Racialicious Crush Of The Week: Ainee Fatima

February 1st, 2013 by Andrea

2) Bouncing off that incredibly funny cartoon, I’d love to hear how you use Islam and feminism to shape the work you do, from the comic to your activism to your poetry–which seems to me, all are of the same cloth called your life? A lot of people look at me with a weird face when I say that Islam has very feminist ideals and values. Yes, there are Muslim feminists, and there are Muslim women who don’t even feel the need to label themselves as a feminist because of what Islam provides for them. Now, it might be hard to separate the image of Islam that is portrayed in the news to the one I’m telling you about. Many Muslim female scholars agree that much of the misogyny embedded in Islamic culture is due to patriarchal dominance within the religion, including practices based on local culture, traditions, political repression, illiteracy. and poverty. But, you can say that for many organized religions as well, am I right? Even in Western society today, we can still see the repercussions and remnants of a patriarchal society. One must understand that this is a cultural perspective and practice that has been passed down. It is important for me to include Islam in a lot of my discussions because its values are so in tune with my beliefs as a feminist.

3) And here’s a follow-up question that I’m finding myself asking quite a few Crushes: where do you see gaps in feminist/anti-racist conversations and activism? Many white feminists tend to view factors like race as tangential issues that serve as a distraction or even a betrayal to the advancement of womanhood, or they’re e quite dogmatic and narrow-minded in the way they view gender dynamics.
Courtesy of fainee and politicsofmyLund.

Courtesy of fainee and politicsofmyLund.

On the other hand, there are younger, modern-day feminist organizations that erase intersectionality and proceed to discuss oppression particular to subgroups of women without including the voices of said subgroup. FEMEN is a good example of what I mean. They often incorporate “nude protests” on behalf of Muslim women, whom they presume to be too stifled to speak for themselves–but, in doing so, they accomplish three things which are counterproductive. First, they ignore that sexism within the Muslim community (which is a vast community in itself) is something that women are allowed to and understand enough about to discuss, which isn’t true. Secondly, they further silence us Muslim women by assuming they know what we need for our liberation which, I can assure you, extends much deeper than taking our clothes off. Last, and most importantly, they insidiously suggest that there’s something uniquely and violently misogynistic about Muslim men, which extends to the entire community and, thus, enables racial profiling and the usurping of our struggle for gender equality to excuse imperialism. When a feminist objective directly aligns with racist, xenophobic and warmongering propaganda, there is a problem. Yet, so many times, they’ve been harshly criticized and refuse to alter their behavior, which leads me to believe that there objective isn’t genuinely for us at all.

Things that white feminists can do to bridge the gap with WoC, in my opinion, are to start listening to us when we speak about our experience, not vilify men of color harshly, understand that one woman’s struggle isn’t “the” woman’s struggle, and that we can and definitely do contribute to one another’s oppression (i.e. a female fashion designer employing the use of sweatshop labor into her line), and that understand that privileged women, by default, are not owed allyship from more marginalized women.

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Posted in Racialicious Crush Of The Week, art, comics, feminism, gender, humor, images, islamophobia, muslim, politics, racism, white, women, women of color | 1 comment

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