WOMEN IN ISLAM

Talk given to CNWE Toronto by RAHEEL RAZA
MEDIA CONSULTANT/FREE LANCE WRITER/PUBLIC SPEAKER

Begin in the name of Allah the beneficent, the merciful

Before we begin, I think it's important to tell you who I am and where I come from. Although I consider this paper an academic endeavor, there is great personal involvement and vested interest. I was born and brought up in a culture where women were supposed to be seen and not heard, so early in my childhood I set out to prove everyone wrong. But before I could continue on this rocky journey to set everyone's record straight, I had to read, research and discover for myself that my faith sets me free and does not shackle me. So what I present to you today is from the heart and with conviction in the cause.

I'd also like to put on record that you can't depend on media to remove the specter of negative stereotyping that surrounds the existence of Muslim women in the West or to learn about the inner lives of Muslim women the world over. The images that you see in print or on CNN are not even remotely reflective of the lives of Muslim women in general. Media unfortunately has been responsible for presenting a garbled image of Muslim women, providing negative portrayals and sensationalist propaganda for the masses. Let me assure you that books like Not without my Daughter by Betty Mahmoody do not portray the lives of a majority of Muslim women but are based on limited personal experience.

Very early in this discourse, it's important to make the difference between the FAITH of Islam and the PEOPLE of Islam - they are not the same thing. There is enormous plurality in the Muslim world and major differences in the traditions of African Muslims, Arab Muslims, Asian Muslim or European Muslims. Muslims live in almost 60 different countries of the world so they reflect a rich diverse cultural mosaic that is well reflected in Canada. Like the differences in our language, food and clothing from one region to another, Muslim women are diverse. Stereotypical assumptions about us as "Women in Black" are as inaccurate as the assumption that all American women are personified by the bikini-clad cast of "Baywatch.", or that Canadian women are represented by the Sunshine girl of Toronto Sun.

I recently asked a young audience to tell me what they know of Muslim women and if they had ever met one. The answer came back quick and sharp: "covered from head to toe in black with only the eyes showing" - I can't blame them for narrowing a person's entire psyche to just a superficial dress code because this is what they've seen on media - the same 3 images being flashed over and over again and endless debate about our dress codes.

The Western press' obsession with the dress of Muslim women is not surprising, since the press in general, tends to view Muslims simplistically. Headlines in the mainstream media have reduced Muslim female identity to an article of clothing--"the veil." It's rare to have a conversation about Muslim women without using the four letter word "veil". "Behind the Veil," "Beyond the Veil," "At the Drop of a Veil" and more. The use of the term borders on the absurd: Perhaps next will come "Rebel Without a Veil" or "Whose Veil is it, Anyway?"

Dr. Laila al Maryati, President and spokesperson for the Muslim Women's League in California, says that the word "veil" does not even have a universal meaning. In some cultures, it refers to a face-covering known as niqab; in others, to a simple head scarf, known as hijab. Other manifestations of "the veil" include all-encompassing outer garments like the ankle-length abaya from the Persian Gulf states, the chador in Iran or the burka in Afghanistan and in my native Pakistan, a dupatta .

Modern, successful Muslim women are routinely excluded from mainstream media and I've found that there are many reasons for this. At an international UNESCO symposium on Women and the Media held in Canada some years ago, one explanation was that the causes are deeply rooted in social, economic and political structures, as well as in culturally determined attitudes. This doesn't come as a surprise because my gender has had the distinct honor of being at the blunt end of media bashing many times. It's unfortunate that the achievements of many Muslim women today are buried under an avalanche of misinformation by media in projecting them as third class citizens or non-contributing members of society. The media can't seem to comprehend that a head covering doesn't make anyone brain damaged and that majority of Muslim women aren't FORCED to cover up.

