by Karine Ancellin Saleck
– Belgium –
Part III of III
European mainstream society has been totally deaf to the claims of its Muslims believers. Muslim feminists bring to life the humanist aspect of the faith (or culture) together, giving it an active twist, and that is the foundation of an answer to people like the French ‘writer’ Houellebec, who calls Islam “the stupidest religion of all,” and all those now engaged in Arab or Muslim hate rhetoric.
Muslim feminists offer some kind of response to the rampant Islamophobia. They lighten the hearts that are burdened with downgrading images of Islam, with deaths of Muslims youths, with the humiliation heaped on even those who are only remotely linked to the religion. They scan the Koran to find quotes that advocate humanism, human rights, and rights of women. They speak of universal rights abducted in Muslim countries by male dominant powers, although they are unambiguously present in the scriptures. Their very appealing new thought is that the opressor is not the religion, but the macho reading that was made of its texts, which is related to the different cultural heritage of each country.
From Molenbeek to Baghdad
Hind Fraihi, a young Moroccan journalist, has just published in Belgium a book entitled Infiltrated. She tells the story of how she tried to infiltrate the Islam activist groups in Brussels for her newspaper, Niewsblad. As a Moroccan and a daughter of this very plural community, before starting her investigation, she had a great case weighing on her conscience: Am I betraying my people? Who am I? How do I live this dual life belonging to both the Moroccan and Dutch?
The newspaper entrusted her with the mission to uncover Islamic political activism in Brussels. So she went out to meet the Muslims in Molenbeek, an area that is well known for being the hideout for the most radical Muslim groups in the city. In the book, her undertakings mirror her beliefs as a journalist. The book is as much the story of her life as it is that of the people she encounters and scrutinizes. She shares an apartment with Amira, just off the plane from Morocco. Amira has just left her husband. She analyses each of Amira’s reaction in comparison with her own (when put in a similar situation).
Hind roams the streets of Molenbeek and follows paths that lead her behind closed doors of clandestine mosques. She holds passionate discussions with her sisters, all dressed in black from head to toe, but she understands she is clearly kept at a fair distance. Hind Fraihi meets with the Cheikh Ayachi Bassam, who married a young Moroccan woman to the murderer of commander Messaoud, the lion of the Panchir.
But of all her expeditions amongst the “salafist” and the “jihadist” and other fundamentalists, only the deluded nihilism of young subway delinquents who live on petty theft really threatened her personally. She called upon her brother to be her bodyguard.
All along, what we feel is a diversity, rather than an invading fundamentalist presence that could be a menace on the Belgians, like some London groups with their hate speeches toward the West. Nevertheless she takes notice of the fact that right before her book was completed, a 38 year old Belgian woman, Murielle Degauque, blew herself up in Iraq. She also stresses the enormous potential that lie for Islamists to recruit society’s dropouts and orient them towards more aggressive stands.
Miss Fraihi concludes by unveiling another group of this Moroccan community: the far right activists. Those who support a political party which intends to get rid of them, or keep them at the lowest level of society to exploit them as much as possible. Moroccan men and women who favour Belgian nationalism or racism like the Vlams Belang and the National Front…
Hind Fraihi throws clear light, not judgemental, on the relief felt by young women who feel at odds with modern women and feel attracted by the Muslim feminists, and in the wake by Muslim activists, that she calls the Muslim Punks.
Barcelona or the birth of an International Muslim sisterhood
At the first International Congress on Muslim feminism that took place in Barcelona last November, Amina Wadud, Asma Barlas, Riffat Hassan, and all the famous Muslim women were diluted within the mass of the 400 participants. Together, the various trends amongst Muslim Feminism agreed on a number of basic principles. In the face of the growing increase of Muslim feminists associations and websites in Malaysia, Nigeria, Pakistan and many other countries, Abdennur Prado and Ndeye Andujar, respectively. President and Vice-president of Junta Islamica of Catalogne, organized this first Congress.
