Ready for another fun and exciting open letter? Let's go.
It is important for me, as an Iranian Muslim woman, to take up space. My narrative and identity are being constantly misrepresented, silenced, and ignored--whether that is virtually, by way of an audience at a panel event, or simply being constantly dismissed as angry and emotional.
A few weeks ago, I spoke on a panel at the Chicago Humanities Festival on the presumed topic of "Hijab and Fashion" with Asra Nomani as my co-panelist. Initially, I was asked to speak on the topic of my book, Tehran Streetstyle, as well as the current state of fashion and modeling--both legal and illegal--in Iran. However, finding a co-panelist to speak alongside me on this topic was not the easiest task in the world (okay fair), and so the conversation was opened more broadly to focus on the topic of hijab and fashion.
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Photo via Art Institute of Chicago |
Asra Nomani, a self-proclaimed "Muslim feminist," does not wear the hijab. This is not unusual, of course, as the hijab is a choice that Muslim women make. What is "unusual" though, is that Asra feels as if she is omniscient to this individual decision to don the hijab: because they (we) have been brainwashed by the patriarchy. Because they (we) are oppressed. Because they (we) couldn't possibly think for ourselves and *gasp* chose (!!) to wear a scarf on our heads, just like our non-Muslim friends chose (!!) to wear scarves around their necks.
Asra argues that Saudi Arabia and Iran are funding a sort of
“radical” Islam in which the hijab is mandatory and normalized. The hijab, Asra
argues, is both inherently oppressive and acts as a symbol of the funding and
preaching of “political Islam” across Mosques and Islamic institutions in the
West and around the world.
To be fair, yes a few governments around the world have a
set of oppressive dress codes that should be rightly condemned (as I do in my
book, as I did on the panel numerous times, and as I do anytime the subject is
provoked in conversation). France and Saudi Arabia, for example, both either
require the wearing or restriction of wearing a particular form of dress, and
therefore both are examples of patriarchal rulings ordering women to dress a
certain way—either in the name of secularism or "Islam" (but of
course, as an Islamophobic “feminist,” only the latter is distinguished as
problematic).
But let’s be real: Asra is clearly ignoring a few sorta key parts of this complex political situation:
On stage with Asra (left) / photo c/o Nurbanu |
Asra’s focus on the actual economic and political problems
in the Middle East and their implications for women’s lives is scarce. More
importantly, she fails to note the major American and European powers’
complicity in creating and perpetuating such post-colonial patriarchal systems
of oppression. Rather, Asra becomes fixated on the hijab as the cause and effect
of women’s oppression around the world. She points to Saudi Arabia as an
example of the implementation of compulsory hijab, but ignores the fact that the
Saudi monarchy is supported by the United States and has been a strong ally for
decades. She constantly brings attention to the violence that is perpetrated in
the name of religion but somehow never mentions the messy political, economic,
and social situations that Western powers have caused with their imperial and
colonial projects, ones that work to create spaces and situations in which
oppressive power structures and their inherent violence thrive.
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She wants to discuss ISIS, but doesn’t want us to talk about the
U.S. invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan that worked to destroy and destabilize
the region, directly leading to the creation of ISIS.
She calls on those in power to “wake up” and increase surveillance
of Mosques, yet fails to note that the majority of terrorist
activity in the U.S.is conducted by white men. And this doesn’t even count the
countless police shootings across the country.
Asra’s position garners such heavy support in the West because she
conveniently lets her predominantly
Western audience forget their direct implication in the oppression, violence,
and power imbalances that plague the world (including within the USA and Europe
as well).
In addition to her ideology that consistently renders those who
wear the hijab as backwards and oppressed—at time of heightened Islamophobia globally, no less—Asra uses her public platform to vilify hijabi
women. For example, when one of Asra’s male followers on Twitter criticized my
choice to wear the hijab, instead of defending my choice to do so (as she so
claims to support free choice), Asra had the audacity to compare my views to ISIS and Boko
Haram despite the fact that these groups have killed more Muslims like myself
than any other group of people. Asra has promoted harassment towards anyone who
dresses like myself, in turn encouraging and justifying violence against us.
These comments, while simply incorrect according to countless academic studies
and institutional data, only contribute to amplifying surveillance and racial profiling
in Muslim communities and perpetuate hate and violence towards hijab-wearing
Muslim women in the USA.
Not to mention that Asra’s views are rooted in Orientalism: a
particular Eurocentric lens through which I, and people like me (Muslim, from
the Middle East/West Asia, etc) are, reconstructed and redefined in order to be
strategically silenced, ignored, and murdered. If you follow me on any social media (specifically Twitter and Snapchat (hodakay) ayyy), you've probably seen me sharing photos of #bae Edward Said, a Palestinian thinker and scholar who wrote the book on Orientalism (and in a surprising turn of events titled his book Orientalism, too). He writes:
"In short, Orientalism [is] a Western style for dominating,
restructuring, and having authority of the Orient."
Western literature and thought, he maintains, creates and
perpetuates the archetype of a docile and submissive Muslim woman due to her
religious leanings, and renders Islam as a homogeneous, controlling, and
backwards institution. Western media strongly associates Islamic clothing—more
precisely the women’s hijab—as an oppressive instrument designed to render
women as submissive beings. (This is also wrought with patriarchal tendencies
of obsession with women's bodies and how they chose to dress) Therefore,
according to this logic, the more a woman covers her skin and dresses in
accordance with such widely-held interpretations of Islamic faith, the more
“backwards” and “submissive” she is consequently depicted. And the more
"backwards" someone is described, the more reason to go and
"save" them, right?