Let me share with you a personal anecdote from my recent trip to Dubai in the Arabian Gulf where I had lived before coming to Canada. What struck me first and foremost is that majority of the women in that part of the world are covered - not like ninjas, but they wear long loose clothes and cover their hair. Of utmost significance is the fact that these women cover by choice and NOT by force. Let me also add, that their clothes could make a fashion statement on the catwalks of Paris and New York. Flowing silk abayas, hand embroidered scarves, chiffon outerwear encrusted in precious gems - I was dazzled. I also found the women to be very confident, content and in some ways more liberated on a spiritual and intellectual level than you or I - . They do everything we do here and more - they work outside their homes, they are educators, politicians, leaders and also get to sit in a tent by the beach in the evening and smoke a flavored hubbly bubbly - which we can only dream off!

What this did was reiterate what I've always believed - that, despite numerous obstacles, Muslim women are active, assertive and engaged in society. In Qatar, women make up the majority of graduate-school students. The Iranian parliament has more women members than the U.S. Senate and let me inform you that right now, there is major discussion and debate taking place amongst the educated women of Iran. According to a recent book I've been reviewing called Islam and Gender, by Professor Ziba Mir Husseini, law professor at New York University, a paradox has occurred in Iran where women are questioning the clergy about their rights and are looking for venues to prove that the general message of the Koran is one of egalitarianism. The book proves that many Muslim women in Iran are highly educated and professionally trained; they participate in public debates, are often catalysts for reform and champions for their own rights.

You rarely hear about women like Dr. Nafees Sadek, executive director of the united nations population fund; Huma Abedin, Hilary Clintons office manager; Dr. Huda al Maraghwi, dean of engineering at Windsor university; madame Fatima Houda Pepin, member of the Quebec assembly; Maliha Lodhi Pakistan's ambassador in Washington; Benazir Bhutto, ex prime Minister of Pakistan to name just a few. There are others working in finance, law, medicine, education and even politics. I was pleasantly surprised to hear that one of our young Muslim women was part of the Canadian armed forces during the gulf war.

Fatima Mernissi, a Moroccan sociologist, activist and author of many books on Women in Islam was born in Egypt at the same time as feminism, and the two have never ceased to exist side by side. In the 1930's Huda al Sharawi was a radical feminist even by today's standards. All over the Arab world, the impact of female writers, journalists and novelists has been powerful and one Muslim activist even made history in Canada.

Some years ago, at a conference held in Montreal about women and power, Egyptian feminist, Dr. Nawal Saadawi made (what were for that time) some politically incorrect statements. She claimed that restrictive elements towards women are found first in Judaism in the Old testament and then in Christianity followed by Islam. Gwynne Dyer of the Toronto Star covered the conference and wrote an article titled "Islam is not alone in patriarchal doctrines". He described the furious reaction of participants when Dr. Saadawi said "all religions are patriarchal because they stem from patriarchal societies and veiling of women is not a specifically Islamic practice but an ancient cultural heritage with analogies equated with Islam." The participants obviously did not like being equated with Islam and protested. Dyers article attributed these furious protests to the strong tendency in the West to scapegoat Islam for practices that are just as much a part of the West's own cultural heritage. He said, tongue in cheek, "Christian and Jewish feminists were not going to sit around being discussed in the same category as those 'wicked Muslims'

The pitfalls and challenges faced by women like Sadaawi and Mernissi, to make their voices heard, are no comparison to how passively we live our lives today. Despite threats to their lives, property and families, they grew strong and confident in their faith and educated others in the understanding that if you educate a child you have educated one individual, if you educate a woman you have educated an entire nation.

Let me tell you about another set of Muslim women, closer to home. Virginia Woolf writes as a woman I have no country - as a woman my country is the whole world. This stands true of the Muslim women who came as pioneers to Canada - a foreign and cold land - in the early 1900's. They came to support their families, many of them with no language abilities and some who had never seen snow. But they went far north and weathered more than the winter. When the men failed to build a mosque, it was a small group of women from these early settlers that petitioned for the first mosque to be created in Edmonton. They went door to door on Jasper avenue, convincing people to join in their campaign and in 1938 the first mosque in Canada, the al Rashid mosque, was named. In 1982, Dr. Lila Fahlman founded the first registered national Muslim women's organization called the Canadian council of Muslim women, which has taken great strides in helping Muslim women assimilate into Canadian life.

