Muslim Women Gain Higher Profile In U.S.

New York Times:

"What we're seeing now in America is what has been sort of a quiet or informal empowerment of women," said Shireen Zaman, executive director of the Institute for Social Policy and Understanding, a nonprofit research institute founded after the 2001 attacks to provide research on American Muslims. "In many of our home countries, socially or politically it would've been harder for Muslim women to take a leadership role. It's actually quite empowering to be Muslim in America."

As Najah Bazzy, a American-born nurse and founder of several charities in Michigan, put it: "Yeah I'm Arab, yeah I'm very American, and yeah I'm very Islamic, but you put those things in the blender and I'm no longer just a thing. I'm a new thing."

Read the whole story: New York Times

Comments

[ivan kovac]

11:30 AM on 12/29/2010

Isn't US great or what?

[MIKEinNYC]

10:40 AM on 12/29/2010

Maybe when their women gain some prominence they'll be able to instill some sense into their men.

[Mark Webber]

10:53 AM on 12/29/2010

Assumption is the ........

[S4321]

10:35 PM on 12/29/2010

Better yet, maybe when all American women gain prominence they would be able to put a whole lotta sense in American men, and stop the objectification of women in movies and magazines, address the horrors of sexual and physical abuse, and become equals in pay and profession.

[CurtisJasper]

03:43 AM on 12/30/2010

"and stop the objectific­ation of women in movies and magazines"

I'm guessing you're a Muslim hardliner? Because as far as I know only the Catholic Church and Islamic Fundamentalists obsess over women being allowed to wear clothing of their choosing. It's no surprise that they also have the most problems related to sexuality and gender discrimination.

[MIKEinNYC]

08:35 AM on 12/30/2010

American women HAVE gained prominence.

The horrors of sexual and physical abuse are addressed. The issues in regard to equal pay and other unfairness are also addressed or are in the process of being addresses every day.

As far as the objectification of women in movies goes if you don't like it don't go see those movies and don't take jobs associated with the production of those movies. We still have Free Speech. It's not sharia.

[MIKEinNYC]

10:38 AM on 12/29/2010

There's no place to go but up.

[Mark Webber]

10:12 AM on 12/29/2010

I doubt that Muslim women will enjoy their freedom for long in the west

http://www­.memri.org­/clip/en/0­/0/0/0/0/0­/2735.htm
Egyptian Journalist 'Ata Abd Al-Aal: "The US Will Be Transforme­d into an Islamic Republic

[Mark Webber]

10:09 AM on 12/29/2010

Islamic Countries Reject Monitor for Discrimination Against Women
http://www.hudson-ny.org/590/islamic-countries-reject-monitor-for-discrimination-against-women

the Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC)
and member states expressed their opposition to the idea of setting up a new
Special Rapporteur who would monitor laws that discriminate against women.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cairo_Declaration_on_Human_Rights_in_Islam
Predominantly Muslim countries, such as Sudan, Iran, and Saudi Arabia, frequently criticized the Universal Declaration of Human Rights for its perceived failure to take into account the cultural and religious context of non-Western countries

[julian101]

04:49 AM on 12/29/2010

I say good for them.
America is actually pretty good at bending orthodoxy in religion (for good and bad), mostly because there is not any state apparatus enforcing or defining it. Like how the 'submitter' (they dont follow hadith and use language other than arabic, and are more liberal than many of the other schools) came out of America. Maybe it will be a trend, where you will see more of a Reze Azlanish deism spring up in American muslims (to be frank though, that's not something that gives me any reason to think it has a leg to stand on...same thing with christians and the rest, they cant win theological arguments with the fundies, but they can learn to completely ignore them)

[Sans Octavian]

11:52 PM on 12/28/2010

It must be nice to be in a country where you can drive, walk alone without escorts, and have (for the most part) a sense of equality.

[MolliBlum redux]

01:11 PM on 12/29/2010

It must be nice to be in a country (like Indonesia, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Turkey) where a woman can be elected Prime Minister or head of state.
Just saying...

[S4321]

10:37 PM on 12/29/2010

Loll. Fann'd n Fav'd

[Sans Octavian]

09:46 PM on 12/30/2010

Exceptions are not the rule.

