This Is What Women Want

There is a new campaign to promote women's wishes this election season! It's called "This is What Women Want" and is working hard to defy the polls and stereotypes.

So what do women want?

Family friendly social policies:


Reinvesting in public higher education:


Gender equality in male dominated fields:

Check it out: This Is What Women Want

The New Swim Gear for Women?

I honestly find it a bit difficult to understand how one can be "playing games with Allah" if one is trying to enjoy God's earth in the most respectful manner of maintaining the modesty that is prescribed? I think this strain of thought is really about Gender roles prescribed by culture then it is about Religion. Religion- Islam at least- is not a means to restrict your life so that you exist in a mud hut, its about being able to do things- live- in the way prescribed by God. That might mean coming up with ways to best regulate that in a given environment- like water sports.

So when I hear about women and the gender wars that it creates I cringe because many Muslims use CULTURE to present religious doctrine. I agree with my fellow blogger Naveed- it don't matter whether you cover or not but the fact is its about how you go about trying to live your life with God in mind- these sisters who created this swim wear are doing Muslims a GREAT service!

I agree with the Imam in the article- can we please discuss ways to make it so that those who are the activist are the leaders, unlike how things are these days, where men who sit at home, complain and do not bother to be involved with the Mosques run the Mosque's. This attitude of leadership for the sake of funds provided is suffocating our community and its wiping its potential growth. That is the issue. Lets allow sisters to enjoy the creation of God, and please brothers shut up or put up something more then just talk- maybe they can create women only indoor pools and lakes and beaches or islands?

Word to My Muslim Sisters: It Aint Just About Cloth

In the early days of Islam, covering the hair was assumed only by the socio-economic elitist women of Arabian society. Women were treated very differently from each other because their social status was consequently self-evident. Here's the wisdom, if all women in that society covered their hair, then you couldn't tell who was higher or lower on the social ladder. Then, all women had to be treated with respect, or else you get slapped! The head scarf elevated the social status for women in a society. I know this because of the ongoing fashion controversy among prostitutes in Kenya's coastal port of Mombasa. Prostitutes have donned the buibui to hide their identity and avoid arrest, but it clashes with the Muslim women who wear it for religious reasons.

Back in the States, we still have not moved beyond judgment on superficial levels or judgment at all for that matter regarding hijab. Take our MSA's (Muslim Student Association) for example, if you ain't part of the hijab crowd you ain't part of the IN crowd. Yes it is obvious to us male observers with Muslim female friends. Seriously it's sad.

Let me tell y'all something. ANYONE can wear a scarf on their head. You don't even have to be a Muslim. Anyone can go through the motions of prayer, the motions of fasting, the motions of whatever, but it comes down to what is in the hearts and the intentions, the things we can't see in each other. Tell me why there should be a standard Islamic dress code, a uniform, if you get situations like the Muslim juror who got arrested for listening to her iPod underneath her hijab during a murder trial.

Modesty, good behavior, and respect for yourself. Word to my Muslim sisters, if wearing a scarf brings you closer to God, I support you. If something else brings you closer to God which has nothing to do with the way you dress, I support you. If you are still looking for that something that brings you closer to God, hey I support you too.

You'll get the same treatment from me if you wear a scarf on your head or you don't.

Clothes, Identity and Gender Roles

Marya on a previous blog asked about Muslim women and clothing. While I have little to share on the topic that is my own perspective, I found that this article was relevent to the conversation. It might not seem to be, however its important to read into how PRACTICING Muslim women view the use of the Buibui by prostitutes and how it takes away from the "religious experiance". Fascinating read.

Sex clothes anger Kenyan Muslims

By John Nene BBC News, Mombasa

Prostitutes are known for their skimpy attire, but Kenya's coastal port of Mombasa is witnessing a controversial fashion makeover.

The twilight ladies, as the city's residents refer to the sex workers, have traded their revealing outfits for the more austere buibui - a loose, floor-length gown and head covering favoured by Muslim women.

Walking along the city's main red-light streets at night, one comes across many of the buibui-clad prostitutes.

The buibui has lost its respect. I feel so embarrassed Mariam Salma Mombasa resident

Although most shy away from speaking to the press, a few are willing to talk.

"I'm better off wearing the buibui so I look respectable. I can avoid arrest. I am just trying to get some money to live on," one says.

Another claims she wears her buibui to hide her identity.

"I know I am sinning, but I'm forced to because I am looking for my livelihood. So to me, it's acceptable," she says.

Most of her customers are local men, not tourists. She says wearing a buibui helped them to more easily pick out women from the region.

But the phenomenon is causing a stir in the predominantly Muslim city where religious women are required to cover their bodies from head to toe.

Some female residents say it is a big disgrace.

"I feel so embarrassed that sometimes I contemplate removing my buibui and throwing it away. The buibui has lost its respect," Mariam Salma says.

Another resident, Asha Hussein, claims the sex workers are not native to Mombasa.

"They are not Muslims. Most are from Somalia and Ethiopia. They wear it to avoid public humiliation," she says.

Crackdown

Wearing the buibui not only allows prostitutes to mingle freely with other women, black buibuis allow them to hide under the cover of darkness.

City authorities have mounted numerous operations over the years to get prostitutes off the streets, with limited success.

After the crackdowns, the prostitutes go underground for a while, creating the impression that the operation has succeeded, only to emerge later.

The newly adopted attire has ensured their trade is not disrupted.

However, it is not the first time the prostitutes have used this tactic.

It was popular in the 1990s until a religious vigilante organisation illegally rounded up the prostitutes hiding under buibuis and flogged them publicly.

The uniform of prostitutes is well known. They should stick to their disgraceful attire Sheikh Muhammad Khalifa Council of Imams of Kenya

Religious leaders are now urging the government to take action.

