Resisting the War on Muslim Women

As a Muslim woman, I have faced excommunication and backlash for challenging patriarchal interpretations of Islam. I will not apologize for my refusal to submit to a male-centred Islam that seeks to erase mine and other women’s existence. 

Two Muslim women catch my attention as I gaze out the window beside my desk. I feel drawn to them, and I begin to wonder about the secrets they harbour, the stories that lie beneath their ordinary lives as they walk down the street. I bring my attention back to myself; a familiar reflection of the everyday Muslim woman, visible yet invisible, ordinary yet extraordinary. I am no different from the woman you see on your street, on your campus, at the grocery store, at the train station or even at the local market. Only, my journey has been different. I have been cast out, excommunicated, and ostracized; the memories haunting like the acrid scent of smoke in harmattan. 

Growing up, I did not think I would spend my adult years campaigning for equality and women’s rights. My dream was to live a life doing the things I love with the people I love the most; to talk about the recipes I tried out at an unknown city; the bookshops I visited on my travels and the strangers I came across, whose stories beautifully inspire me. I did not think I would spend my adult years defending why I should exist as a full human.  

Then came the Twitter storm, over a few years. Muslim men, self-proclaimed guardians of the faith, declared me a Kaafir, an unbeliever. Others, in a twisted display of ‘caution’, branded me a heretic, warning women to stay away from me, if they wanted to keep the faith—a ridiculous, pitiful attempt to break me. I laughed, a dry laughter born of defiance. Years of activism and study have forged me into a woman of unyielding conviction. I will not be defined by the whims of a community that seeks to control me. My faith is mine alone, a personal covenant between me and my Lord. I will not apologize for my refusal to submit to a male-centred Islam that seeks to erase my existence. 

‘Follow what has been sent down to you from your Lord; do not follow other masters beside Him. How seldom you take heed!’ Qur’an 07:03...