The Madonna/Whore Complex, Islamic-Style!
by Racialicious special correspondent Fatemeh Fakhraie, originally published at Muslima Media Watch
Talking about access in my post awhile ago, I touched on sexuality. Since this is one of my favorite topics, it got me thinking about sexuality in the Muslim world, and the binaries that Orientalism creates for Muslim women’s sexuality.
When you think of a Muslim woman in the context of sexuality, which images come up? If you watch movies, Muslim women are usually seen in one of two lights, sort of like a Madonna/whore complex. Except it’s with bellydancers and niqabs: the exotic, hypersexual belly dancer, or the forbidding, stern niqabi whose eyes say “No way are you getting under these robes.” Instead of the Madonna/Whore Complex, we have the Belly Dancer/Burqa complex.
The belly dancer half of this dichotomy is always hypersexual and hypersexy. Scantily-clad, of course; jewelry with coins, armbands with snakes, and usually really thick eyeliner are her trademarks. She’s there to please, please, please (sexually, of course). Usually, the belly dancer is featured by herself (when she’s not with the rest of the harem girls) and she’s aiming to entertain/seduce/serve the main man: movies like Lawrence of Arabia and From Russia With Love are excellent examples. I even found a list of all of the western movies that have bellydancers in them. Even on TV we see this crap: I Dream of Jeannie wasn’t a belly dancer, but she was a genie in Orientalist garb with an intent to please her master. (shudder)
The burqa half is sightly more fluid (it includes burqas, niqabs, and hejabs, oh my), but they all have the same attitude: no sex. Purity is paramount, and purity means virginity. Usually, the burqa half will also exhibit very Madonna-like (or in our case, Fatima-like) characteristics: selfless, she is always a “good” mother and wife (meaning never thinking about herself, only thinking about her family).
However, the ladies in scarves are never the main female role. They’re usually featured in groups, erasing any individuality, and always in black, erasing their humanity. They’re really just scenery…scary, asexual, “native” scenery: Not Without My Daughter is a perfect example here.
Both of these images are just tired (especially considering that Orientalism has been churning out these images for centuries). I think it’s time we shelved this make-believe binary. Besides, I’m really tired of seeing genie and belly dancer “costumes” every Halloween.
Carmen Van Kerckhove is co-founder and president of 
egypt4 wrote:
There is quite a brisk market here in Egypt for (cheap) belly dancing costumes, bought by western tourists on vacation of course.
What’s sad is that apparently the true art of belly dancing is being pushed underground here. (But there’s lots of belly dancing for fitness classes!)
I did see a fantastic belly dancer here at a work-sponsored iftar. She was an older woman, and not at her thinnest, wearing typical work clothes, but she put a white sash around her waist and her dancing was incredibly beautiful. It’s sad that the art has been lost with all the focus on its sexuality.
Posted 23 Oct 2007 at 7:30 am ¶
egypt4 wrote:
By the way, is Muslima Media Watch down? I haven’t been able to see it. I only get a blogger error page asking me to login.
Posted 23 Oct 2007 at 7:31 am ¶
brendon wrote:
For what it’s worth, I’ve seen Lawrence of Arabia multiple times and I can’t recall any belly-dancing, though there are certainly some questionable representations of Arabs in the film. In fact, I can’t remember any women at all (none speak during the entire 4 hour affair).
Probably the most blatant Hollywood example of the Belly Dancer archetype: Theda Bara, seductive silent star whose name was devised by executives as a synonym for “Arab Death.” She specialized in playing dangerous ‘oriental’ princess types and was for a time in the late 1910s among the biggest stars in Hollywood, the archetypal ‘vamp.’ All but six of her forty films are lost today, and thus she’s been almost completely forgotten.
Posted 23 Oct 2007 at 8:23 am ¶
Jessica wrote:
Muslimah Media Watch is still up, but at this url!
http://muslimahmediawatch.blogspot.com/
Posted 23 Oct 2007 at 8:27 am ¶
Josey wrote:
I must co-sign with Brendon. There are no women whatsoever in Lawrence of Arabia - not even in the background.
Interesting article all the same.
Posted 23 Oct 2007 at 8:39 am ¶
gatamala wrote:
Not to knock bellydancing (people close to me dance), but I’ve noticed it’s really taken off in the last, say, 6 years and one month….
Not W/o my Daughter is definitely on the Most Racist Movies of All Time List. I was a kid when it came out, but even then it struck me as “wrong”.
[Disclaimer: yes, I know parental kidnappings across international borders is a problem]
Posted 23 Oct 2007 at 8:46 am ¶
egypt4 wrote:
Jessica, thank you! That explains why I wasn’t getting any feed.
Carmen, any chance you can update the link in the post?
Posted 23 Oct 2007 at 9:08 am ¶
Carmen Van Kerckhove wrote:
Done!
Posted 23 Oct 2007 at 9:27 am ¶
Fatemeh wrote:
I saw it a long time ago, but I remember one scene (and you’re right, there IS a serious dearth of women in the film) in Lawrence of Arabia when Lawrence is called into the king’s tent, and some random serving girl serves him something or other, maybe tea or coffee. (shrug) I could be wrong.