These women are fortunate that they were in Canada so they were able to follow their passions and achieve personal satisfaction whereas there are millions of Muslim women right now, who live in abject poverty and terror. These women are the forgotten legacy of the world. They are the mothers in Bosnia who watched their daughters being brutally raped; they are the daughters in Kashmir who see their entire family slaughtered; they are the wives and children in Iraq living with internal strife and external sanctions against medicine and daily amenities; they are the daughters of Palestine striving for peaceful co-existence and today they are women of Afghanistan who are still struggling to liberate their land and their bodies.

Since September 11, Muslims and especially Muslim women have been under a microscope. Front and center have been Afghan women. It bothers me when Western feminists (with due respect) want to liberate Afghan woman by removing their burka (outer covering) which has become a symbol of repression. Not to undermine the suffering of our sisters in Afghanistan, but the burka was--and is-- NOT their major focus of concern. Their priorities are more basic, like feeding their children, becoming literate and living free from violence. Nevertheless, recent articles in the Western media suggest the burka means everything to Muslim women, because they routinely express bewilderment at the fact that all Afghan women didn't cast off their burkas when the Taliban was defeated.

There was an interesting news item showing utter disappointment when Afghanistan was liberated and Afghan women rushed out of their homes - asked what is the first thing they want to do - they said they wanted to go to the mosque to pray. If the burka was really their only impediment to freedom, how come we didn't see them running down the streets - uncovered and supposedly free from all encumbrances?? A recent article in the Toronto Star by Elaine Kamarck, a faculty member at Harvard University, called FREEDOM THROUGH ISLAM, verifies most of what I've said to you today in regards to Afghan women and let me quote just one comment made by Rina Amiri who heads the Afghan women movement and says quite clearly: "we do not need to be liberated FROM Islam."

Another woman in the forefront of Muslim Women's rights is Dr. Riffat Hassan , a professor of religious studies and humanities at the University of Louisville and founder of The International Network of Rights for Female Victims of Violence in Pakistan. She is my mentor and I've worked with her on the controversial issue of honour killing. She says "God who speaks through the Quran, is characterized by justice, and it is stated with the utmost clarity in the Quran that God can never be guilty of unfairness or tyranny...hence the Quran as God's word cannot be made the source of human injustice, and the injustice to which Muslim women have been subjected cannot be regarded as God-derived'. She further claims that The Qur'an offers no religious or ethical justification for discriminating against women. This is the reason this reality has to be dealt with, from within Islam.''

There is constant exploitation of women in Islamic societies which is not religious, but cultural. This springs from ignorance of Quranic injunctions and blatant misinterpretation of Islamic commands and has been routinely ignored by the Muslim community at large. If we were to construct a society on the true basis of Islam, men and women would be equal in the sight of God. Let me explain in detail. About 100 years after the message of Islam, women's rights were set into place under Islamic law called Sharia which means the path. According to these laws, Muslim women were presented that with rights to voting, pre nuptial agreements and inheritance. They could have an abortion up to the fourth month of pregnancy and birth control was permitted. Furthermore, while Muslim women could participate in battle, and keep their maiden name, they also had the right to keep their wages. I believe it was only in the 1900's that Canadian women were actually declared persons and women in Britain were not allowed to keep their earned wages till the twentieth century.

The history of women in the Middle East is seen from an entirely new perspective in Judith Tucker's rewarding study of Islamic law in seventeenth- and eighteenth-century Syria and Palestine. Titled book "In the House of the Law," the book talks about a period when Muslim legal thinkers gave considerable attention to women's roles in society, and Tucker shows how fatwas, or legal opinions, greatly influenced these roles. She challenges prevailing views on Islam and gender, revealing Islamic law to have been more fluid and flexible than previously thought. In the book Tucker studies court records from Ottoman-Syria and concludes:

1. the shari'a courts were accessible and popular with women.
2. the courts took upon themselves the task of defending women's Islamic rights against the vagaries of custom. For example they would insist on her right to a share of the inheritance or her right to refuse a marriage proposal against her family's or communities desires.
3. the courts seemed very reluctant to impose extreme punishments on women who had had pre-marital sex. women often turned up at court pregnant, asking to be married to their boyfriends and the courts complied.
4. obtaining a divorce was easy for women who could prove one of the following:
1. physical abuse
2. mental abuse
3. sexual incompatibility
4. the mistreatment of her family
5. abandonment for a years time

These conditions are no longer applied in the modern shari'a family courts.

