Role of Muslim women celebrated with event

  ANGIE LEVINE Elanor Lipat, an
ethnomusicology graduate student, participates in an event
addressing stereotypes about women and Islam.

By Jennifer Reichert
Daily Bruin Contributor

Participants of Islamic Awareness Week celebrated women’s
role in that culture with dancing on Bruin Walk and a poetry
reading in Young Hall Wednesday night.

In an event titled “Illiterate, Barefoot, and in the
Kitchen: Breaking the Stereotypes of Women in Islam,”
speakers challenged both men and women to define feminism by
comparing Western with Islamic views.

“Western feminists call for the equality of sexes, Muslim
women want the assurance of identity, not mere equality,”
said speaker Fatima Saleh.

“Western feminists have lost respect for family
values,” she continued.

Lawyer Asifa Qureshi, who is familiar with both Islamic and
American law, said Western feminists have inhibited women’s
progress in Muslim countries.

She said Islamic women need to be helped by other women who
understand Islamic law.

“If you say it’s western, it’s automatically
discredited,” she said. “The language is at
cross-purposes and we need to bridge that gap.”

According to Saleh, the roles of men and women are different,
but the Quran suggests women aren’t inferior.

“Men and women are shaped and programmed
differently,” she said. “Men are supporters and
sustainers … the husband bears the financial responsibility 100
percent.

“Why? Because Allah has given mercy to women knowing that
they will be caretakers of the most wonderful gift that money
can’t buy ““ a family,” she said.

Addressing the issue of abortion, Qureshi said it’s
debatable when life actually begins in the womb, which is why
abortion early in the pregnancy may not be in violation with the
Quran. But based on Islamic law, Saleh said, abortion is never
permissible, even in the case of rape, unless the pregnancy
threatens the mother’s life.

As a mother with a 4-month-old son, Qureshi said she disagrees
with the idea that a woman needs to be a mother or else she’s
less of a person.

But while both her career and her son are important to her,
Qureshi said she would feel unfulfilled if she did not have
both.

Saleh said the most important thing is for a woman to receive an
education and to educate her husbands, and that there are times to
be forceful. Most importantly, she does not want women to be
hesitant in asserting themselves.

Habib Hamidi, a staff research associate in the pediatric
oncology department, said that as a man, he finds it difficult to
envision his mother or sister being oppressed by someone like
himself.

“If someone whistles at a girl and she doesn’t like
it, the men will jump at the guy because that could be your mother
or your sister,’ Hamidi said.

“Standing up for women is the responsibility that a lot of
males have,” he said.

Despite the stereotype that the image of a veiled woman may
conjure, Qureshi said the woman chooses to wear the hejab ““
the scarf women wear over their heads ““ and long skirts as a
form of self-respect and modesty.

Modesty is an important aspect of Islamic culture. Even men are
expected to dress modestly by not wearing tight clothing.

“I didn’t wear the hejab until my first day of
college because then I knew that I believed in it,” said Mona
Nezzar, a fourth-year French student.

Dressed in a white hejab, third-year psychobiology student Safia
Mullick talked about wearing it as a young girl and what it has
taught her as a person and a woman, describing the experience as
liberating.

“We wear the hejab so we don’t get looked at as a
sex object but are instead liked for our minds,” she said.
“Islam teaches us to be strong, self-confident
women.”