Semra Çelebi’s Double Trouble with Hijab

January 24, 2011 By tasnim

Semra Çelebi’s Facebook page “I took off my hijab” shares her decision to remove her headscarf after 16 years of wearing the hijab. According to Çelebi, the page was created “to gather stories and experiences of all those women around the world who stepped out of their traditional social environment and chose to live their own lives” and is dedicated to “all those women who struggle and have struggled to live their own lives.” Both statements, inclusive and nonsectarian as they are, support Çelebi’s avowed opinion that all women should have freedom to choose. She is clear that her decision to remove the hijab was an individual one, and that her page is not intended to campaign for other Muslim women to follow her example.

For some who have commented on the page, this distinction makes little difference. Çelebi has received negative, hostile and patronizing responses, as well as more ambivalently phrased comments, many of which question the need for her to share her experiences publicly, citing anxiety about inviting anti-Islamic sentiment. For example this comment: (more…)

Dutch as Such: “Delfts Blauw Meets Hijab”

November 24, 2010 By nicole

“Delfts blauw meets hijab” is the title of a new Dutch documentary analyzing the experience of female Dutch converts to Islam and, at the same time, exploring the compatibility (or lack of) between so-called “Dutch identity” with “Muslim values.” The documentary, created by Janina Pigaht, follows the experience of young Dutch women, Laura, Marion, Djamila, Anne-Marie and Elsa, who chose Islam in spite of an increasingly anti-Muslim sentiment in society.

As the director herself says, “Sometimes I think conversion is the new homosexuality. You’re better off saying at the kitchen table that you are a lesbian rather than a Muslim. “Topics from hijab, to family to Dutch identity are addressed in the preview clips. Laura, for example, in speaking about hijab, mentions that it is something she “always wanted to wear” and wondered what was stopping her from wearing it. For her, it was first her parents, then her job, then “the fears [she carried in herself].”

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Rediscovering “Undercover”: Cassidy Herrington and Hijab Tourism

November 8, 2010 By fatemeh

Kentucky Kernel writer Cassidy Herrington wore the hijab for the entire month of October. She wrote about her experience in a column published on October 31, 2010. Many of us have seen the column make it rounds in our Facebook feeds, and so the ladies of MMW sat down to share their thoughts.

Azra: Hijabi tourism—it’s the easy, low-cost getaway to appear Muslim and “learn more about your place in the world.” The problem here, though, is that Herrington fails to realize that the “gauze scarf” she needs “to identify with Muslims” fails to capture the entirety of an individual’s life experience with their faith. Not all Muslim women wear it, and Muslim men certainly don’t wear it (here’s a handy guide to they myriad of ways Muslims dress).

Cassidy Herrington with a headscarf. Image via Kentucky Kernel; uncredited.

Krista: I do still find that there’s a significant difference between Cassidy Herrington and, say, Liz Jones or Danielle Crittenden. The former made an effort to connect to a local Muslim community and to have their input, recognizing their help in the article she writes. Jones and Crittenden, on the other hand, undertook their experiments largely for the purpose of confirming everything they already “knew” about Muslim women being oppressed, and it shows. Herrington’s article was, at least, thoughtful and reflective, and added to the conversation in good faith (if arguably misguided.)

Saffiyah: I have been following these “I tried out hijab for a day/month/year” stories with much interest. Initially, my curiosity was piqued by the initiative: women of other faiths trying to understand what it feels like to be a Muslim woman. Recently, though, these stories are popping up by the week, and it begs to be asked – can wearing a headscarf really give one a perspective of how a Muslim woman feels? Is the total sum of a Muslim woman the piece of cloth on her head? (more…)

Is Muslim Feminism More Than Just a Hijab Defense?

October 28, 2010 By alicia

There may be 1,001 Muslim feminist critiques on the European burqa ban and its attendant jokes and jibes, insults, and ridiculousness. But what should remain clear is that we Muslim feminists are not just about the hijab. The recent discussion on LGBT acceptance on MMW revealed the cracks in the Muslim “sisterhood” and it began with a post on gay Muslim women in Indonesia.

Homosexuality and Islam has always been a divisive topic, a topic that leaves many in breathless contempt for the LGBT community, Muslim or not. Is this a discursive space Muslim feminism should step in? I’m not advocating for a single stand on homosexuality that Muslim feminists should take, but I am simply suggesting that we broaden our horizons.

If we take a minute to consider the current trajectory of contemporary feminism, yes, the one that’s dominated by mostly White, middle-class, straight women; we find that their activism has moved beyond Woman-centric navel-gazing and has taken into account other intersecting elements that define a woman’s identity: race, sexuality, class. Other than gender, a woman may be a mother, disabled, transgender, Asian, and yes, Muslim. Is Muslim feminism really inclusive of the concerns of a Muslim woman who may also be White, lesbian, or working class?

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It’s Pink Hijab Day!

October 27, 2010 By fatemeh

Today is Pink Hijab Day! I hope you’re wearing something pink.

