Femagination - The Feminist Imagination Blog

Muslim Feminism: Women At Prayer

Ellen Keim — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 08:15:00 +0000

Photo by Reuters

The main question I’ve been asked since I became a Muslim has been, “How do you reconcile being a Muslim with being a feminist?” The answer is complex and I won’t go into all of it today. But one part of the answer is that any woman can be a feminist, if being one means that you want to see women find self-fulfillment on whatever path they choose to travel. That doesn’t mean that every journey is easy. Certainly if you come from a culture where women have been traditionally marginalized and you want to continue to be a part of that culture, you’re going to find the going tough. Does that mean that you shouldn’t try? No, but it might mean that you have to weigh your options carefully and be sure of your convictions before you proceed.

I decided to write about this today because of an article by Tracy Clark-Flory I ran across on Salon.com in its Broadsheet department: “Muslims protest sexism with prayer.” In it Clark-Flory recounts the story of Muslim women who dared to pray on the main floor of a mosque in Washington, D.C. Why is that a big deal? For one thing, they were praying with the men and not behind a partition in an area reserved for women. For another thing, they risked arrest to do so. I would say that this is Muslim feminism in action, whether or not these women would identify themselves as feminists.

What is my take on their actions? While I haven’t prayed often in a mosque (yet), when I have, I’ve been relegated to the women’s room along with the other women. The main negative feeling I had was irritation, because it was sometimes hard to hear what was being said on the main floor (which of course is the men’s area) and as a result, it was also hard to feel that I was a part of what was going on, which after all, is supposed to be a communal act of prayer. At the same time, it didn’t bother me all that much because of the feeling of sisterhood I had from being there with the other women. Not to mention that I was more intent on getting my own prayers right than on where I was praying.

One Muslim man once told me that women make too much noise during prayer and that’s one reason why men don’t want them praying in the same room. But maybe women tend to be noisy because they don’t take what they’re doing as seriously as the men do, exactly because the men don’t take what the women do as seriously. What does it really matter if the women make a little noise if they’re not even supposed to be there? (There are a few mosques that don’t allow women to even enter the building.) Then there is the problem of children who are of course with the women (at least until the boys are considered old enough to pray with the men). Children tend to be noisy, too, but the men don’t have to and don’t want to deal with that. They don’t want anything to distract them from their prayers.

Women are also considered to be distractions because they might cause the men to think impure thoughts when they’re supposed to be praying. I get that. Women can be distracted by men as well. If the goal is total concentration, then there is something to be said for the separation of the sexes during prayer. Having said that, I don’t see why adults can’t be trusted to try harder to keep their minds on Allah instead of on each other. Then again, one of the things that attracted me to Islam is that it is so pragmatic about human nature. We do tend to get distracted, pretty easily as a matter of fact. So why make it harder for us to concentrate?

I’m still a feminist, so now I’m a Muslim feminist. That doesn’t mean that I advocate crashing the men’s prayers. I don’t think at all badly of women who sincerely feel that their spiritual lives are made fuller by being able to pray in the main hall of the mosque. I may be one of them someday. But for now I’m content to follow my path to spiritual fulfillment. And to concentrate on my prayers, without distractions.

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The Red Pump Project

Ellen Keim — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 06:36:09 +0000

Put this on YOUR blog!

To publicize National Women and Girls HIV/AIDS Awareness Day (which is tomorrow, March 10th), two women, Karyn of The Fabulous Giver and Luvvie of Awesomely Luvvie, came up with the idea of the Red Pump Project. The concept is simple: Rock the Red Pump on your blog to represent the strength and courage of women fighting HIV/AIDS or affected by the disease both directly and indirectly. By inserting their logo on your blog, you help to spread the word about this worthy cause.

The Red Pump Project wants people to be informed and to take action. While progress has definitely been made in the areas of AIDS prevention and treatment (note that there is no cure), women still represent 27% of all new AIDS diagnoses, with African-American women accounting for 66% of that total. (That’s just in America. In Africa, AIDS strikes far more women than men: 75% of all Africans between the ages of 15 and 24 who are HIV-positive are women.*)

To sign up for future information and/or get a widget to put on your blog, go here.

* Source here.

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The Hijabi Monologues Are Coming!

Ellen Keim — Sun, 07 Mar 2010 21:40:00 +0000

Woman wearing a hijab

A hijabi is a term for a Muslim woman who wears the hijab, or headscarf. I believe that it is important to see the women beneath the headscarves and “The Hijabi Monologues” are one way to accomplish that.

