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Why the pious muslimas must be active

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Why the pious muslimas must be active
lucid9
08/01/04 at 10:44:25
[slm]

Sorry for intruding into your corner of jannah.org.  But i just ran into this thing about asra nomani suddenly being the spokeswomen for muslim women's rights in demanding to be able to pray in the same hall as men and was a bit taken aback.  

The point is if pious muslim women don't stand up for what is rightfully theirs then others will -- and sometimes those folks don't have the best interests of muslims in mind.  Let me explain:  in the muslim world everybody knows that "lower class" muslim women are often treated very badly.  So now, foreign, secular and Christian charity organizations and aid organizations have entered these countries to "liberate" the trampled upon and oppressed women from what they call oppressive islam.  These people in an attempt to rip away the oppression of women are more than and are even eager to rip away the whole of islam at the same time.  And so, nowadays the people at forefront of women's issues in the muslim world are people who are antithetically opposed to islam and usually nonmuslim.  What a tragedy?  Where are the muslim women?  WHY DON'T THEY STAND UP FOR THEMSELVES?  For certainly, if they don't others hostile to islam will if only in the name of human rights.

The example of Asra Nomani is interesting.  It is wonderful to hear that she has come back to islam.  But as someone with lots of baggage, she is not the person on would automatically choose to represent muslims.  Yet she seems to be the one making the most noise about muslim women's rights.  Where are the other muslim women?  The women of knoweldge and piety?

Let me give you another example:  in britain Monica Ali has suddenly come to represent the muslim voice of fiction in Britain.  I believe she is loved not only because of her exotic background and storytelling ability -- but because she seems to echo common western sentiments about the role of women in islam.  Is this someone muslim women want to represent them?

So sisters, if you really care about islam and its fate decades from now, you should stand up for what is right and proper now, and not wait for your athiest or lesbigay neighbor to stand up for you instead.  They may feel the pain of the muslims abroad and elsewhere, but they hate islam with a vengence.  

 
Re: Why the pious muslimas must be active
Maliha
08/01/04 at 11:16:29
[slm]
You make really good points hyper. The question however is not that Muslim women are *not* standing up for themselves...it is who actually gets the attention, media and otherwise.

I live in an area which is incredibly active when it comes to the Muslim community Alhamdullillah. The foremost leaders in activism, teaching, awareness building, feeding the homeless, youth activities..you name it..are women. Muslim women, covered, dignified, working tirelessly to preserve and uphold the Deen.

I just met my friend's grandmother from Pakistan. She comes to the states, sells clothes, hijabs, etc from Pakistan and with that money throughout the years she *built* a campus, with boarding, lodging, etc for poor Muslim boys and girls in Pakistan. She said how much she hated begging for donations or as we call it "fund raising"..so she thought up a business plan that actually works amazingly. With the money and good will of people around her, they were able to create this amazing space of hope for children who would otherwise be lost.

Do they make news? Is it sensational to do a profile of a Muslim woman, who is actually a real dedicated Muslim, loves the deen, and spends all her effort and energy to build something concrete for the next generation?

Doing such a piece would bring to the forefront that Muslim women are NOT submissive, NOT oppressed, NOT stupid, NOT backward...and  does NOT need liberation?! that's a true revolution; that i doubt the american media and public are actually ready for. What are we doing in Afghanistan and Iraq then?

So they spotlight the gay chic from canaduh talking about "ijtihaad" like she knows what it actually means. And the afghani girl that becomes ms. something in some objectifying fashion parade. and the other well intentioned (at best), misinformed Muslimahs that relish in the small media attention they get...at the expense of all the others...

the other dedicated women working in the shadows...endlessly and tirelessly..because they know they must. even when fox and cnn keep saying it aint so...

anywayz, sorry for the rambling. I just know too many nameless women who are too busy creating everyday...to worry about validation. Dynasties rise and fall; many completely outside our precious history texts.

aight..nuff said.
[wlm]
08/01/04 at 11:18:09
Maliha
Re: Why the pious muslimas must be active
timbuktu
08/01/04 at 13:07:06
[slm] sis Nur, this is fantastic what you wrote about the activities of Muslim women. The problem as you say is that the media attention is not focussed on this. But we have to direct this focus. You remember the story about a community trapped in poverty, and how my friend and I created an organisation and educated and helped them gain freedom from police, etc.

well, i posted that story on IoL

http://islamonline.net/Discussion/English/bbs.asp?action=maintopic&aParID=390065&aPathID=242&aTpID=390065&aGroupID=73801&aSubject=to+AmGI+%26+Karen%2C+a+true+%26+positive+story

see what I have in reply:

[quote]That is the most wonderful, uplifting story. I feel so much energy from just reading it---It makes me feel that anything is possible!

