The ‘Stiletto Revolution’?

Every day I get a round-up of stories on Muslim women from Google. It makes my researching existence much easier to handle when Google does it for me. Today my daily digest delivered an article from Britain’s Telegraph entitled: “What will become of Iran’s ’stiletto revolution’?”

<insert my mouth making a gaping hole of despair>

Clearly I missed something in the last few days as true to form, US media abandoned real news for the deaths of Michael Jackson and Farrah Fawcett. Actually, as I think about it, this is probably a good thing for Iranians because the Iranian government can ease their censorship and well, right now they would look fairly ridiculous blaming the United States unless protesters start moon walking through Tehran. But I digress…

Over the last two weeks, the media have been producing articles daily on the participation of women in the protests over the Presidential election results and friends have been re-posting these articles to share. What started as a novel observation of the participants in the protests exploded with the death of the now iconic Neda, murdered in the streets on her way to a music lesson. The media has repeatedly ignored the precedent for women’s participation not only in Islamic history, but also in the 1979 revolution where women took to the streets and employed chador to protest the Shah’s ban on veiling and in support of an Islamic state. No one seems to remember the Sisters of Zahra who act as the morality police in Iran nor do they mention the work of Shirin Ebadi. Instead, they insist on the novely of women’s participation by writing about the wonder of women taking to the streets, illustrating articles on the protests with pictures of glamorous women in headscarves holding rocks, hair showing, and fighting besides men.

Yes, women are citizens of Iran.

Ooooo…

Women are citizens, too. Why is this such a difficult concept to wrap our heads around? The West is fixated on the idea that women in the Islamic World, whether they be Iranian, Afghan, Egyptian, Algerian, or Saudi are controlled by men. (Um, aren’t we all?) The control is illustrated no longer by the 19th century image of the harem, but by implying that there is a sort of social harem, created by men through a social framework that controls and subverts women’s agency. This is certainly true to a certain extent, but this occurs in this country as well, why is it so fascinating to the West? Is it the veil? Is it the idea of a sexual rebellion in the harem culture? What is it that makes it so fascinating? It is fascinating because the image of Muslim women that is endemic in the West is that of the oppressed, the downtrodden, the abused: the odalisque with the rounded belly and doting eunuch. The West cannot wrap its mind around the notion of women’s citizenship and the agency of citizenship in the Muslim world.

The Telegraph calls women’s participation in the protests the “Stiletto Revolution.” What does that even mean? In 1979 women wore chadors to protest the Shah and now, thirty years later in 2009 women are wearing stilettos to protest the Islamic regime? Basically we need to make sure that Iranian women are contextualized according to Western agency: wearing crippling, yet stylish, heels to claw their way to their rights as citizens and agents of change. Charming. Is the wardrobe of the revolution really that important? I suppose. The chador in 1979 was a great mobilizer, however I fail to see how stilettos are going to do the same in 2009 unless, as I assume, there is an effort to invoke the youthful protesters and the desire to open dialogue with the West. Stilettos are not going to get us there. I promise.

It is degrading to compartmentalize Iranian women participating in the protests as members of the ‘Stiletto Revolution.’ Instead of allowing them to be citizens of the nation and agents for sweeping change, and yes, that includes gender reform, the West separated them and re-defined their citizenship. Instead of allowing them the citizenship rights guaranteed to them by Islam, the Western media is guaranteeing them the citizenship given to them by the Velayat-e-Feqh: citizens, but certainly not equal. What Iranian women are doing on the streets is demonstrating their citizenship and manifesting their political agency as citizens. This is not about Iranian women’s rights. These women are fighting with their male peers for the soul of a nation. To call it the ‘Stiletto Revolution’ is utterly ridiculous. It undermines and devalues women’s citizenship.

The revolution on the streets of Tehran is not a feminist movement. It is a push by the citizens of Iran, regardless of gender, for the democracy that the Iranian constitution promises them and that the government failed to deliver. To separate women from this process is to trivialize their role, or as a friend of mine always says, it truly is “orientalizing” women. This is not a revolt in the harem: it is men and women as a collective citizenry fighting for what they believe is right, not women with bleached blonde hair and lipgloss throwing rocks.

Malalai Kakar – Warrior, Champion of Women, Our Khadijah

Lt. Col. Malalai Kakar

Martyred during Ramadan, 28 September 2008/1429 A.H.

On Sunday morning, Lt. Col. Malalai Kakar, the highest-ranking policewoman in Afghanistan was martyred in Kandahar. Mrs Kakar was a champion of women in Afghanistan and an example for women around the world as she worked tirelessly to combat drugs and the abuse of women and children. She fought for what was Islamic and what was true and right, not what the religious authorities or the Taliban decreed. She was for us who knew of her work and her jihad, one of the many women of Khadijah’s Jihad.

