Shelina Zahra Janmohamed's Blog, page 7
April 13, 2013
Femen: we don’t need your topless protest and we don’t want your ‘help’
Published today in The National
Protesting against the oppressive status quo comes in many forms. Non-violent protest was Gandhi’s weapon of choice. Rosa Parks chose to sit where she was forbidden. Mohamed Bouazizi set fire to himself. Their methods of disobedience fuelled social change.
A form of protest that doesn’t fit into this pantheon, despite its grandiose and self-important claims, is last week’s “International Topless Jihad Day” convened by a Ukrainian group, Femen, whose motto is “better naked than the veil”.
Tunisian blogger Amina Tyler received death threats and alleged kidnapping by her family after posting pictures of herself naked in line with Femen’s approach to tackling patriarchy. In response, Femen declared a day of “topless jihad”. A handful of women protested outside mosques in Paris and Belgium, and some were stopped en route to a mosque in Kiev, Ukraine.
Femen believe their actions are helping Muslim women. To this I say: no thanks, we don’t need your “help”. Your actions are neither feminist nor helpful.
What help are you giving? Did you help the blue-bra woman in Tahrir Square? Are you helping child brides in Yemen? Do you help your own Ukrainian women, hundreds of thousands of whom have been victims of human trafficking? Your actions are nothing more than a schoolboy stunt allowing the tacky tabloids another excuse to commodify women.
I find your behaviour infantile and lacking in knowledge of actual effective ways of making change. If anything, your actions have set back our cause.
From a feminist perspective, nude protest feeds into the treatment of women as sex objects. And Femen’s description of Muslims as brainwashed, unthinking and knife-wielding adds to hatred against Muslims.
We reject your imperialist propaganda that we would only be free if we were naked like you. Muslims see a different shape to social development for themselves. Liberty yes, but on Femen’s terms and with Femen’s vision? Again, I say no thanks.
“We told you the West is negative and will destroy Muslim societies,” admonishes the patriarchy, and in turn the initiatives that Muslim women themselves have mounted are muted. “Help” takes forms like the invasion of Afghanistan, making life worse for everyone. If you’re serious about helping Muslim women, address the principal causes of oppression: poverty, war and the skewed global financial system. Women are always at the bottom of the pile and even those who are oppressed turn their meagre power onto Muslim women.
But most of all, we don’t need Femen because you believe that we cannot think for ourselves, and that you need to free us. Which is why I assume you ignore the multitude of Muslim women who object to your actions. Why do protests by a few naked white women generate more coverage than all the initiatives and protests by Muslim women themselves?
Femen leader Inna Shevchenko: you said there are “bearded men with knives” behind us, and you called us “slaves”.
Your slurs against the many men who support us, against our independent agency, and your description of us as “slaves” show that you do not respect us. Those who demean us are not our helpers. It is Orwellian doublespeak to say you desire our freedom when all your actions do is to heap unwanted stereotypes upon us and stir hatred against us.
Will naked breasts help us? To quote that tongue-in-cheek feminist phrase: we need you like a fish needs a bicycle.
Shelina Zahra Janmohamed is the author of Love in a Headscarf and blogs atwww.spirit21.co.uk
April 8, 2013
Finding the perfect partner, feminism and why men need emotional fulfilment too
My weekly column published in The National
Image courtesy notonthehighstreet.com
It is a truth universally acknowledged that a woman gaining a higher education must be in want of a husband – or at least that was the case a hundred years ago.
Since then we’ve had feminism, the chiselling away of the glass ceiling and a narrowing of the male-female pay gap. But most importantly we’ve had social acceptance that education for education’s sake is as important for women as it is for men, and that snagging a husband is not a woman’s only or ultimate goal. Imagine, then, the storm whipped up by a letter written by Princeton alumna Susan Patton, published in the student newspaper, to female undergraduates she called “the daughters I never had”. She advised them to take a hard look at their male Princeton peers and realise that they will “never again have this concentration of men who are worthy of you”.
And here’s her killer advice: “Find a husband on campus before you graduate.” She knows her views are not fashionable in the 21st century, but “this is what nobody is telling you”.