The idea of the event was to give these voices some kind of tribune and determine what they had in common. A Muslim women’s liberation movement is born of the Congress and the Egyptian Margot Badran summed the outline: “It is not necessary to be a Muslim to consider yourself an Islamic Feminist.” (www.feminismeislamic.org)
“The Koran is not a stone. There are as many readings as there are readers,” adds Ndeye Andujar to show the broadmindedness of the organizers. They will set up another Congress to take place soon in New York on the theme of “Spiritual leadership of women.” Certain Muslim scholars will also be given scholarships to become Muftis and “emit fatwas.”
These feminists are not welcomed by the majority of Muslim believers, whatever their country of residence in Africa or in the USA, Europe or the Middle East. According to Henri Tincq in Le Monde, “They are the victims of two different set of opponents, the Islam traditionalists and the Islam activists, who, with regard of the right of women are allies. They must also struggle against the ‘paternalism’ of western feminists not to be gobbled up. The main forces of resistances will come from the interior: men of course but also women acquiescent for centuries to accept male domination and be submissive.” The birth of this network of Muslim feminists who want to bring a free spirit to Islam can be a trampoline to the claim of general human rights. This movement asserts a new personality that cannot be absorbed by other more prominent causes. It presents another side of Islam and of the women who are struggling for their religion.
Emancipation or radicalism
In countries like France where national contempt for Islam is proclaimed in a law (against the headscarves in the schools, and in a 2006 law, to revise colonialism in the schoolbooks to state “its positive” effects), it is hard to imagine this movement as emancipating. Muslim women are surely at a loss. On the contrary. It might become the refuge for radicals in reaction to repeated aggressions, like the increase in police brutality towards the community of North African immigrants. It’s a fine line between religious fervour and religious fundamentalism…equally for men as for women…
Originally published in French by Kulturissimo
If I were allowed to use a mathematic/scientific example I would point out that in nature we see only continuous functions (old Latin Peoples said “natura non facit saltum” meaning that nature goes on gradually); at the same time we see that nature’s phenomenon always recur. The same happens about history.
So we witness now a new feminism arising in some parts of the world and in different cultures (not only Muslim Feminism) which is not very different from the Feminism of the last century in Europe and America. (Don’t forget that only two centuries ago in the Christian Europe witches were burnt and that the vote was conquered by women in the most of the European countries only in the second part of the last century; the way for a real equalization between women and men is still long).
I think that women’s condition does not depend only on religion but it goes on together with economic/cultural/social/historic progress. Only when feminism were no longer necessary a very important side of progress would be performed.
Interesting and thought-provoking piece. This is a subject dear to my heart, particularly in terms of Europe’s difficult handling of it.
I think it’s important to consider France’s deeply ingrained secular governing ethic. Since the Révolution, with alternating success and failure, France’s m.o. has been to keep the Church’s (the Catholic Church) influence in the public sphere to a minimum. This governing ethic has created an academic/political/social culture that favors Cartesian logic over faith-based argumentation, be it Catholic, Muslim, or Mormon. The French balk when they learn that Creationism is actually taught in some U.S. public schools…
While the ban on ostentatious religious symbols in public schools arose mainly due to the conflict between teachers and female students refusing to remove their headscarves or participate in physical ed. due to their constraining burqas, and the polemic surrounding the ravages of colonialism and France’s role as a prime player are both saddening proof of a slow-to-change politic, it would seem more appropriate to say that these instances are revelatory of a contempt for a society veering toward pre-Revolutionary, faith-ruled subsects.
As mentioned in Part I, Ni putes ni soumises is one such French feminist organization working to promote equality for women, particularly in the poorer, high-immigrant population districts – and to reach this goal through the support and adherence to the old Republican ideal of a secular France. Fadela Amara, president of the NPNS, is a staunch supporter of the “anti-headscarf law,” and sees this legislation not as a sign of contempt for Islam, but as a means for young Muslim women in France to integrate into secular French society, while remaining faithful to their Muslim faith.