I never had the opportunity to meet Mrs Kakar, but through friends who knew her, I feel blessed. To only be separated by a thread, despite there being an ocean and a continent between us, brings some comfort as she joins the ranks of the remarkable women who we will never truly know, but who we will always love and admire for their grace, dignity, and the courage with which they stood before their assassins. May she find her rightful place in Paradise and may her murderers find their rightful place in the wrath of G-d.

O Allah!

Make right for me my faith,

which is the foundation of my life.

Make right for me the world in which I live.

Make right for me the eternal home to which I will return.

Make life for me an increase in all that is good and make death a comfort for me from all that is evil.

(The Holy Qur’an)

(Originally written for Jemima Jerome)

Cluecake News 8.10.08

Before I start tonight’s Cluecake News, I have to give a special shout-out to Marmie and Baba because today is their 40th Anniversary! Wszystkiego najlepszego!!! xxx

Olympics: Controversy in Iran over female flag carrier

The greatest quote from the above piece is this:

“To make this woman march means to openly declare war to our religious values. Whoever is responsible for this unforgivable act, he should know that this gesture constitutes an obstacle for the ‘appearance’ of Mahdi.”

Grow-up and grow a brain and then maybe the Mahdi will come, and stop throwing-out these random rulings that are based-upon G*d knows what fragment of history, but certainly not upon anything in the Qur’an.

MediaBistro: What’s Wrong with a Novel About Muhammad’s Wife?

Although this text is sort of lacking in the technicalities of why the book is offensive to Muslims, it does bring-up some very interesting points and questions about the chain of events that led to the swirl of controversy this weekend. Incidentally, author Sherry Jones has made her blog “invitation-only” which to be quite honest, I do not blame her at all. Poor love, she’s been raked across the coals together with Spellberg who is a heavier hitter than Jones, primarily due to her expertise and intellectual caliber and she was not ready for the onslaught that would happen in the wake of Asra Nomani’s editorial. Incidentally, you can read Professor Spellberg’s response and letter to the Wall Street Journal here.

Jewel of Medina: The Saga Continues

As this whole Jewel of Medina scandal continues to spiral into the abyss, and granted, yes, I contributed to the abyss with Professopatra as well as on the Smart Bitches, Trashy Novels blog, some issues need to be addressed for the general sake of understanding. Obviously I have not been able to control impulse to blog about this again and like chocolate, I will probably not be able to tear myself away from it until it is well and truly gone from my life.

1. Academics, as a general rule, do not have basic social skills. They are also very territorial and defensive of their subjects. We treat our pet projects as, quite literally, pets. We walk them, feed them, and clean-up their poop. When something threatens our pets or infringes on the space we keep sacred in the academy, whether that be some garbage book about A’isha or a beauty school in Kabul, we get a little agitated. That agitation does not always translate well as we have seen with Dr Spellberg’s comments on The Jewel of Medina.

I certainly appreciate Spellberg’s comments as I have had similar thoughts about The Kabul Beauty School. It is painful to watch yet another spectacular bastardisation of a culture unravel in front of you and watch hoards of women, like the Filene’s Basement bridal sale, flock to bookstores to read the stuff. Unfortunately, sometimes we start fires that we are either trying to prevent from ever getting going or dump kerosene on the ones already going.

2. The issue at stake here with The Jewel of Medina is that for Muslims, creating any sort of graven image whether it be written or painted or drawn of the Prophet Muhammad or his kin, is contextualised as blasphemy. The Qur’an says, “6:103: No visions can encompass Him, but He encompasses all visions.” This verse has wide implications, not only in reference to Allah (G*d) but also to those who He called as Prophets and companions. Although images of the Prophet Muhammad and his companions, although face-veiled or clouded by a burst of flames, appear in some Shi’a art, it is generally understood to be haram.

The Jewel of Medina is not art, it is considered by those who have read it or read the Prologue to be a bodice ripper, described by Asra Nomani as “racy” and others as well, to put it politely: vulgar. This, compounded with the literary interpretation of the Prophet Muhammad’s favourite wife, A’isha, the Umm al-Muminin (Mother of the Believers) is enough for the book to be considered a blaspheme. Had this book been written about Hurrem Sultan or Noorjehan, it would be evaluated on a different set of criteria and met with probably a lesser-degree of outrage, because it is expected that those women, although incredibly religious and politically dynamic like A’isha, are part of the popular “harem culture” and thus their presence in bodice rippers and historical romances is completely acceptable. After all, Hurrem Sultan supposedly seduced her way to being the first Sultana of the Ottoman Empire! Sod everything else she did as a patron of the arts or her political savvy. She was like the Anne Boleyn of the Ottoman Empire, thus she’s fair game, right? RIGHT

3. To equate this whole fiasco with “The Rushdie Affair” is to give far too much credit to the novel itself. Salman Rushdie’s text was written by a man already known to be controversial and, at its very base level, was a novel titled with the name of the most controversial verses in the Qur’an: The Satanic Verses and at its most complex, issued a direct challenge, in the form of blasphemy, to the Muslim religious establishment. The fact that Rushdie was self-exiled from Iran and Ayatollah Khomeini was in full-swing whetting his appetite for the blood of intellectuals, obviously there was going to be an incredible amount of controversy surrounding the text. Yes, “The Rushdie Affair” still stings and many authors are still (self) conscious of the literature that they produce.

