Muslim women: access denied? at Racialicious - the intersection of race and pop culture

Muslim women: access denied?

by Racialicious special correspondent Fatemeh Fakhraie, originally published at Muslima Media Watch

This article talks about a new movie, Coffee & Allah. It tells the story of a Muslim refugee “who feels isolated in her new country until someone reaches out to her through a spontaneous game of badminton.”

Directed by Dr. Shuchi Kothari and nominated for the best short film at the Venice Film Festival, the film casts Zahara Abbawajji, an Ethiopian from Auckland, New Zealand, as the lead female role. Dr. Kothari and the director cast Ms. Abbawajji after advertising to Auckland’s Ethiopian community. “Casting is not easy…You have to make in-roads into the community and do it on their terms, otherwise you can’t moan that these stories aren’t being told,” says Dr. Kothari.

Dr. Kothari herself is not Muslim, which intrigued me. How can a non-Muslim woman make a movie about a Muslim refugee?

Here’s the thing: she didn’t make a movie about Muslim women. She made a movie with Muslim women. You can’t make movies about us; you need to include us in the process for a very important reason: to portray us accurately, checking in with us on certain aspects of the story so you don’t alienate us later. Movies that portray Muslims and Muslim women negatively (even if they mean well) alienate and anger the community, which in the end really just widens the divide instead of bridging it. I still hate Sally Field because she starred in Not Without My Daughter. They showed it in my middle school, and everyone wanted to know if I was “Iraqi or whatever.” Damn you, Sally Field and Alfred Molina!

Dr. Kothari comments that, “These [Muslim] women become quite visible on one level, but on another level they’re quite invisible because no one has any access to them.”

What is access? This got me thinking, because it struck me. How do you “gain access” to these women? I think a lot of times, especially for women who wear hejab, we are seen as Fort Knox, or some other type of stronghold that can’t be “penetrated” to those who don’t have “access.” And who has access? Does access mean that you can interact with these women? Or does access mean that you can see these women’s hair or know about their personal lives? Does “access” mean the same thing for Western, non-Muslim women as it would for Muslim women?

I think the idea of access is really just an Orientalist relic, no matter which meaning you assign it. By thinking that you need access or are being denied access to Muslim women, you’re relegating Muslim women to things. You don’t need access to people, you need access to buildings or safety deposit boxes or passwords. Similarly, I know people who refer to women who wear niqabs and chadors as “tanks” or “ninjas.” This implies that these women are not only inaccessible, but also fortified against attacks of some kind (and stealthy).

The issue of access doesn’t even come up when you think of Western, non-Muslim women, especially if you add the sexual dimension of access. We’re all caught up this silly double cliché of “Muslim women = no sexual access EVER” and “Western, non-Muslim women = sexy time!” This implies that all Western, non-Muslim women are okay with having sex any time with anyone, while all Muslim women are either never okay with sex with anyone, or only okay with sex after marriage with someone they were arranged to marry if they have to have sex. And this dichotomy really leaves out any mention of bisexual and lesbian women from both camps.

Anyway, this movie, Coffee & Allah, looks incredibly interesting, and it seems like a positive step forward. I know I’ll be watching for it on Netflix.

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links for 2007-09-27 « no snow here on 27 Sep 2007 at 1:19 am

[…] Muslim women: access denied? at Racialicious - the intersection of race and pop culture “Here’s the thing: she didn’t make a movie about Muslim women. She made a movie with Muslim women. You can’t make movies about us; you need to include us in the process for a very important reason: to portray us accurately, checking in with us on ce (tags: islam muslimwomen media film veil) […]
Movies » Muslim women: access denied? on 27 Sep 2007 at 6:10 am

[…] Daniel Langendorf wrote an interesting post today onHere’s a quick excerptThis article talks about a new movie, Coffee & Allah. It tells the story of a Muslim refugee “who feels isolated in her new country until someone reaches out to her through a spontaneous game of badminton.” Directed by Dr. … […]
The Madonna/Whore Complex, Islamic-Style! at Racialicious - the intersection of race and pop culture on 23 Oct 2007 at 7:01 am

[…] about access in my post awhile ago, I touched on sexuality. Since this is one of my favorite topics, it got me thinking […]

Comments

gatamala wrote:

she didn’t make a movie about Muslim women. She made a movie with Muslim women. You can’t make movies about us; you need to include us in the process for a very important reason: to portray us accurately, checking in with us on certain aspects of the story so you don’t alienate us later.

A very important distinction.

Posted 25 Sep 2007 at 9:07 am ¶
justin wrote:

Another movie to watch out for is The Tattooist. It was made by New Zealanders and Singaporeans but it’s about Americans and Samoans. Some people try to take advantage of more distinct identities. Most New Zealanders don’t know the difference between Muslims and Sikhs, though I have only heard good things about Coffee and Allah

Posted 25 Sep 2007 at 10:51 am ¶
NancyP wrote:

Perhaps non-Muslims are intimidated by the chador-wearing woman, worried that some irate husband or father is going to come along, or the man in traditional Muslim male dress of some countries, worried that they (non-Muslim) might trigger a scene by doing the wrong thing? (by being treyf , or whatever the word is in Arabic). I confess that I am not all that comfortable around traditionally dressed Hasids either. I suspect that it is all in what one is used to, since traditionally dressed Amish don’t faze me one bit, being a fairly common sight in the Midwest.