Haim Gerber, "State, Society and Law" is an Israeli scholar who has studied the court records of Anatolia (today's Turkey). He concludes that the courts were extremely attentive to women, even taking their sides where doubt existed and in 7 out of 10 cases brought before the courts by women resulted in a ruling favouring the woman.

Nelly Henna, has done the same research for Egypt and concludes much the same thing. Hanna adds however, that the claimants who used the courts were predominantly women, implying that they felt the courts were both fair and open to them.

Ironically, discrimination and victimization of women began with colonization because westernization of governments would not allow women to open bank accounts without a male counter signature so their assets were frozen and they felt the deprivation of their rights. Also western ways of life and modes of modernity were not compatible with the Islamic system. Social, political and economic causes also added to the cause, but religion became the raison d'etre that men used to legitimize their crimes.

There was an interview with Crown Prince Abdullah of Saudi Arabia in the Washington Post on January 28 this year in which he was questioned about restrictions on women in Saudi Arabia. He hummed and hawed, went around in circles and then confessed that it was culture. After saying that Islam gives women rights that are equal to those given in the Old Testament and the Bible he said and I quote: "WE HAVE OUR RESTRICTIONS AND OUR CULTURAL LIMITATIONS, FOR EXAMPLE WITH REGARD TO WOMEN DRIVING…." And he expounded no further.

Many Muslim men and women alike are subjugated by despotic, dictatorial regimes. Their lot in life is worsened by extreme poverty and illiteracy, two conditions that are not caused by Islam but are sometimes exploited in the name of religion. Let me share some mind boggling statistics with you. According to UNDP human development figures, there are 37 million people who have been forced from their homes; of these approximately 28 million are Muslims and of these 28 million, 22 million are women and children. Majority of Muslims live in countries where poverty is at its highest. The Muslim women of these countries have their hands full trying to dodge bullets or finding one square meal and clean drinking water, so they don't have time to study their rights and privileges, take legal counsel or fight discrimination. Their lives are not 9 to 5 corporate lives - many of them have never seen a doctor, and most of them live on the edge. Helping Muslim women overcome their misery is a major task. The reconstruction of Afghanistan will be a test case for the Afghan people and for the international community dedicated to making Afghan society work for everyone. To some, Islam is the root cause of the problems faced by women in Afghanistan. But what is truly at fault is a misguided, narrow interpretation of Islam designed to serve a rigid patriarchal system.

Dr. Hassan al Turabi, secretary general of the Arab Islamic Congress, who has a doctorate from the Sorbonne, writes in his paper titled Women in Islam and Muslim Society - whenever weakness creeps into the faith of Muslim men, they tend to treat women oppressively....but weak commitment to religion tends to cultivate unjust treatment of women.

Professor Amina Wadud, is currently Assistant Professor, Department of Philosophy and Religious Studies at Virginia Commonwealth University, has taught at Harvard University and is the author of a controversial book titled Quran and Woman. Daughter of a Baptist preacher, Professor Wadud is an African American convert to Islam and explains that as a western woman, she would never have accepted a faith that is unfair to women.

Quran and Woman' is a unique look at the status of women in Islam - a more equal and just status. For 14 centuries the Quran as the guiding book for Muslims, was interpreted solely by men. Everything was filtered through male intellect - even women's issues. So, for a long time, men have told Muslim women about being women. This has led to western misconceptions about the roles and status of women in Islam, and also set a poor record of human rights abuse in many Muslim countries.

Some Islamic practices have continuously troubled feminists, outside observers and Muslims. Issues relating to Polygamy, inheritance, women's rights, unequal witnessing laws and other injunctions that seem to discriminate against women. However, a new and deeper look at the verses in the Quran pertaining to these injunctions, the context in which they were revealed, the spirit in which they were intended plus grammar and language variances, does much to clear up these doubts and misunderstandings.

