold in Mexico. She was blond (her “minority” friends were not introduced until much later), she wore mini-skirts in a country where women’s clothing was restricted in the most conservative states, and she had a boyfriend in a society that highly appreciated marriage and restricted women’s sexuality in a variety of ways. Yet by the time I was 10, I had many Barbie dolls and I used to get together with my friends to play and argue for who would have the privilege of playing the “blond Barbie.”

Many years later, after moving to Canada, I realized that the Barbie phenomenon was not only about Mexico being America’s unfortunate neighbour, but rather a global process of gendered colonization, or imperialism as some Latin Americans describe it, that continues to perpetuate particular cultural, racial and societal standards. Barbie has become the model that shapes the idea of dolls all over the world and that serves as cultural battle field across countries.

My first encounter with a counter-Barbie doll, aside from the fake Barbies sold in Mexico, was in my mosque.  One day one of my friend’s daughters brought along a black-haired Barbie doll that wore a black abaaya and a hijab.  She was not properly a “Barbie” doll; instead she was the popular Middle Easter version called Fulla. A couple of years ago, Safiyyah discussed Fulla on MMW, in a piece that focused on women’s body image and the doll market; yet, Fulla seems to still be many families’ first choice when it comes to toys for girls. In my mosque, some girls design their own Fulla outfits and among the most popular are niqabs, burqas and short skirts (under abaayas). [Read more...]

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Mexican-Lebanese Ramadan Food

July 26, 2012 By

Growing up in Mexico City, one of my first interactions with Arabs and Muslims was through the Lebanese community in Mexico. Although Mexico is a largely multicultural country and its cuisine has been largely recognized as a mix of different cultures, the dominant identity discourse these days is the mix between Indigenous peoples and the Spanish colonizers (mestizaje).

Múdejar Style kiosk in Santa Maria la Ribera, Mexico City. Image via Mil y Una Formas de Perder una Partida Ganada.

The term mestizaje has constantly been challenged for a number of reasons including the fact that it selectively highlights some identities (i.e. Aztec and Spanish) over others. In addition, much of the rhetoric around identity in Mexico also overlooks the great influence that other immigrant populations brought along (i.e. African communities, Chinese immigrants, and Palestinian refugees, to mention a few).

Although the Arab population in Mexico is largely composed of Lebanese, Syrians and Palestinians, the Lebanese immigrant community of the early 20th century is, until this day, the most influential.  Some of the only Arab places to eat in Mexico City are Lebanese restaurants run by second or third generation Lebanese or Mexican-Lebanese families (interracial marriages and their offspring).  One of the most common names attached to this community is Carlos Slim, Mexico’s richest man and one of the richest of the world.

Although Mexico is constantly identified as a Catholic country many other denominations and religious groups have flourished, among them Islam. The National Institute of Statistics and Geography reports that even though Islam is the fastest religion globally, it is still a minority in the country. The Institute’s statistics indicate that in 2000, there were only 1500 Muslims in Mexico, and most of them resided in Mexico City. This number has increased, and in 2010 it was reported that there were 3,760 Muslims, of which the majority are men. Yet, in Mexico City it is quite uncommon to see or even hear about Muslims. [Read more...]

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