Scarves, on the other hand, suggest that the wearer interacts with and is not offended by the presence of non-Muslims. Common sight in the Midwest, common interaction, consequently high comfort level.

We are pretty provincial out here in the fly-over states.

Posted 25 Sep 2007 at 1:11 pm ¶
Omer wrote:

awesome.

im super jazzed to hear muslim voices on this site.

Posted 25 Sep 2007 at 1:29 pm ¶
Fatemeh wrote:

Greetings everybody! I am so excited to read my first post on the site, and I myself am jazzed to be here and to read all of your comments!

Don’t forget to check out my blog (muslimamediawatch.blogspot.com) for more critical analysis of how Muslim women are portrayed in the media!

I wanted to address one comment: NancyP said that “Scarves, on the other hand, suggest that the wearer interacts with and is not offended by the presence of non-Muslims.” Why IS that? On some level, I agree with you. So why do we feel that way?

Posted 25 Sep 2007 at 2:11 pm ¶
Wendi Muse wrote:

re: the scarf distinction…
different forms of the hijab are politicized based on the degree of coverage, but not always accurately so. i don’t think the type of headcovering is related to interaction with non-muslims. certain types of muslims (ethnicity, nation of origin, and sect of islam make a huge difference here, just like in any other faith tradition), based on their interpretation of the koran, wear full body coverings, others wear only a shawl and a scarf as the chador, and some wear nothing at all (of course, there are a zillion varities within the aforementioned). there are even laws that govern how far past the crown of the head one must wear a scarf (i.e. iran).

SO one could technically be fully covered at all times but be from like brooklyn and someone else could never cover their hair at all, but live in turkey, and never have interacted with non-muslims (not to say that all the turkish are muslim, i am just using the country as an example). so it’s important to keep that in mind before we make opinions on degrees of non-muslim contact.

it would kind of be like assuming that if a black woman chose to wear a fro or dreds, she must only hang out with black people when it’s actually just a choice she made about what she felt was best for her hair. a woman who wears full covering may be doing so as a reflection of her (or her respective group’s) interpretation of a holy book, not because she never hangs out with anyone else.

Posted 25 Sep 2007 at 3:19 pm ¶
Meena wrote:

I always felt that hejabs have the ability to reverse a male gaze, this obessesion with what we’re not seeing….which i think has invented this desire to gain access and consume Muslim women.

Posted 25 Sep 2007 at 4:34 pm ¶
Safiya wrote:

…But ultimately it’s just a scarf. Which I wear beacause I believe that it’s a religious obligation (not all Muslims feel like this btw). If I thought it was a religious obligation to wear a little pink hat, I would.

The hijab and other coverings, are politicised, stigamatised, emphasied and sometimes despised, but the primary reason for wearing them remains the same.

P.S It’s cool to see your first post Fatemeh!
Btw, are you Syrian? I’m guessing because of the pronounciation of your name.

Posted 25 Sep 2007 at 6:36 pm ¶
nadia wrote:

first, i am SO happy to see fatemah blogging here…commentary on muslims and middle eastern people is a wonderful and vital addition to racialicious.

i think in most western media/art coverage of muslim women made by non-muslims, there is a very voyeuristic nature to it. “behind the veil,” there is always this emphasis on what is underneath muslim women’s clothing, and an underlying notion that all non-muslims must have, and should have, access to the muslim woman’s physical body.

maybe the less traditionally someone wears her hijab, the less we (who aren’t wearing hijab or aren’t muslim) feel like we’re being judged? i know some non-hijabi muslim women who feel like muslim women who wear hijab look down on them (i don’t personally feel this way tho because i have more often than not found it to be untrue).

Posted 26 Sep 2007 at 2:04 pm ¶
Amory wrote:

awesome. i’ll be looking for this. thanks for a great post

Posted 26 Sep 2007 at 3:43 pm ¶
egypt4 wrote:

I’m an American expat in Egypt. A colleague of mine mentioned to me recently that she went to get her hair cut at a beauty salon also patronized by Egyptians, and she finally discovered what was under all those hejabs: hat hair!

(har har)

Actually, she said she also saw long, gorgeous curls. So I guess this also reflected an interest (obsession?) with what’s under the hejab.

I have heard several comments here from non-hejabi Egyptian women that are negative about hejabis, the number of whom is rapidly growing. And all of them are very concerned about in particular about women in niqabs. (Though I do love seeing a woman in niqab who is then carrying some very western looking purse that says something like DIESEL in big letters.)

I think part of the concern here is that women often don’t make these decisions about their appearance, but father or husband does.