The following announcement only applies to the Columbus, Ohio performances in April but I’m including it here because that’s where I’m from and because I wanted to alert my readers to the existence of “The Hijabi Monologues.” If you want to know more about “The Hijabi Monologues”—maybe even bring them to your area—see the information below.

ANNOUNCEMENT

Try-outs are being held on March 31, 2010 at the Ohio State University for performers to participate in “The Hijabi Monologues.” There is also a need for organizers, writers, photographers and so on. (See full list of positions available here.) Please note: You do not need to be Muslim to participate!

What are “The Hijabi Monologues”? They are a take-off on Eve Ensler’s “The Vagina Monologues.” The difference between them is that “The Vagina Monologues” takes something private and makes it public and “The Hijabi Monologues” take something public (the hijabs, or headcoverings) and show us the private lives of the women who wear them.

Go to the OSU website for more information about the Columbus, Ohio performances as well as links to other performances which have taken place elsewhere. Any questions or concerns should sent to the email address: HijabiMonologues.OSU@gmail.com

To RSVP go the the Hijabi Monologues at OSU page on Facebook. For more information about the Monologues themselves, there is another Facebook page here.

The video below is an interview with some of the people involved in “The Hijabi Monologues.”

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Feminist Media: Feminist Review

Ellen Keim — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 13:26:27 +0000

Artwork from Artivism

One of my favorite sites and resources is Feminist Review. In the last three and a half years it has published nearly 3,500 reviews of current books, films, music, theater performances, eco-friendly clothing, and a whole host of other products. They’ve run interviews with prominent feminists Ariel Gore, Victoria Law, Rebecca Walker, the creators of Make/Shift, Jennifer Baumgardner, and Amy Richards—as well as some artists and activists you may not have heard of before. If reading Feminist Review inspires you to read a novel or download an album, consider donating to their I ♥ FR Campaign today. There is no better month than Women’s History Month to give to feminist media.

In its own words:

“Feminist Review believes that all opinions – positive and critical – are valuable and seeks to give voice to communities that remain on the margins. Our mission is to write reviews from feminist perspectives to explore the world through an anti-oppression lens. We recognize that there are many feminisms and provide a space where those differences can be represented and explored. (That means we want you to add your opinions too.)”

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Women’s History Month Starts With You and a Photograph

Ellen Keim — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 14:54:57 +0000

Colleen O'Connor's grandmother Catherine Shinnick is in the back row, middle. (Photo Courtesy of Frances S. O'Connor and Marcella Cate)

“Every family has a photograph. Every photograph tells a story. And every story is part of American history—your history.” So writes columnist Colleen O’Connor in her March 1st article for the San Diego News Network. She starts out by describing a family photograph of seven sisters, one of whom was her maternal grandmother:

“Impressed by the genteel, aristocratic bearing of the seven women in the picture, I remember thinking how pampered they all looked, posing together for a formal photograph in their elegant white dresses, each one pinned with an exquisite brooch. So 19^th century. So refined. So insulated. “

The photo inspired her to find out what she could about these women. What she discovered was that her initial impression had been dead wrong.

“My grandmother and her six sisters, were farmers, seamstresses, and survivalists. They homesteaded in their own names. They rode horses, raised turkeys, cows and sheep. They cooked for large crews of farm hands, sewed their own clothes—including the dresses in the photograph—and several were crack shots with a rifle! In addition, my grandmother held suffragette meetings on her farm. After women won the right to vote, my great Aunt Mary, fought against the state’s poll tax and won. Men avoided the tax by substituting a day of work, but women were prohibited from that alternative—until Aunt Mary.”

“…these women in the photograph started me on a journey that brought history alive,” O’Connor writes. She then lists ten steps which will help anyone have the same experience:

1. Just think about it and watch the programs she suggests earlier in the post: PBS.org Faces of America program, with Henry Gates, Jr. or The Daily Beast’s Women’s History Month Summit, where you can follow live interviews, stage performances, and remembrances from Meryl Streep, her Majesty Queen Rania, and women from all over the globe.

2. Start with a photograph. You probably have several, but choose one that speaks to you and has a little mystery about it. Or a question you want answered. Try not to get too bogged down in boxes of photos. Put them on the floor and make yourself pick just one.

3. Ask questions of the photograph, yourself, your relatives, or anyone that might help. For example, the year of the car in the background. The hairstyle’s name. The names of everyone in the picture. Their whereabouts.

