Thou [translation: female] shalt not play soccer.
This latest decree from Saudi Arabia, in effect, cancels its first Women Soccer Championship.
The decision came after a visit by the general manager of the Ministry of Islamic affairs, endowments, and guidance to the college organizing the championship. The Saudi-affiliated Al Arabiya news website did not report the reasons behind the abrupt announcement.
Banning the championship is yet another classic Saudi example of using Islamic values to justify and perpetuate patriarchy. Some of the readers’ comments on Al Arabiya’s report reflect this mix-up. I may have accidentally spewed cereal on my computer screen after a laughing fit while reading this comment: “Imagine if this suddenly happened. Your sister kicking the ball…you see her wearing a t-shirt and your mother is the goalie. And the world/men/cameras focused on their br…and she’s running after the ball. How would you feel then?” Yes, indeed God forbid, women in t-shirts!
Somehow the idea of muscular men in tiny shorts running around the field, occasionally stripping their t-shirts in excitement after a goal, is not enticing to women . After all, they’re supposed to be sexually naïve and oblivious to the blonde good looks of Beckham and other players.
Falcon, Ferrari, Red Devil, and Virus, the four women’s teams, can look forward to a lifetime of football: from their TV screens.
Friday, April 6, 2007
Tuesday, April 3, 2007
Palestine's other conflict
If you listen closely beyond the sounds of gun shots and grief, you’ll hear the voices involved in a different conflict in Palestine. This time it’s sexual politics.
On March 28 in Haifa, Aswat held the first public conference for Palestinian lesbians to mark its fifth anniversary.
The Associated Press report hailed the participants’ defiance of sexual taboos, especially in the face of “Islamist” protests. While much space was devoted to explain the participants’ views, the “Islamist” protestors were given a whitewashed depiction at best. They were simply described as women wearing “headscarves and long, loose robes” as though their ideology can be derived from their dress.
The AP report depicted the Israeli part of Haifa, where the conference was held, as more tolerant of homosexuality than Israeli-Arab towns. Yet the story remarkably failed to address the reactions of Christian and Orthodox Jewish groups to the conference.
Most media reports failed to note that skepticism about the conference and Aswat’s activism does not stem from perceived Islamic homophobia. Rather, there is some Arab concern about potential Israeli support of the Palestinian lesbian movement and how it can cause divisions within the Palestinian community. According to Albawaba website the International Committee for LGBT Human Rights has asked Israeli authorities and religious groups to provide security and protection during the conference.
It’s doubtful that Aswat can win the hearts and minds of the Palestinian/Arab/Muslim communities given this potential alliance.
On March 28 in Haifa, Aswat held the first public conference for Palestinian lesbians to mark its fifth anniversary.
The Associated Press report hailed the participants’ defiance of sexual taboos, especially in the face of “Islamist” protests. While much space was devoted to explain the participants’ views, the “Islamist” protestors were given a whitewashed depiction at best. They were simply described as women wearing “headscarves and long, loose robes” as though their ideology can be derived from their dress.
The AP report depicted the Israeli part of Haifa, where the conference was held, as more tolerant of homosexuality than Israeli-Arab towns. Yet the story remarkably failed to address the reactions of Christian and Orthodox Jewish groups to the conference.
Most media reports failed to note that skepticism about the conference and Aswat’s activism does not stem from perceived Islamic homophobia. Rather, there is some Arab concern about potential Israeli support of the Palestinian lesbian movement and how it can cause divisions within the Palestinian community. According to Albawaba website the International Committee for LGBT Human Rights has asked Israeli authorities and religious groups to provide security and protection during the conference.
It’s doubtful that Aswat can win the hearts and minds of the Palestinian/Arab/Muslim communities given this potential alliance.
Friday, March 30, 2007
El Saadawi ruffles State feathers again
Egyptian feminist Nawal El Saadawi has done it again.
About 3000 copies of El Saadawi's latest book "God resigns the Summit Meeting" have been destroyed in Egypt before going on sale, the Gulf News reported earlier.
Al Arabiya.net more recently closely examined the reasons for this move. The causes of censorship were, according to Al Azhar, are the insult to the divine persona, giving human qualities to God, and the personification of various prophets. Al Azhar backed its
rationale by stating that it is Islamically forbidden to personify the divine self and the prophets in literary works and TV serials. The Alarabiya report lists the passages of objection in El Saadawi's play.
While most media outlets, especially Western ones, were quick to blame the incident on religious fanatcism and its stifling of freedom of expression, they had actually missed the point.
