French woman in burqa: Part 2

Below, I wrote briefly about Faiza Selmi, a Muslim woman banned from getting her French citizenship because she wore a burqa. The French claimed she was not ‘French’ enough and that the burqa was a huge factor in this. Social services claimed she was under the control of her husband. They claimed she had no agency of her own and did not fully comprehend what wearing a burqa means and how living under the dictate of her husband is considered oppressed. I questioned this immediately because there was no evidence provided and nor was there an interview done with the woman. A lot of what was written about her in the media storm which followed was indirect and regurgitating such claims.

Turns out, these claims could not be further from the truth. An interview with her has revealed quite a bit about her. She does not wear the burqa because her husband has told her to. “They say I wear the niqab because my husband told me so. “she said. “I want to tell them It is my choice. I take care of my children and I leave the house when I please. I have my own car. I do the shopping on my own. Yes, I am a practicing Muslim, I am orthodox. But is that not my right?”

The Interview was enlightening in a number of ways: She was not restricted to a domestic existence and was active outside, in fact, she picked up her interviewer in her car. Yes, yes, these burqa wearing women do indeed drive! It was her husband who served the interviewer her tea. (isnt’ that what Muslim women are born to do? ) Moreover, she was appealing for her right to wear a burqa under a right to practice her religion– yes, yes, she can think for herself ladies and gentlemen.

Odd. This woman doesn’t exactly fit into the oppressed and passive image constructed of her in the mainstream media.

- Sahar

France’s Secularism

I’ve always had a problem with the French notion of laicite (secularism). Understood from a historical period of war between the church and the state—the notion of laicite is purely conceptualised within its 1905 context. The current republican model of laicite harks back to this historical division of state and church. What many French and their supporters of this model fail to understand is historical events are contextual and premised on certain realities.

So when I heard about a Muslim woman who wore the burqa being rejected as a French citizen because the burqa is incompatible with French citizenship– this raised the issue of historical context. The 1905 law was premised on a homogeneous France, but since the 1970s, France has become increasingly heterogeneous, the old France of 1905 no longer exists. The prevailing understanding of laicite can longer be implemented in a transformed France. France currently has a population of 5 million Muslims. Majority of these Muslims come from the Maghreb (Tunisia, Morocco and Algeria) which are former colonies. This colonial connection has ensured France has an intimate relationship with Muslim immigrants for decades now. These Muslims have a different world view that goes beyond laicite and this is something France needs to come to grips with. It does not mean these Muslims do not value laicite—on the contrary, there is a deep respect for the egalitarian spirit of French laicite. It is the current narrow interpretation that Muslims have a problem with.

This narrow interpretation I will write about in another post, however, right now, i’d like to focus on this woman who has been rejected for expressing a cultural and religious belief. I’d like to point out that I’m not much of a supporter of the burqa, because it is not sanctioned in Islam and women who do wear it do so unnecessarily. However I do support a woman’s right to wear one–whether for cultural or religious reasons. An article in the Guardian was problematic on a number of things: One, there was a colonialist assumption that the burqa meant subordination and oppression. Second, there was no evidence provided of this subordination other than a vague reference to “social services” saying she was, and third, we are led to believe that the husband forced her to wear it. Talk about a typical oriental tale of the Muslim experience. There was no cultural or religious explanation as to what the burqa means other than what has been historically regurgitated to a Western audience of how it is oppressive, a symbol of the Muslim woman’s subordination and broadly Islam’s misogyny. There was no factoring in the role of identity for many marginalised minorities in France, and how this plays a significant role in how they see their culture and religion. There was no mention of how many women who wear the burqa or the hijab for that matter are educated, intelligent and politically informed women who choose to wear it for reasons that vary by individual and context. Instead, France subjected us to yet another reductive orientalist narrative of the “French liberator of the oppressed Muslim woman”, and of course, “France: The eraser of difference”.