Dr. Wadud cites an example. verse 4.1. in the Quran is usually translated as "And His sign is that He created you a single soul or nafs in Arabic, and created from (min) that soul its mate or zawj and from these two he spread (through the earth) countless men and women." This is traditionally taken to mean that a first perfect male being was created, and then a second inferior female being. The interpretation has also been strengthened by the Christian version of creation, where Adam was created and then Eve was created out of Adam's rib. Dr. Wadud points out that the word min can be translated in two ways: to mean either 'from' or to mean 'in the same type' or 'similar vein'. Furthermore the word nafs or soul is grammatically feminine while zawj or mate is masculine. So this verse can't be used literally as a testament to the superiority of the male being. Instead it refers allegorically to the fact that two similar creatures were created, and they are a pair, as everything in the universe except God Himself, has been created in pairs.

One of the reasons Dr. Wadud sees acceptance of her variation in the interpretation of certain verses of the Quran, is that in the last two decades many issues have come up that were never imagined or addressed at the time of the revelation of Islam e.g. rape as a weapon in war.

Social and cultural traditions as well as economic circumstances are the cause of distortion and misinterpretation of the Quran which has hurt Muslim women a great deal. Many female Muslim scholars have initiated groundbreaking steps towards setting the record straight and their work is referred to as Gender Jihad (Jihad being a struggle to overcome injustice).

However, not everyone in the Muslim world accepts these findings. Many male Muslim scholars suspect women's motives thinking that they want to start a revolution. They associate people like Dr. Hassan and Amina Wadud, with transgressors... but when they discover that they are firmly rooted in Islam and the Quran, and are not out to undermine men, they are silenced. Recently Dr. Wadud was in South Africa where a mini uprising took place because she gave the Friday sermon at a mosque, which has traditionally been the self appointed role of men - she questioned the critics and asked them to show her where it documents that women can't give a sermon and they had no answer.

Having discussed women in Islam from a political, social, economic and intellectual perspective, let me now touch upon the religious and spiritual perspective because it's important to tie this in with the former.

The Koran says : "I shall not lose sight of the labor of any of you who labors in My way, be it man or woman; each of you is equal to the other (3:195)"

Spiritual equality, responsibility and accountability for both men and women is a well-developed theme in the Quran. Spiritual equality between men and women in the sight of God is not limited to purely spiritual, religious issues, but is the basis for equality in all temporal aspects of human endeavor.

The concept of gender equality is best exemplified in the Quranic rendition of Adam and Eve. The Quran states that both sexes were deliberate and independent and there is no mention of Eve being created out of Adam's rib or anything else. Even in the issue of which sex was created first is not specified, implying that for our purpose in this world, it may not matter.

In Islam we look for guidance to the scripture which is the Koran, our holy book and the traditions of the Prophet Mohammad who is the messenger of Gods message to humanity. Its important to understand that the Quran was not revealed in one day. As issues arose: social, religious and those dealing with jurisprudence, God sent corresponding verses over a span of 23 years. Every chapter, every verse has a specific relation to time and history and most importantly, to prior text i.e. a connection with the verses that came before. Therefore if read or interpreted out of context, one verse can be understood to mean two entirely different things. In relation to social issues regarding women, this has constantly been the case.

In Islam there is no priesthood, so the Koran is open to individual interpretation but we are advised to choose an Imam or leader from amongst the community based on his or her piety and expertise in both secular and scriptural subjects. This means that social issues like marriages, births and deaths can be handled by a competent Muslim adult without any specific credentials. But there are scholars or ulema who have a much higher knowledge of the faith and are consulted for expert advice and counsel.

Another drawback for many of us, is interpreting the Quran without benefit of the actual language because a translation loses much of the original context. Arabic is a rich language in which one word can have ten meanings or interpretations and needs to be understood in proper historical context and supported by practice and tradition of the Prophet called Sunnah.