I know it will be an inspiration to anyone who reads it---I would love to see it in the New York Times op ed section---
Had you ever thought of sending it to them?  Or to the New Yorker magazine?  The op eds in the Times have been so gloomy for the last year or so, and the readers of that paper definitely need to hear such a positive story!!!
Karen[/quote]

http://islamonline.net/Discussion/English/bbs.asp?aParID=390117&aTpID=390065&aGroupID=73801&action=move&aPathID=242&aSubject=to+AmGI+%26+Karen%2C+a+true+%26+positive+story

so, if these stories were written up and sent to the media, the US public is presently hungry for news and evidence that Muslims are doing postive things.

See the news about the Saudi female PhD's invention:

http://www.arabnews.com/?page=21&section=0&article=49162&d=1&m=8&y=2004

This is what a woman who had been attacking Islam and Muslims had to say about it:

[quote]Read about this remarkable young woman, who must obviously be a genius (but does she have to be pretty too?).

http://www.arabnews.com/?page=21&section=0&article=49162&d=1&m=8&y=2004

If Arab and Muslim leaders would cut down on the rhetoric and show the accomplishments of their people they would win a lot more public relations battles.

Peace,
Paula[/quote]

http://islamonline.net/Discussion/English/bbs.asp?action=maintopic&aParID=390009&aPathID=242&aTpID=390009&aGroupID=73796&aSubject=This+is+what+the+Arab+and+Muslim+world+should+be+emphasizing+about+itself%2E

I read from this that the US public wants desperately to have good news about the Muslims. It does not want to live in perpetual fear of suicide bombings. SO give this news to them. These accomplishments must be highlighted. This is the time.
08/01/04 at 13:34:53
timbuktu
Re: Why the pious muslimas must be active
lucid9
08/02/04 at 07:33:26
[slm]

Sis: muslim women in the muslim world are not active at all.  This is somewhat because of their husbands, but it is more because they have bought into various cultural stereotypes.  And it is also because after they finish raising their kids  that they think their life is over instead of just starting again.  Instead of suddenly becoming active in the community, they tend to vegetate and focus on housework and growing old.  This "growing old" mindset is a real problem.  

It is true that muslim women in the west are a lot more active, and their activities don't get that much attention because they aren't provocative.  But they have lots of faults too.  Their collective voice is rarely if ever heard.  For example, when i was an undergrad -- there was only one sister who made any fuss about the incredibly tiny area alloted to sisters in the prayer room.  Had they banded together and made more noise -- things would have changed.  Instead the lone sister and her husband were villified.  

There are so many more issues like that.  And it extends to all of the muslims' activities.  For example, when I ask folks why they didn't object to the friday khutbah which was clearly inflammatory or why they didn't object to the person making public dua against the jews and Christians, they just shrug their shoulders and walk away.  

Few if any folks in the muslim community are willing to take a principled stand on what is obviously right and what is obviously vile and loathsome.  This is the tragedy.  So when when muslim women don't sort out their own affairs, and muslim men don't to the similar in their sphere of influence -- it leaves a void for someone else to fill.  And that someone else is usually nonmuslim and hostile to islam.  

That is why the leading women's rights organizations in the muslim world are nonmuslim, the leading humanitarian organizations are nonmuslim, the leading human rights organizations are nonmuslim and why even the best schools in the muslim world are run by Christians and churchs.  

Re: Why the pious muslimas must be active
jannah
08/02/04 at 11:48:33
[wlm]

It's like a downward spiral and all sides are against the muslimah. You have the heavy "cultural" expectations of being "good and sexually pure" but yet this can't become too active or too islamic. Then you have the unenlightened leaders with their fatwas about women stayin in the home, etc. And you have the uninviting mosque, the lack of programs and knowledge for women. As a daughter you have fathers that don't want their girls to wear hijab or be active Islamically. As a wife, you have husbands that do not want their wives to be involved in anything. Even mothers limit their daughters in order to keep her 'marriageable' and within certain cultural biases.

The fact that there are a few pious muslimas that are active is amazing to me. They've no doubt gone thru a rigorous battle, overcoming many challenges.

I think one of the major things we have to work on is getting rid of the cultural baggage, stereotypes and traditions in the aspect of women. For some reason people still think they are living in Saudi or Pakistan when they are living in the West. OR they try to make it like that, propogating this patheticness to the next generation. It's just never going to happen. That type of culture and lifestyle is antithetical to Islam succeeding among women (and therefor men) in the west.