Also, as was mentioned by Wendy, there is a huge range of the kind of hejabs you see. Some women, especially younger women, look extremely western with low ride jeans, etc (except that they have undershirts on to cover arms and abdoment), and then with very fashionably styled scarves. Other than the scarf, they would look just like any white purple brown black etc woman on any US campus.

Other women wear scarves and clothes that are flowing and don’t show any curves. And there’s a whole range in between. In fact, some Egyptian women here make a distinction between those who are “modernly veiled” and those who are not.

I’ve also been told it’s hard for women in hejab to get some jobs here, especially at places that might cater to westerners. So there’s a prejudice even in a Muslim country.

So there’s a short report from a new-to-Egypt gal.

Posted 27 Sep 2007 at 5:29 am ¶
NancyP wrote:

I think that one reason non-Muslim Midwesterners may feel less threatened or put off by the scarf is that the religious signifier is only one part of the wearer’s presentation. From the neck down, the clothing is pretty similar to standard or conservatively cut American style. Even shalwar kameez resembles a (fancy) pants-suit to American eyes. Full body cover religious wear is very uncommon on American streets since the mid-1960s, when the Catholic religious orders mostly quit using full habits and went to conservatively cut “civilian” clothes. And people used to see the Catholic priests and religious as exotic “others”, specially chosen by God, consequently either to be admired or avoided, according to one’s level of religious faith or guilt. Maybe some of that attitude hangs over and affects the response to chador, niqab, etc full body cover.

Face it, we Midwesterners are a bit less worldly than the coastals…. ; )

Posted 28 Sep 2007 at 2:37 pm ¶
nadia wrote:

nancyp, i’m disagree with you about the midwest. i don’t know where you are, but it is incredibly common to see women with hijab in the detroit area, with a very visible muslim community in dearborn.

i’ve known white people from the coasts to be just as clueless as midwestern white people, the only difference is they think they’re more enlighted.

Posted 01 Oct 2007 at 2:43 am ¶
Input wrote:

Hi all! What a great discussion and I just want to make a correction in Fetemeh’s posting… I am the Director of Coffee and Allah, and Shuchi Khotari is the Writer and Producer. It’s a 13 minute short film and the first ever made in New Zealand about an Ethiopian Muslim woman. I’m really glad that you feel positive about the film as I’ve always wanted to know how other Muslims might feel about non-muslims making it.

As a Pacific Islander (Polynesian to be specific), it sometimes concerns me when non-Pacific Islanders make films about us too, but in a small country where many of us are a minority, sometimes we have to take risks and make that leap to be seen or heard. 15 years ago I wrote and directed a short film that was all subtitled in my own language, which was unheard of in this predominately English speaking country. To prove that films can translate to audiences in any language, it went on to win several international awards to audiences who had never seen a Polynesian face. This goes to show that content matters more than just a look or race thing. By the way, the film I wrote did not show my people in a favourable light as I wanted to draw attention to the treatment of children. However it’s also a comment on what our families compromise when we move away from extended family living in the islands to the western way of life with a the nuclear family.

I think Fetemeh raises a really interesting issue about the portrayal of other cultures, an ongoing issue in the filmmaking industry since Hollywood began with classics like King Kong and the portrayal of the native ’savages’ and many more films that still continue to be made today.

Now I don’t feel the need to justify myself, but because this makes for interesting discussion…Why did I choose to direct Coffee and Allah? The writer may have very different intentions to mine, but for me, first and foremost was the immigrant story because I am an immigrant myself. I remember when everything and everyone seemed so strange to me, and often thought how could white people possibly kiss without stabbing each other with their sharp pointy noses? To this day, white people are still a novelty in my home island, and children still scream in horror at the sight of them.

Anyway, the immigrant story really touched me, also the loneliness of being in a new country and being a minority. All things that I easily related to , particularly the loneliness without extended family around, because in my culture and many others, ‘family’ is everything and without family you are nothing.

Yes I was fascinated with the hijab, but not in the least bit intimidated. Many people are just as fascinated about our culture and hopefully they aren’t intimidated either. We have just as much religeous/cultural restrictions, protocols and as many taboos, but without any visible clothing to show for it. Nothing scares us more than offending our own people, so dealing with other cultures is not in the least bit intimidating, and true to our outspoken nature, a Polynesian when faced with a woman in hijab would most likely say, ‘Why are you wearing that thing? It’s so damn hot!’.

Really fascinating to me though, was while researching for the film, I realised that many refugees and Muslims live in the same areas as Pacific Islanders and Maori, so they often work at the same places too. I was delighted to hear how many Polynesian friends they have and what funny people we are! It’s true, we do laugh at just about anything, even after we get a beating we have a good laugh, and we’d stop and laugh ourselves silly if someone tripped over on the street! Also, how they related to us culturally in many ways…Family, food, hospitality, generousity, our physical nature where hugs and kisses are okay when we greet, emotional people that it’s even okay for men to cry!

Anyway, I have gone on too long! Not meaning to make any particular point but to merely express my feelings and gratitude to Fetemeh for a great discussion. Have a great day everyone!

Posted 20 Jan 2008 at 5:23 pm ¶