And yes, Muslimah Media Watch is still up! THank you Jessica, for posting the link, and Carmen, for updating it! I just added an ‘h’ and it screwed everything up! But we’re still going strong over there.
Posted 23 Oct 2007 at 11:47 am ¶
Mireille wrote:
It’s an entire stripmall of shops, doctor’s offices and restaurants, hookah bars owned and operated by many Ethiopians and North Africans about a block from my apartment. It’s populated by an interesting assortment of people, Muslims and atheist, hipsters and middle aged Ethiopian couples. It’s a really wonderful place for people watching, though it plays up the oriantalist theme a lot. There are belly dancers on the busier nights, I always admired them because they had real skill. Some aren’t particularly beautiful, but the seem to love to dance. Many nights they don’t have women in costume, but women who seem to be moved by the music to swivel a bit (I among them). Many of the women who dance are in hijab and are simply moved to dance because, hell if it isn’t firday night and they want to forget about homework, bitchy professors and parents and just cut loss and giggle among frieds…Like most other girls on earth.
Posted 23 Oct 2007 at 8:56 pm ¶
luckyfatima wrote:
hello…
i think the whore side of the Western construction of Middle Eastern/Muslim women is spot on. but I think the Fatimah side is off…that is not a Western perception. That is the social role our Muslim societies cast us in for better or for worse. The hijabed and especially niqaabed woman is constricted by Muslim social perceptions of appropriate roles and behavior. This can hurt covered women when applying for jobs or trying to enter leadership roles in Muslim countries where some women cover and others don’t. It is like you are either secular and you can do whatever you want and have goals. Or you announce yourself as religious with your scarf and you are supposed to stay home and cook and let Paradise be under your feet for the rest of your life. But I don’t feel that Western society casts us in that way.
I think the Western view would be more like the whore versus oppressed and in need of saving potential terrorist dichotomy. The Muslim woman is either a belly dancing harem slave or a victim of Islamic patriarchal oppression. She is co-opted by anti-Western and anti-feminist ideals, so she dociley accepts this role and is a potential tool for anti-Western political aggression or terrorism.
Posted 24 Oct 2007 at 3:35 am ¶
dnA wrote:
There’s a reason for that…Lawrence wasn’t a big fan of the ladies…one of the reasons he was so happy out there in the desert with a bunch of guys.
Probably a good subject for another post on Islam and sexuality.
Posted 24 Oct 2007 at 8:26 am ¶
Fiqah wrote:
Brilliant article. I think Edward Said, if he were around today, would applaud your spot-on deconstruction of this binary. In defense of the oft-maligned belly dancing (raq sharqi), it’s a long and venerable tradition. Before Islam arrived in what is now considered the “Islamic world” (there’s a problematic blanket label if ever there was one, right?) it was performed in temples during sacred fertility rites. Slobber factor aside, it IS a skill and can take a lifetime to master - meaning that you couldn’t just stick someone in a sequined bra, give her some zills and expect her to know what the hell to do. There’s no getting around the sensuality of the dancing no matter what the reaction is. However, absent in true raq sharqi is the air of sexual availability and acquiescence – a belly dancer always has ownership of and confidence about her sexuality.
Posted 24 Oct 2007 at 10:24 am ¶
bdsista wrote:
Being a bellydancer who has performed and taught it for about 10 years who just got back from Egypt, (Ahlan wa Sahlan Festival) I absolutely agree with the article and it is sad that while Egyptians love it as a part of their culture, most do not want their women doing it because of the stereotyping. What was hard for me in Egypt was not talking to men who were strangers (if you do you are a ho) or not being able to share that I was a dancer that loved bellydance (if you do you are a ho) and of course the perception that being from the west (you are a ho). So I talked to men I bought things from, and had real conversations with the women, and resisted going to a hookah place (cuz women don’t do that in public and if you do you are a ho) and bought my own pipe and brought it home along with 14 bellydance costumes including a custom Eman Zaki!
I am African American and Native American and one thing I have noticed is that many Arabs have color preferences that they bring to the US and then perpetuate racist attitudes towards dancers of color who are darker skinned. What that has created is the thin blonde/red head white dancer in the US being more accepted by Arabs and Middle Eastern clients than dancers or color who are just as qualified and many who actually look “Egyptian”. Those of us who are dancers of color are trying really hard to get restaurant owners and private party clients to accept and enjoy a performance from an African American, Hispanic, Asian or Native American bellydancer, because good dancing is good dancing! Having come from studying ballet, modern, jazz and African, it is just as rigorous a discipline as any other form of dance and expect to study at least 3-5 years before you should get up in front of people for pay.
It is true that real bellydancers can move you to tears and joy. (Like Raquia Hassan, Fifi Abdou, Soheir Zaki, etc.) The modern dancers are awesome too, like Dina, Randa Kamel of Egypt, Aziza, Ava Fleming, Suhaila, of the US and Canada.
Bellydance is real big and there are multiple genres like Tribal style, Hip Hop, Bollywood style, even Gothic/Fusion, in addition to Egyptian, Lebanese and Turkish styles. So if you haven’t checked out the world of bellydance in awhile you might want to. Take a class while you’re at it! Oh, that includes guys too!