This ability to interpret texts is both a blessing and a burden. Blessing because it provides us with the flexibility to adapt the Koranic text to changing circumstances - burden because the reader must take responsibility for the normative values he or she brings to the text. Any text provides possibilities for meaning - not inevitabilities - those possibilities can be exploited or developed by the readers good faith. THE MEANING OF THE TEXT IS ONLY AS MORAL AS THE READER.

The Prophet of Islam, remained concerned all his life about the status and treatment of women, because at the time of the revelation of the message of Islam, women were buried alive, treated as chattels and at one point considered to be inhuman without a soul. In his last sermon, the Prophet clearly asked men to treat women with kindness because due to economic conditions, men were responsible for the well being of their women. The Quran says in 2:228 and they (women) have rights similar to those of men over them...treat them in a just manner.

Let me tell you about some early Muslim women who have become role models for us as. The Prophet's first wife, Khadijah was a successful business woman who was 22 years older than the Prophet and sent a proposal of marriage to him. Khadijah, also called mother of believers, was a woman without whose patronage and support, the message of Islam would not have gained momentum. History records that the Prophet helped her with her business, housekeeping and took her advise in matters of state. She remained a confidant and friend to the Prophet till her death. His second wife, Lady Ayesha actually led a war and rode into combat on a camel. It has been narrated that when the Prophet's daughter Fatema entered the room, the Prophet stood up in respect. Fatema was a mesmerizing public speaker and her sermons have been recorded. Also noteworthy is Rabia of Basra - the first mystic of Islam.

In Islam, a woman has many roles and although its not fair to present one role as more compelling than another, life is after all a measure of levels. A woman is born as someone's daughter and grows up to become a young woman. Islam gives her the freedom to stay single, choose a life partner and the freedom to get a divorce. Islam gives her equality and there are various verses of the Quran that prove this. While the Quran acknowledges the anatomical differences between males and females, it talks at length about the compatible, mutually supportive functional relationships between men and women with regard to society.

A woman becomes a wife and in her relationship as a wife, she is judged for her spirituality and not her submission. There are no rights of women distinct from rights of men although the responsibilities may vary in different societies.

At this point I should mention just one of many recurring misrepresentations in Islam that people believe. . God says true believers, men and women will have faithful companions in paradise. Many males have interpreted this to mean that they will get beautiful women as companions and some wishfully also believe that they will have more than one virgin at their beck and call. Not only is this a misrepresentation of the verses, it's also very sexist and totally wrong.

This brings me to the third and most revered role of a woman - that of a mother. In Islam, the most power of a woman is vested in her capacity to reproduce. Motherhood is considered the climax of a woman's life which does not in any way belittle her contribution in any other role. One scholar has likened the role of a mother with attributes similar to those of God. While God is the creator, a mother gives birth to a life; God provides sustenance to his people, a mother provides nourishment to child without being asked; God is merciful and forgiving the same way a mother is with her child, God forgives first and punishes last, a mother does the same. In essence, a mother is the pivotal point in the circle of life, where all humanity is connected to the core - if she moves or is misplaced, the entire circle moves and if she is put out of sync, the circle is broken.

There are numerous traditions about reverence for mothers. One is that heaven lies at the feet of the mother. Another tradition is that a man came to the Prophet and said, I have carried my mother on my back and performed the pilgrimage with her. Have I repaid her for bringing me up? The Prophet replied, if you carried your mother on your back for 365 days a year, you still would not have paid back one tenth of what she has done for you in her life.

There is a widespread belief that in Islam, the female is hardly ever religiously addressed except through the mediation of a male, and as an addendum to him. In the Quran however, it is clearly stated in chapter 28:7 that Umm Musa (mother of Moses) received divine communication. Again, Maryam (Mary) is mentioned by name in the Quran and an entire chapter is named after her. Finally for those who believe that a woman should not be a leader, the Koran tells us the story of Bilqis, the queen of Sheba who was a ruler of an unconfirmed location said to be somewhere in Yemen. Bilqis is referred to as powerful, strong and possessing a magnificent throne. The story of Bilqis as it unfolds in the Quran, telling us how Solomon invited her to Islam, reveals characteristics of an adept politician and diplomat, who would be at home ruling any country today.

