Murshida update.

I will be posting on last night's Murshida meeting and lecture later today.

In addition, I will be going with some the students from the group on Monday to observe one of the Murshida's counseling sessions.

Meeting with Murshida tonight!!!!!!!!!!

I am so incredibly excited: tonight, one of the instructors at the American Language Center (ALC) here in Marrakech here has organized for a Murshida to come speak our group.

I wrote here about the Wash Post article about the Murshida here in Morocco about a month ago. Murshida are basically religious social workers/ preachers, female imams, who counsel troubled women - those abused or imprisoned, for example. They are schooled in Islam as well as social work.

An article in Time magazine framed the Murshida as a tool against terror. That's one way of looking at it. The instructor here at the ALC also informed me that that the Moroccan government developed the Murshida in response to the Casablanca bombings and their subsequent realization that an 'extemist' 'radical' element of Islam was entering Morocco, that included the spread of Wahhabism. Those familiar with the terrorist scene know that there exists Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb ('Maghreb' refers to Morocco but also to North Africa as a whole, as it does here), and that yes, some suicide bombers and resistance fighters that have popped up in Afghanistan and Iraq have Moroccan passports. So here we see something extremely important, Muslims, and governments in Muslim countries, taking responsiblilty for 'taking back their religion' from those who pervert and corrupt it.

(Sidenote: Any of you who know me or read this blog, know that I am of the school that thinks that Islam, religion in general play little role in violence and terrorism. Yes Islam serves to legitimize acts, but it surely does not motivate them. it is not a root cause of these acts.)

When you take away all the terrorist talk, these women are also, and maybe most importantly, helping women in need in Morocco. And, it is a government funded, governemtn legislated, program. They are also doing inside, rather than outside of Islam. That Murshida are indigenous and associated with Islam gives them and the program legitimacy in the eyes of the people, the women it helps and those around them. A husband, for example, might be more willing to allow a Murshida, a religious scholar, into his home rather than a woman known to be from a NGO that receives foreign funding. (No offense, NGOs do great work, but we all know how they are perceived in the eyes of local population, especially in the eyes of men when they deal with women’s rights issues.)

This kind of program represents the kind of steps governments in the region need to take to provide their populations with social services. It is the government (with hopefully eventually some wholesome help from a private sector) that needs to initiate these programs, not international NGOs with a USAID grant.

Here is the Wash Post article on Murshida.
Here is another recent article in Wash Post about social and political developments in Morocco.

I am planning on applying for a Fulbright in the Fall to study Murshida. If any of you have ideas or suggestions please let me know.

Something great going on in Morocco.

This is by far one of the most interesting things I've read about in months.

The Wash Post reported last week on the Murshida, female religious counselors. The Ministry of Religious Affairs in Morocco has been training women to be Murshida so that they can counsel women in need. They do house calls, work out of mosques, hospitals, schools and prisons.

The article reveals that a similar movement is going on in Turkey, where there are hundreds of 'vaizes' or women preachers, and that across the Middle East women are becoming muftis, who are experts in Islamic jurisprudence and can issue fatwas.

Taking Back Islam.

Nicholas Kristof reported on an extremely important conference that took place last week at Notre Dame "Quran in its Historical Context".

Strict Islamic scholars have tried to remove the Qur'an over time from interpretation and meaningful discussion, 'protecting'/ prohibiting it from adapting and adjusting to the modern world. They do this because to interpret it literally justifies their own hunger for power and privilege, and also at times because they feel insecure, that Islam is under attack.

In fact, no religion's holy book should be (and is today by rational people - even religious figures) read literally. The Bible and the Torah are full of violence and contradictions. Karen Armstrong, who religion is lucky to have as a scholar, tells us that the only thing we CAN and should take away from every passage in the Bible, like from every Surah in the Qur'an, is compassion - the whole do unto others. (She spoke brilliantly about this on Bill Moyers a few weeks back.)

Dr. Nasr Hamid Abu Zayd, highlighted in Kristoff's article, encourages moving away from literal interpretations of the Qur'an. He correctly argues that at the core of Islam's holy book, is that lesson of compassion: social justice, human rights and women's rights.

