by Karine Ancellin Saleck
Belgium

Despair of Young European Muslims Drives Some to Suicide—Part I

Iman has never been sung the sweet nursery rhymes of Carthagena. She feels guilty for betraying her parents, even though, on a daily basis, she is perceived by others as Tunisian; these strangers disregard the European dominance of her identity.

Since 9/11, and the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, primetime media has focused its attention on Muslim extremists. The lack of expression of the Muslim masses, like herself in Europe, and her family in Tunisia (who condemn Islam extremists), leads Iman to feel that Islam is an easy scapegoat for all kinds of societal maladies. The “moderates,” like those in Iman’s family, are totally ignored and required to stay largely invisible if they are to keep their place in France.

Iman is upset by what she sees as an unfair situation. A faithful believer, Iman, like her mother, is tolerant about religious practice, even though sometimes she blames her for having discarded some religious obligations. Iman is unable to create a religious or political identity for herself. She has never worn a headscarf and went to the same school as the other French neighbor girls. She knows as much as they do, if not more, because of her dual yet inhibited Tunisian identity, but she fails to accept her diversity. She thinks she is just an underdog, less beautiful, less intelligent, less everything than the others.

by Karine Ancellin Saleck
Belgium

Towards the end of their secondary school years, or sometimes college years, young Europeans between 15 and 25 experience depression and a sense of failure. During this passage from student to professional life, social commitments weigh more heavily on their shoulders while the professional horizon offers them few prospects. Living with this melancholy distances the adolescents from family and friends offering support. Forlorn meanderings often lead to acts of despair.

This sad urban trend is now also relevant in recent immigrant families, all the more so in families of Muslim origin because of the daily deaths brought on by the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. The once close ties between the members of ‘recently arrived’ clans have dissolved while the aloofness of the host society has become more acute and blatant since 9/11.

by Karine Ancellin Saleck
Belgium

“We must celebrate our similarities rather than our differences” -- Nawal Al Sadawi

Nawal Al Sadawi was in Belgium invited by AWSA (Arab Women Solidarity Association) to reflect on Arab women in Europe. Because of her literary fame, Mrs Al Sadawi has had to face numerous difficulties and even dangers in her life. In 1972 she lost her job in the Egyptian government. The magazine, Health, which she had founded and edited for more than three years, was closed down. In 1981, President Sadat put her in prison. She was released one month after his assassination. From 1988 to 1993, her name figured on death lists issued by some fanatical terrorist organizations. She lived in exile for five years. In 2001, she won her case in Cairo court against forceful divorce from her husband (according to Hisba law). In 2004, Al Azhar in Cairo banned her novels, The Fall of the Imam and Al Riwaya. On 15 June 1991, the government issued a decree that closed down the Arab Women's Solidarity Association, over which she presides, and handed over its funds to the association called Women in Islam.

by Karine Ancellin Saleck
Belgium

Europe's Muslim Feminism Renewal—Part I
Europe's Muslim Feminism Renewal—Part II

Part III of III

European mainstream society has been totally deaf to the claims of its Muslims believers. Muslim feminists bring to life the humanist aspect of the faith (or culture) together, giving it an active twist, and that is the foundation of an answer to people like the French ‘writer’ Houellebec, who calls Islam “the stupidest religion of all,” and all those now engaged in Arab or Muslim hate rhetoric.

Muslim feminists offer some kind of response to the rampant Islamophobia. They lighten the hearts that are burdened with downgrading images of Islam, with deaths of Muslims youths, with the humiliation heaped on even those who are only remotely linked to the religion. They scan the Koran to find quotes that advocate humanism, human rights, and rights of women. They speak of universal rights abducted in Muslim countries by male dominant powers, although they are unambiguously present in the scriptures. Their very appealing new thought is that the opressor is not the religion, but the macho reading that was made of its texts, which is related to the different cultural heritage of each country.

by Karine Ancellin Saleck
Belgium

Europe's Muslim Feminist Renewal—Part I

Part II of III

The Islamic Feminist Trend

Women are no longer prepared to offer total submission to paternalistic and colonial models. When scrutinizing the Western women’s liberation model, Asma Lamrabet speaks of new trends in women’s religious liberation, whether in Muslim or European countries.

“A colonialist speech of ‘Orientalist’ type, that categorizes the Muslim women in her grid of ‘eternally submissive’ victim and who cannot match the picture of the liberated modern women. This ‘otherness’ seems to be the dynamic of the universalist vision and which uses a language of paternalistic domination still linked to its colonialist project: we don’t want to liberate the Muslim women to liberate her as an individual, but mostly to value the Western Model and keep this power balance that has enabled us to better dominate the other…between the West imposing its ultimate Liberation Model and the Muslim world’s answer of draw back and rebellious identity, we should be able to find alternatives that are able to transcend these two suicidal strategies…”

by Karine Ancellin Saleck
Belgium

Part I of III

In March 2005, Amina Wadud, Professor of Islamic Studies at the Commonwealth University of Virginia, led prayer for a mixed audience of believers in Manhattan, New York. Death threats were sent to her by those parties who saw her actions as heretical.

Can we interpret these signs as an emancipation of the Muslim woman? Is this what is now widely coming to be seen as Muslim feminism?