Her advice polarised opinions. There are critics who say that going to university to look for a husband is a backwards step for establishing a woman’s independent worth outside of being her husband’s chattel. Further, to say that the only suitable match for a woman is someone from the same university or social strata is elitist.
But other women are breathing a sigh of relief that someone has finally spoken about the importance of personal life as part of the women’s liberation movement. Feminism has focused too much on career and forgotten about establishing women’s personal happiness, which is also a feminist goal, or at least ought to be.
The general idea of looking for a partnership with a compatible peer is, in my opinion, sound. And I agree that if feminism is to achieve women’s happiness then one of its duties is to bolster women’s belief in their right to more balanced partnerships.
More often than not, a fulfilling partnership is more likely to occur – although this is not the only possibility – with someone who is a social and intellectual peer. So looking out for such a person at a formative time of your life where there are those who match you intellectually is not a bad thing.
As an aside, I am saddened that we live in a culture where saying that you’d like someone nice to share your life with is considered unworthy and shameful.
Here’s the problem. If advice about relationships continues to be given only to women, then the effort and responsibility to secure a partner will never be equally spread, which means that the relationships themselves can never be balanced.
The first step is for a public acknowledgement that men need good relationships too, and they too should be looking for a compatible peer.
Pushing for equal rights and treatment for women in the workplace has certainly had knock-on effects at home, some positive. But some of the negative ones focus around the challenge of “having it all” and being a superwoman who can juggle home and career.
But if men were encouraged to place a higher value on the home and on their personal relationships, then this burden would be reduced for women. But more importantly, men too would be happier and more fulfilled.
Ultimately, a better work- life balance, with a better relationship at the core of it, is good for both men and women. That is the advice we should be giving our undergraduates today.
April 4, 2013
Halal: its not just what you eat
This is my latest news feature for the National looking at World Halal Week which is taking place this week in Kuala Lumpur
It is a multitrillion-dollar sector. But halal is not just about food – as a conference displaying Malaysia’s lead in the area illustrates, it is rapidly evolving into consumer goods, pharmaceuticals and Islamic finance, with interest also from the Arabian Gulf. Shelina Janmohamed reports.
This was published in The National today
[image error]The Petronas Towers stand proud above Kuala Lumpur, a city that has been transformed over the past 20 years from the quiet capital of Malaysia into a bustling regional hub, and one of the key proponents of the burgeoning halal industry.
It is host to World Halal Week, a global convention that brings together buyers, manufacturers and industry experts all growing the US$2.1 trillion (Dh7.7tn) global halal market.
Part-exhibition, part-conference, it joins up the Malaysia International Halal Showcase (Mihas) and the World Halal Forum.
Mihas celebrates its 10th anniversary this year. Launched in the shadow of September 11 and in the years after the financial crash in Asia, it was both visionary in imagining a global sector aimed positively at the Muslim world, and opportunistic in establishing Malaysia as a key halal hub.
Its aim is to facilitate the sourcing and selling of quality halal consumables, products and services globally, describing itself as “the largest congregation of halal industry players”.
The convention, which opened yesterday and runs until Saturday, is open to business and trade, with the public being allowed in on the final day.
The event expects to grow 25 per cent on last year, projecting 500 exhibitors and 20,000 visitors. Last year, more than two thirds of visitors were trade buyers. A special pre-show programme brings “incoming buying missions”, which are organised by the Ministry of Trade and Investment, to build the profile of Malaysian SMEs in the halal sector.
This business matching programme gives both buyers and sellers the advantages of one-to-one negotiations. Its popularity is apparent. Last year 361 foreign companies from 52 countries were matched up with 449 Malaysian companies and resulted in 3,714 meetings.
The aim this year is to replicate the 500 million ringgit (Dh596m) worth of business conducted overall during the exhibition.
Mihas is organised by two of the halal industry’s most well-known bodies, the Halal Industry Development Corporation (HDC) and the International Halal Integrity Alliance (IHI Alliance).
