I wanted to write a response to this. Let’s see if they let me. If you don’t feel like getting angry, don’t read the link. Here’s my letter to the editor for a request to respond to this tripe. But let’s see if the sisterhood of feminists let me.
Hello,
My name is Kelly Izdihar Crosby, a writer and editorial assistant for Azizah Magazine. I would like to submit a response or rebuttal to Nancy Morgan’s article on Two Muslim Feminists. Unforunately, there are some errors and the use of typical negative stereotypes running frequently throughout her article (which is the sad reality of reporting on Muslim women in the mainstream American media).
I am a Muslim American woman and Azizah Magazine is a publication created and produced by Muslim American women.
Please check out our website and other publications like Muslim Girl Magazine and Islamica. I think Nancy Morgan would be pleasantly surprised to see her assertions about the lives of Muslim women challenged and corrected. I’m an writing this request to Wendy McElroy in particular, because I had read one of her articles on Muslim women. (Laying Down the White Woman’s Burden) It was fair, accurate and non condescending.
Please email me back when you can.
Aaminah said,
March 25, 2008 at 8:29 pm
Asalaamu alaikum.
Wow… I couldn’t even get through that article. MashaAllah, I applaud and thank you for offering to write a rebuttal! I suggest that you write the rebuttal, and if they refuse to publish it post it on your own blog. I have quite a few “feminist” friends who while non-Muslims care greatly about setting these kinds of records straight and allowing Muslim women to speak for ourselves. I’m sure they would be happy to link to your rebuttal on their blogs, thereby bringing unexpected readers to you who may be enlightened and surprised, inshaAllah.
Izzy Mo said,
March 25, 2008 at 8:56 pm
Walaikum salaam
I know, it’s ridiculous, isn’t. I don’t know where to begin but like you said, if they publish it, I will defnitely link to it. If not, I’ll publish it here. Let’s hook this up, sis, a correct the masses, one ignorant person at a time.
ooooh, oooh, I got a response and they want my rebuttal. Gotta get to work!
Umm Zaid said,
March 25, 2008 at 9:06 pm
Salaam ‘Alaikum
Once I see “Ayn Rand” all over the place, I start holding my nose for the libertarian propaganda and looking out for froot loops. Nancy Morgan is a right winger who, like most of these conservative attack poodles, tears down feminism until it becomes convenient for them (ie, to attack Muslims). Check out some of her really charming essays on race at Right Bias.com. I’m sure the homepage alone will get your blood boiling. Her site links to anti-CAIR groups — ie, groups that don’t like Muslim Americans being vigilant about our civil rights.
I would guess that the people at ifeminist really didn’t know better, and published this either b/c she’s written for them in the past or because it contained words like “feminist” and promoting the idea that someone like Nonie Darwish is fighting against some evil Arab patriarchy. Sadly, there are many, many who call themselves “feminist” who do not care to learn *or* don’t know how to learn about Muslim women *FROM* Muslim women, not these hucksters and snake oil salesmen.
dawud said,
March 25, 2008 at 11:32 pm
Izzy, good on you on writing – it’s excellent to ask a very simple question: why, if these feminists are truly concerned with muslim women having the right to speak, don’t they ask muslim feminists (and I don’t mean Nonie Darwish or Irshad or ‘Ni putes, Ne soumisses’ aka the usual crowd) or muslim women to speak for themselves. It’s strange how some otherwise intelligent liberals will insist that muslim women fit their model of anti-Islamic, anti-Arab propagandist before they think they’re really speaking on their own accord, whereas if a muslim woman (think Maliha Chishti or Ingrid Mattson) speaks of their own love of Islam and of correcting the abuses of their own community through embracing faith and the best parts of their culture, they’re rejected as ’subaltern’ or brain-washed.
None of this excuses abuses by muslim or arab men – or non-muslim and non-arab men, for that matter – of course.
But appealing to reason, asking only for the right to speak of one’s own experience, rather than to be spoken about or *to* – that’s the best way to address this kind of sneering condescension.
Best regards and my support.
Peace,
Dawud
Maha Abdo said,
March 26, 2008 at 12:13 am
Assalamu alaikum,
But I admire you for going after it and trying to correct the damage. I’m glad other people have that energy and fire that I don’t seem to have anymore. Good luck!
