Women's Rights and Muslim Communities: A Discussion

The following is a summary of a panel discussion regarding the status of women in Muslim communities that was held at DePaul University in downtown Chicago on July 16, 2005.

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The Panel Discussion entitled "Women's Rights and
Muslim Communities - Honor, Culture, and Islam," took
place last Saturday, July 16, at DePaul University's
Downtown Chicago campus and was sponsored by both AMAL
and the Apna Ghar Domestic Violence Shelter.

At the outset, let us say that this was probably the
most successful AMAL event to date. Almost 50
(perhaps more, as we lost track of people coming and
going after the start) people were in attendance, and
while many were regulars at previous AMAL meetings,
there were also many who came just for their interest
in the topic both Muslim and non-Muslim.

After Jihad Shoshara gave an initial introduction to
AMAL and thanking those who made the event possible,
the panel and topic were introduced by incoming AMAL
director Dr. Sabreen Akhter. In her remarks, Dr.
Akhter made reference to two women who put a face on
the hidden crime that is violence against women:
Mukhtar Mai and Shahpara Sayeed. While Mukhtar Mai is
internationally known for her pursuit of justice
against those who brutally gang raped her, Shahpara
Sayeed has been all but forgotten five years after her
husband locked her in his taxi and set it ablaze,
burning her alive on Chicago's North Side.

Dr. Akhter then introduced the first panelist, Dr.
Amna Buttar. Dr. Buttar is the president of the
Asian-American Network Against Abuse of Women, or
ANAA. ANAA has fought to raise awareness here about
the problem of domestic violence against women in
Pakistan, and it was they who organized the American
speaking tour of Mukthar Mai this summer. Of course
Mai's speaking tour never took place, and indeed her
cause gained exponentially more attention when
Pakistan's government forbade her from leaving the
country during a very disorganized attempt at hiding
dirty laundry.

Dr. Buttar used powerpoint to present her discussion.
This allowed her to present not just the unjust series
of so-called 'hudud' laws that have victimized women
in Pakistan since their enactment in the 1970's, but
also to show the consequences of some of those laws;
pictures of women whose faces and bodies had been
disfigured by acid, those who had been immolated,
those who had had their noses and ears cut off - all
in the name of honor. The pictures brought some in
the audience to tears, tears tinged with anger as Dr.
Buttar repeated more than once how the abusers almost
always escaped punishment.

Dr. Buttar ended her presentation with a 5 minute
video detailing Mukhtar Mai's case - the kangaroo
jirga court that sentenced her to gang rape in 2003
for her brother's alleged misconduct, the execution of
the grisly punishment, and how she rose up against
tremendous pressure to demand justice. Dr. Buttar
reminded the audience that in spite of the intense
international attention brought to bear on Mai's case,
justice has still not been carried out in Pakistan's
courts against her attackers.

Our next speaker was Mr. Saiyed Rabbani. Mr. Rabbani
is a community organizer with a long history of
involvement in the Muslim and South Asian communities.
He focused a lot of his discussion on the numerous
instances in the Qur'an, hadith, and shari'ah where
women's rights were supposed to be enshrined and
supported - in instances of personal finance, divorce,
inheritance, etc, while pointing out how it took the
non-Muslim world over a thousand years to enshrine
such protections of women in their systems of law.

Many of us have heard this argument before, of course,
and are not swayed by an explanation of a system of
laws for women that are not enforced anywhere on the
planet at the present time. Just when it seemed that
Mr. Rabbani's discussion was in danger of becoming an
exercise in obscurantism, he stopped and asked the
audience: "So, if this is how things are supposed to
be, WHAT WENT WRONG?" He then stated how the current
implementation of "Islamic" law in the Muslim world is
subject not to high standards of religious integrity,
but to cultural and sociopolitical pressures. Mr.
Rabbani also inveighed against a common belief: that
improving the level of education alone among Muslims
will improve the poor status of women's rights.
Educated people, he pointed out, commit crimes just as
heinous as uneducated ones. To seriously address the
problem of domestic violence against women in Muslim
communities, he implied, will require a greater
cultural valuation of a woman's life and worth than is
currently present in many Muslim communities as well
as breaking the association between women and men's
honor.