The HDC is part of Malaysia’s strategy to establish the country as the gateway to the halal industry. As an agency under the Ministry of International Trade and Industry, its objective is to co-ordinate the overall development of the halal industry in Malaysia, something that is important commercially and politically to the South-East Asian nation with a population of 28 million, 60 per cent of which is Muslim.
“Mihas was a pioneering initiative to fill a gap in the market and provide Muslim consumers a showcase of halal products, mainly food,” says Hajjah Jumaatun Azmi, founder and director of the World Halal Forum, the second of the two events taking place this week.
Its success led to a second Mihas the following year, after which Ms Azmi says that “we realised that there was a need for constructive discussion and interaction among the various stakeholders”. In 2006 this realisation bore fruit in the shape of the World Halal Forum and the two events have been held back to back ever since.
The World Halal Forum is the cerebral and networking element of the week. “Participants can learn first-hand the latest developments in the industry from leading experts in their field, be it market intelligence, consumer behaviour, new technology and innovation or the latest in regulatory requirements,” says Darham Dali Hashim, director of the World Halal Forum.
This year there will be 20 expert speakers and 1,000 delegates are expected. They will span the entire halal value chain from farmers, slaughterhouse operators, manufacturers, restaurateurs, government agencies and scientists.
What is unusual about the halal industry is that one of the key groups of participants are Islamic scholars, whose involvement in everything from certification to finance is crucial to ensuring that products and services are in line with Islamic rulings and therefore meet Muslim consumer needs.
Mr Hashim is a stalwart of the halal industry and in the past seven years has taken part in about 50 halal-related events in more than 20 countries. He is a champion for Malaysia’s halal industry and feels that the country has demonstrated that it is “serious” about halal integrity, with milestones including the first halal certification system, standards, legislation and, of course, trade shows and conferences like Mihas and the World Halal Forum.
“The momentum is continuing,” Mr Hashim says, as numbers of applications for halal certification grow, as well as the recent introduction of a pharmaceuticals standard.
The halal industry is about more than just food and beverage, which is where growing sectors such as healthcare, tourism, innovation, branding and pharmaceuticals come in. This is reflected in the way that Mihas has evolved over its lifetime to go beyond just food producers to other consumer goods such as cosmetics, toiletries, pharmaceuticals and now services including banking, finance and logistics.
Mr Hashim says he feels that this breadth is what differentiates World Halal Week from the many halal exhibitions and conferences springing up around the world. He also says that Malaysia’s platform offers the industry a “global and neutral” space.
This year’s conference programme showcases this breadth, with subjects as varied as Islamic finance, halal medical care, halal ecosystems and science innovations, such as halal collagen.
Ms Azmi and Mr Hashim project an alluring mix of heartfelt Islamic aspiration with an eye for commercial opportunity. “One of our global aims is to make halal the mainstream standard of choice,” says Ms Azmi. Looking at this from Malaysia’s position in Asia, which is home to 65 per cent of the world’s Muslims, this makes perfect sense.
But Ms Azmi is under no illusions about the challenges. “First is the task of overcoming the negative perception of halal in certain quarters, in particular Europe,” she says.
The region is home to about 50 million Muslims and their global influence is much wider. European Muslims are increasingly affluent but increasingly demanding of mainstream halal products.
The second challenge is “to promote the universal values that halal espouses”. Ms Azmi believes that this means Muslims must lead by example in excellent animal welfare and handling, and the highest hygiene standards, professionalism and transparency.
In the light of the recent horse meat scandal across Europe, pork DNA being found in halal meat and Chinese products being fraudulently labelled as halal and manufactured in Malaysia, these are particularly timely concerns. As Mr Hashim puts it, “you must be halal and be seen to be halal”, acknowledging that while rigorous halal certification processes are important, “it is vital to manage the perception through good branding, marketing and communications”.
He hopes that this is the year when talk about the potential of the halal market becomes reality. “Among the delegates will be fund managers and potential investors who are attending for the first time. I am hoping for their investment parameters to home into the halal industry.”