In the present time, given the opportunity, Muslim women, like women everywhere, will become educated, pursue careers, strive to do what is best for their families and contribute positively according to their abilities. How they dress is irrelevant. It should be obvious that the critical element Muslim women need is freedom, especially the freedom to make choices that enable them to be independent agents of positive change. Choosing to dress modestly, including wearing a head scarf, should be as respected as choosing not to cover. Accusations that modestly dressed Muslim women are caving in to male-dominated understandings of Islam neglect the reality that most Muslim women who cover by choice do so out of subservience to God, not to any human being.

What doesn't penetrate Western consciousness, however, is that forced uncovering is also a tool of oppression. During the reign of Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi in Iran, wearing the veil was prohibited. As an expression of their opposition to his repressive regime, women who supported the 1979 Islamic Revolution marched in the street clothed in chadors. Many of them did not expect to have this "dress code" institutionalized by those who led the revolution and then took power in the new government.

In Turkey, the secular regime considers the head scarf a symbol of extremist elements that want to overthrow the government. Accordingly, women who wear any type of head-covering are banned from public office, government jobs and academia, including graduate school. Turkish women who believe the head-covering is a religious obligation are unfairly forced to give up public life or opportunities for higher education and career advancement.

With regards to what the final solution must be and what needs to be done in areas of helping Muslim women, especially in Afghanistan, I'll quote from a paper written by Dr. Layla al Mariati. She says: Traditional Muslim populations will be more receptive to change that is based on Islamic principles of justice, as expressed in the Koran, than they will be to change that abandons religion altogether or confines it to private life. Muslim scholars and leaders who emphasize Islamic principles that support women's rights to education, health care, marriage and divorce, equal pay for equal work and participation in public life could fill the vacuum now occupied by those who impose a vision of Islam that infringes on the rights of women.

The worth of a woman--any woman--should not be determined by the length of her skirt, or the covering on her head: but by her wisdom, spirituality and the dedication, knowledge and skills she brings to the task at hand. Because our strength lies not in our way of adornment, but deep in our ruh, our soul - which for the interest of feminists, has no gender.

I'll end by sharing with you, something from the heart because there is an Arabic proverb that says, "words from the lips reach only the ears, but that which is from the heart, reaches the heart". These words were penned by the founder of RAWA - The Revolutionary Association of Women in Afghanistan who died while fighting for liberty and freedom for her sisters and her land which continues to be ravaged. Her name is Meena and she writes:

I'll never return by Meena

I'm the woman who has awoken
I've arisen and become a tempest through the ashes of my burnt children
I've arisen from the rivulets of my brother's blood
My nation's wrath has empowered me
My ruined and burnt villages fill me with hatred against the enemy,
I'm the woman who has awoken,
I've found my path and will never return.
I've opened closed doors of ignorance
I've said farewell to all golden bracelets
Oh compatriot, I'm not what I was
I'm the woman who has awoken
I've found my path and will never return.
I've seen barefoot, wandering and homeless children
I've seen henna-handed brides with mourning clothes
I've seen giant walls of the prisons swallow freedom in their ravenous stomach
I've been reborn amidst epics of resistance and courage
I've learned the song of freedom in the last breaths, in the waves of blood and in victory
Oh compatriot, Oh brother, no longer regard me as weak and incapable
With all my strength I'm with you on the path of my land's liberation.
My voice has mingled with thousands of arisen women
My fists are clenched with the fists of thousands compatriots
Along with you I've stepped up to the path of my nation,
To break all these sufferings all these fetters of slavery,
Oh compatriot, Oh brother, I'm not what I was
I'm the woman who has awoken
I've found my path and will never return.

RAHEEL RAZA is a media consultant/free lance writer/public speaker. She is a member of: The Canadian Association of Journalists; Canadian Council for Muslim Women; MediaWatch; Sisterhood-Is-Global Institute; Canadian Journalists for Free Expression; a director for Sampradaya Dance Creations; and a consultant for Makepeace International. She has lived and worked in Pakistan, Qatar, U.A.E., and Canada.

She has a particular interest in Human rights/Gender equality, Cross Cultural Communication, Racism & Discrimination, Multi-faith dialogue.