This, all in the name of preserving France’s secular face. As I pointed out earlier, the notion of laicite, which this ruling was premised on, cannot apply in equal fashion to all citizens of France today because there are many who belong to the Islamic faith, who wear burqas, hijabs, turbans, yalmulkes etc, who have different cultural practices that cannot only be expressed in private (which is how the French understand religion to be). So what we’re seeing is a clash of values, a France imposing its normative understandings of equality and justice on individuals who see it nothing more than an unjust coercive act of the state.

- Sahar

No Sex Please. We are Muslim.

“O you men, one and all, who are soliciting the love of woman and her affection, and who wish that sentiment in her heart to be of an enduring nature, toy with her previous to coition; prepare her for enjoyment, and neglect nothing to attain that end. Explore her with the greater assiduity, and, entirely occupied with her, let nothing else engage your thoughts. Do not let the moment propitious for pleasure pass away; that moment will be when you see her eyes humid, half open. Then go to work, but, remember, not till your kisses and toyings have taken effect.

After you have got the woman into a proper state of excitement, O men! put your member into her, and, if you then observe the proper movements, she will experience a pleasure which will satisfy all her desires.

Lie on her breast, rain kisses on her cheeks, and let not your member quit her vagina. Push for the mouth of her womb. This will crown your labour.

If, by God’s favour, you have found this delight, take good care not to withdraw your member, but let it remain there, and imbibe an endless pleasure! Listen to the sighs and heavy breathing of the woman. They witness the violence of the bliss you have given her.

And after the enjoyment is over, and your amorous struggle has come to an end, be careful not to get up at once, but withdraw your member cautiously. Remain close to the woman, and lie down on the right side of the bed that witnessed your enjoyment. You will find this pleasant, and you will not be like a fellow who mounts the woman after the fashion of a mule, without any regard to refinement, and who, after the emission, hastens to get his member out and to rise. Avoid such manners, for they rob the woman of all her lasting delight.”

[The Perfumed Garden, Shaykh Nefwazi, translated by Sir Richard Francis Burton, 1886]

May God reincarnate the modern scholarly men of Islam as tampons for disrespecting women’s bodies, confining the female sexuality and reducing its function to reproduction!

- F

Welcome to Nuseiba

We decided to name our blog Nuseiba after a distinguished Muslim woman by the name Nuseiba bint Ka’b al-Maziniyyah. She became known for her courage and fighting spirit during the battle of Uhud where she not only tended to the wounds of Muslims in battle (like many other women) she fought alongside the prophet and his male companions– particularly to protect the prophet by acting as a human shield. She was also present on a number of other occasions, namely the treaty of ‘Aqabah, Al-Hudaybiyah, Khaybar and Hunayn. Her heroic conduct at Hunayn was just as impressive as her heroic conduct at Uhud. At the time of Abu Bakr’s Khilafah, she was present at Al-Yamamah where she fought courageously and received eleven wounds as well as losing her hand.

We understand this story in two ways: One, it is inspiring because it illustrates an authentic example of a Muslim woman who was active and had the respect of the Prophet and the Muslim leadership. It is a story that dispels the Orientalist depiction of Muslim women who are too often understood to be oppressed, silent and leading purely private domestic lives—apparently sanctioned by Islam. Further, as a result of cultural chauvinism within many Muslim countries Muslim women are too often marginalised within their community (their role understood as one of private or fitting convenient gender expectations) and made to be the preservers of a static and uncompromising cultural and national identity, brandishing this in the name of Islam. Secondly, Nuseiba’s courage to defend the Prophet and thereby his message is telling especially today where Islam is under attack and Muslims are being oppressed or marginalised in not only in the international scene but mainstream discourse.

It is on these two positions the purpose of the blog is founded on. We hope it serves as a voice for Muslim women not only within religious discourse but nationalist and Western (colonialist) discourse which has the propensity to either smother or manipulate their voice to fit a particular political agenda. This blog isn’t our attempt to speak for all Muslim women, on the contrary, it serves to amplify, contribute and shed light on the myriad of voices and experiences of Muslim women worldwide. It is here, we hope, we rupture the static and reductive imagery of Muslim women.

- Sahar & F