The final panelist to speak was Uneza Akhter, the
development associate at the Apna Ghar (Hindi/Urdu for
"Our Home") domestic violence shelter in Chicago. Ms.
Akhter began by discussing Apna Ghar and its
clientele. In the month prior, she personally
surveyed that 52% of the shelter's clients were
Muslim.

Ms. Akhtar then listed the reasons that immigrant
victims of domestic abuse do not come forward to ask
for help. Among them: a mindset among many immigrants
that women are "badzan" ("the bad sex") and a belief
in many cultures that women should defer to men;
barriers of language and culture-specific needs; and
fears that bringing a case against an abusive spouse
will lead either to a loss of children or to a loss of
legal status to stay in the country. Ms. Akhtar
illustrated how difficult these barriers can be to
surmount when she stated that while Shahpara Sayeed
lived - and died - within walking distance of Apna
Ghar's shelter, never once had she made contact with
them to ask for help.

Ms. Sayeed also died within walking distance of a
mosque, it turned out. Yet Ms. Akhtar pointed out
that not one representative from any Chicago mosque
came either to her memorial service or to the march
against domestic violence that her murder inspired.
This trend, she stated, has thankfully begun to
change; she pointed to the instance of the director of
a large and wealthy mosque taking an uncompromising
stand against domestic violence at a public forum with
Mayor Daley earlier this year. Such steps were
important, she said, yet they were still small and
insufficient.

After Ms. Akhtar spoke, the panel then fielded
questions from the audience. Some of the discussion
then began to focus on the specific origins of the
women's rights situation in Pakistan itself; the panel
then pointed out that a serious problem Pakistan faces
is the persistence of the feudal system, which not
only perpetuates a socially unjust system but also
places true power in the hands of a few who have no
incentive to change how things work. Other questions
focused on other aspects of the Islam itself ("Do we
need to pursue an offically secular government like
Turkey?" "Are these problems unique to Islam, or
should we be discussing them in context of other
religions' problems with women's rights as well?").
Finally, as could be expected, the verse concerning
wife beating in the Qur'an came up for discussion too
- all of which was spirited and thought provoking. At
the end of a long afternoon, the audience gave the
panel a well-deserved round of applause for sharing
their insight and opinions on a matter that needs far
more discussion and action within the Muslim
community.

As we did at the beginning of the panel, we want to
end the summary with our _expression of sincere
gratitude for those who made the panel discussion
possible. In particular, we want to recognize Danial
Noorani for bringing the ANAA and their efforts on
behalf of Mukhtar Mai to our attention and for
plugging us in to Apna Ghar, and Jagriti Ruparel and
Aparna Sen from Apna Ghar itself for their help in
providing speakers. We also want to give our
heartfelt thanks to Professor Aminah McCloud of DePaul
University for her invaluable assistance in providing
space for the panel, as well as for her past and
ongoing support of AMAL and its cause. Our deepest
appreciation also goes to our outstanding panelists -
Dr. Buttar, Mr. Rabbani, and Ms. Akhtar - for
volunteering their precious time and experiences for a
cause they care about greatly.

Kudos to Tamim Chowdhury, AMAL's project coordinator,
for successfully pulling off AMAL's largest event to
date. Finally, we thank God for everything He has
allowed our little community to do.

Short and Sweet

Well... in spite of my trying, I have yet to be able to convince my fellow bloggers (listed to the right on the main page) to actually blog, despite my entreaties to do so. One of the reasons for their recalcitrance appears to be my own writing - my posts have been long, considered missives that had been fermenting in my head until a) I could stand it no longer and b) I could find 20 minutes where I could be away from family, work, and volunteering. Usually I'll be at a Caribou Coffee (far superior to Starbucks - if you need to know where any of them are in the Western Suburbs, just ask me, I visit them all) drinking my lunch, typing furiously on the infrared keypad that goes with my T5. Most likely I present a comical picture of a broad-shouldered guy wearing a kiddie tie, hunched over a tiny, tiny screen. In my line of work a handheld computer is far more useful than any laptop, and so I look ridiculous when I need to go beyond its essential functions; but hey, I'm old enough to look ridiculous no matter what I'm typing on.