Posted 24 Oct 2007 at 2:45 pm ¶
Free wrote:
bdsista: It’s interesting what you say about color and Arab racism because I had a really good conversation about racism with this Egyptian guy up at Siwa Oasis (I don’t know if you got up there, hope you did, it’s a great place). Anyway, he insisted that there is no racism in Egypt. That there is no such thing as black or white. When I used the word Asian, he interrupted me and said, “these words you use, I don’t know them, there is no black, white in Egypt.”
Just before all that he told me that Egyptians call each other other negro and zingy which means nigger [Note: I don’t use “the N word.” Censorship is a guise] .
I was so shocked. I asked him, where did you learn that word. How do you know it? He said that he learned it from movies: You Got Served and a Jessica Alba film. He also mentioned Will Smith and said, “He’s number one in Egypt.” (as is Shakira, BTW).
This Egyptian guy has a friend who is “black” (as in description of skin color), who he jokingly calls nigger. “But my friend he never get angry. He knows it means nothing.” I asked him if he would call a light or white complexioned person nigger. He was puzzled by that because for him it wouldn’t make sense because with few exceptions, in the movies dark complexioned people are the niggers.
On the other hand, this Egyptian guy would not call me nigger, because he said, “Egyptians know the history, we know what it means to Americans.” Egyptians who call each other zingy, are just imitating. That’s my conclusion; I could be wrong.
Bdsista, I’d like to know (and hopefully you will return to this post), what your experience was in Egypt. Did you experience any rejection as a dancer because of your skin color? Any racism? I’ve been to the Sheraton and a seedy spot near Pyramid Street as well as on Nile dinner cruises and the dancers are light-complexioned, which makes me wonder if the problem is skin-color (or skin-tone) prejudice and not racism.
On last thing: he also said that the Arab word equivalent to negro means “run.”
Posted 29 Oct 2007 at 12:00 am ¶
Amory wrote:
just read this again and remembered old Britney with her snake a few years back. Remember that? It was supposed to be so scandalous because she was a teenager?
weird how I never tied those together. anyway.
Posted 15 Nov 2007 at 10:59 pm ¶
egypt4 wrote:
Free, I just saw your post here. I’m white, but my kids are black, and we live in Cairo, and I can say with absolute confidence that there is racism in Egypt, towards what some Egyptians call “Africans” (and this is the part where they forget they are also in Africa).
Egyptians do have a range of skin tones, from fair to very dark, but it’s not a coincidence that darker skinned people here tend to have lower status and lower paying jobs.
In fact, it’s been a real disappointment to us. We are American expats and are thinking it might be better for our kids to grow up in the US, or at least not here. For the record, the expat community here is great, very open minded and internationally oriented. So, there’s an unexpected twist: we move to Egypt and find it’s the Americans who are the least racist. Hmm.
(Here, anyway; I’m not saying this is true anywhere else.)
Posted 24 Nov 2007 at 6:53 am ¶
Jonathan Stray wrote:
An interesting article, thanks, and it points out a real problem.
However, having traveled through a number of Muslim countries, I must ask: are these merely stereotypes of Western media, or do they actually represent stereotypes and unfair categorizations in authentic Muslim culture?
As food for thought, I offer the following article about the sexuality of college-age Indian men: http://tinyurl.com/3vmtfx. India is not a strictly Muslim culture, to be sure, but perhaps this will serve to remind us that the sexual revolution of the 1960s, which finally allowed women to be sexual without being sluts, never actually happened in most of the world’s countries and cultures.
Posted 04 Jun 2008 at 5:26 pm ¶
Woodrow "asim" Jarvis Hill wrote:
Jonathan,
The concept of “authentic Muslim culture” is a very messy one. For starters, there is no “Muslim Culture” that has all the qualities you mention, although many have qualities in common.
Second, centuries of oppression and violation by colonial powers have mutated some aspects of the culture. For example, “belly dancing” is a Western term that many Arabic-speakers use, even though it’s more proper name (at least in Egypt) is raqs sharqi. Worse, raqs sharqi is NOT an “ancient dance”, although it’s antecedents may be. It jumps from work started in the 1920’s in Cairo, and that spread throughout the world, slowly and hesitatingly, mostly in parallel with the rise of Cairo as a source of Arabic language films.
Raqs sharqi took in many of the elements that Western and Saudi tourists “expected” of The Orient. Most obvious is the dance costume, called bedlah — the bra-and-skirt is not anything like any native clothing, but is like the Orientalist fantasy work that had been the primary view of that region by westerners for over a century, at that point. They provided what the audience wanted, a perfect example of the Observer Effect in action.
And that also helps explain a lot of the tension between raqs sharqi and the rest of Egyptian culture. It also helps to explain some aspects on Indian culture, which had similar pressures.
In short, please don’t make the assumption that events occurring now are reflective of the underlying culture; there’s been not just decades, by centuries of ongoing evolution of these cultures by outside forces, and that has to be taken into account when trying to find “authentic” anything, here.
Posted 24 Jun 2008 at 9:44 am ¶