• I was born into a Muslim family and I choose to remain a Muslim, a proud one. But I cannot believe that God considers two women to be equal to one man for example, as advocated by those who say it takes the testimony of two women to equal that of one man. To do so would require a turning off of my intellect, stooping to a pretence that I reject. And I cannot believe that God has given a man the right to discipline me if I am “rebellious” or “disobedient” as our You Tube imams and scholars claim with their various sermons on what can be used to exact that discipline.
• There are many things in other holy books that believers have let go in the recognition that they are no longer acceptable in our world today. And the Quran is no different. And many of our imams and scholars have indulged in such contextualizing of their own plenty of times and regarding many issues. But there is always one exception – they are fixated on women and on nailing our feet to the 7th century instead of leaving us be in the 21st.
• One of their biggest ruses is that old axiom “Islam is for all times and places”. My answer: yes, the essential message of Islam is for all times and all places but there are some things in the Quran that even they would agree were specific to their time and place. Their retort would be that I can’t pick and choose but must take it all or leave it. The “all” that I would have to take of course would be determined by them and it is full of what they have picked and chosen.
• From the near obsession with the way a woman dresses you would think that half the Quran was dedicated to a woman’s wardrobe whereas there are in fact just two verses that deal with a woman’s dress.
• My faith resides deep in my heart, but it has been hard at times to reconcile my heart with my mind, which too often recoils at the blatant misogyny that centuries of male-dominated interpretation of my religion have wrought. We are taught that Islam gave women rights more than 1,400 years ago that made them the envy of women in Europe’s Dark Ages. When European women were mere chattel, Muslim women gained the right to inherit and own property. But now the descendants of those women who envied Muslim women in the seventh century have moved far ahead. Where is that spirit of the early days of Islam?
• If God included us in the narrative, who has kept us out? Answer: The imams and scholars and their ilk around the world who have let the Muslim world down. Their apathy and disinclination to speak out against misogyny in the name of Islam long ago turned many of us off and encouraged us to move beyond them and towards setting our own agenda.
• “I am not the Quran in motion,” I would tell them.
And when I had decided, after years of struggling with it, that I would remove my hijab, my biggest fight was with myself. I wished I could keep it on so that I could “show” the West/non-Muslims and everyone really that you could be intelligent, stylish and wear hijab. But the distance between the external “me” and the internal “me” – who I felt myself to be – had grown too far and it was time to reconcile the outside with the inside, without any need to prove anything to anyone but to be true to myself. The liberators assured me I looked so much better with the headscarf off which just added to my guilt exponentially. In fact, I deliberately went to a bad hairdresser so that no one – read: I – would think I’d taken off my hijab because I wanted to look good or anything that frivolous.
• For too many Muslims, if my hair is uncovered, I’m not Muslim enough. For too many non-Muslims, if my hair is uncovered, then I’m that rare example of a “free” Muslim woman.
Source:
http://www.monaeltahawy.com/
• There are many things in other holy books that believers have let go in the recognition that they are no longer acceptable in our world today. And the Quran is no different. And many of our imams and scholars have indulged in such contextualizing of their own plenty of times and regarding many issues. But there is always one exception – they are fixated on women and on nailing our feet to the 7th century instead of leaving us be in the 21st.
• One of their biggest ruses is that old axiom “Islam is for all times and places”. My answer: yes, the essential message of Islam is for all times and all places but there are some things in the Quran that even they would agree were specific to their time and place. Their retort would be that I can’t pick and choose but must take it all or leave it. The “all” that I would have to take of course would be determined by them and it is full of what they have picked and chosen.
• From the near obsession with the way a woman dresses you would think that half the Quran was dedicated to a woman’s wardrobe whereas there are in fact just two verses that deal with a woman’s dress.
• My faith resides deep in my heart, but it has been hard at times to reconcile my heart with my mind, which too often recoils at the blatant misogyny that centuries of male-dominated interpretation of my religion have wrought. We are taught that Islam gave women rights more than 1,400 years ago that made them the envy of women in Europe’s Dark Ages. When European women were mere chattel, Muslim women gained the right to inherit and own property. But now the descendants of those women who envied Muslim women in the seventh century have moved far ahead. Where is that spirit of the early days of Islam?
• If God included us in the narrative, who has kept us out? Answer: The imams and scholars and their ilk around the world who have let the Muslim world down. Their apathy and disinclination to speak out against misogyny in the name of Islam long ago turned many of us off and encouraged us to move beyond them and towards setting our own agenda.
• “I am not the Quran in motion,” I would tell them.
And when I had decided, after years of struggling with it, that I would remove my hijab, my biggest fight was with myself. I wished I could keep it on so that I could “show” the West/non-Muslims and everyone really that you could be intelligent, stylish and wear hijab. But the distance between the external “me” and the internal “me” – who I felt myself to be – had grown too far and it was time to reconcile the outside with the inside, without any need to prove anything to anyone but to be true to myself. The liberators assured me I looked so much better with the headscarf off which just added to my guilt exponentially. In fact, I deliberately went to a bad hairdresser so that no one – read: I – would think I’d taken off my hijab because I wanted to look good or anything that frivolous.
• For too many Muslims, if my hair is uncovered, I’m not Muslim enough. For too many non-Muslims, if my hair is uncovered, then I’m that rare example of a “free” Muslim woman.
Source:
http://www.monaeltahawy.com/
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