Oh p.s., just to be clear, by “save” here we mean the Western definition of
"saving" people, which history has shown us translates to bombing,
destroying, raping, exploiting, and humiliating and entire population.
Saba Mahmood calls this a sort of colonial feminism: using the veil as
the symbol of ultimate oppression and therefore requiring a Western colonial
and imperial project of liberation.
AKA, using the lens of Orientalism for a particular political end.
Speaking of political ends, a month before speaking on the panel
with me, Asra testified to the House Committee on Homeland Security (which provides "Congressional oversight over the Department of Homeland Security") (which, she avoided addressing when I brought it up at our panel discussion) that the hijab is
on "the conveyor belt to radicalization," and that "poor women
come to believe that to be pious...you must look at the world through this
netting," while holding up a burka.
Despite the fact that these comments are drenched in Orientalism,
her position suggests that millions of women are brainwashed by men and none of
their own choices are the result of their own decisions, desires, and
understandings. Super feminist, right? Moreover, extending this forced hijab to
encapsulate every single one of the 1.6 billion practicing Muslims in the world
is a glaring logical fallacy. Standing against mandatory hijab in Saudi Arabia
does not mean fighting for increased surveillance and vilification of
hijab-wearing women in the USA who chose
to do so.
And before that, in December of 2015 after Trump announced his
plan to ban all Muslims, Asra was brought to Bloomberg to respond as the token
Muslim opinion. After being asked how Muslims feel about Trump after these
comments, her response was, and I quote,
(update: the video has been taken down days after this piece was published. Wonder why.)
(update: the video has been taken down days after this piece was published. Wonder why.)
"Sadly, a lot of the Muslim lobby and special interest groups
take these moments like this to cease on an opportunity to claim that this is a
country that is anti-Muslim and you know, I don't feel that way."
Plainly and clearly, with one swoop of her verbal eraser, Asra
attempted to erase the very real experiences of hundreds of thousands of
Muslims who have been victim to Islamophobia across the country, and continues
to encourage the viewers to “stop worrying about offending anybody” in order to
deal with this situation. Currently, this clip has been widely shared among
Trump supporters, with one commenter calling Islam a “cancer,” and another
claiming that “napalm is the answer!”
Asra is not only provoking violence and hatred, but she is denying
our experiences and pains in this country as Muslim women who choose everyday to wear the hijab. Doing
so is deeply problematic, offensive, and simply false. A survey conducted in
the last year (before the shootings at San Bernardino) found that 55% of
California Muslim students reported being subject to faith-based bullying.
Doctors around the country have seen a rise in mental health issues such as
depression, anxiety, image issues, and paranoia among Muslim youth.
But, if Asra doesn't "feel that way," then what are
facts and statistics, right?
The foundation
of feminism, all inter-sectional feminism at least, is the right for women to freely
interpret and chose what they feel is personally liberating to them: whether
that is shaving your legs or not, wearing a scarf around your head or neck or
not at all. Feminism is about celebrating and uplifting women, not creating and defining flat,
monolithic meanings and symbols for millions of women—or, say, constantly
writing articles vilifying women's choice to wear the headscarf and encouraging
the constant online harassment of young Muslim, hijab-wearing women (such as
myself). Much like any other faith or belief system, Islam is a pluralistic
religion with a myriad of interpretations, understandings, and practices. Not
all Muslim women wear the hijab, and not all who wear the hijab do so for
similar reasons. The only thing that is relevant here is that someone has
decided that the hijab has a particular personal significance to her, and we
should respect her choice. It’s actually pretty simple.
And, one last point –
According to the countless blog posts and articles and emails and
tweets and Facebook posts that have been used to harass me, I am characterized
as very "angry" and therefore dismissed. I never feel compelled to
reply seriously to hate/harassment/mischaracterization, but this is a common
tactic used by Islamophobes, racists, and Orientalists alike to characterize particular
minority groups--especially Muslims, Middle Easterners/Western Asians, Latinx
people and Black people.
So, I want to say that yes, I am absolutely angry. Anger is righteous. Anger is powerful. Anger is valid.
And my anger is justified. These
topics are deeply personal to many people, including myself. On a daily basis,
I have people on the street yelling Islamophobic comments on my commute. For me
this is the new normal. Islamophobia has always happened to me and many other
Muslim women wearing the hijab, but in the last several months, it has
transformed from an occasional occurrence to a normalized part of my life.
So in a time like this, when we see Asra not only writing op-eds in top daily newspapers (and making money from doing so) harassing me and others by name and testifying in front of the government and telling them to watch me and my family and be suspicious of all those women like me becuase we are oppressed and backwards and on the road to terrorism...well, you can probably understand why I'm not skipping in fields of flowers and sunshine. (except for that one time on snapchat).
So in a time like this, when we see Asra not only writing op-eds in top daily newspapers (and making money from doing so) harassing me and others by name and testifying in front of the government and telling them to watch me and my family and be suspicious of all those women like me becuase we are oppressed and backwards and on the road to terrorism...well, you can probably understand why I'm not skipping in fields of flowers and sunshine. (except for that one time on snapchat).
TL;DR:
Orientalism is not feminismDenying the experiences of women who wear hijab is not feminism
My religious beliefs are not yours to homogenize
Anger is righteous
Follow me on Snapchat (hodakay)
Peace.
This piece has been republished on MuslimGirl
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