SISTERHOOD and ISLAM
By Dr Joanna Payton
A friend of mine was waiting for a bus in typical South Welsh weather. She had drawn her scarf over her head to keep the rain off her ‘do. Suddenly, she felt a barrage of cold chips striking her from behind. Spinning around in rage she confronted three confused young men. Shocked by her blonde hair and blue eyes they stammered ‘Sorry love, we thought you was a Muslim.’ As if that made a difference. Organisations like Tell MAMA have been flagging that where attitudes to Muslims grow more hostile, Muslim women who wear hijabs are the most visible targets, even though they are a minority of British Muslim women.
Street-level violence is only the most visible aspect of widespread negative conceptions about Muslim women. Our media is full of crude stereotypes, where Muslim women are considered either as victims of a brutally patriarchal faith or as terrorist threats to democracy, British values and pork pies. All the complex realities of women’s lives which fall between these twin caricatures are stripped away.
This is why in 2016, my friend, documentary film-maker and feminist Deeyah Khan established the sister-hood website, seeking to provide an outlet for ‘women of Muslim heritage.’ She reasoned that a vulnerable population who were often the object of public discussions but whose voices were never heard needed a space to create their own narratives. These women needed to talk about themselves, their lives and their ideas, rather than being the mute topic of conversations about them. Further, through providing the ability to publish anonymously, sister-hood has been able to publish accounts on sensitive issues around abuse and sexuality within Muslim families and communities which would otherwise never be heard, due to strong cultural taboos. Practically, sister-hood’s team aim to support young writers making their first steps into a career as writers. We saw the platform as a stepping stone for a new generation of young women and activists on their way to challenge stereotypes, and confront prejudices.
The key term – ‘women of Muslim heritage’ - was designed to include a broader category of issues related to women and Islam. sister-hood is for all women who had been closely impacted by Islam in their lives: whether they were Sunni or Shi’a or other denominations, whether they were converts to the faith, devout worshippers, casual practitioners, agnostics, or atheists who had left Islam. sister-hood has featured two-part interviews with both Maryam Namazie, founder of the Council of Ex-Muslims of Britain, and Azza Karam, Secretary-General of Religions for Peace. Painful accounts of leaving Islam are published alongside the stories of women finding their place within the religion. This drawing together of disparate and complex narratives around Islam is core to sister-hood’s mission.
With a section called ‘Inspirations’ dedicated to documenting the achievements of women in the Muslim world, sister-hood gives the lie to a version of history that positions women in the Muslim world as lacking in initiative and ability, and as completely subjugated by men and religion. Despite all the princesses, pirates and poets in the collection, I found the most inspiring entries in the series were the feminists. I was particularly encouraged to read about how the ‘first wave’ of feminism in the Muslim world worked to build cross-cultural connections. Egyptian suffragist Huda Sha’arawi addressed an international conference on women’s rights in Rome. Indonesian educationalist Kartini corresponded avidly with Dutch feminists despite being restricted to the grounds of her father’s palace. Pakistani politician Shaista Ikramullah worked on the Universal Declaration of Human Rights alongside Eleanor Roosevelt. Feminism, then as now, was built on women finding ways to collaborate, debate and strategize to deepen their understandings each other’s situations and to support each other’s work. Then as now, sisterhood has never been easy. But it has always been powerful.
This same faith in women’s abilities to coalesce around shared goals underlies sister-hood’s choice to take the broadest possible definition of what it means to have a ‘Muslim heritage.’ Because many of the problems women with these varying relationships with Islam face are shared, despite the differences between them. ‘Honour’ culture has wide-reaching impacts on women across the Middle East and South Asian regions, and beyond. Discriminatory family laws impact wide swathes of the region, as well as insinuating themselves into the diaspora via ‘shari’a’ courts. Women are excluded from the workforce; sexual harassment and violence are widespread. An Islamophobe doesn’t stop to ask you your precise, personal take on religion before he pelts you with chips.
These are problems that will be not be solved without women finding a way of working together - the power of sisterhood.
sister-hood accepts writing and other creative expressions from all women of Muslim heritage. Please contact us on info@sister-hood.com
