It shouldn’t be a surprise to know that the media portrayal of Muslims and Islam as a whole has been overwhelmingly negative. Associating Islam with terrorism, barbarism, and misogyny has sadly become the unconscious norm. The latter naturally being noteworthy to feminists who call for liberty and equality for women around the world.
On the surface this is a noble cause, but the issue arises when the feminist movement misdirects their animosity from the culture in the region to the religion: Islam. The distinction between the two is important. While the religion contains the rulings for the people, the actions of the people are also a product of their culture. An Islamic ruling may say that drinking alcohol is not allowed, but it may be a norm within the culture. Thus, when people drink it is not a representation of what Islam is but rather what the culture is. Such is the case with the vast majority of the misogynistic practices in the Middle East, which is why we should be careful to direct our criticism towards the right source.
Now you might be thinking, “Okay Maisoon, we understand the distinction. Why is this such a big deal?”
I’ll tell you!
The issue is that when we have a misunderstanding of where to direct our activism we can end up blaming Islam – and by association, all of its followers – for a problem that only a few actually have. This can lead (and has led) to very harmful stereotypes. Those who commit atrocities against women are wrong, but if you look into it you’ll find that Islam does not call for this and only Muslims influenced by external factors behave this way.
When particular individuals choose to take a stance but refuse to educate themselves, it makes it easy for them to label Muslims as oppressors, develop prejudices, and build feminist movements on the backs of stereotypes and ignorance. This is no longer raising awareness, it’s perpetuating Islamophobia.
Let me show you what I mean.
As one does, I recently lost myself in a rabbit hole trying to find a Barbie that best represents me. Being a Hijabi my search soon drew me to look up “Hijabi Barbie” where I stumbled across an article titled, “The story behind Hijab Barbie is really, really disturbing”. Sensing a potentially thrilling behind the scenes story, I naturally clicked on the article. Imagine the disappointment I felt when I found that in place of an amusing pastime, was an uneducated, border-line offensive rant.
This article is a prime example of using feminism to spread Islamophobic material. For reference, the article is an opinion piece written by Maureen Callahan where she discusses the problems with the Hijabi Barbie released by Mattel, inspired by the Olympic Hijabi fencer, Ibtihaj Muhammad. The article mainly argues that girls cannot be empowered by a Hijabi barbie while painting Islam as this barbaric religion with “medieval” practices.
To prove this point, the article references some atrocious acts committed against women in the name of Islam. Now, I am in no way defending this unwarranted violence taken by individuals, it is wrong. But again, we really need to learn to differentiate between Islam and the culture of these Eastern regions. The harmful actions taken by an individual do not always reflect their beliefs. Muslims are regular people who also make mistakes, but our mistakes do not define our religion.
If you’d like to use feminism to discuss domestic violence, the femicides, or child marriages that occur in these regions then please do. These are problems that need attention and awareness. But one cannot say the religion in the region is the cause of these atrocities without looking into what the religion actually teaches. Islam is not a savage religion that orders the assault and murder of women who do not wear their Hijab properly. Furthermore, Islam has already proclaimed to be 100% against all of the aforementioned issues from over 1400 years ago – something that could have been included in the article with a little research into Islamic teachings.
The reality is that the proof against these prejudices is nothing more than a Google search away. Having a discussion with Muslims is not even a requirement to determine Islam’s stance on these topics. But if one chooses not to educate themselves then all they’re doing is using Feminism as an excuse to hate a group of people.
I want to make something clear: there is nothing wrong with disliking a practice. In fact, it’s perfectly okay to dislike some of the practices Muslims follow, everyone has a right to their own opinion. I’ll take it a step further, educating oneself on the religion or ensuring an opinion is backed up by Islamic teachings isn’t necessary either, we can have opinions in ignorance.
But, one cannot declare an uninformed opinion as fact. Doing so is spreading false information about people and their beliefs and this can cause irreversible harm to individuals, to families, and to entire communities. If an individual desires to have a stance against Islam, it is imperative they educate themselves on Islam first! Do not use culture as a way to attack a religion – the two are not related.
Refusing to educate yourself and choosing to condemn a religion and its “misogynistic” practices, of which one has no knowledge, is not activism or feminism. It is prejudice.
And in the case of this article, it is Islamophobia under the guise of Feminism, nothing more.