{"id":1718,"date":"2015-10-13T18:15:00","date_gmt":"2015-10-13T18:15:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/karamah.org\/?p=1718"},"modified":"2020-04-21T21:25:42","modified_gmt":"2020-04-21T21:25:42","slug":"islam-culture-and-sexism-what-needs-to-change","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/karamah.org\/ar\/islam-culture-and-sexism-what-needs-to-change\/","title":{"rendered":"Islam, Culture and Sexism: What needs to change?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed-youtube wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe title=\"Islam, Culture and Sexism: What Needs to Change?\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" data-src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/q55-EkzWry8?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen src=\"data:image\/svg+xml;base64,PHN2ZyB3aWR0aD0iMSIgaGVpZ2h0PSIxIiB4bWxucz0iaHR0cDovL3d3dy53My5vcmcvMjAwMC9zdmciPjwvc3ZnPg==\" class=\"lazyload\" data-load-mode=\"1\"><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\"><p>\u201cWe want [women] to be critical and analytical and decide for [themselves].\u201d Aisha Rahman, KARAMAH executive director<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<p>On October 13th, 2015, the U.S. Institute of Peace hosted a documentary screening of the PBS documentary \u201cGender Equality in Islam\u201d followed by a panel discussion titled \u201cIslam, Culture and Sexism: What Needs to Change?\u201d The panel featured:&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/karamah.org\/our-team\/aisha-rahman\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Aisha Rahman<\/a>,&nbsp;<a href=\"http:\/\/www.elhibrifoundation.org\/people\/lynn-kunkle\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Lynn Kunkle<\/a>,&nbsp;<a href=\"http:\/\/www.usip.org\/experts\/manal-omar\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Manal Omar<\/a>&nbsp;and&nbsp;<a href=\"http:\/\/www.usip.org\/experts\/susan-hayward\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Susan Hayward&nbsp;<\/a>and was moderated by&nbsp;<a href=\"http:\/\/www.pbs.org\/to-the-contrary\/host\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Bonnie Erbe<\/a>. &nbsp;After watching a short segment of the&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=2dhizgueyEk\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">documentary<\/a>, the panelists joined the stage for a discussion about Islam, culture, and sexism.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\"><p>\u201cGiving women a platform to speak in their own voices\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<p>Explaining the reason why the El Hibri Foundation funded the production of the documentary, Ms. Kunkle said: \u201cThe issue of Islam and women is one of the more contentious areas of misunderstanding and misperceptions. The dominant perception about Islam is that it is authoritarian, anti-women and paternalistic.\u201d Ms. Kunkle stressed the importance of distinguishing between Islam and Muslims. \u201cIslam is a tradition and a set of beliefs, values and ideals while Muslims are inheritors of the tradition who are striving to implement those ideals,\u201d she explained. By supporting KARAMAH and \u201cGender Equality in Islam,\u201d the El Hibri Foundation is giving Muslim women a platform to speak in their own voices.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Aisha Rahman said that KARAMAH\u2019s Law and Leadership program (LLSP) offers Muslim women such a platform. KARAMAH believes that the first step to affect change is education. \u201cWe don\u2019t just tell [women] what Islam is. We want [them] to be able to listen to what the others say and be critical and analytical and decide for [themselves] if it makes sense for [them].\u201d Moreover, LLSP provides participants with sisters who share the same knowledge and determination to transform the society they work in.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\"><p>\u201cOur greatest asset is Islam\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<p>Answering Bonnie\u2019s question whether KARAMAH adopts a gentle approach with men, Ms. Rahman said that \u201cthe gentle approach is the Islamic approach.\u201d&nbsp;To engage men in advocating for gender equity, &nbsp;KARAMAH adopts an approach that is&nbsp;deeply rooted in the Islamic tradition and it draws its authority by referring to the Qur\u2019an and the Sunnah. Ms. Rahman added that it is pursuant to the gender equitable Islamic model which encourages both men and women to be engaged in learning about their religion that KARAMAH offers educational programs to both genders. Moreover, KARAMAH believes that male allies are very important in women\u2019s rights\u2019 advocacy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Ms. Rahman spoke about the world\u2019s lack of knowledge of Islam. Islam is gender equitable and in fact favors women over men in many areas. Despite this, the reality in society is quite different. This is a direct result of a lack of education of Islam. While the Islamic tradition is abound with inspirational female models. ( Sayyidah Khadijah was a successful entrepreneur and Sayyidah&nbsp;Aisha was one of the first scholars in Islam who taught both men and women about their religion) some religious institutions are nevertheless discriminating against women.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Ms. Omar spoke about how she was personally influenced by four women she called \u201cthe four founding mothers in the American Muslim community.\u201d One of these women was KARAMAH\u2019s founder Dr. Azizah al-Hibri. Ms. Omar said that she grew up accepting and repeating what she was taught without questioning until these women shaped how she approached learning about her own religion from a spiritual perspective and later shaped her work in social justice and peace building. Ms. Omar added that one of the problems related to religious education especially among immigrant families is that it is influenced by culture and patriarchy and that once you learn what Islam actually says about women\u2019s rights, you feel liberated. She also said \u201cquoting UN resolution 1325 or CEDAW doesn\u2019t have the same traction \u2026 the way you are when you are quoting religious texts.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Ms. Hayward stressed&nbsp;the importance of \u201cengaging with religion within a larger effort for gender equality \u2026 because women and religion are interconnected.\u201d Ms. Hayward stated that many social scientific studies have been done showing that women are more religious than men across religious traditions. Gender discrimination, she added, comes from simplistic understandings of institutional leaders and clerics, often men, who solely shape the tradition based on \u201csuperficial understanding of what religion is and how it is formed and transformed through history.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>All panelists agreed that listening to women and lifting up their stories shall empower them. They also agreed that we should strive against silencing religious voices and give them space to offer their perspectives.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/karamah\/albums\/72157657571488063\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">See&nbsp;this event\u2019s pictures here.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>\u201cWe want [women] to be critical and analytical and decide for [themselves].\u201d Aisha Rahman, KARAMAH executive director On October 13th, 2015, the U.S. Institute of Peace hosted a documentary screening of the PBS documentary \u201cGender Equality in Islam\u201d followed by a panel discussion titled \u201cIslam, Culture and Sexism: What Needs to Change?\u201d The panel featured:&nbsp;Aisha [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"default","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"default","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"default","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"wds_primary_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1718","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/karamah.org\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1718","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/karamah.org\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/karamah.org\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/karamah.org\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/karamah.org\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1718"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/karamah.org\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1718\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/karamah.org\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1718"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/karamah.org\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1718"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/karamah.org\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1718"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}