Mr Hashim may not have long to wait. One of the delegates and speakers at the conference is Rushdi Siddiqui, another long-time advocate of the halal industry, and well known for his pioneering work in Islamic finance. In 2011 he was part of a launch at the World Halal Forum with former Malaysian prime minister, Tun Abdullah Badawi, of the world’s first halal food index. An adviser to Thomson Reuters for Islamic Finance and Organiasation of the Islamic Conference countries, he is also the founder of Azka Capital, a private equity firm addressing food security that he is launching at this year’s forum.
Mr Hashim has picked the World Halal Forum to launch the new company for “the same reason companies launch their product during the Super Bowl in the US”, explaining that “the world’s attention for the halal industry is directed towards Malaysia”.
World Halal Week is Malaysia’s flagship event to lead the halal industry and stakes out the country’s ground in a growing and competitive sector. The organisers recognise that the work requires participation from the wider Muslim world. Ms Azmi is hopeful of reaching out to new audiences and has cause for optimism.
Muslim consumers, businesses and governmental bodies are asserting their interest in this industry and becoming increasingly vocal about the need for products, services and business regimes to grow the sector. “Quite a lot of interest has been stirred in the GCC, in particular Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and Dubai,” Ms Azmi says, recognising that Malaysia’s efforts are reaping rewards.
“And we would welcome any co-operation with them in moving the global halal industry forward.”
PLUS
When people talk of halal – meaning permitted – the first thought goes to meat, as animals must be slaughtered according to Quranic prescription. Pig products and alcohol are inherently haram, meaning forbidden. In between these two poles is a grey area, where products and services are coming under increasing scrutiny for their ingredients and the manufacturing processes used.
Pharmaceuticals sometimes contain non-halal ingredients. The recent certification of a halal-compliant meningitis vaccination was a coup by Saudi authorities, as all pilgrims must prove they have been inoculated before attending the Haj.
[image error]Muslim women are increasingly conscious of haram ingredients in cosmetics, and several entrepreneurs have developed their own lines of make-up with organic, ethical, non-alcohol based and halal ingredients. This makes them appeal to a wider consumer base of females, who are concerned about what they put onto their skin, and halal-certified products are the ones that meet their criteria.
Muslim travellers are being drawn towards destinations which offer halal food, dry hotels and airlines, family- and women-friendly environments such as those that offer segregated beaches and pools, as well as countries where they feel they will be welcomed rather than stared at.
Even financial products are assessed for their Shariah compliance, as Islamic teachings are clear about monetary mechanisms that are forbidden, such as interest, and those that are encouraged, such as profit-sharing. In the current global financial crisis they are proving increasingly popular with Muslim and non-Muslim investors alike.
When it comes to communications, the Islamic branding industry aims to engage with Muslim consumers through values that are important in Muslim cultures and which have resonance with Islamic faith. Areas where this offers particular challenges as well as opportunities are in Muslim fashion and Islamic finance. In the former, the display of models used by western fashion is problematic. In the latter, complex financial products and their Islamic principles need to be clearly communicated in a competitive marketplace.
* Shelina Janmohamed
This article was published today in The National
March 29, 2013
How not to marry a child bride and other helpful tips for treating women
My latest weekly column for The National.
This month in Steubenville, Ohio, two teenage men were sentenced for the crime of rape. They had sexually assaulted a teenage girl who was unconscious, passed her around, filmed her and shared the footage.
In some of the media reporting, there was a skin-crawling sympathy for the “ruined” lives of the men, described as local stars in their community, high-flying footballers who were set to get college scholarships. One fact was overlooked. Rape is wrong, and they are rapists, and rapists should pay the price for their crime. The victim, who has not been identified, received little sympathy.
This led to opinion pieces with the startlingly obvious and yet seemingly necessary guidance – both serious and satirical – on “how not to rape”.
Inspired by the fact that even in clear wrongdoing sometimes we have to state the obvious, here are three helpful “how not to …” tips to avoid the mistreatment of women and girls.
First, how not to marry a child bride.
Around the world, the UN predicts that 39,000 female children are married each day. Of course there are cultural norms about the age at which women should marry, but it’s clear that a woman should be able to give her own free adult consent. Apart from violating the right to consent of another human being, child marriage increases the likelihood of death, labour difficulties and child rearing.