4. Listen to any stories. After you find a relative or friend that knows the subject of your photo, ask questions. Share the photograph as a memory prompt and let them tell you whatever story they want. Each vignette contains clues and suggestions for more avenues of discovery. Let them talk. Just listen. Even if they wander, the wanderings are often more telling than the rehearsed stories.

5. Take notes. This is not necessary if you have a great memory, but helps when you want to refer to a name, place, or a great line. Try not to start by taking notes as this causes most interviewees to become reserved and stiff. Share some tea, coffee, a beer or a ballgame. The more relaxed the atmosphere the better.

6. Tape the interviews. Do this if you are covering a lot of ground and only if the one talking does not object and is comfortable doing so. Usually taping comes after several initial forays with the interviewee. Meaning, they trust you.

7. Who’s who? Start a family tree. Start with yourself; move on to your parents; grandparents; and if you can add more than that, you are well on your way.

8. Family gatherings. These are the best places to overhear great stories. Just relax enjoy the Thanksgiving feast, birthday party, or anniversary, and listen as relatives begin to talk. They may amble at first, but the tales get told eventually. Commit them to memory.

9. Letters and other keepsakes. Don’t throw anything away. If someone has some old letters, offer to take them, Xerox them and return them. You only need to watch one Ken Burns documentary to realize how important letters are. Diaries are priceless. Even old account books that reveal the daily costs of life.

10. Put it together. If you have done any of the above, you will want to put it all together in some order, or in a folder, or an album, or if you are tech literate, on a CD, or even on film. Calendars are great ways to start the photographic collection and remind you of who you are and where you came from.

Here are some relevant web sites O’Connor selected to get you started:

National Women’s History Project

Library of Congress

History Channel

For teacher resources

Teacher Planet

Family Education

Ellis Island Port of Entry Free Search

Ancestry

Tina Brown and Daily Beast World of Women Summit

Colleen M. O’Connor is a former college history professor, the director of the “Faces of San Diego 2000″ family photographic history project and co-editor of Eleanor Roosevelt: An American Journey. She is an SDNN political columnist and can be reached at CoConnor15x(a)Yahoo.com

Thanks to Ms. O’Connor for permission to quote liberally from her article and to use her family photograph!

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Caring For Women Around the World: International Women’s Day

Ellen Keim — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 18:20:07 +0000

One criticism of American feminism is that it has been too insular, too focused on issues that affect only American women. (This criticism is related to the one that it is also too white and middle-to-upper-class.) In recent decades this has been changing, but I think we are still too focused on the U.S. This isn’t surprising considering how few Americans pay any attention to what is going on around the world.

Participation in International Women’s Day, which is celebrated on March 8th, can help to correct that. IWD was first proposed by Clara Zetkin, a German activist who worked with Rosa Luxemburg and was a fighter for women’s rights. The first official observance was in 1911. (Next year will be its centennial celebration.) It was first celebrated by the United Nations in 1975, which also proclaimed that year to be “International Women’s Year.” (For a timeline relating to IWD, click here.)

1,000 Iranian women march in Tehran on IWD

IWD is now an official holiday in China, Armenia, Russia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Bulgaria, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Macedonia, Moldova, Mongolia, Tajikistan, Ukraine, Uzbekistan and Vietnam. The tradition sees men honouring their mothers, wives, girlfriends, colleagues, etc with flowers and small gifts. In some countries IWD has the equivalent status of Mother’s Day where children give small presents to their mothers and grandmothers.

And yet IWD is still relatively unknown in the U.S. For example, there are 235 events scheduled in the United Kingdom and Ireland for this year but there are only 90 in the U.S. However, these are only events that have registered with the IWD website; we can only hope that there are more out there we just don’t know about. If you know of or are hosting an event and would like to share your information, click here.

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Why Do We Need a Women’s History Month?

Ellen Keim — Mon, 01 Mar 2010 14:44:04 +0000

Some people question why there has to be a Women’s History Month. They wonder why we have to differentiate between women’s history and history in general. After all, doesn’t history include all of mankind (oops, I mean humankind)?

Migrant Mother, 1936, by Dorothea Lange

Well, no, it doesn’t. Women are sadly underrepresented in the annals of history. Even though we are the majority when you’re talking about the sexes, we’re routinely treated like a minority. We’re just not given our due when it comes to who has made the greatest contribution. That might not seem true, because it does seem to be mostly men who have instigated the wars, legislated the laws, written the great books, created the most famous art, been the greatest leaders. And yet, where would these men have come from if it weren’t for women?