Constructing the narrative of this incident as "religious extremism" versus secularism simplifies the story and ignores another level of complexity. They disregard El Saadawi's long history of being at odds with the State. She was imprisoned briefly during President Sadat's time, accuses the State of using religion to oppress the people, and ran in the last presidential elections (but boycotted them later), and resists Egyptian alliance with the US whom she considers a foreign imperialist.
The censorship of her book is thus not simply a matter of religion, but also a political backlash against this anti-government activist.
About 3000 copies of El Saadawi's latest book "God resigns the Summit Meeting" have been destroyed in Egypt before going on sale, the Gulf News reported earlier.
Al Arabiya.net more recently closely examined the reasons for this move. The causes of censorship were, according to Al Azhar, are the insult to the divine persona, giving human qualities to God, and the personification of various prophets. Al Azhar backed its
rationale by stating that it is Islamically forbidden to personify the divine self and the prophets in literary works and TV serials. The Alarabiya report lists the passages of objection in El Saadawi's play.
While most media outlets, especially Western ones, were quick to blame the incident on religious fanatcism and its stifling of freedom of expression, they had actually missed the point.
Constructing the narrative of this incident as "religious extremism" versus secularism simplifies the story and ignores another level of complexity. They disregard El Saadawi's long history of being at odds with the State. She was imprisoned briefly during President Sadat's time, accuses the State of using religion to oppress the people, and ran in the last presidential elections (but boycotted them later), and resists Egyptian alliance with the US whom she considers a foreign imperialist.
The censorship of her book is thus not simply a matter of religion, but also a political backlash against this anti-government activist.
Wednesday, March 28, 2007
The sexist version of Vagina (Dia)logues
Enoying the aroma of hot chocolate and texture of gooey cinammon buns can be a comfort while writing final term papers. But that was not the case when I had my warm treats at a UBC campus cafe this afternoon.
A rowdy tableful of men sitting next to me provided the sexist background sound to my thoughts.
Howling at the top of their voices around several pitchers of beer, they were (playfully?) insulting each other using colloquial terms for a woman's genitals.
Incidentally, I was writing a paper for a Women's Studies course. My feminist framework then was completely unsympathetic to their banter, to say the least.
Why does male language use female genitals with such a demeaning connotation?
How can the subject of these insults be both a source of pleasure and contempt from a male perspective?
Does female sexuality signify a position of weakness or submissiveness?
How does it affect the way women perceive their bodies and feel about themselves?
My decision not to use this language in the blog is an effort to discourage and resist its use and normalization by men and women alike.
(Alf, please skip).
A rowdy tableful of men sitting next to me provided the sexist background sound to my thoughts.
Howling at the top of their voices around several pitchers of beer, they were (playfully?) insulting each other using colloquial terms for a woman's genitals.
Incidentally, I was writing a paper for a Women's Studies course. My feminist framework then was completely unsympathetic to their banter, to say the least.
Why does male language use female genitals with such a demeaning connotation?
How can the subject of these insults be both a source of pleasure and contempt from a male perspective?
Does female sexuality signify a position of weakness or submissiveness?
How does it affect the way women perceive their bodies and feel about themselves?
My decision not to use this language in the blog is an effort to discourage and resist its use and normalization by men and women alike.
(Alf, please skip).
Tuesday, March 27, 2007
Elderly women claimed by "Sewage Tsunami"
A flooding river of sewage has killed three women over the age of 70 and two toddlers in a Gaza strip village. The disaster has been called a "sewage tsunami" by some media outlets.
While a "tsunami" is a natural force, the Gaza strip disaster unnatural, as one blogger notes. The residents of the flooded Umm Naser village were living amid running, exposed sewage in ramshackle tin huts, and with little access to basic facilities such as clean water.
The 70+ year old women were witnesses to the ebb and flow of history. As though the demeaning surroundings in which they lived were not insult enough to human dignity, their lives were claimed by a flood of filth. This cruel reality speaks louder than any UN human development report: it tells of the insanity of conflict and the need to pay tribute to individuals of this daily struggle, even if they do not make it to the news headlines.
While a "tsunami" is a natural force, the Gaza strip disaster unnatural, as one blogger notes. The residents of the flooded Umm Naser village were living amid running, exposed sewage in ramshackle tin huts, and with little access to basic facilities such as clean water.
The 70+ year old women were witnesses to the ebb and flow of history. As though the demeaning surroundings in which they lived were not insult enough to human dignity, their lives were claimed by a flood of filth. This cruel reality speaks louder than any UN human development report: it tells of the insanity of conflict and the need to pay tribute to individuals of this daily struggle, even if they do not make it to the news headlines.
