By Alison Bing
Special to AsianWeek
Despite media scrutiny of Islam in the aftermath of Sept. 11, news commentators have often overlooked one key fact about Muslims: half of them are women. New California Media’s “Women of Islam: Living in a Post 9-11 World” was one media event where the tables were turned, and Muslim women had their own say about the media, public policy, culture, civil rights and faith. Discussion tables, two documentaries and a panel discussion raised the level of debate beyond clichés about veils and victimhood, and initiated a more meaningful conversation about the vital roles Muslim women play in our world today.
A packed house of 250-plus community members and journalists were treated to a spirited panel discussion of four distinguished Bay Area Muslim women community leaders, and previewed PBS Frontline’s Muslims and Muhammad: Legacy of a Prophet, presented by community television resource Active Voice as part of its ongoing Islam Project.
The films, panel and informal discussions tackled common misconceptions of modern Muslim women as veiled locals in remote desert locales straight out of National Geographic. Since Sept. 11, this impression has been reinforced by front-page headlines about Afghani women required by the Taliban to wear the burka, a garment which covers most of the body, head and face.
But as “Women of Islam” attendees learned, most Muslim women live not in deserts or war zones but in cosmopolitan centers across Asia, Europe, North America, Africa and the Middle East. Only 18 percent of all Muslims live in the Arab world, and few Muslim women outside Afghanistan ever don a burka or cover their faces.
Furthermore, you can’t judge a Muslim woman by her cover, cautioned panelists. “When people think of Afghan women, they only think of the burka,” said Nafisa Ruhani, panelist and Afghan American co-founder of Fremont’s Afghan Center. “But for decades we have been doctors, nurses, engineers and leaders.”
“We get selective reporting about Muslim women,” confirmed Islamic Networks Group co-founder Ameena Jandali. “We don’t hear much about women leading parliaments in Bangladesh or Sudan, or about highly educated Syrian’s, Egyptian and Jordanian women.”
As in other parts of the world, some American Muslim women choose to assert their cultural and religious identity by wearing the hijab, or head covering and modest dress. In the aftermath of Sept. 11, many women readily identified as Muslim by their attire have been subjected to harassment and fear in the United States. But as the panelists reported, Muslims and non-Muslims alike are speaking out against such actions.
“I was accosted on Sept. 12 by a man on the street who said all Muslims should go back to the countries from which they came,” recalled Ericka X, a 21-year-old African American woman who converted to Islam at age 17 and wears a head covering. “I realized I had to say something about how you can’t rely on the media or what you’ve been told about Muslims to make such generalizations … so that same day I became a commentator for YO! [Youth Outlook] radio.”
In her presentations about women in Islam to high-school students, Jandali likens her choice to be recognized as Muslim by wearing the hijab to Sikh men wearing turbans, Orthodox Jewish men wearing yarmulkes and nuns wearing habits. “My daughter was starting school on Sept. 12, and I was actually scared to walk into the office with her,” said third-generation, Syrian American Jandali. “My sister bought me a hat and told me I’d better wear it when I go out. I tried it on, but I just didn’t feel right.”
Jandali cautions that while attire “has become a focus of so many conversations” about Islam, there’s far more to a Muslim woman than her outward appearance. “Our headpieces don’t make us Muslim,” Ericka X agreed. “Our hearts make us Muslim.”
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