Early marriage leads to early pregnancy, and girls younger than 15 are five times more likely to die in childbirth than women in their 20s. Pregnancy is a leading cause of death for women aged 15-19 in the developing world.
Second, how not to kill girl babies.
![By Jorge Royan (Own work) [CC-BY-SA-3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0 )], via Wikimedia Commons](http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File%3AIndia_-_Kolkata_girls_-_2996.jpg)
The scourge of killing unborn babies for the “sin” of being female is on the rise. In China and India there are 30 to 40 million more men of marriageable age than women. A whole range of causes are at work. Male heirs will contribute economically, the “shame” of a daughter and her “burden” on the family.
But there is no shame in having a daughter, especially with economics and independence at women’s disposal. So here’s how not to kill a girl baby – love girls, love babies.
And third, how not to engage in domestic violence against women.
Violence against women is so obviously wrong that other than writing a spoof, I’m not sure how to explain its total and utter wrongness. And yet if I do satirise it, the crazy may interpret it is a blessing on their grotesque behaviour. Shockingly, up to 70 per cent of women will experience violence in their lifetime. In fact, according to the World Bank, women aged 15 to 44 are more at risk from rape and domestic violence than from cancer, car accidents, war and malaria.
Here’s how to remember not to beat your wife or your daughter: you wouldn’t walk up to a stranger in the street and punch them.
Perhaps the easiest way to establish how not to treat women and girls is to ask if she wants you to behave that way or not. If she says no, then don’t do it. It’s quite obvious.
March 2, 2013
4thought.tv: who would you like to be the new Pope?
I was featured on 4thought.tv earlier this week as part of a range of people commenting in advance of the Papal election on who should be the next Pope. You can hear my thoughts by clicking through the video.
What should the voice of the Muslim world sound like? Lessons from the elections of the Pope
This is my weekly newspaper column published in The National today
Europe is one of the least religious regions of the world, and yet later this month it will be home to the election of the new Pope. This single man is arguably the most influential of all religious leaders, heading a strictly hierarchical Catholic church of 1.2 billion people.[image error]
Despite an image of Catholicism as a white western religion, reflected in a long tradition of a Eurocentric papacy, only 24 per cent of Catholics live in Europe, and this number is falling. Most live in Latin America (41 per cent) and Africa is the only region where it is growing.
The resignation of the current Pope has therefore prompted questions about whether his successor will follow centuries of tradition in the European mould – the last non-European pope is recorded as the Syrian Gregory III in 741 – or whether he will come from the more populous regions like Latin America. Such a departure from a European papacy will demand a re-imagining of the shape and nature of Christianity today.
The politicking over the next Pope’s provenance and what this says about Catholicism should make the Muslim world think about its own relationship between the Arab and non-Arab worlds. What does the Muslim world think about the question?
Islam too has a traditional heartland, which naturally is focused around Mecca and Madina. As the language of the Quran, Arabic is the lingua franca of Muslims. And since the early history of Muslims is intertwined with Arab history, Muslims feel a strong affinity with Arab lands.
But, analogous to the heartland and diaspora of the Catholic church, in today’s Muslim world most Muslims are not Arab, nor do they live in the Arab world. Nearly 65 per cent of Muslims live in the Asia-Pacific region, and there are nearly as many Muslims in Indonesia alone as the whole of the Arab world. Muslims in the subcontinent outnumber both put together.
Yet global Islamic discourse and culture is heavily dominated by Arabic culture. That’s not to say this is right or wrong, rather it’s a frame for us to ask questions about the cultures, representation, voices, and leadership that are given primacy and legitimacy for the world’s 1.8 billion Muslims.
Could we ever imagine that the leading authorities and voices for Muslims might be Asian? With growing numbers of Muslims in America and Europe, could we accept a shift of intellectual, economic and political Muslim leadership from those regions? Could the Muslim world ever imagine African leadership?
Religious authority is undoubtedly tied together with political and economic influence, and so it’s no wonder that Muslim majority nations jostle for position in leadership of the Muslim world.