Saturday, March 24, 2007
Yet another re-interpretation of the Qur'an
A new English translation of the Qur'an by an American-Iranian woman, Laleh Bakhtiar, has re-interpreted the meaning of the word "daraba" (usually means to "beat" or "hit") in Chapter 4, verse 34 about treating the ill-conduct/disloyalty/straying of a woman.
A feminist interpretation of the Qur'an serves to challenge the patriarchal readings that are often unfair to women and ignore the rights given to them by God.
However, there are several problems with this phenomenon of Qur'anic re-interpretations.
Such readings are often done by individuals whose training in Islamic scholarship is sketchy at best. A Mujtahid (a person who practises ijtihad) needs to have certain qualifications. Among many factors, these include expertise in the Arabic language, literature, and philology as well as being a high calibre Qur'an scholar. These qualifications are often missing in individuals claiming a more egalitarian reading of the Qur'an.
Unfortunately, these individuals treat the Qur'an not as a divine revelation, but as a literary text, and approach it as such. Their reinterpretations are often biased towards supporting a certain agenda (whether is it's patriarchal, feminist, gay-friendly, etc), rather than an effort to pursue the truth.
To return to Bakhtiar's new translation, the article states that she is not an Islamic scholar and that "she does not speak Arabic, but she learned to read the holy texts in Arabic while studying and working as a translator in Iran in the 1970s and ’80s."
One blogger said Bakhtiar's attempt "is an example of bending out of shape and doing verbal acrobatics in order to come up with an acceptable interpretation that may be a good "public relations" gesture..." hinting that her interpretation is apologetic to Western readers. The blogger notes that when and if a Muslim man beats his wife it's not because the Qur'an asks him to do so. Therefore the impact of Bakhtiar's re-interpretation is limited.
Indeed, it is problematic to even attribute wife beating to Islam. Stories about Western men beating their wives is not pinned on them being Christian, Jewish, or of other religious affiliation. It is simply labelled as "abuse."
A feminist interpretation of the Qur'an serves to challenge the patriarchal readings that are often unfair to women and ignore the rights given to them by God.
However, there are several problems with this phenomenon of Qur'anic re-interpretations.
Such readings are often done by individuals whose training in Islamic scholarship is sketchy at best. A Mujtahid (a person who practises ijtihad) needs to have certain qualifications. Among many factors, these include expertise in the Arabic language, literature, and philology as well as being a high calibre Qur'an scholar. These qualifications are often missing in individuals claiming a more egalitarian reading of the Qur'an.
Unfortunately, these individuals treat the Qur'an not as a divine revelation, but as a literary text, and approach it as such. Their reinterpretations are often biased towards supporting a certain agenda (whether is it's patriarchal, feminist, gay-friendly, etc), rather than an effort to pursue the truth.
To return to Bakhtiar's new translation, the article states that she is not an Islamic scholar and that "she does not speak Arabic, but she learned to read the holy texts in Arabic while studying and working as a translator in Iran in the 1970s and ’80s."
One blogger said Bakhtiar's attempt "is an example of bending out of shape and doing verbal acrobatics in order to come up with an acceptable interpretation that may be a good "public relations" gesture..." hinting that her interpretation is apologetic to Western readers. The blogger notes that when and if a Muslim man beats his wife it's not because the Qur'an asks him to do so. Therefore the impact of Bakhtiar's re-interpretation is limited.
Indeed, it is problematic to even attribute wife beating to Islam. Stories about Western men beating their wives is not pinned on them being Christian, Jewish, or of other religious affiliation. It is simply labelled as "abuse."
Tuesday, March 20, 2007
Happy Mother's Day...or not
Children are writing cards, purchasing gifts, and calling home as the Arab world celebrates Mother's Day March 21. Mothers can kick back and relax, maybe let their kids do some of the chores for a change.
Origins of Mother's Day
The history of Mother's day is long, but no, it is not the brainchlid of a Hallmark executive. Several theories abound on the origins of this day: It was a Greek spring festival celebration honoring the mother goddess Rhea; a similar festival called Hilaria was dedicated to the Roman goddess Cybele; early Christians celebrated a type of Mother's Day on the fourth Sunday of Lent to honor the Virgin Mary, mother of Christ. In England, this Christian holiday was later expanded to include all mothers and was called "Mothering Sunday."
The more recent history of Mother's Day is attributed to two American women, Julia Ward Howe and Anna Jarvis.