I don’t mean that they needed women to give birth to them. That’s obvious. What I mean is that women created the environment in which they were raised from their formative years to adulthood. Their fathers may have inspired them, but their mothers laid down the foundation for the kind of men they would become. Of course, their influence could be for the worst rather than the better, but there’s no denying the power women have had in the nursery and the school room.

And when you speak of women’s power, there is always the power of sex. How many men have done what they’ve done for the love of a woman? Of course, women do the same for the love of a man, but the effect is mainly personal, whereas men tend to show off in the larger world in order to attract the attention of those whom they desire. So you could say that women truly do hold the power behind the throne, whatever kind of throne that may be.

Feminists tend to downplay the power that women have in relationships, because being in a relationship isn’t the same as doing something. Betty Friedan wrote in her book, The Feminine Mystique, that the women of her generation (not to mention her class and race) felt unfulfilled in the home, as if the relationships they had there were of no consequence. But it wasn’t so much that what they did in the home was unfulfilling as that it was unappreciated. Men have been notorious for downplaying the accomplishments of women, and I think that starts with a lack of appreciation for what a woman accomplishes as a wife and mother. They take women for granted, because they’re always there in the background, fulfilling all their needs and making it possible for them to go out into the larger world and accomplish things there.

But even that’s not quite what I mean about the importance of women in history. Men have always been appalled by the woman who steps outside of her little world in the home and makes her mark on the same stage as men. Women’s accomplishments outside of the home have largely been history’s “dirty little secrets.” How many people have heard of Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Sojourner Truth, Jane Addams, Mary Harris (“Mother”) Jones, Margaret Chase Smith, or Katherine Graham, to name only a few?

Keep your eyes and your ears open during March and you just might learn something you didn’t even know you didn’t know about the most influential group of people on earth.

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Happy Birthday to Me

Ellen Keim — Sun, 28 Feb 2010 07:23:38 +0000

Photo by Jessica Diamond

I’m more excited about my birthday than I normally am, perhaps because I’m still around to celebrate it. No, nothing is wrong with me. I don’t have a terminal disease (unless you consider life to be a terminal disease, which in a way, it is). But I am getting older, and I’m aware of the fact that many people who are almost 60 are in poor health for one reason or another. I don’t have any complaints, and that makes me hopeful. You see, I’m hoping to make it to one hundred. That would give me another 42 years on this earth. When you look at it that way, 58 doesn’t seem so bad.

But of course I’m not likely to live to be a hundred. The average life span for someone like me is around 85. Which gives me 27 more years. Still a good chunk of time, but then you have to consider that the last ten at least won’t be spent running marathons. But then I don’t run marathons now, so what would I be losing?

Normally, birthdays don’t mean much to me. I make an effort to remember others,’ but I honestly don’t care if anyone remembers mine. Oh, I don’t mind a phone call, but gifts are strictly optional. I’m the same way at Christmas. Sometimes my children have been too strapped for money to get me a present and I can’t even tell you who or when that was, just that it has happened at times.

My husband, on the other hand, loves birthdays. That’s partly the German in him; apparently birthdays are a very big deal in Germany. You’re treated special for the entire day, from breakfast right through dinner. I have had to adapt myself to that mentality if only for the sake of other people, but it just makes me uncomfortable to be fussed over on my birthday. It’s not like I did anything to deserve it. I’m just still alive, that’s all.

My reluctance to be recognized on my birthday might date back to the year I turned sixteen. No one even mentioned it was my birthday until dinner that night, and it wasn’t because they had a party planned for me or anything. It was just an “ordinary” birthday. Maybe I’m afraid of being disappointed again, so I’ve trained myself to not expect anything.

I’m writing this at 2:30 in the morning of my birthday–the day is yet to unfold. I’ll let you know how this birthday panned out. I’m not expecting anything, but I have a feeling this is going to be a good one.

NOTE: I had a great birthday, mainly because my family was all around me (except for one of my daughters who lives too far away) and I had many happy birthday wishes by email and phone. I also ate till I was stuffed, on pizza and cheesecake (not together). My youngest daughter spent hours–literally–making the cheesecake, which was stupendous, my third daughter hosted the party and my oldest daughter drove from a couple of hours away to be there with my grandson. My in-laws in Germany sent a beautiful bouquet of flowers and my wonderful husband made me feel special from the start of the day to its end. Thanks to all for making my birthday memorable in the very best way.

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