Shelina Zahra Janmohamed's Blog, page 18
February 16, 2011
LSE Literary Festival Saturday 19th feb, I will be speaking there
I have been invited to speak at the LSE 'Space for Thought' Literary Festival this Saturday on Literature and Islamophobia.
The event will be held at LSE (London School of Economics) on Saturday 19th Feb from 630pm to 8pm. You can see more about the event and book tickets for free, here: http://www2.lse.ac.uk/publicEvents/events/2011/20110219t1830vWT.aspx#generated-subheading2
The panel will additionally feature two Dutch Muslim writers Şenay Özdemir and Naema Tahir who will comment on the subject from their perspectives of Turkish origin based in the Netherlands.
Do come along – will be great to see you. Oh, and I'm braving my first outing after baby! (who may well come along with me!)
Some blurb about the event:
There are few places in Europe in which the voices of multiculturalism and Islamophobia have clashed more forcefully than in the Netherlands, often in the most dramatic ways. To name just a few, Pim Fortuyn, Theo Van Gogh, Ayaan Hirsi Ali and most recently Geert Wilders have been very much in the international press over the last decade.
In the UK we are now 14 years on from the publication of the influential Runnymede Trust report Islamophobia: a Challenge for us All which sets out an agenda for overcoming social exclusion of British Muslims.
Fiction writers from Muslim backgrounds have played an important role in the debate about multiculturalism and Islamophobia. We will explore how they see their art as a tool to facilitate cross-cultural dialogue and political discourse about integration.
Our panel consists of Şenay Özdemir and Naema Tahir, two women Muslim writers from the Netherlands, and Shelina Zahra Janmohamed, a woman Muslim writer from North London, who will talk about what motivates their art as women Muslim writers in respectively the Netherlands and the UK.
February 15, 2011
Why Valentines is an even bigger problem for the Middle East and Muslims than they think it is
This column was published in this week's National, aimed at the audience in the UAE.
Valentine's Day will generate high emotions next week – and not just from those in love. Some people will be waiting excitedly to see if they will receive gifts and meals, while others will be angry at the hold that this occasion is gaining in the Middle East. The negativity of the latter focuses around its vulgar commercialism and its celebration of a very fickle interpretation of love. These are complaints that echo around the world.
But there is an additional criticism that comes from this region: that Valentine's Day is alien and even contradictory to Middle Eastern culture.
The myths that a society venerates about love tell us a great deal about its views on this subject. So if Valentine's Day is alien, what myths tell us about the shape, value and role of love in the Middle East?
I've spent time talking to women in the Gulf exploring which myths and legends they feel most connected to when it comes to love. I offer them a selection of western fairytales like Cinderella and Sleeping Beauty, alongside Middle Eastern tales like that of Layla and Majnun and Scheherazade.
Much to my surprise, many of the younger women have never heard of the Middle Eastern heroines and align themselves more closely to the western archetypes. This should concern those who put forward the argument that the western notion of love is "alien". Middle Eastern storytelling and the values it conveys are already being eclipsed in the English-speaking Gulf population. And this is significant because the myths and stories of love at the centre of our society shape our social values and expectations.
Consider Cinderella and Sleeping Beauty, which convey an idea of love as something passive for women, waiting to be liberated by princes who judge them for how they look rather than who they are. This looks-based love conquers all, including social and geographic barriers.
By contrast, in Scheherazade, love is not mentioned; Scheherazade is a story of the social consequences of a woman's infidelity, but also the power of the supposedly softer woman's skills of guile and intelligence. In Layla and Majnun love is seen as the downfall of the two characters. Instead, the story of Layla and Majnun puts forward a model of family duty, and a warning that stepping outside of family convention can have catastrophic outcomes.
Somehow, neither model of love seems to fit the aspirations of young Middle Eastern women. Where family duty or cleverness was once used to determine a woman's destiny, today's woman does want love, and also wants a more individual say in who she marries. However, Middle Eastern discourse does not appear to allow women to talk of love, which is why the western stories – including Valentine's Day – have captured imaginations: they finally offer an outlet to talk about love publicly. This is despite the fact that the model of love put forward by such stories is problematic, based on superficiality, instant gratification and the need to be constantly high by "being in love".
Those who argue that Valentine's Day and western ideals of love are "alien" to the Middle East must offer an alternative model that captures this aspiration for "love". And this has to start by talking of love publicly. If this doesn't happen, then the superficial saccharine kind of love will come to occupy centre stage in the discussion, because it will be the only kind of love talked about openly, and to which people can aspire. And human beings will always gravitate to some form of love than no love at all.