Saudi Arabia is undeniably home to the cradle of Islam. Asia-Pacific is seeking to claim commercial leadership through industries like Islamic finance, European and American Muslims believe they will drive modernity and bring Islam into the modern era. Iran asserts its culture and civilisation. Turkey wants to reclaim its historic political power and sees itself as the legitimate leader.
It doesn’t need to be a competition. There is space for many voices and representations, and a multiplicity would offer greater value, strength and resilience to the Muslim world. And most of all, it would support the ummah’s promise of respect for multiple tribes and nations.
Chart from the Pew Forum report: the global religious landscape
February 26, 2013
BBC Radio 2 Pause for Thought: Happiness
I was broadcast this morning on BBC Radio 2’s Pause for Thought speaking on the subject of happiness. If you are in the UK you can listen to it at approximately 45 minutes into the recording.
I’ve just recently upgraded my mobile phone. The shiny chunk of metal with its gleaming screen arrived home a few weeks ago, and when I held the object of desire in my hands, it felt like something I had been missing had finally arrived. I felt happy.
After my brief tingle of excitement, I asked myself – more soberly – if it was really the object that had made me so excited and whether money had just bought me happiness.
According to scientific research it turns out that money can indeed buy happiness. Money that gets you out of crushing poverty, and all the basic misery associated with it, undoubtedly improves happiness. After that, it’s relative. If I have more than my peers, I feel happy. But after a certain point, more money doesn’t make us more happy.
The research identifies the different ways we spend money that really give us different amounts of happiness. Buying things makes us happy, just like me and my phone. After that we spend our money on experiences. And finally on other people.
And it’s this final act that increases our happiness the most. As the saying goes “there is more pleasure in giving than receiving”. And now we have science to say the same thing.
And yet despite knowing this we continue to aspire to gain more money and more things which don’t necessarily improve our happiness. Most of us spend so little time doing good things, things that make us truly happy.
Unfortunately, those things that make us happy aren’t very fashionable. Expressing our gratitude for what we have improves our state of mind, but isn’t always very cool. It seems harder than ever to be randomly kind to a stranger without having your motives suspected. And sometimes it’s just pure lethargy: it’s easier to be unhappy and moan about it, than to go out there, do some good and be happy.
According to the Prophet Muhammad, one very vital form of giving to others is smiling. It’s easy and contagious and will brighten up someone’s day. And if you’re still doubtful, according to science, smiling makes us feel better too. So to start all of our days in a positive way – this smile is just for you.
February 23, 2013
I am nominated for the IPA’s shortlist for Women of Tomorrow
Exciting news! I’ve been nominated to the shortlist of Women of Tomorrow by the IPA and Campaign magazine. The full article is below along with a link to the list.
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IPA reveals Women of Tomorrow shortlist
Twenty-seven women from across the media, digital, branding and creative industries have been shortlisted for the IPA and Campaign’s Women of Tomorrow Awards.
The awards celebrate women in middle management who are potential industry leaders of the future. They have been chosen by some of the IPA’s women of today and Claire Beale, the editor of Marketing.
Nine women have been shortlisted from media agencies including MediaCom, ZenithOptimedia, Maxus, Carat and Vizeum, while five women have been shortlisted from integrated and digital agencies, such as LBi, DraftFCB, Razorfish and TMW.
Six women from across creative agencies Beattie McGuinness Bungay, Crispin Porter & Bogusky, Karmarama and JWT were shortlisted as well as women from Barclays and Spotify.
Specialist agencies such as the retail agency Portas Agency, youth specialist Livity and Islamic branding consultancy OgilvyNoor are also represented.
Financial Times: Horsemeat scandal companies can learn from halal
This is my article published in the FT yesterday.
Guest post: horsemeat scandal companies can learn from Halal
By Shelina Janmohamed of Ogilvy Noor
The horsemeat scandal has raised significant consumer questions: what is in the food we eat, how can we be sure it’s properly labelled, and most importantly, who can we trust?
For Muslim consumers who wish to observe halal in their food and beverage consumption – an industry worth an estimated $661bn a year – these are questions they ask daily. For them, halal certification from a trusted authority is vital, otherwise they simply won’t buy. No trusted halal logo, no sale.