Is it wrong for me to say this stuff doesn’t bother me anymore? Looking at it rationally, if I were an outsider I could smell the lies. I believe average people know these things are not true and that it just sounds like propaganda. I tend to just ignore these people. Hey, if they want to dig themselves a deeper pit in the hellfire and bring other ignorant people with them, I say go ahead. I have more important things to do than worry about them, like leading by example and forcing people to examine their prejudices and turning them on their heads.
Wassalam,
Maha
aishah said,
March 26, 2008 at 4:55 am
Asalaamu alaikum…
Izzy, I’m actually one of your silent readers. But after reading this article, I decided to come out of the closet
Anyway, I totally agree with your response. It’s totally biased and very judgmental. You got my support too.
Regards,
aishah
izzymo said,
March 26, 2008 at 5:10 am
Walaikum salaam Muslimeen
Aaminah: I know. It’s badly written spit-filled rage about nuthin’. But send the link to your feminist friends. I would love to see their take on it.
UmmZaid: Okay, now I don’t want to have to take an antiacid after reading her stuff.
I don’t know why people still claim that it’s hard to find accurate info on us. Oh, wait, I just did a yahoo search on us. It ain’t pretty. I can’t wait until Azizah Mag become super big so that it can become the manistream American standard for getting real info on Muslim women.
Dawud: I have my theories but I think they are totally scared of the idea of actually having their mindset altered. Or it could be that the majority of them really don’t care. It’s coffeehouse feminist activism where you sit around acting like you’re improving women’s lives when you’re just…talking. And it’s not just Muslim women complaining. A lot of women, especially women of color, are sick of having our voices represented by others.
Maha: I usually ignore it. But the stupid factor was soooooo intense. Plus, it’s badly written. It doesn’t bother me as much as it use to because, goodness, reading lies about your life as a Muslim woman can give you ulcers.
So I would say that you are definitely in a good place. The Koran talks about how those who actively block truth, how they are a mere annoyance but God’s plan is foolproof. And that’s how I look at these people–annoyances that I hope can be addressed through education and simple human common sense.
Izzy Mo said,
March 26, 2008 at 5:35 am
Walaikum salaam
Aishah: thanks sis and welcome.
Thanks for coming out of the closet.
Ann said,
March 26, 2008 at 10:15 am
Assalaamu alaikum,
I didn’t read the whole thing thoroughly, but as for this part (talking about Nonie, whoever she is):
————————-
She noted, with scorn, the fact that Nancy Pelosi publicly kow-towed to Syrian dictator Assad by wearing a scarf. “They were laughing at her. Even Assad’s wife doesn’t wear a scarf.”
————————-
Please point out that Nancy Pelosi only wore the scarf when she visited Umayyad Mosque, and I assume that Syria’s First Lady would wear one there, too. When Pelosi met President Assad, she didn’t wear it. (Go to Google images and search on “Nancy Pelosi Damascus”.) So I don’t think anyone was laughing at her, and it’s obvious that Nonie either doesn’t know what she’s talking about, or she’s about as honest as – well, Hillary Clinton was about her trip to Bosnia…
But actually, I think many people do believe this stuff… I would have, before I moved to a Muslim country and saw the reality.
Ann said,
March 26, 2008 at 11:15 am
Assalaamu alaikum,
Well, I had to go and read it all the way through… It’s really so ridiculous… just to pick another part, there’s the part abourt women not having any support system or trust among one another. I was a feminist, early subscriber to Ms., active member of NOW – and we used to talk about “sisterhood”. Since moving to a Muslim country and becoming Muslim, I often think back to those days and to how we were trying – unsuccessfully – to create this artificial “sisterhood”, while the women here have such a strong support network of their biological sisters and sisters in Islam. Kuwaiti women have their sisters, aunts, mothers, cousins, daughters, nieces… before we even start on co-workers and friends. And even for those of us who don’t have that, we accept other Muslim women as our sisters in Islam. And the idea of us all fighting over each other’s husbands – or them fighting over us – is absurd; we socialize with other women and mostly never even see each other’s husbands.
Ann said,
March 26, 2008 at 11:23 am
Assalaamu alaikum,
OK, last one – for now! Check out the customer reviews of Nonie Darwish’s book at Amazon. They love her and find her so “believable”. Those kind of people won’t find anything “believable” unless it’s along the same lines.
JDsg said,
March 26, 2008 at 12:29 pm
ifeminists might think they’re being so “progressive” by publishing Morgan’s tripe; instead, they’re setting back their own cause.