I would stop however, at drawing parallels between the publication of this novel and “The Rushdie Affair.” Rather, I would draw parallels between the publication of this book and the release of The Message in 1977. At the time of the movie’s release, there were high security alerts at theatres because there was also a fear of how the film would be received given that it did portray the Prophet Muhammad, however obscurely, and many of the early community, in the film. So thirty years later, the same issues exist: do we see a common theme here? Yes, we do and it has absolutely NOTHING to do with 9/11, radical Islam, or Ayatollah Khomeini. What’s this though? It has everything to do with an integral part of the basic belief system of Muslims.

Muslims did not just decide in the last five years to ban these things, they were banned 1400 years ago!

4. We are a society that has been given such books as The DaVinci Code and The Red Tent, books that have been received with great praise, fanfare, and filled the coffers of publishing houses and the authors pockets. We feel, in the “West”, that we are not only entitled to publish everything we want to publish, no matter how controversial and vulgar it may be, but that everyone else be damned if there is controversy surrounding the publication. The other Abrahamic faiths have become sort of complacent to the idea of integrating history and literature together, although to my knowledge (which is not great in this matter since I alternate between David Sedaris, Anne Boleyn, and whatever garbage I have to read for school), we have not yet had something quite so vivid as this text on A’isha. I almost keeled over watching The Nativity and the Virgin Mary giving birth to Jesus, I mean, I get that it is the whole point of the story, but really, I could do without the imagery of the Blessed Virgin giving birth to the Son of G*d, thanks. Further, what would happen if someone wrote a bodice ripper about the moment when G*d impregnated the Virgin Mary? Can you imagine? Even my head would explode over that, if it has not already gotten there from teaching America’s youth. Sometimes it is just an issue of tastefulness, other times it is a real issue of faith. Sometimes we straddle that fine line between both issues and the waters get quite murky, but when we transfer elements of those beliefs that we hold so passionately and walk others’ shoes, we have a better understanding, a better perspective on our actions.

The book should be published, but at the same time I mourn the loss of the divide between the sacred and the profane, a divide that is becoming more and more obscured by sensationalism and a general epidemic of creative entitlement. The most I naively hope for from this mess is that A’isha’s legacy will be explored and understood more deeply as a result of intellectual curiosity stemming from this text and that people will eventually understand and appreciate A’isha for the incredible, savvy woman that she was, instead of the so-called child bride of a Prophet involved in an adultery scandal. Let us find a way as women to honour her in the realm of the sacred, together with all of our beloved matriarchs.

Petition for Zanan Magazine

Zanan Magazine’s license has been suspended by the Iranian government indefinitely. Please follow the instructions below and add your name to the petition to have Zanan’s license to publish and distribute re-instated so that we don’t lose this valuable resource for Iranian women and women around the world to share our ideas, values, and scholarship.

> Attached and also pasted below is the final statement and the final
> initial list of endorsers (almost 120) protesting the shut down of Zanan
> magazine in Iran. Please feel free to send this out to your list for more
> signatures and publicity. Please instruct people to send their names,
> titles and affiliations to the following contact address:
> Zananmagazine@yahoo.com
> Many thanks,
> Nayereh Tohidi
> –
> February 10, 2008
> This Letter is addressed to the following:
> Ayatollah Ali Khamenei (Supreme Leader of Islamic Republic of Iran);
> Ayatollah Mahmoud Hashemi Shahroudi (Head of the Judiciary of IRI);
> Dr. Mahmoud Ahmadinejad (President of the Islamic Republic of Iran);
> Dr. Gholam Ali Haddad-Adel (Speaker of the Parliament of the Islamic
> Republic of Iran)
>
> C/O H.E. Mohammad Khazaee
> Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary
> Permanent Mission of the Islamic Republic of Iran to the United Nations
> Fax: 212-867-7086
>
> We the undersigned are deeply dismayed to hear that the publishing license
> of the monthly magazine Zanan has been revoked by the Press Supervisory
> Board.
>
> For the past 16 years, Zanan has been an important voice reporting on
> issues that Iranian women face – their problems as well as their
> achievements.
> It has also been an indispensable forum for encouraging dialogue among
> those
> genuinely interested in solving broader social problems. Its sustained
> coverage of women’s lives in Iran has allowed a balanced international
> understanding of Iranian society. Revoking Zanan’s publication license
> deprives all Iranians a vital source on women’s issues and closes one more
> journal at a critical moment of
> the country’s life.
>
> We are extremely disturbed by this revocation by a body that
> constitutionally does not have the authority to revoke the license of any
> publication. We ask for its immediate withdrawal, and reconstitution of
> publishing permit for Zanan. The revocation of Zanan’s permit stands in
> violation of the right to free expression and is, as such, unacceptable by
> any standards.