February 14, 2011
Baby news! It's a girl…
The silence on the blog for the last few weeks may have alerted you to some fabulous news – Baby has Arrived!
courtesy of dinodaloo.blogspot.com
My little girl is more than three weeks old now, and I'm amazed how the days have flown by in a blur. She's a sweetheart, a tiny little person that has arrived in my life and taken a firm hold. Life Before Baby is now forgotten!
Many people have been asking her name, so I can now reveal that she is called: "Hana", and here is why…
Hana is mentioned in Islamic as well as Biblical tradition, and is the mother of Maryam (Mary), the mother of Isa (Jesus). Hana is mentioned in the Qur'an, although not directly by name, but by her title "the wife of Imran." The Qur'an describes how Hana vowed that if she had a child she would dedicate it to live and serve in the temple. But when the child was born, it was of course a girl – Maryam. And at that time, only men were permitted into the temple. Hana says "God, it is a girl", sounding surprised, but I feel she wanted to draw public attention to the fact that women are also chosen to participate in the public and religious domains. We hope the name Hana will inspire our daughter to participate with full heart and joy in the civic space, and to know that her talents and spirit will be a positive force whatever she chooses to do.
Please do say a prayer for the little one…
By the way, anyone have one of these I could borrow?
January 27, 2011
Anxieties of a Mum-to-Be
This is my monthly column published in this month's EMEL magazine.
(An update will follow soon!)
For first-time expectant mothers, the experience is a reflective one; revealing more about womanhood and femininity than one had expected.
By the time you read this column, I may have some big news for you. I'm expecting my first child. And it's very possible that by the time this reaches print, the little one will have appeared.
When I first discovered I was expecting, I felt it was too early to share the news publicly, after all we're advised to keep things quiet till after the 12 week watershed. After that, I felt different about myself, my body and my future from moment to moment. How would I be able to capture that kind of fluctuation in a static piece of writing?
I also started to question exactly who or what I am as a woman. I thought I knew the answer, having spent years on life's journey towards understanding womanhood. And – this sounds very obvious – I was blown away at how much I didn't know about myself as soon as this new being settled itself inside me. My whole perspective on femininity and womanhood has started to slowly change. And that is before I've even given birth.
As a teenager, one of the Bearded Uncles had imparted his advice to me that a woman would never be complete until she held her child in her arms. I spent the next few days in a rebellious young feminist's huff. How dare he impose his patriarchal views that a woman could only be complete as a mother! But already, I know that what I have experienced with this new life growing stronger every day inside me is not something that can be conveyed in words.
It is unbelievable that the body I knew so well had this innate capability to swell and give comfort to a small embryo. As I write this, only three weeks remain till the official due date, and I can feel the baby's knees, feet and hands as little bumps that already make my heart melt. I can feel its heartbeat and its hiccups. Anyone placing their hands on the curve of my stomach will share some of the sensation, but it is impossible to convey the difficulties as well as the emotions the new being inside me generates. My mother, aunts and friends had described it to me over and over in detail, but now going through it I see that the intensity of it cannot be verbalised. Being the carrier for a new innocent life fills me with awe.
This responsibility sits on me as both an honour and a burden, and one of the challenges that I have been dealing with is to live up to the hallowed status of motherhood. In the society we live in, women are supposed to be 'supermums' who can work and look after children and have it all. Or they must be 'yummy mummies' who wipe their children's snotty noses and look fabulous themselves all the time.
But equally when constantly faced with Islamic teachings such as "paradise lies beneath the feet of the mother" it is hard not to feel unworthy of the blessings of motherhood. After all, if paradise lies underneath, then the woman must be of a calibre to merit such status. I ask myself if I will be able to live up to such expectations.
When it comes to the yummy mummy dilemma and the anxieties generated by the seemingly high expectations of motherhood, I have received my answer from the Qur'an. It is in the surah named after Lady Maryam, the mother of Isa, that I find my solace. This surah is recommended for expectant mothers to recite every day to help with pregnancy and delivery.
The verse that grabs my attention every time I recite the surah is this one which describes Lady Maryam as she goes into labour: "And the pains of childbirth drove her to the trunk of a date-palm. She said: 'Would that I had died before this, and had been forgotten and out of sight'." (19:23)
This down-to-earth and realistic approach towards the entry to motherhood that God communicates to men and women gives me confidence. It gives me the confidence that entering the next phase of life is recognisably difficult. It also helps me dispel any cultural myths that motherhood must be all glamour and perfection. But most of all it gives me confidence that I am safe in God's hands as I become a mother, and that what happens next will be indescribably, amazingly, human.
January 16, 2011
T minus 4
Back to the countdown to baby…
I've realised a number of things.