It is up to Muslims like Dr. Abu Zayd and Fatima Mernissi (Islamic feminism) and Islamic democrats - to take back their religion through conferences and discussions as such, and books and articles, but it is up to all of us to not fall into the trap of blaming Islam for violence and oppression of women. Those conditions are not there bc of Islam, rather they have political, social and economic roots. As non-Muslims, our attacks on Islam only lead to further protectionism and insecurity which serves the purpose of corrupt, dictatorial Muslim scholars.

Here I wrote about a similar conference in Turkey last year.

Here is a truly excellent analysis of various verses of Islam's holy book entitled "Taliban's Coercion Betrays the Qur'an" by Aloysious Mowe, International Visiting Fellow at the Woodstock Theological Center, Georgetown University.

Afghan women out in the streets.

About 300 Afghani women - Sunni, Shii, Hazari, you name it - were out in the streets protesting the new law that sanctions marital rape and restricts women from leaving their homes. Here is a line of Afghan women police protecting the protesters.

Some of the response of the counter-demonstrators response with:

“We Afghans don’t want a bunch of NATO commanders and foreign ministers telling us what to do.”

"Slave of the Christians." (Man I wish he knew the Catholic church's take on women, and how 'Christianity' has traditionally treated women. I mean painting women's rights as a Christian value is just backwards. )

OK, to be fair, we know what he means: women's rights = western value; west = invading, oppressive, occupier.

I am not saying I agree with these yahoos - I do not think that foreign policies alone have led to a lack of women's rights in the region and in Afghanistan - but they have played a role.

Indigenous opposition to Afghan law

Important to note the indigenous opposition to the new Afghan law that would apply to Shii community. The Wash Post does in an article today.

Many legislators, politicians, activists, students and **moderate Shii clerics are fighting the law that would allow women to leave their homes only for 'legit cultural purposes' and would sanction martial rape.

This past week, Obama was asked about the law, he called it abhorrent. He also quickly redirected the conversation to highlight that US priorities in Afghanistan were to root out Taliban and AQ.

While the visceral reaction of many, like HR (human rights) activists, might be to criticize Obama for abandoning an HR agenda in Afghanistan and the broader region; but maybe he is encouraging that agenda by not aggressively pursing it.

Of course, international pressure, properly exercised, is important in furthering human rights, women's rights, rule of law, good governance around the world. But forcing these ideas and systems does not work. Also, currently our rep is tainted in the region. Association with the US currently can put what might be good causes in bad light. In terms of this law, the US should encourage indigenous groups and leaders to rally around reversing the law.

I mentioned this possible strategy below regarding Michelle Dunne's (Arab Reform Bulletin - Carnegie) comments that Obama did not discuss the D work (democracy) when speaking about Arab states in Turkey.

Women protesting in Pakistan.

Good for all of us to see women out in the streets protesting in Pakistan, in veils.

Women in the Middle East - Iranian reformists

Haleh Bakhash, daughter of Haleh Esfandiari, outspoken human rights activist and director of the Middle East Center of Woodrow Wilson Center for International Scholars, reminded readers of an important point - "The silver lining to this harassment [article is about women scholars journalists and activists thrown in jail in Iran] is the reminder that women have been at the forefront of the struggle for freedom and rights in Iran. They have overcome adversity in the past. In an environment of threat and intimidation they are enduring, and they need and deserve all the international support that can be mobilized for them."

It is important to realize that women of the Middle East, as I have mentioned in previous postings, are not poor, helpless victims. They are actors, agents of change, in parliaments, in the workplace, forming organizations, starting businesses and advocating for their own rights in their own societies. That these reform movements are occurring indigenously is key to their success.

The women I spent time with as a Peace Corps volunteer in Morocco were the exact opposite of the stereotype of the oppressed Muslim or Arab woman. They were strong - physically, emotionally and psychologically. They were intelligent and had the most endearing cynical senses of humor I've ever encountered. They had sound judgment. They were strong and motivated and resourceful.

A history of women's rights movements in the region is a longer post for another day, but there were women's rights movements in the Middle East in the early and mid 20th Century. Women had more rights in the Ottoman Empire (in the eyes of courts...see Judith Tucker's In the House of the Law: Gender and Islamic Law in Ottoman Syria and Palestine and her Restoring Women to the Middle East) than in Europe. Anyone seen pictures of women un Egypt in the 50s and 60s? Short skits and tanks!