In any case, I'm proclaiming for all: This blog doesn't have to be full of serious theses-length compositions. I'm going to prove that, right....... now!

Performance Based Sermons

Ever since I made the conscious decision to start going to Friday prayers again a few years ago, I have at times regretted the decision. It is not that I believe that I don't believe in the good of prayer in general or the communal prayer in particular. I'm a believer (scientifically speaking, of course) in the relationship between religious engagement and positive social benefit. Numerous studies purport to link churchgoing with lower rates of teen pregnancy, alcohol and drug abuse, school performance, etc. (I have yet to see the study that shows such a benefit from watching "The 700 Club," or reading any of the "Left Behind" series, however.)

I'll also readily admit that I've had some good experiences at the mosque on Fridays. Even so, it's not as if I demand to be lifted off the carpet in awe, my life forever changed, by an enrapturing service. (I don't think that I could handle more than a few life-changing moments at this point as it is. It's hard enough just slogging to the gym.)

No, what reduces me to bouts of perditional dissatisfaction is the unpredictability of what I'm going to hear on any given Friday. Mosques vary in their degrees of organization, and it's the rare one that has a reliable imam who is likely to give the khutba every week, allowing you to develop a degree of consistency. Even at the largest, most wealthy masjid you are as likely to hear from a studied scholar one week, a gynecologist the next, and a high schooler attempting to spread the chocolate milk across his face into a beard the week after that.

My most recent pang of regret hit about a month ago, smack in the middle of what had been an uplifting Friday service. The imam, of Arab descent and based at a different mosque than the one I was visiting, had spent a good 10 minutes about one of the finest qualities of our prophet, peace be with him: his love for people, Muslims or not. It is a quality that is not emphasized enough among Muslims (and it is safe to say that it is almost never emphasized among non-Muslims, especially in American discourse).

Unfortunately, after a precious few minutes of self-reflection on how I need to emulate Muhammad's love, my spirit was slammed down against the cement floor of the mosque. Within seconds, the imam's gentle demeanor evaporated revealing an agitated animation about what he supposed to be the antithesis of the prophet's inimitable love: women leading prayers.

Yeah, the connection eluded me too. It took me a minute to regain my bearings and realize that the whole exhortation to be excellent to one another had been just a setup, a tease for an unpleasant switch-and-bait. The imam, as he ticked off almost by rote the religio-legal reasons against women being imams, morphed like Jim Carrey in "The Mask" into an bundle of activity and volume, waving his arms, eyes glaring, the occasional spittle flying off his lips.

By the end, I didn't just feel dejected - I felt had. The whole brouhaha about women leading prayer had been beside the point. Regardless of whether or not I agree with the concept of or need for women to lead prayers, the imam had disingenuously injected his own reflexively regurgitated (at least by what he presented) opinions on the issue into the mosque by using "`The Prophet's Love" as a mere pretext. I wondered which of these two points was really more important to him.

On leaving I had a brainwave that I followed on impulse. If it is required for me as a Muslim to go to the Mosque for Friday prayers, do I really need to sit back and take it when I find the imam's words unpleasant? I decided to take a small, personally important action. After prayer, I usually donate $5 to the mosque for hosting the service; but with that illuminating display, Pffffffffft went the donation. I only gave $1.