I'm not good at the daily countdown. I've missed two entries. I had so many thoughts but the tingle in my fingers to blog them faded. Perhaps it was a conservation of energy for organisation/relaxation purposes.
Next, I have no idea what the 'T' in 'T minus' stands for.
But best of all, all the 'urgent' tasks are complete now and the intense levels of anxiety that things would not be ready have now subsided. The house is organised. The bags are packed, the urgent admin is complete.
I now make the unofficial and entirely self-certified declaration that I am now on "maternity leave". Yes, all four days of it.
Howveer since I write freelance I think this self determination is significant nonetheless. After all, when does a writer/blogger who writes about the world around them ever really stop?
I do wonder if there is really truly an 'off' switch. And even if there is an off, there is the worry that the 'on' button might be hard to find or slow to reignite (like those energy saving bulbs).
I have been off duty since this afternoon and what I have enjoyed the most is this incredible sense of liberation, not just because I'm free to think of myself and baby but from a life perspective too. Suddenly life is organises – no rushing or emergencies. Nothing I must do. My time really is my own and I can direct it how I want to do things that I want to do and I enjoy. It's a fabulous feeling before a big life change, but I like this sense of lightness and liberation as a general lifestyle. I'm going to see if I can hang onto it.
Four days to go and I can now think about what happens next instead of coming to a mental standstill when I think past the delivery room.
I've had one overwhelming thought through reading the pregnancy guides, going to classes and absorbing baby knowledge through conversation and Internet surfing, and it's this… Having a baby seems to be a bit like getting married. All anyone seems to talk about is the big day itself, the preparations and the ups and downs. Almost nobody talks about what happens afterwards, and surely with both a marriage and a baby (admittedly labour is a tough and fraught experience but it is a transition phase) it's what you do after the day or two days that really counts?
When politics interferes with marriage, it tells us a lot
This is my weekly column in The National.
Don't marry an Arab man: this was the underlying message of a letter written to Jewish women and signed by the wives of 27 rabbis in Israel less than a fortnight ago. The letter added that Jewish women should avoid dating, working alongside and performing their national service with non-Jews.
Racism can rear its ugly head anywhere, it seems, even in a supposedly modern democracy.
It's a small group that wrote the letter, and we should be cautious not to judge the many by the actions of the few. We know, for example, that the violent criminal actions of individual Muslims who perpetuate terrorism do not represent a billion people worldwide.
However, the letter is not without precedent. It follows another letter, this one from rabbis urging Jews not to sell or rent property to non-Jews. In surveys in Israel about the letters, polls have shown nearly half the population supports the sentiments.
Last year an Arab Israeli was convicted of raping a Jewish Israeli woman. Even though she had consented to the liaison, when she subsequently realised he was Arab, she had brought the matter to court on the basis she had been deceived and was, therefore, raped even though he had never explicitly claimed to be Jewish.
It was a first date, and whatever your views on one-night stands, the takeaway message from the case seemed to be that Jewish men engage in consensual sex but Arab men rape.
The racism in the letters is also deep-rooted. Women are advised that Arab men will use all sorts of tricks to lure them into marriage, changing their names and even being polite. But once the girls are in their evil clutches in their villages, they will suffer "cursings, beatings and humiliation".
Some people might find the following comment upsetting, but will the next step be to make Arabs wear yellow crescent-shaped badges in public?
Initially, these incidents point to discrimination. But there are deeper issues at work here.
Let's be clear. I'm not detracting from the serious political and racial implications of this action, given that it comes within a particular political climate. Nor am I justifying its lack of morality: quite the opposite. However, I think we should see what it tells us about the wider issues: even in modern times, why are women used as tools to a particular ideology?
Whereas women and men were once and, in some instances, still forcibly prevented from marrying someone the family doesn't approve of, the screws are now applied by appealing to patriotism and nationalism.
Yet, are those crying racism just as guilty of it in their own lives?
Last year an Egyptian court ruled that men who marry Israeli women would be stripped of their citizenship, although the cabinet would have discretion on this depending on whether the wife was Arab or Jewish. More than 30,000 Egyptian men are married to Israeli women. The lawyer proposing the ruling said it was meant to protect Egypt's youths and its national security, and added that the offspring of such couples should be prevented from military service.
Politics and marriage might seem worlds apart. But these most recent cases suggest that who a society deems acceptable for individuals to marry says a lot more about its social mores and hidden political agenda than we might think.
January 13, 2011
The last seven days…
Baby-time,
And the mum-to-be's chill-ih-in.
No more stressing,
Just getting relaxed.
Your daddy's not rich,
And neither is your mum…
Ooooooh…..