The dark side of Mother's Day
While many children in the Arab world celebrate their mothers on this special day, others are more wary. They perceive it as a foreign holiday, neither Arab nor Islamic, imported from the West. Some believe that it unnecessary to have one day in the year to honor mothers since that duty should be a lifelong sentiment. Others find it irrelevant to the Arab world where families ties are perceived to be stronger than in the West since large families live together for longer periods of time.
The holiday has also been commercialized to the extent that one of its founders, Anna Jarvis, protested against the way it was celebrated, a BBC report said. According to this report, the greetings card industry is worth 1.2 billion Euros in the UK alone. Mother's Day contributes to much of this value.
In Dubai, more than 100 schoolchildren participated in drawing the largest greeting card to celebrate Mother's Day. A classic move in the Dubai tradition to break records for the world's "largest" or "biggest" thisandthat (think world's biggest man-made islands, world's tallest hotels).
In Palestine, women of all ages gathered in Umm Salamuna village in a non-violent protest against the Israeli Wall.
The Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics issued a report on the status of Palestinian women in the West Bank and Gaza on the occasion of Mother's Day. The first sombre statistic is on 32 Palestinian mothers out of 112 females detained in jails.
Status of Mothers in Islam
Regardless of Mother's Day, mothers command great respect in Islam. The Prophet states emphatically that the rights of the mother are paramount. Abu Hurairah reported that a man came to the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) and asked: "O Messenger of Allah, who is the person who has the greatest right on me with regards to kindness and attention?" He replied, "Your mother." "Then who?" He replied, "Your mother." "Then who?" He replied, "Your mother." "Then who?" He replied, "Your father."
Finally, the Holy Qur'an (17:23, 24) says of parents: "Thy Lord hath decreed, that ye worship none save Him, and (that ye show) kindness to parents. If one of them or both of them attain old age with thee, say not "Fie" unto them nor repulse them, but speak unto them a gracious word. And lower unto them the wing of submission through mercy, and say: My Lord! Have mercy on them both as they did care for me when I was little."
Origins of Mother's Day
The history of Mother's day is long, but no, it is not the brainchlid of a Hallmark executive. Several theories abound on the origins of this day: It was a Greek spring festival celebration honoring the mother goddess Rhea; a similar festival called Hilaria was dedicated to the Roman goddess Cybele; early Christians celebrated a type of Mother's Day on the fourth Sunday of Lent to honor the Virgin Mary, mother of Christ. In England, this Christian holiday was later expanded to include all mothers and was called "Mothering Sunday."
The more recent history of Mother's Day is attributed to two American women, Julia Ward Howe and Anna Jarvis.
The dark side of Mother's Day
While many children in the Arab world celebrate their mothers on this special day, others are more wary. They perceive it as a foreign holiday, neither Arab nor Islamic, imported from the West. Some believe that it unnecessary to have one day in the year to honor mothers since that duty should be a lifelong sentiment. Others find it irrelevant to the Arab world where families ties are perceived to be stronger than in the West since large families live together for longer periods of time.
The holiday has also been commercialized to the extent that one of its founders, Anna Jarvis, protested against the way it was celebrated, a BBC report said. According to this report, the greetings card industry is worth 1.2 billion Euros in the UK alone. Mother's Day contributes to much of this value.
In Dubai, more than 100 schoolchildren participated in drawing the largest greeting card to celebrate Mother's Day. A classic move in the Dubai tradition to break records for the world's "largest" or "biggest" thisandthat (think world's biggest man-made islands, world's tallest hotels).
In Palestine, women of all ages gathered in Umm Salamuna village in a non-violent protest against the Israeli Wall.
The Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics issued a report on the status of Palestinian women in the West Bank and Gaza on the occasion of Mother's Day. The first sombre statistic is on 32 Palestinian mothers out of 112 females detained in jails.
Status of Mothers in Islam
Regardless of Mother's Day, mothers command great respect in Islam. The Prophet states emphatically that the rights of the mother are paramount. Abu Hurairah reported that a man came to the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) and asked: "O Messenger of Allah, who is the person who has the greatest right on me with regards to kindness and attention?" He replied, "Your mother." "Then who?" He replied, "Your mother." "Then who?" He replied, "Your mother." "Then who?" He replied, "Your father."
Finally, the Holy Qur'an (17:23, 24) says of parents: "Thy Lord hath decreed, that ye worship none save Him, and (that ye show) kindness to parents. If one of them or both of them attain old age with thee, say not "Fie" unto them nor repulse them, but speak unto them a gracious word. And lower unto them the wing of submission through mercy, and say: My Lord! Have mercy on them both as they did care for me when I was little."
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