Of course, $4 makes no difference to the mosque in any real sense. It's arguable whether mosques pay attention to the opinions of their congregants at all, as most seem to cater their policies to the beliefs of the few heavy hitters donating large amounts of cash. Perhaps, though, this is my effort to suggest a new trend in Muslim circles: performance based sermons. It seems only fair that if in every other aspect of life - spiritual as well as lay - we are rewarded based upon our performance, we have the right to expect our imams and mosques to undertake their Friday responsibilities much more seriously in return for our support.

Brick Lane, Oona King, and Muslim Fish and Chips

Back in the late 90's my wife and I tried to go on our first real vacation. (Meaning, a trip where we were going somewhere far, but not visiting thirty relatives in twenty days.) Using frequent flyer miles, we visited my best friend from high school and his wife in London where he works for an obsequiously wealthy investment bank in The City. Over a summer weekend, we did the usual tourist whirlwind - Picadilly Circus, Big Ben, the Tower - but with us being Muslim we had to try and throw in the ridiculous religio-ethnic tie. My wife wanted authentic fish and chips, but the only place my bud John knew where they were made without beer in the batter was Brick Lane.

A centuries-old street in the East End, Brick Lane had after World War II become one of those outposts of South Asia overseas - think Jackson Heights or Devon Avenue, except entirely Bangladeshi. Finding the one fish and chips stall, we hung out for an hour by the window, watching another community where people dressed, spoke, and acted not as if they were in the West but in a tiny patch of South Asia ripped from the mainland and tossed across the globe to England.

These memories came back to me Thursday evening as I followed the results of the recent British elections on the internet. Most Americans were unaware that they were happening at all (Hey, if your closest allies were losing power because they backed your foreign policy, you wouldn't advertise it either, right?); those that were heard only about the dressing down Tony Blair's Labour party received in the form of a slashed majority in parliament. Yet Bethnal Green and Bow - the constituency of Brick Lane, with an electorate that is forty percent Muslim - was the setting of the greatest upset of the elections, one with unclear implications for Muslims in Britain and throughout the West.

Bethnal Green had been a solid Labour party constituency, having elected a Labour MP to the House of Commons for forty five years straight. At the time of our experience with alcohol-free fish and chips, it had just elected Oona King to represent it. Ambitious and young (she was only 29 when she first won election), King was swept into office with the Labour party wave Tony Blair created. As one of only two black women in parliament, she enjoyed a level of trust and eventually a good working relationship with her largely Asian British constituents. In 2001, King was easily re-elected over her Muslim Conservative party opponent.

Fast-forward to 2003 and the contentious vote in parliament to decide whether or not to send British troops into war with Iraq. Despite holding over 400 members of the 659 in parliament, Blair's Labour party was in danger of splitting over the issue. Many Labour MP's dismissed Blair's assertion that Iraqi missiles could reach the UK in 45 minutes and voted outright to oppose their own party. Although King's constituency was heavily against the war - Bethnal Green Bangladeshis were polled against it seven to one - she made the fateful decision to follow her leader, come what may.

Her vote for the war provoked a furious response from Brick Lane, and marked her as the public face at which British Muslim anger could vent; it also marked her as a political opportunity. George Galloway, a former Labour MP from Scotland who was expelled by the party for viciously criticizing its support for the Iraq war, swooped in on wounded prey. In short order, the Scotsman set up shop in the East End, formed his own RESPECT party, and declared himself a candidate for King's seat based solely on one issue - punishing Tony Blair for leading Britain into Iraq.

The campaign that ensued was bitter and personal. King's car was egged and her tires slashed, and low assertions were made in whispers that attacked her on the basis of being a Jew. In response, King publicly assailed Galloway for having met and praised Saddam Hussein after the first Gulf War. Behind the scenes, Galloway's RESPECT party forged coalitions with local Muslim organizations that attempted to mobilize the Muslim electorate to his side. Over the month of campaigning that built to crescendo on May 5, the question for many Western Muslims became this: could this one Muslim community - which had lain politically dormant for decades - finally make a dent in the electoral systems of the West?

