Salam waleykum, readers!
I’m in Boston this weekend, attending the Women, Action & The Media Conference (WAM!). This year’s theme is Inside/Outside.
I feel this theme is applicable to the position Muslim women often find themselves in: sometimes we are insiders in our faith, sometimes we are outsiders. Muslim women are often called on as insiders to speak about Islam, but we are often denied places in our own mosques, thought of as outsiders to houses of worship. Muslim women are often constructed as victims of Islam, needing to be saved from it, ignoring the reality of our status as insiders and how we operate within Islam. Muslim women are often seen as outsiders to non-Muslim cultures, despite the fact that many of us are born in, grow up in, or come to non-Muslim cultures and make room for ourselves as insiders.
Just some of my thoughts on the inside/outside theme on the eve of the WAM! conference. What are your thoughts on the status of Muslim women as insiders and outsiders?
Tags: conference, WAM!
[...] Muslimah Media Watch, I ponder about this year’s theme, Inside/Outside: But I feel this is applicable to the [...]
Asalaamoalaikum! excellent points made in your post.
In my humble opinion, the most poignant part of being a muslim woman in the west is that we truly live two lives, one inside as a muslim and one outside as a generic person.
However if the muslim woman is a hijabi then she lives on stage, forever being scrutinised for every single thing she does or does not do.
I personally have found It is very relaxing to become the same outside as you are inside, and surprisingly people accept you more readily and Allah Subhanawataala opens the path to His Deen and makes things easy.
Good insight, Fatemeh. And I totally agree with what you say about the hijab, asqfish. Especially in a culture without a lot of contact with Islam (such as North America), hijabi are singled as the representatives of Islam, regardless of whether or not that girl considers herself a very good Muslim, whether or not she’s wearing the hijab of her own volition, etc. Too many Westerners are blinded by the hijab and all that represents–rather, what they THINK it represents. As if women aren’t scrutinized enough by the public! You’re ugly/beautiful, fat/thin, slut/prude, cool/high-maintenance, and if you wear the hijab, now you’re some slew of Islamic stereotypes that makes you an outsider (and usually a victim, since the Western stereotype of Muslim women is usually “oppressed”).
All cultures, especially the West, constantly judge women, especially on their appearance. The hijab is something everyone can see, so of course women are going to be judged for it. I think all women need to have an outside persona and an inside persona or they’ll go insane. The outside is what people think of you (and it can really be anything, depending on what stranger is judging you, and usually has to specifically comply/reject certain social norms), and then you have the inside, which is your true self. Hopefully every woman can have a healthy relationship between her inside and her outside, INCLUDING a sense of separation so other people’s opinions of her don’t start forcing her to change her inner person against her will.
Sigh…tough to be a lady. ^_^
Not all Muslim women in the West live two lives. To me it depends on the stage of life one is at. As child growing up in Canada, it did often feel like I was leading two different lives. One at home as a Muslim South Asian and one outside as a Muslim South Asian. In both instances I was a Muslim South Asian, just in different contexts. Now I feel like I am the same person “inside” and “outside.” The contexts overlap much more and I feel like I can make the transition fairly easily. Though I don’t wear the hijab nor any other marker of Islam so for the most part people wouldn’t know I was Muslim until they either found out my name (and even then maybe not) or they asked me. I guess one could say people don’t judge me based on my appearance in that sense and get to know me before they make any assumptions about my me based on my religion. That, in some ways, makes it easier for me to negotiate between all my worlds.
And we have many different lives we live. Just as anyone does really. By nature people will behave differently in different contexts. At work one way, at school another way, with friends another way, and with your partner yet another. This is natural and all those different ways are us. It doesn’t mean we change identities. It just means we act according to the situation. So we have different personas, to use Lianne’s word.
I think before we do define “inside/outside” we may need to figure out inside and outside of what? The global Muslim community? The local Muslim community? The online Muslim community? Or the personal Muslim community (ie our personal circle of friends and family)? Similarly, what do we mean by non-Muslim community?
Maybe because of where I grew up but from my personal experiences I feel like an outsider with the local Muslim community. But with the global and personal Muslim community I feel like an insider. Being a part of the personal Muslim community is easy. These are people like me, who hold similar views to me, and who accept me as I am. The global Muslim community is so large that I there really is no need to “prove” myself to them therefore no one can question my membership. It’s easy to be a part of that too. All I have to do is identify as a Muslim. But the local Muslim community requires an “initiation” which I cannot take part in. So its not that easy. However, with the local non-Muslim community and my personal non-Muslim community I do feel like an insider. With the global non-Muslim community its not so easy considering all the Islamophobia that’s around.
With the online Muslim community its a constant oscillation between insider and outsider depending on where I am in it.
And then of course our cultures come into it too. We are not *just* Muslim women. We are also have cultures. And those cultures will impact how we feel as insider/outsiders. I feel more of an insider with South Asian Muslims than with Arab or South East Asian Muslims for instance.
Our identities are so fluid and dynamic that there is no one answer to your question. :)
Oh…and of course…then there is gender. Muslim men often have a hard time “getting it” when it comes to Muslim women and our struggles that sometimes its hard to feel like an insider when they are involved. But then again there are some Muslim men who do get it, and it changes our sense of insider/outsider.
With Muslim men who “understand” what women go through, or at least try to and sympathize, I feel a camaraderie. But with the men who don’t, they may as well not even be a part of my community because that just makes me feel like an outsider and an inconvenience.
So again, it depends.
Sometimes it’s hard because your forced to choice between identities that you shouldn’t have to choice. A part of me is always rejected by one community or another, and it depends on where I fit within the relation of power/domination.
Yet I always see Muslim women pointing out the insiders and outsiders of faith amongst themselves. There is so much to be done when it comes to Muslim women. EVERYONE has a role to play.
[...] about the “Inside/Outside” theme past my previous thoughts, the conference as a whole was a mix of both things. As a Muslim woman, I felt somewhat outside the [...]
[...] for a few days now, attempting to wring out a post or two about it. I wrote a little bit about before and after the conference at [...]