I will now take the pen of a reader and not a journalist because I will answer with the knowledge I have gathered rather than research or investigations I have conducted. Thank you Renzo Pieraccini for your comment and as you say “women’s condition doesn’t depend only on religion”, however as a careful and caring observer of the Muslim Diaspora I have to make the statement that there is a trend to a more overt religious being in that community (more or less since 9/11) than there ever was. Therefore the women of this community embody this penchant in different ways amongst which wearing a veil their mothers never even contemplated wearing.
Now what does this say about women’s condition? Are these young women more submissive to “the family” than their mothers?
Are they more aware of the ways the society they live in, work in and therefore have a greater degree of choice?
Meeting many of them here in Europe I am under the impression that these young women are more independent in their choice of life than their mothers, choice of a partner, of a lifestyle, of a profession. It seems to me that having gone to school and university (that is where I conducted many of my interviews) they have more keys to the way to place themselves in the society.
Now, and this is what makes sense to me at this time, these young women realize that they don’t have equal access to professional opportunities and the privileges that are shared by most citizens in Europe (housing, bank loans, etc) because of a second rate unspoken status. This I think is why they have chosen to confront this denial of their personality, their worth and have taken both refuge and strength in the Muslim religion and are sending out signs saying : we belong here but we are different and want our place to be acknowledged and have our full rights -presently denied.
In this they are feminists because they have the knowledge of their rights and understanding of the Western society their parents didn’t have (parents who were as silent as could be) but they are more political Muslims than pious, and I think, but am not adamant, that it is more an identity they want to assert than a faith (that does have its role as a healer of the wounds of Islamophobia and Arab hate). However lurks the possibility that they should be deviated from their goal and manipulated by other people hungry for power.
That is where I think lies the fine line to react to this phenomenon : before they reach a dead end, support these young Muslim Feminists in gaining their place in society stating their duties and rights as all other European citizens.
Hello !
very interesting subject up-to-date and emotional. What means “feminism” today ? what impact has the belief ? As we see here, the “truth” is personal, complex, individualistic, full of diversity. Thanks for this compilation of “personal stories” presented in a global context. It is a world (islamic) that I don’t know and I don’t feel free to speak so easily with “women in black”. I situate myself as a humanist more and more compromised for peace and in the building of bridges between cultures. Your article offers stones for this bridge.
Thank you !
Friendly,
Tatiana
There is an expression of Louis Aragon which says “the woman is the future of the man”.
When I see in our European cities the behaviour of the men and the Arabic women, I often think of these words.
When I see in our parliaments and senates the behaviour of the men and the women who make some politics, I also think of these words.
But unfortunately I see in certain countries mothers who take weapons, who make the war, and I say myself: “ have we another future?”
So I hope that the Muslims feminists fight will always stay a peaceful fight.
Jb Delbauve
Thank you very much Aralena for your interesting comment and I will try to continue the discussion on the specific points that you have raised.
France’s ingrained secular Governing ethic is a trademark, and for having done my University studies in France I must say that this idea of Cartesian principles is relevant on the campus. However when you consider society as a whole it is not exactly what its intellectual elite says it is, or wishes it is. Take the public schools where no religious signs are supposed to be allowed, well all the ‘school year holidays’ are religious holidays, based on catholic worship more precisely. When Pope Jean Paul II died, most administrations were given a day off. So it is a trend, and it is a reality to some extent, that the public space is religion free…. but with a catholic background.
Now because of France’s position with regard to Nazism, and its feeling of guilt for the collaboration, even if the resistance was strongly supported and great people fought heroically, efforts have been made towards the Jewish community and its acceptance as a French religion. The recent problems of anti-Semitism revival show however this recognition superficial and still edgy.
But if we speak of Islam, the visibility of this religion is more disturbing to the French than Hare Krishna or any other visible religious group. There is something about Islam, that maybe linked to history, or to a part of denial, as with the Algerians, that is a love-hate relationship. It is surely not Cartesian for that instance, because it is more emotional than rational or stemming from the intelligence of a situation. This makes people react strongly and mostly with preconceived ideas about Muslims. As I stated in the articles it’s proven by the fact that there has not been any thorough reflection or serious studies undertaken to give some scientific ground to what is the French Muslim community.