"We cannot arrest any of these women; it is the government's responsibility," says the organising secretary of the Council of Imams of Kenya, Sheikh Muhammad Khalifa.

"We are saddened because the government is ignoring the problem."

If the trend continues, police are likely to mistake respectable women for prostitutes, he says.

"For God's sake, if one has decided to join this profession, the uniform of prostitutes is well known.

"They should stick to their disgraceful attire."

Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/africa/6291100.stm

Published: 2007/07/11 16:04:17 GMT

© BBC MMVII

One less glass ceiling...

Benazir Bhutto is a controversial figure, and one whom I must admit I don't know much about. I've just started reading her autobiography and was inspired and moved by the stories she recounts in the preface. I do know that there are many dimensions to her story and to her life. Still, I cannot help but respect Bhutto for her courage and determination. Read with an open mind:

"I am a woman proud of my cultural and religious heritage. I feel a special personal obligation to contrast the true Islam - the religion of tolerance and pluralism - with the caricature of my faith that terrorists have hijacked. I know that I am a symbol of what the so-called 'Jihadists', Taliban and al-Qaeda, most fear. I am a female political leader fighting to bring modernity, communication, education, and technology to Pakistan. I believe that a democratic Pakistan can become a symbol of hope to more than one billion Muslims around the world who must choose between the forces of the past and the forces of the future."

"The political battles that I fought were always for an end. The goals centered on liberty and social justice. And those values are definitely worth fighting for. But I do believe my career has been more challenging because I am a woman. Clearly it's not easy for women in modern society, no matter where we live. We still have the extra mile to prove that we are equal to men. We have to work longer hours and make more sacrifices"
...

" Once the political opposition learned I was pregnant, all hell broke loose. They called on the President and the military to overthrow me. They argued that Pakistan's rules did not provide for a pregnant Prime Minister going on maternity leave. "



" I rejected the opposition's demands, noting that maternity rules existed in the law for working women (my father had legislated maternity leave)."



" Hardly mollified, the opposition drew up a plan of strikes to pressure the President into sacking the government. I had to make my own plans. My father had taught me that in politics timing is very important. I consulted my doctor who assured me that my child was full term and, with his permission, decided to have a Cesarean delivery on the eve of the call for strike action."


"I received thousands of messages of congratulations from all over the world. Heads of government and ordinary people wrote to me, sharing the joy. Especially for young women it was a defining moment, proving a woman could work and have a baby in the highest and most challenging leadership positions. The next day I was back on the job, reading government papers and signing government files. Only later did I learn that I was the only head of government in recorded history to actually give birth while in office. That's one less glass ceiling for women Prime Ministers in the future to have to break."

From preface of Benazir Bhutto's autobiography Daughter of The East, May 2007

“Women are the Associates of Men.”

Many of you see the students of knowledge on the web, read their works and hold them in high accord. I want to remind you all that there is someone more important behind many of these students of knowledge, Imams and teachers and that is the ladies in their lives. . . .

Read on at Ustadh Suhaib Webb's blog.

Help the Ummah

(This opportunity to help the Ummah was brought to my attention by Rabia Lari)

How can YOU help the Ummah?

Apparently, Muslims all over the world have been stumped by the following riddle:

• It begins with the letter M.
• It is five letters long, in BOTH English & Urdu.
• Women do it once in a lifetime; men do it three times a day.
• It's brighter than the sun and darker than night.
• It is halal to drink, but haram to eat.
• AND it's mentioned in the Qu'ran five times.

What is it?

Islam gave women everything !!

"Another complaint from our sisters in Egypt and Algeria is that when an active, motivated and religion serving girl marries a conscientious, abiding man whom she came to know through Call related work, he forces her to stay at home and denies her participation in the Movement, putting out a torch that was lighting the path of other Muslim girls. It has apparently become so common that an Algerian girl working in the Islamic field once wrote to me asking whether it was harem for her to refuse marriage for the sake of avoiding the end of others of her sisters in Islam who had ended up in a life of laziness and idleness away from the field of the Movement and the Call, at the time when work was allowed to communist and secular women. "

from Priorities of the Islamic Movement in the Coming Phase - by Shaykh Yusuf Al Qaradawi

This complaint is sad and unfortunately one that echos throughout the Muslim world. One that cannot be left unheard. Sisters, I urge you to read this quote from my hero, may Allah (swt) have mercy on her soul:

"Islam has provided everything for both men and women. It gave women everything--freedom, economic rights, political rights, social rights, public and private rights. Islam gave women rights in the family granted by no other society. Women may talk of liberation in Christian society, Jewish society, or pagan society, but in Islamic society it is a grave error to speak of the liberation of women. The Muslim woman must study Islam so she will know that it is Islam that has given her all her rights." - Zaynab Al-Ghazali

The torture of this woman was implemented to the fullest while she was held in capitivity by Gamal Abd Al Nassir's oppressive Egyptian government. When the dogs were tearing at her flesh and when she was being lashed across her back, she would still refuse to give up the truth. She did not allow this to make her lose focus or lose touch with what the true reality was. These oppressors, whether they are oppressive leaders in their homes or within their country, will soon meet their Creator and only then will the Supreme Justice prevail.

مَتَى نَصْرُ اللّهِ أَلا إِنَّ نَصْرَ اللّهِ قَرِيبٌ

"When (will come) the help of Allah." Ah! Verily, the help of Allah is (always) near!

(Quran 2:214)

Recommended Readings:

• Return of the Pharoah : Memoir in Nasir's Prison by Zaynab Al-Ghazali
• Priorities of the Islamic Movement in the Coming Phase by Shaykh Yusuf Qaradawi