Courtesy of Ushma Dhakan
- After I wrote a story about my Muslim faith and feminism, extremists reacted online.
- Some trolls on Twitter tried to justify the Taliban's regressive policies towards women.
- Islamic feminism is a growing field that aims to separate cultural patriarchy from religion.
- This story is the first in a series of essays about experiences people have had online. Check back here for more.
I've always been more of an Instagrammer than a Twitter user, and after my recent brush with a group of misogynist trolls, you can bet I won't be switching over to the Twitterverse anytime soon.
I've been a journalist for over a decade, and since my very first cover story for the Ryerson Review of Journalism about honor killings in Canada, I've been vocal about Islam's innate compatibility with gender equality - despite the practices of some Muslims today. But after I recently wrote about alternative interpretations of sharia law, a plethora of patriarchal trolls on Twitter seemed hell-bent on tying misogyny to our faith.
Some couldn't get past the fact that I'm a woman - and that I don't wear a headscarf. While some Muslims claim the faith commands women to cover their hair, others have varying views about hijab. Some believe veiling may have been meant for women during Prophet Muhammad's time, or only for his wives. My own lack of covering my hair seemed to invalidate any religious opinion I held for my critics, as did my master's degree in Islamic Law from SOAS, University of London, since the trolls didn't deem it to be an authentic "Islamic" institution. Others went deep into my Twitter history and lectured me about my nail polish, claiming it invalidated my prayers. A couple of them labeled me an outright "unbeliever."
I was dumbfounded. The stories I was writing shouldn't have been controversial. In the aftermath of the Taliban's takeover of Afghanistan, I was simply stating that the extremist group's ideology did not reflect that of all Muslims, and that its previous treatment of women (confining them to their homes, denying them education, and enforcing burkas) was not reflective of the Islam most Muslims believe in. According to a Pew poll, 82% of American Muslims are concerned about extremism in the name of Islam around the world. A report on Islam and extremism by the Center for Strategic and International Studies stated that "the vast majority of Muslims oppose violent extremism," which "does not represent the core values of Islam".
Many of the trolls openly supported the Taliban in their responses. I had never come face-to-face (in person or virtually) with a pro-Taliban Muslim, and I was stunned how seemingly many of them there were online.
I was appalled that they firmly believed women to be inferior to men, unnerved and disturbed that they were so comfortable expressing their extremist views publically, and horrified that they were using a warped notion of my religion to mask their misogyny.
'Muslim feminist' is a controversial phrase
Some online commentators were utterly flummoxed at the usage of "Muslim" and "feminist" in the same sentence. They repeatedly deemed "Muslim feminism" to be a "joke" and "oxymoron," stating that you could be one or the other - never both. Islam, however, profoundly improved the status and legal rights of women in 7th Century Arabia, and the Prophet Muhammad was Islam's "first feminist" according to Asma Gull Hassan, a lawyer and author of "American Muslims." Muslim feminists believe that his reforms should have set a precedent for women's rights, however, this spirit of progress was, and continues to be, stifled by cultural attitudes.
"Muslim feminism" is a term that sparks criticism from those who say that the faith doesn't need the influence of a second, supposedly "Western" ideology. But many Muslim feminists argue that women's rights are inherent in Islamic ideals - they don't seek to project "white feminism" (a concept thoroughly explored in Rafia Zakaria's new book, Against White Feminism) onto the faith.
Discussing Islam on a public platform, I was prepared to face criticism from Islamophobes. I didn't expect it from the Muslim community.
I wasn't criticizing my religion - just a small group of extremists' interpretations of it. That small group, however, isn't confined to elders in far-flung, war-torn villages in the Middle East. There are evidently tech-savvy extremists in the West, firing off dogmatic and sexist ammunition over Twitter.
"Patriarchy is the only way Muslim societies will be successful. We don't need Western feminism and their nonsense infesting Muslim societies," stated a Tweet. One user's response to my 1,000-word story was a simple, "Get back in the kitchen."
Patriarchal ideas like this remain deeply entrenched not only in Eastern societies, but also in the West, and can be quite pervasive among young men. But the view that patriarchy is a prescriptive part of religion (rather than merely the historical, societal context of their revelations) fuels gender-discriminatory customs, and is a real threat to achieving progress in faith-based communities today.
In my experience, social media has been a double-edged sword
My experience was an eye-opening illustration of the power of social media to propagate these prejudices.
A research paper for the International Centre for Counter-Terrorism found that "there is a sizeable radical milieu in both Muslim-majority countries and in Western Muslim diasporas, held together by the world wide web of the internet." In her new book "Home, Land, Security: Deradicalisation and the journey back from extremism," journalist Carla Power found that young Muslims in the West who are drawn to radicalism often get recruited through social media sites like Tumblr. Some even abandoned their lives and jetted off to join ISIS after being brainwashed by propaganda on the web.
But social media has also reignited my own faith, attracting me to accounts that preach love rather than hate, such as Michigan-based Shaykh Azhar Nasser. One of his recent quotes reads, "Before you harass people on social media, ask yourself: 'Should I see a therapist instead?'"
I've come to realize that Muslims follow all sorts of different shaykhs, sects, and cultural practices. We all believe in our own versions of Islam and perhaps it might be reductive to portray us as a unified front. It took a flurry of misogynistic tweets to teach me that Muslims are not one ummah (community).
I thought long and hard before writing this. Airing our "dirty laundry" is something that Muslims frown upon, and as it is, Islam's reputation has been tarnished enough by terrorists who endorse violence in the name of the faith. Since 9/11, Muslims in the West have faced increased scrutiny, from government surveillance to programs like Prevent in the UK. Might I perpetuate Islamophobic sentiments, and "out" my brothers in Islam? I look back at some of the Tweets. "You are deficient in mind plus deficient in religion, pipe down with all your feminist crap," stated one. Not very brotherly, if you ask me.
I know better than to take any of this backlash personally, and while the whole ordeal was disheartening, it has motivated me to continue using journalism to help rectify the glaring gaps between the ideals Islam champions (peace, compassion, justice, humility, and humanitarianism) and how the faith is sometimes weaponized by a handful of extremists.
Bullying tactics such as trolling are used to reinforce power dynamics and keep females quiet and complacent with timeworn traditions. And while I could spend hours typing up elaborate responses to each Tweet, I have only two words for men who try to use my religion to justify misogyny: "mute" and "block."
I was trolled by pro-Taliban extremists after writing about Muslim feminism
Source: Kalayaan News
0 comments :
Post a Comment