I have a friend journalist who is a Jew converted to Islam, what are the bridges between Islam and other religions? how do they interact? nothing has been investigated, the only thing that comes through are prejudices and emotions having little to do with the very intellectual movement around secularism, and the freedom of thought, women’s rights or the “siècle des lumières” we are all in admiration with.
French ex-colonies are changing rapidly and the divorce is taking place with a lot of hurt from both sides, this is why it is hard for young French Muslims to find their place in France at this time. France’s subjects are emancipating and it is a difficult fact to face when you think of the privileges French bourgeoisie is losing. It is all the more difficult for women, compared to men, because there is this permeating image of the submissive Arab woman, who is accepted as a maid but not as an executive or a politician. However to be fair, it is now under scrutiny and there are emerging French Muslim politicians (many women), one almost made it to candidate for Presidency. The still outcast protest with the veil to be visible or amongst various groups.
As for Ni putes ni Soumises, they have done a great job like you mentioned in the poor suburban areas, but once they reached some kind of fame and after the right wing Government cut the funding of associations like them, they left their terrain and it was taken over by other more radical groupings amongst whom different Muslim Feminist networks and dangerous Islamic activists as well. This is a turn France missed and after the riots was forced to address. interior Minister Sarkozy’s demagogic remedy is more police force, however the French people have sensed the failure of this policy and a lot of local community responses are now burgeoning. The wind has turned and whatever the outcome of the election, French Muslims in all their diversity will have to fit in their own rights in the various avenues of French life, men, and women.
Karine,
Always eager to try to formulate my newest findings in world and life issues, I am getting closer and closer to a point where I see that peace between man and women, peace between the other and me, peace between your culture and mine lies in what I have begun to call THE THIRD POINT.
If we think in France that women are equal to men we are wrong. Man and women are not equal and fortunately we will never be. There would not be a point of having a difference. I have started to look around well in France and all I see is intellectual thinking that needs women to be men, needs women to react like men and needs women to have desires like men. And women
have started to believe it.
But what I also see is mental disorders, mood troubles, family destruction… and the strange part is that politics, industries and commerce seems to like those problems. They live on it. Egoïsm is all around, and egoïsm leads to competition and vice versa. Go have a look in an ordinary French school. How much more do I need to tell?
Feminism for me has nothing to do with equalness. It has to do with acceptation of the difference. It has also nothing to do with fighting for the same salary for the same job. The challenge is not to show men how we can do like them or better, the challenge lies in creating jobs that are a creation of minds of women. And today we can feel (not think) what needs
to be done and what people need to be willing to pay for to save this planet and the people on it. It is no longer a male story. The men’s creation has come to it’s limits and women need to wake up brutally, look inside their heart and react. Together or all individually. Anyway, we know that deep down we have the same goal.
This is true for all women. We need absolute honesty, generosity and trust.
These are not the ingredients for commercial wars, industries benefits or pharmaceutic wellbeingness. These are natural laws for life saving, the kind that mothers apply within their homes when they feel safe. It is time that all mothers raise and start to protect all life beyond their own children, beyond their own intimicy. The world needs it!
And that widespread capacity of ours (man in general) to tend to go towards and to concentrate on this ideal, call it meditation, call it pause, call it peace is the THIRD POINT. It is the point where you are no longer different from me, you are me, where men are no longer different from women, men and women are one, where cultures are no longer different one from another because they are all expressions of the same divine self. It is where we all really meet. The moment we see that, we have given ourselves a soul again and make this planet LIVE!
submitted via email to The WIP
Great job of investigation and reflexion about the future of Islam in Europe and the world.
Women effectively have a great role to play to restructure the world and how to lead it.
Political parties and religious affairs are intimately linked, so it is a great point to see how progresses are made in both sectors with the presence and participation of women.
The only way to resolve wars, hungers and poverty is through cooperation.
Men have shown during the last centuries they definitively don’t have the ca