(can you work out the tune?)
The missing 'eight days to go' post
I ought to have written this yesterday, if I was properly intent on keeping a ten-day countdown to the due date. But on day 9, lots of you gave me fab advice to stop being so anxious and just chill out.
So I did.
And you suffered because you were unable to share the mundane details of the 8 days to Baby.
A quick recap: the curtains for the nursery still haven't arrived. The inland revenue paperwork continues to be in progress (eta today). The study is more or less filed away, with about 30 minutes more to go. And I went to visit the midwife for my weekly check up.
Last week's midwife couldn't tell which way my baby was facing, despite about 20 minutes of prodding and patting my belly. "Not sure" she said. Isn't a midwife's expertise in knowing about babies? "Might send you for a scan" she grimaced. A scan? A scan? No wonder the NHS is short of resources. (that's my grumpy pregnant lady side coming out.) This midwife identified some important milestones. But she had a terrible snotting cold and kept blowing her nose.
Some thoughts I've had: maybe I express more anxiety than I'm actually feeling? Maybe my fingers and mouth run away with anxious words? Anyway, am trying to hold back.
Maybe life continues pretty much as normal after the baby arrives, except there is a baby to take care of? (as in: i'll still write emails, I'll still go shopping, I'll still chat to my friends n the phone).
Some nice things that happened: a lovely young woman trained in hospital chaplaincy offered to support me after the birth. Completely spontaneously. How nice is that?
And I had a very strong image that I was participating in the hajj, standing outside the kaba. I took this as a very positive sign that the birth will be a spiritual journey, a special invitation to participate at an important event. A blessing.
For those who are not Muslim, the hajj is an occasion where you have your soul purified, and it is a blessing to be part of it.
For those not into the whole sixth sense thing, well, it was a very positive feeling. It's going to be tough (hajj is very tough) but good things will come, inshallah.
January 11, 2011
Only Nine Days
Where did the whole of today go?
Mr Inland Revenue boogie man, along with papers that have needed filing for some time – and yet have begun to seriously irk me – have stolen this precious day. When each days is as significant as 10% they seem to fly by.
I'm trying hard to reduce the anxiety that I've been feeling that I 'won't get everything done', by just taking things at the pace at which they demand to be taken. Which is definitely much more relaxing. I feel much more in control. Until I think of EVERYTHING THAT NEEDS TO BE DONE.
Some cute things have happened too. I've just ordered some beautiful artwork to be printed on canvas and hung in the baby's room. Hopefully it will be here by Thursday. (Thank you to Lutfi who provided some of the hi-res imagery that I picked out from his collection – just for our baby!)
A changing table has also arrived to complete the nursery furniture. However, it still remains in its packaging as we're dreading building it. The previous items have been a DIY challenge to say the least – and no, it's not us, it's the poor instructions.
Some things which were ordered but were delivered incorrectly were taken away today by the nice delivery people – online shopping (and returning) has been a godsend for a fattie waddling pregnant lady like me.
I also listened to the Qur'anic chapter called 'Maryam' today, as I have been doing everyday, recited by the beautiful voice of Mishary Alafasy. So soothing to listen to. Almost eased away the pain of the tax return.
Tomorrow's tasks: finish the boring admin, see the midwife, and start getting the house ready for baby. Before we know it we'll be in my last week. What a journey.
January 10, 2011
Ten days and counting
The official countdown to D-day (or should that be 'b-day'?) has started, and I just have ten days to go. I definitely don't feel ready. But as someone pointed out to me over the weekend "you've had nine months to prepare,so it's not really a surprise is it?"
The baby stuff is nearly ready. The moses basket is prepped, the clothes are washed (and even ironed!) I've a cupboard full of nappies in a variety of sizes and brands. I've 300 wet wipes, 100 nappy sacks and six months worth of supply of the things you put in the nappy disposal bin to stop the dirty nappies from stinking up the place.
The hospital bag 90% packed. The birth plan written (does anyone at the hospital actually read it?). All families have details of the hospital. Several phones, cameras and emergency contact mechanisms are prepared.
And I'm not ready. Every time I go somewhere I think "next time I do this, there will be a baby, God willing." Seems a very incomprehensible idea.
A lovely lovely friend came over to take some 'bump' pictures over the weekend, so that's a tick off the list too.
What now? Admin. All that stuff that really ought to be done, otherwise will cause problems. You know who you are Mr Inland Revenue. Boo to you.
And? Writing, writing, writing as much as possible for work.
And then? Have been nesting for some weeks now, but still have the irrepressible urge to continue tidying/organising/cleaning.
Only ten days left? Crikey. You all need to start praying for me! (and the little one of course)
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