From the Global Pink Hijab Day Official Site: “All over the world, Muslims participate by wearing pink hijabs, pink ribbons, and donating to cancer foundations.” Go to their website to read up on Pink Hijab Day and find out how you can help locally.

Awesome New Website: Hijab and the City

September 7, 2010 By nicole

Founded by two sisters in 2008, the French webzine Hijab and the City has a unique place in the French cultural landscape. In an interview given to the online news outlet Rue89, one of Hijab and the City’s stated goals was to “give a voice to those who are often talked about but never talked to.”

As one blogger friend summed up succinctly, Hijab and the City is “a blog for girls who happen to be Muslim and not a Muslim blog for girls.” The “girly” content follows suit, with the usual rubrics one would find in a mainstream French magazine: fashion, love, cooking. The difference is that Hijab and the City also addresses issues of interest to Muslim women or women of Muslim culture in France, with articles like “You Know Eid’s Coming When...” Another article, “Prepare Your Vacation Well” address common issues before going on vacation- how to pack, what to bring, but with a Muslim twist: readers are enjoined to find cat or dog sitters for their animals, because “not taking care of your pet all the way is mistreatment, condemned in Islam” and “we all know what happened [in the hadith] to the woman who didn’t feed her cat.”

“Dumped by texto” is not what you would normally see on a “Muslim” site for girls, but—newsflash, people!—some Muslim girls date! Some are more serious topics related to Muslimahs treated with aplomb, like “She doesn’t fast,” an examination of the reasons and justifications for those who don’t fast and the people who condemn them. It asks the question, “Is it really shocking for us, as Muslims and westerners, to know that someone in our family, a friend or a stranger at a cafe isn’t doing Ramadan? People who don’t fast often cite the respect of their private life, but is that really the case as often we consider we have the right to say something to someone coming from the same community?” And finally, because it is a “girl” blog after all, the Fashion rubric is French with a Muslim twist, with articles like “Head Scarf Tutorial” (in English, natch), but also “What to Pack,” which could have easily been a spread in Marie Claire.

As a Muslimah and a self-fashioned tech blogger with her foot in social media, Hijab and the City impresses me. The language and the tone of their articles is in keeping with the way young French women view their world. Unlike insta-fatwa sites run by men and straight-outta-1998 masjid websites, Hijab and the City is sets itself apart with its sleek design and “web 2.0 compliant” full frontal social media platform (Facebook, Twitter and Youtube). Hijab and the City, with its decidedly French flair, is on trend and in keeping with its time, both in its platform and content.

A Woman Without Hijab is Like a Chair with Three Legs

August 23, 2010 By nicole

If you still haven’t figured out that wearing black chadors will save your worldly soul and that wearing lipstick and heels will get you sent to the hellfire, Iran’s “Cyber Group for Promoting Chastity and the Veil [Ifaf]” is here to clear that up for you. They are sponsored by the Iranian government and have a sleek website where you can view their posters, buy t-shirts, and brush up on hijab laws in Iran!

They have a new ad campaign for “good hijab” (because, you know, chastity really only has to do with women) that includes its centerpiece, “A woman without hijab is like a chair with three legs” (poster pictured on right). The ad campaign has several posters, which range from the strange and incomprehensible to the skeevy, yet well done. But their message is clear: women without hijab aren’t real, practicing Muslim women and are intellectually and spiritually incapable of measuring the dangers presented by their clothing choices.

“A woman without hijab is like a chair with three legs” is the most incomprehensible of the posters for me, both visually and textually. Why three legs? Because we as women are somehow incomplete without hijab? Lacking in a solid foundation? Because we can’t be used to sit on? Clothes can do all that? Really?

A second poster (pictured below left) shows a red stiletto on a platform that is being sawed through. Once the sawing is complete, the stiletto will undoubtedly plunge, along with its wearer, straight into the hellfire. By way of explanation, this poster simply says “Feminism” in two languages, most likely implying that the road to hell is paved with feminists! Also, are red stilettos feminist, then?

Another jewel in the collection is “Eyes are a trap of the devil. Imam Ali (A.S.)” Does it really refer to the hadith refers to the evil in impure glances, or that wearing colored aqua-colored contacts while looking at people is bad? As a big fan of lipstick, I was also pleased to find out that 22 lipsticks are sold in the world every second. But what I didn’t know is that lipsticks are also bombs that contribute to the fall of civilization with every little explosion. Interesting…that has never happened to any of my lipsticks.

The masterpiece of politico-religious symbolism, however, falls to two posters using the same texts:

“Each chadori [chador-clad] woman is as a flag of the Islamic Republic of Iran.”

“We are uncountable [many].”

These posters outline what the Islamic Republic wants: all women looking and dressing identically in the chador, as a uniform. As Sarah Khorshid Doost points out (in personal correspondence), these posters hijack the Green Movement slogan “we are uncountable,” which became popular after the election protests of last year. As the slogan is used in reference to unity, its use for such an exclusive and divisive means in this ad campaign is really disturbing. However, there is a history to this and many of the Green movement symbols being hijacked before (as with Ahmadinejad himself wearing a green shawl at his “victory speech” two days after the elections).

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