The Wo! Front

Last weekend I attended the first ever conference for Australian Imams organized by the Australian Government in Sydney. Anna has been bugging me to write about my experiences there for a while.

So I thought I should jot some notes on this seminal event, closed as it was to the media (who were shushed away soon after the Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Immigration and Multicultural Affairs Andrew Robb’s speech.)

It touched on all those themes which Australian media has been frothing over in recent times- integration, “Australian values”, muslims, and the role of Imam’s and religious bodies in condoning and condemning extremism.

I was the scribe for the forum titled “The role of imams and moderate interpretations of Islam”. This was the kind of forum and dialogue I had been dying to be a part of all my life but never could be because this space had never been open to me.

So I was marveling at being this equal amongst a table of “learned elders” and the beauty of this secular framework which had forced these religious leaders to recognize that they too must play the game.  

This is called realizing you are a minority, that church is separate from state and that if you want to part of this society you have to learn how to deal with women real quick, hijabs or no hijabs.

Every issue I had ever written about was finally discussed- women, divorce, young people, language skills, extremist interpretations.

Imams whose sermons I used to fume over had suddenly exhibited a complete 180 turn. At that moment the Nietzchean quote “All things are subject to interpretation and whatever interpretations prevail at a certain time is a function of power and not truth” resonated with me powerfully.

The rules of the social field had  changed and here I was as an educated woman- now responsible for transmitting and recording all their ideas to the government. I was the one they needed. I had the power.

The forum was interesting- Zaynab* the Old warrior of the women’s organizations was there looking tired after years of battling bravely for the female contingent. A black imam from Darwin complained of cultural racism, the Gentlemanly Lebanese Imam did a heartfelt soliloquy on how subjection of women destroys our communites. (Some other imams engaged in incomprehensible soliloquys in Arabic which I had to rush to transcribe through the translator.)

Suggestions were offered on pressing social issues- particularly a method to rubberstamp secular divorces so women whose husbands refuse to divorce them islamically would be free to remarry (I triple bolded this recommendation) and reaching out to young lost cases with identity crisis’ and alienation issues.

It was an invigorating weekend. Partly so because of my excitement at sitting as a equal on table I had been marginalized by my whole life. Ironically these Imams had suddenly became demystified in the harsh light of government sponsored board room. I realized that all sides- religious, secular, feminist, islamophobic had given too much authority to Imams as the source or solver of all religious, cultural and social problems plaguing the Islamic community.

One imam confessed the young people don’t listen to us, they are political, they find their sources of information from the Internet. They don’t relate to us.

I realized these imams were just as flustered as the government. They were local imams catering to local immigrant communities in local languages, who were trying their best not to get deported and their greatest crime was perhaps traditionalism. They could be used to tackle social justice issues through their role as mediators of family disputes. But I felt the roots of extremism and political and sectarian violence was way beyond the ambit of these imams. 

The Wo! Angle- Sexy Abayas* and all that…

I had gradually gotten over my discomfort at my ugly black jacket (my clothing of choice for Islamic occasions) but Chandini* and I could not get over the amount of attention the Abaya Princess* was getting.

It seems as if Islamic conferences existed in a parallel world. In the rest of world- you stripped to get attention, in these Islamic events it seemed the more you wore- the more attention you received (to be followed rapidly by marriage and job proposals.)

Abaya Princess was basking in this glow and in a way I felt happy for her (I have always been a true liberal when it comes to clothing- it has always been about empowerment and individual choice with no judgment- whether it be hijabs* or hipsters.)

But it all started to get impossible when Abaya Princesss posed the question “Despite me being still covered would I be condemned for my beauty that still shows that even pious men cant help but admire?” she wondered.
That’s was when I started to roll my eyes and suggested drily a niqaab* would be in order to prevent lustful gazes.

When she began to seriously ponder my proposal I felt like laughing out loud.
 

Oh the satirical potential of my fellow brethren. It’s irresistible!
 

In a way I thought maybe girls like Abaya princess were better off- they would not make it in the western “marketplace”- of toned midriffs and bronzed brazilians.
 

They got to feel like mysterious seductresses from the distant and safe world of their inaccessibility. They catered to the idealization of the “pure ideal” and in doing so never had to enter fearful insecure world of being open to the world and therefore also scrutinized.
 

I had been there in that ivory tower- the private domain where it was so easy to opt out, to say adieu to consumerism and engagement, live in your harem and above moral censure.
 

It was that assumption of piety- to be lauded around as the holy educated western ideal, some model of piety, or persecuted symbol of Islam that became so untenable- too political, too  hypocritical, and not humble but ego-increasing.  
 

Abaya princess had co-opted this role and in doing so became the lackey of the “establishment” . In doing so she lost her ability to be human- to love and lose, to share in the frailty and flaws of the wounded female spirit, to be one of us.
 

 

***Names changed to protect the “Pious”

*Imam- Islamic religious leader- usually trained in Islamic sciences, law and jurisprudence, including memorization and knowledge of the Quran. Can be male or female, however only a male Imam can lead the prayer. Recently a female leader Dr. Amina Wadud- Muhsin, author of Quran and Woman: Re-reading the sacred text from a woman’s perspective caused controversy by leading a mixed gender prayer in 2005.

*Hijab- Arabic for “barrier” or “curtain”. Usually refers to headscarves worn by Muslim women. 

*Abaya- A loose long robe or coat worn over clothes by conservative (or morbidly obese)  muslim women

*Niqaab- A face veil worn by ultra-orthodox Muslim women (or muslim women planning on a scandalous love affair or robbery heist.)

 

Brain Tickler- The title of this post is a play on which famous Sufi work?