In the end, they at least made a change of their MP. After winning her reelection by over 10,000 votes in 2001, Oona King lost to George Galloway by 823 votes. Upon being named the winner Galloway declared, "This result is the final nail in the coffin of Tony Blair's premiership." The Muslim community of Bethnal Green could say that they were the deciding factor in electing the most fervid anti-war candidate now in the House of Commons.

Yet great questions remain about what exactly the Muslims in Bethnal Green have won. Brick Lane now has a representative who is strongly hated by the ruling party and whose politics are an anathema to the opposition. What's more, George Galloway has already declared that he will not run again for election in Bethnal Green, essentially making himself a lame duck. One can only hope that the recent revitalization of Brick Lane does not stall given its lessened influence in government, and one can only pray that the Muslims there do not believe their job is done with respect to their involvement in the greater British community.

For all that, I don't know that I'll be following what happens there for much longer. Truth be told, the fish and chips really sucked anyway.

A Night at the Community Cafe

This past Friday, after months of the mantra "We'll go some other time," my wife and I finally went to an event that we've been missing for far too long: The Inner-city Muslim Action Network's (IMAN) Community Cafe. Before I say more, lemme say that In Sha Allah we'll be back - it was a blast.

We drove to the spot - The Spoken Word Cafe at the corner of 47th and King Drive - the location of which I feel we have been trained to fear by endless dramatic talking heads on local newscasts. What we found was an area that thankfully has begun to see some of the redevelopment that has been unstintingly slathered upon the North Side for many years. The city has declared 47th street East of King the "Blues District," officially made so by blue silhouettes of singers and musicians posted high on lampposts that eerily glow at night, as if to evoke dead perfomers.

We joined about a hundred others in the cafe, sitting amid the many college-age women wearing hijab, African-American hip-hop fans, and curious others. We didn't feel old or out of place - that is, until we realized that this was the first time we had seen any live performance of music whatsoever since we had had children. That fact is almost as embarrassing as the fact that we've already gone to dinner theater...

I'm not a music critic, with my knowledge of music frozen in the alternative 90's, but the performances were good. A local African-American Shaykh recited Qur'an to start, after which Capital D (lawyer by day, hip hop artist by night, active Muslim all the time) introduced the acts. The performances were split between hip hop and poetry reading, with a lot of open mike. For the most part, the open mikes were good although not always agreeable - the adorable 80-year old 'original rapper' set off groans among women near me when he called for polygamy, while a young 'madrasa student' made me cringe with her castigations of America (which provided a bizarre contrast to the Arab-American woman who earlier on stage staked her identity as American). The 'human beatbox' teens from the Northern Suburbs provided good comic relief, if only because they brought back so many memories of "Police Academy" movies with Robert Winslow.

The lead performers were Aquil Charlton and D Steele, Alia Bilal, and One.be.lo. Aquil and D Steele were a good intro - Aquil doesn't have the deep baritone that many rappers use to push their performances; his voice has a more intimate quality that relies on the lyrics it conveys. Thankfully, the lyrics were a good accompaniment.

Alia Bilal is a teenager graduating from the Universal School (whose father, I swear, is on my son's "Adam's World" videotape as a guest of the Muslim puppet) who performed original poetry. While I found her focus - the conflict of being Muslim in a secular culture - less interesting (at my age, I've already been there), her words were lifted by the intensity of her recitation and emotion. She burned with a controlled determination that would hint at the potential of explosion, and that made for engaging contact.

One.be.lo was the final act, and he raised the roof (am I allowed to say that?). A native of Suburban Detroit, his lyrics were powerful, his delivery crisp, his voice deep. He took us to places that most of us only visit in stereotyped TV shows or our most lurid fears, and he did so with an honesty that reassured you that you weren't being fed a line.

The evening ended at 10:30, almost too soon for me, which is the first time in a long time that I've felt that when going out. I left feeling, more than anything, proud to be supporting IMAN. Their efforts to better their community (I mean local, not religious) are imbued with a sincerity and an originality which I still feel are sorely lacking from most Muslim institutions. God Willing, we'll be back for more.

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