08/02/04 at 11:50:23
jannah
Re: Why the pious muslimas must be active
bhaloo
08/05/04 at 02:21:44
[slm]

When I think about Muslimahs making an impact in the world I think about, Farhat Hashmi, and what kind of impact she has had in Pakistan.  Alhumdullilah because of her efforts, many women that never prayed, are now praying and wearing hijab.

[quote author=hyper link=board=sis;num=1091367865;start=0#3 date=08/02/04 at 07:33:26]Few if any folks in the muslim community are willing to take a principled stand on what is obviously right and what is obviously vile and loathsome.  [/quote]

I completely agree, and this is one of the main reasons why we have so many deviant ideas out there, people that know little or nothing about Islam are speaking and acting as the spokesman for Islam.  And it is also a reason why we are being punished, the abandonment of commanding right and forbidding evil.
Re: Why the pious muslimas must be active
timbuktu
08/05/04 at 11:11:50
[slm]

hyper wrote: [quote] There are so many more issues like that.  And it extends to all of the muslims' activities.  For example, when I ask folks why they didn't object to the friday khutbah which was clearly inflammatory or why they didn't object to the person making public dua against the jews and Christians, they just shrug their shoulders and walk away.  

Few if any folks in the muslim community are willing to take a principled stand on what is obviously right and what is obviously vile and loathsome.  This is the tragedy.  So when when muslim women don't sort out their own affairs, and muslim men don't to the similar in their sphere of influence -- it leaves a void for someone else to fill.  And that someone else is usually nonmuslim and hostile to islam.  

That is why the leading women's rights organizations in the muslim world are nonmuslim, the leading humanitarian organizations are nonmuslim, the leading human rights organizations are nonmuslim and why even the best schools in the muslim world are run by Christians and churchs. [/quote]

While there is a lot, a great deal of lot, to be done by Muslims, the best aren't the nonmuslim organisations. They have better PR, and there is a bias, even among local media and the elite, for everything from the West.

It was proved that Pakistanis are the most generous of all nationalities, yet as I have outlined poverty has grown, and it is because of the elite and its relationship with the loan sharks of the world.

The largest privately funded social work organisation in the world is the Edhi Trust.

In New York, the largest Soup Kitchen is operated by the bin Ladens.

There is definitely a need to bring the real Islam to people, and to get rid of the corrupt elite, but let us not get too carried away.

as for cursing the Jews and Christians, yes we need to educate our imams to curse the ones who are responsible.
08/05/04 at 11:14:01
timbuktu
Maliha
Re: Why the pious muslimas must be active
08/06/04 at 06:11:31
[slm]
I guess the point i am trying to make is this...

the archetype of evil, ignorance, waywardness etc has existed throughout time...from the people of Nuh (AS) to Lut (AS), to Ibrahim (AS), Musa (AS)...the Quran is full of parables of their punitive ends.

the archetype of the good, the just, the principled, has existed throughout time as well..and the two groups have always been at odds with each other.

the good people maybe very few in number...and a lot of our history is full of the few, small, weak, overempowering the strong because of their reselience and faith.

Today, we *DO* have a band of believers that are working tirelessly for the sake of Allah. When i think of the state of the Ummah I ask myself one question:

"Am I a part of the band who is trying with all their resources to establish what is righteous on earth?"  If the answer to the question is negative, then we have no right to whine about the state of the Ummah.

My heart is comforted by the knowledge that I, individually, will be judged by my individual striving for the sake of Allah, and *Not* by the visible results we may or may not see around us.

I just think that the time of talking about how we are being punished, and what happened, how we fell, etc. is long gone..the caravans of the righteous have proceeded and are marching to the drum beats of Divine dictates..the question each of us has to ask: is where *we* are, individually, relative to the procession of the truly righteous and truly striving?

May Allah guide us all (Amin).
[wlm]
Re: Why the pious muslimas must be active
Anonymous
08/14/04 at 15:58:04
Salaamz


[quote]
The example of Asra Nomani is interesting.  It is wonderful to hear that she has come
back to islam.  But as someone with lots of baggage, she is not the person on would
automatically choose to represent muslims
[/quote]


I find this comment interesting too, but only differently :)

What are your thoughts about someone who is religious, yet doesn't "look" religious to be
voicing for muslims in the areas that you've mentioned. e.g. A non-hijabi but very
religious girl as a leader and even though its about women but take the example of a
non-bearded but very religious brother being the most vocal against problems related to muslim
community.

Do you have the same thoughts about them, that there must be someone "equally" if not
more religious PLUS "religious looking" for the tasks under discussion instead of those who
dont look religious? (coz it might influence ppl badly by making them think of beards and
hijabs as something backwards astagfirullah)

Hope i made sense?
Salaamz
-Uncle


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