Halal champagneThis means that getting your products halal certified is crucial. A sampling of news stories demonstrates that halal certified food is on the upswing in Austria, Germany and Switzerland. Kenyan businesses are remaking products with halal certificates. Brazil exports over 85,000 metric tonnes of halal certified meat products each month.
The Canadian halal meat market is estimated at $214 million and Muslim households spend double weekly average on meat products. The UAE halal food industry will hit $8.4bn by 2020. A lack of certification can keep you out of the market, like in Oman where meat without a halal stamp isn’t allowed to enter the country.
Halal certification means that food has been put through approved processes that guarantee to consumers that nothing in the food has any forbidden components. Halal certificates are usually issued for a fee by a certifying body. Once the product is approved, it is stamped with a logo to indicate who has approved it.
Busy shoppers rarely have time to read detailed information on a product, so a recognisable logo picked out in a quick glance when scanning supermarket shelves can make them reach across the last three feet of the aisle and pick up the product. Restaurants, butchers and grocery stores sport logos to draw in trade, which are then used in directories, the internet and apps.
Since it is part of the certifying body’s brand, the logo tells the Muslim consumer about the religious promise on which the certification is based. Globally, there are hundreds of halal certification authorities, often several co-existing in one country. This is because approval standards vary widely despite all being rooted in Islamic practice. Of course there are some basics that they all agree on: products should contain no alcohol or pig derivatives.
But beyond such fundamentals there are grey areas such as the contentious question of whether an animal be stunned before slaughter. The popularity and proliferation of a particular certification body is therefore linked to the credibility of its processes, the people who have established it, and the scholars who accredit it. And like any brand, the track record of the certification body and its processes are part of popular Muslim consumer scrutiny.
Muslim consumer confidence underpins this market. Muslim consumers want reassurance from a trusted authority. Sometimes the government takes on this responsibility, such as Malaysia’s JAKIM, Saudi’s shoura council and Pakistan’s halal board.
Sometimes an existing Muslim body extends its authority into certification due to consumer demand, as in the recent case of Indonesia’s Nahdatul Ulama, one of the country’s largest and oldest Muslim membership bodies with 30 million members.
Sometimes, Muslim consumers are so disheartened by the seeming untrustworthiness of certification bodies, they take matters into their own hands as in South Africa by setting up a Muslim consumer council to hold service providers, suppliers, and producers accountable after a scandal where pork was labelled as halal meat.
This lack of consumer trust is something that Malaysia recognises so an halal audit body has been proposed in order to address low Muslim consumer confidence in halal integrity.
For brands deciding which certification to choose, the importance of Muslim consumer trust, and how to build credible relationships with them, there is no better object lesson than the recent saga unfolding in the UK about contaminated meat.
Halal food being served to prisoners was found to contain pork DNA. The halal certification body that had approved the products – the Halal Food Authority – has come under intense criticism. One regional body of mosques urged their communities to boycott it. The national body the Muslim Council of Britain championed the Muslim consumer voice with the clear directive – and brands should take note of this rather obvious but crucial point – “It is the community’s right that whatever is sold as halal is in fact halal.” It added that halal certification agencies must “come together to restore consumer confidence.”
Muslim consumer acceptance is based on Muslim community acceptance. Once the community loses trusts and therefore rejects it, the brand is doomed. It is a slow and perilous crawl back to trusted status – if that is it can ever be regained – and the only route is significant scholarly authority and transparency of processes being put behind a story of redemption in order to restore it’s reputation.
By contrast, this body has probably signed its own death warrant by trying to downplay the seriousness with which Muslim consumers take such matters. It’s first response was to assert that “It is not the case of an ingredient, rather a case of DNA being found” and according to the MCB it has “yet to express any regret over this whole affair.”
The Halal Food Authority stated that “HFA categorically affirms that our standards and audit protocols are in compliance of the Islamic dietary rules and in conformity of the relevant EU regulations.” Their challenge is that the damage to Muslim consumer confidence in their brand has already been done.