Unfortunately women's rights became tied to an imperial 'West' particularly after the fall of the Ottoman Empire and the implementation of the mandate system and the COld War manipulations. One thing led to another and kerplop.

Women's rights in the Middle East will be successful as indigenous movements aided by foreign groups, and only as part of more comprehensive social, economic and political reform in the region - such as the end of dictators and opening of political space for expression (to protest and write about their desire for rights!) and economic opportunities (jobs for women!)

Women in the Middle East

I have written a post on this before (see one from a while back on Fatima Mernissi, Islamic Feminism, Women in Islam Arab culture/ Middle East), but this article on the appointment of a female Saudi education minister and the Freedom House (great org that promotes democracy, governance, civil society building in the region) study that shows small gains int he past few years in the Christian Science Monitor, reminded me of the importance of understanding and working to improve the position of women in the region.

Women are not oppressed in the Middle East bc of religion or bc of a certain ethnic of cultural group. They are oppressed bc they are no jobs, little chance for political expression, little access to effective lasting education (not everywhere of course), dictators, and lastly bc of a still existing taint on women's rights as 'western' and therefore imperialist and unwelcome.

Article - Saudi Reforms

Saudi reforms analysis in NYTimes.

On the appointment of a new female education minister and the removal of conservative hardliner from posts of chief of religious police and senior judge.

They hate us!!

Wait, I thought they hated us. They hate our freedom, our culture, our democracy. But they love Friends in Gaza and Oprah in Saudi? HOW can I reconcile these conflicting viewpoints. Wait, I know, they don't hate us.

People in the ME love our culture and our way of life but they don't want it shoved down their throats with tanks and guns. Also they hate our ineffctive uneven policies in the region. (See my post "Foreign Hypocrisy" for starters and this great brief article by John Esposito, "It's the Policy Stupid: Political Islam and the US Foreign Policy")

Fatima Mernissi is the Woman

Fatima Mernissi might be one of the most important figures in the world today. I wish she got more credit and recognition outside academic circles. She is one of a large group of scholars who work for reform in the Muslim world within the boundaries of Islam - what better way is there for reform than from within.

In her writings, particularly Beyond the Veil: Male Female Dynamics in a Modern Muslim Society, she interprets the Quran and Hadiths (traditions of the Prophet Muhammad), to reveal the true meaning behind them. For example, Islam and the Prophet Muhammad counted justice above all, especially for the poor and underprivileged. The Prophet treated women as his equals, taking advice from his wife on political decisions.

One of my favorite misinterpretations of the Hadiths is that the Prophet Muhammad took many wives because women were not equal to men; that he forced these women to live with him and that they had no say. The Prophet Muhammad took women (voluntarily) into his household that had been widowed due to war and conflict of the times to care for them and provide for them.

Many might read this and say 'apologist' but this is the truth. This model the Prophet set up has been corrupted and misinterpreted by oppressed males and power hungry leaders. They have perversed the real Islam for their own benefit.

It is up to Muslims to retake their religion through work such as that of Fatima Mernissi.

Turkey is Getting it Done for Islam

http://www.mcclatchydc.com/226/story/34851.html


Every Muslim should be out there doing this - taking their religion back through reinterpreting the Quran and Hadiths to reveal their true, just nature.

See the below post also "Turkey Honors Islam" from February 26, 2008.

Turkey Honors Islam

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/7264903.stm

The hadiths, the ways and traditions of the Prophet Muhammad recorded by his companions, have frequently been twisted to serve the interests of politicians and leaders in Muslim countries and communities.

On many occasions, hadiths are taken out of context: Many were written in a time of war in the 7th Century when, for example, it was not safe for women to travel for long distances alone or even leave the house. The aforementioned leaders reinperpret passages as such to support the idea that Islam and the Prophet teach that women are second class citizens or inferior to men.

The commission hired by the Department of Religious Affairs in Turkey to debunk these perversions is an important step in realizing that Islam is not only compatible with, but advocates for, women's rights, human rights, equality, democracy, and justice.