[Frank Jenkins]

04:43 PM on 12/28/2010

Guess this article will give the meat-heads at FOX something else to yammer about

[will357]

01:48 PM on 12/28/2010

Islam is also exploding among the Black, Latino community. A whole bunch of YOUTUBE videos of minorities excepting this faith with the American twist to it......I'm just saying.

[Edward Standley]

02:00 PM on 12/28/2010

Interesting stat- only 20% of the world's Muslims are Arabic.

[ammsamm]

03:22 PM on 12/28/2010

True - not many people realise this.

[Ahmed Ahmad]

04:37 PM on 12/28/2010

RadioIslam.com hosted a discussion about the responsibilities of muslims with the people who had recently converted. The issue was that, according to research by Dr. Ilyas Ba-Yunus, 75 percent of new converts in the US leave Islam within a couple of years.

[Ahmed Ahmad]

01:20 PM on 12/28/2010

Women are deficient in intelligence and deficient in their religion.

Once Allah's Apostle went out to the Musalla (to offer the prayer) o 'Id-al-Adha or Al-Fitr prayer. Then he passed by the women and said, "O women! Give alms, as I have seen that the majority of the dwellers of Hell-fire were you (women)." They asked, "Why is it so, O Allah's Apostle ?" He replied, "You curse frequently and are ungrateful to your husbands. I have not seen anyone more deficient in intelligence and religion than you. A cautious sensible man could be led astray by some of you." The women asked, "O Allah's Apostle! What is deficient in our intelligence and religion?" He said, "Is not the evidence of two women equal to the witness of one man?" They replied in the affirmative. He said, "This is the deficiency in her intelligence. Isn't it true that a woman can neither pray nor fast during her menses?" The women replied in the affirmative. He said, "This is the deficiency in her religion."

Sahih Bukhari Volume 1, Book 6, Number 301
http://www.usc.edu/schools/college/crcc/engagement/resources/texts/muslim/hadith/bukhari/006.sbt.html

[Ahmed Ahmad]

01:24 PM on 12/28/2010

The portion of the koranic verse that mohammed referenced above (koran 2.282) is:

...And call to witness two witnesses from amongst your men, but if they were not two men then a man and two women, from those whom you deem fit as witnesses, so that if one of the two [women] should err, the second may remind the other...

For the entire verse, see:
http://www.usc.edu/schools/college/crcc/engagement/resources/texts/muslim/quran/002.qmt.html

[Anbreen]

01:56 PM on 12/28/2010

I own a Koran. The Old Testament is MUCH more violent.

BTW-- How do you like the chapter in which Muhammad speaks of the Christians and Jews are also "people of the book" and will also go to heaven?

Does the OT have anything like that?

[Anbreen]

01:57 PM on 12/28/2010

BTW-- I also own a Bible and a Torah. I LIKE reading other poeple's holy books, so I have quite a few. I have no religion, myself.

[Edward Standley]

02:03 PM on 12/28/2010

I'm guessing that is one of the reasons Islam might not be catching on like wildfire among modern western women.

[ammsamm]

03:18 PM on 12/28/2010

Actually more Western women are becoming Muslims than men. The statistics speak for themselves.

[Anbreen]

09:35 PM on 12/28/2010

Actually, it's the fastest growing religion in the world. And, quite a few American women have converted. A passel of Texan women. (You gotta LOVE that scarf, when it's accompanied by a drawl.). Some Mexicans, here in CA.

If you read books by Muslim feminists (as some of Mohammads wives were) like Mehrnissi or El Guindi) you get a better perspective than the "party line" on the situation with women in Islam.

[Giveadamn]

12:56 PM on 12/28/2010

If Muslim women think being in America is empowering, wait until they can shed their religion!

[Ahmed Ahmad]

01:25 PM on 12/28/2010

Faved!

[will357]

01:43 PM on 12/28/2010

It has nothing to do with religion, it has everything to with common sense in any religion....jeezz people.

[Giveadamn]

04:54 PM on 12/28/2010

Since when does religion have anything to do with common sense!

[Anbreen]

12:46 PM on 12/28/2010

We have a very large Arab and Muslim community. I am not a Muslim.

I have NEVER met a subordinated Muslim/Arab woman. Some of our most dynamic community leaders are Muslim women.

Anyone who believes some of the anti-Muslim propaganda going around needs to visit a mosque. You will be welcome.