So what can brands learn from this matter? Confidence must be absolute, the merest doubt undermines any authority. And consumer concern must be treated with absolute seriousness. Understanding which logo is most trusted by Muslim communities is vital, or your product simply won’t get picked up. But if you can show that you’ve done your research, that you take the matter with the utmost seriousness, and the community’s approval is important to you, you’ll have won their trust.
Getting halal certification is not enough, living up to its promise is just as important for your brand. In the USA, McDonald’s and one of its franchise owners has agreed to pay $700,000 to members of the Muslim community to settle allegations that one of it’s restaurants falsely advertised its food as halal. McDonald’s and Finley’s Management deny any liability but say the settlement is in their best interests.
Global brands understand how halal endorsement opens doors. Krispy Kreme announced halal certification for its products in the UK. While their ingredients were already compliant, and so their doughnuts remain unchanged, they had acquired the halal certification because it “means a lot to consumers.”
Kingsmill bread and bakery goods took a similar approach with its products whose ingredients were already halal compliant by acquiring halal certification.
The comparatively small amount of effort required in obtaining halal certification is likely to win Muslim consumer loyalty and repeat purchases. Muslim consumers feel particularly positively towards brands that make even the smallest effort to reach out. And the best part is that they will do their utmost to spread the good word.
Shelina Janmohamed is vice president of Ogilvy Noor, a part of Ogilvy & Mather.
Women and minorities the losers in power politics in Bangladesh
Here’s my latest weekly newspaper column published today in The National.
Amid growing political turmoil in Bangladesh, the arrest of 20 female activists at the end of last year went almost unnoticed by the world’s press.
The women’s hijabs were forcibly removed and then they were forced to remain in an open public space, presumably to humiliate them. They were all denied bail, even the pregnant one.
The police admitted that there was no evidence to support charging them, or refusing bail. But the 20 were held for a further two days for “questioning” even though Bangladeshi law limits such custody to 24 hours. Meanwhile 13 other women were arrested for protesting against the treatment of their sisters.
These women were locked up for no crime, and then humiliated, for just one reason: they belong to the opposition party.
I am increasingly concerned that those in power in Bangladesh see mistreatment of women as mere collateral damage in their zealous efforts to defeat their political opponents.
This is not about the rights and wrongs of the two main political positions in Bangladesh. I will not venture into that minefield, the long history and deep emotion of which are tearing the nation apart. Rather, I want to focus on the fact that women are being targeted as a matter of political strategy. This is part of a wider government failure to protect ordinary women.
In January in Dhaka’s Shah Ali area, an 11-year old schoolgirl died after being gang-raped. The rapists left the girl’s corpse hanging from a ceiling fan. A local protest carried the body to a police station, but the authorities did nothing about the crime.
In the Chittagong Hill Tracts in eastern Bangladesh, the Asian Human Rights Commission reports, police did not register a formal complaint in another rape case, as the alleged perpetrator is an influential political leader. Police also denied the victim a credible medical exam.
Rape is a contentious issue in Bangladesh; there are grave allegations of mass rape during the 1971 war of independence. But denials of justice in recent rape cases give official demands for justice over crimes past the empty ring of insincere rhetoric.
There’s no denying that women in Bangladesh face oppression from traditional patriarchy. But cases like these highlight government failure to enforce existing legislation. As Human Rights Watch says diplomatically, “implementation remains poor”.
Extreme conservatives do Muslim women no favours. But just as pernicious are secularists who put political power above the reality of women’s lives. In Turkey women who chose to wear the headscarf were erased from political and civic spaces by secularists. In France women have been denied citizenship because they wear the niqab. And so on.
In Bangladesh it’s not just women being targeted, but minorities too, in a tolerated epidemic of violence against those seen as “other”.
A Hindu man was shot in his home after being accused of supporting the opposition. He begged for his life explaining he was Hindu. His crime? A beard, a symbol of Muslim piety.
Further, the government has been widely criticised for rejection and harassment of Rohingya refugees fleeing for their lives from neighbouring Myanmar, where they are persecuted for the “crime” of being Muslim.
In its fight for political power, Bangladesh’s government has shown that it finds power more desirable than justice. Women, minorities and refugees are simply collateral damage.
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