June 2012: Living Islam Out Loud (Abdul-Ghafur, ed.)

Post date: Jun 15, 2012 6:15:31 PM

A smaller than usual group of six alumnae (classes '65 to '84) gathered in Jane's living room on June 14 to discuss this collection of essays and poems by women exploring the experience of growing up Muslim in America

Before launching into the book discussion, we had some interesting discussions about MaryAnn and Kathryn's experiences with the Smith Travel program. Both had good experiences, although MaryAnn was on a trip she thought was going to explore Celtic lands but turned out to be about WWII (with David Eisenhower and Julie Nixon as primary speakers).

Kathryn brought the topic up because of her recent trip to Morocco. She felt she had gotten a strong sense of peace from the Muslim women from Morocco which contrasted so sharply with the women in this book that she struggled a bit. She felt drawn to focus on the origin of these women and their connection to Islam: those with immigrant parents who brought Islam and culture with them as compared to those with African American parents who had converted to Islam. She was continually struck by how unhappy the American Muslim women all were.

Mary was a bit discouraged at first, as the first couple of essays seemed to illustrate classic stereotypes, but then the stories broadened in perspective. She was particularly struck by the mother of the autistic son, and the woman's struggles to get past her own needs to find a path to what he needed.

All of us were moved by the tremendous strength these women had shown in the face of truly daunting challenges. Anne was impressed by how strong these women had to be to find a place and a voice. She saw a similarity between Islam and the Mennonite Christianity she had been exposed to in Kansas (where she lived until recently) -- the followers of both are very uncomfortable with questioning.

Both Anne and Jane especially liked the poem about hijab, and felt it gave them a different perspective on the choice to cover or not. MaryAnn said that while in Cairo, she saw many women dressed in headscarves and covered arms, but with plunging necklines and short skirts.

She was taken by the multiplicity of sects within the Muslim community, which are generally not well understood by non-Muslims, and we discussed the similarity to the various flavors of Christianity (Catholic vs. Protestant is the big divide, but then there are the many types of Protestant: Baptists, Episcopalians, Presbyterians, etc.). These are also probably not well understood by Muslims.

(Kathryn shared an anecdote related to Smith and religion: in 1964 when she attended Smith, it was common practice to assign roommates based on their religion, so Protestants were housed with other Protestants, Catholics with Catholics and Jews with Jews. She found herself with somebody with whom she had absolutely no rapport, in spite of their religious background.)

We also spoke of how important the book of the Koran seemed to be to these women, and Mary mentioned how Allah and the Koran were celebrated as unchanging. This focus on stasis seems to be an obstacle in the path of those who would seek change in the practice of Islam, and to our hopes that the many countries undergoing change in the Arab spring can develop into effective democracies.

We have decided to continue with our exploration of Muslim women for the next couple of months: For July we will read a book mentioned last month, Deborah Rodriguez's Kabul Beauty School, and for August, we are planning to read Dreams of Trespass: Tales of a Harem Girlhood by Fatima Mernissi.