BTW-- ONE of our Muslim leaders is a female anthropology professor who teaches at our top two Los Angeles Universities, and published in English, Arabic, French, Spanish, and Zapotec.

She doesn't veil, BTW.

[Ahmed Ahmad]

01:27 PM on 12/28/2010

Anyone who DOESN'T believe some of the islamic critical (not anti-muslim, learn the difference) propaganda going around needs to read the koran, reliable ahadith, and respected tafsir, to verify that the criticism is actually warranted.

[Anbreen]

05:51 PM on 12/28/2010

Would you like me to post the LEGION of Bible verses prescribing slaughter of the non-Jehovans? The Bible is the MOST violent of all of the holy books that I have ever read. At least, the OT is.

[zeesmum]

12:23 AM on 12/31/2010

I am not sure what exactly you are trying to achieve, but I haven't seen anything but vitriol from you about Islam. This is one of your old posts:

“Europe will do well to stop the influx of muslims and instead promote the immigratio­n of other, more compatible humans; people who are more willing to integrate and adopt the European style of life.”

Really? This article is about Muslim women who have integrated, adopted a European lifetstyle etc, but your response is still vitriol. There are billion different Muslims in the world, all with varying understandings, of the Qur'an. Even if some of my faith choose to identify with violent verses, I refuse to have my experience of peace in my faith be discounted. Why should my experience or the experiences of the women here not be a valid understanding of Islam? You are smart enough to know that your commenatry cannot possibly be the way most Muslims view life or the world would be even more chaotic than it is with over a billion people who are either being practicing or ethnic Muslims. Engaging in rhetoric dehumanizes fellow human beings and makes us all loose our finest quality, humanity. The world is crazy enough so if any of our children are going to have a chance at any type of quality of life we need to get over the rhetoric and deal with each other as human beings.

[Doug Sandlin]

05:58 PM on 12/28/2010

The four largest Muslim countries have each had female heads of state.

Are there any large non-Muslim countries that have not have female heads of state? (I'm pretty sure there are .........).

And so - I agree with your post, and your points. There are some sad cases of abuse toward women, among certain Islamic groups, but "net net", the Muslim world, over time, has been a lot more progressive-minded towards women than almost any other.

The non-Muslim world didn't even begin to catch up until a few decades ago ... and now, through that lens, many people look at Islam as being horrible to women.

Just as with terrorism, abuse toward women in Islam is horrible, and anything any of us can do to help eradicate it is a good thing -- but to confuse abuse towards women with all of Islam is a fairly laughable error that many people seem to make.

It's funny - people don't take much of the misogynistic stuff in the Bible seriously, because they know that Christians don't take it seriously -- yet they see similar things in the Quran (by looking very hard for it, since there's much less of it, than in the Bible), and presume Muslims do take those verses seriously.

Which shows that most anti-Islamic people don't know any Muslims personally - or they'd know better.

[Anbreen]

02:12 PM on 01/03/2011

Andk the Arab invented our entire numerical system (which is why we call them "Arabic numbers), plus some of our maths, including Algebra and Algorhythms. This while Europe was just coming out of caves.

They also invented cartography. Europeans had to use Arab maps for centuries.

And, many rick ancient Roman families employed Arab physicians. They also attended troops during invasions.

They also taught Crusaders to bathe-- a concept that was foreign to Europeans, except for the Vikings, at the time. Ancient documents say the Arabs could, 'smell the Europeans coming."

In fact, historian theory has it that the arts and sciences brought back from the Arabs brought Europe out of the Dark Ages into the Renaissance.

And, my guess is that no one who has posted a bigoted remark on this thread has ever: 1) Visited a mosque, 2) Gone out of his/her way to get to know a Muslim OR an Arab, and, 3) Studied the lives of Muhammad's WIVES.

[Anbreen]

02:14 PM on 01/03/2011

Maybe I should post the % of white Christians have beaten their wives (beating and killing ones wife IS Biblicly sanctioned).

[Redemption Song II]

12:19 PM on 12/28/2010

Earning power equal to men in one's social context is one of the most important facets of empowering of any ethnicity. Cool.

[Redemption Song II]

12:27 PM on 12/28/2010

Correction: "Earning power equal to men in one's social context is one of the most important facets of empowering women of any ethnicity. Cool.”