sexgenderbody

These are not new issues for the women’s movement in Indonesia, which came of age in the 1980s. Women began claiming their rights and positions in politics, civil society, the media, and religious and academic circles. At the time, the debate on gender equality and Islam was underway across the Arab world, with Muslim feminists leading the way. According to van Lierde, their views on Islam and society began “to break open the patriarchal, established political and religious order and give rise to discussions across the world.” However, this advocacy gave rise to continued tensions and notions of a “clash of civilizations,” and in some circles, women’s rights are still viewed as in tension with Islam.

The development of a women’s movement in Indonesia from inside the pesantren circumvents the resistance to secular feminism common in devout communities. As Muslim women take on leadership roles in a traditional Islamic domain, they can challenge patriarchal norms while maintaining religious authenticity. Badriyah Fayumi, who heads a pesantren in addition to long serving as a member of the national Parliament, says that because she “speaks in the same religious terms and cites the same sources,” she can convey her message of equality, “…that Islam can and must go together with respect for diversity, for religious, cultural and ethnic pluralism, for human rights.”

Inayah Rohmaniyah, a female Imam profiled in the report, explains how she uses her religious authority to work against extremism. She describes how the Muslim Brotherhood and Indonesian extremist groups bind communities to them, using funding from Middle East sources to invest locally. “They combine propaganda with services. They establish schools, from nurseries to universities, where parents can place their children in a strictly religious environment for very little money.” To be an effective alternative voice, Rohmaniyah must utilize religious and practical arguments. “As an expert on Islam, as a woman who comes from a traditional and even a Wahabi pesantren, I have more than enough cards to play to share my message, my view of Islam, with the same audience. I will quote the same religious sources and appeal to people’s same desire to get ahead in life, and with women in particular, I will talk about the situation at home and on the street, the future prospects for their children.” Rohmaniyah, like the other five women leaders profiled, demonstrates the importance of local identity and religious authenticity in working for women’s rights and against extremism.

For example, in as early as the 11th century, Persian poetess Mahasti Ganjawi was writing about freedom from societal constraints that she, as a woman, suffered from. Though she was imprisoned for ninety days for her courageous poetry condemning religious obscurantism and fanaticism, she continued writing, among other things, passionate and erotic love poems or rebellious pieces about freedom from domesticity. She wrote:

You cannot stop us with the tip of an arrow
You cannot keep us in a melancholic cell
If one has chains in the hair for catching the heart of a lover
You cannot chain her inside the house

Mahasti is one example of hundreds of advocates for ideals we now call freedom of speech, women’s rights, liberation, and/or individualism.

In the 13th century Mawalana Jalaludin Balkhi, often referred to as Rumi in the West, wrote against treating women as inferior. In his greatest work, Masnawi (colloquially called the Persian Quran), he had several examples of powerful women whose wit and strength led men and women in righteous directions. He wrote in his collection of articles on how women must not be locked up in rooms, but allowed to make their mark in the society freely. Mawlana’s humanist, and even arguably feminist perspective, is one example of the many strong brave voices for equality and humanity in the past in the East.

“Simply put: I’m An Asian Woman And I Think This Conversation Sucks.”

Dear god-that-I-don’t-believe-in, please help me find more people like these authors.  In return, I’ll be nice to the cat.

notyourexrotic:

I’ve got a string of gigs happening in the Bay Area in early May, all exploring different types of art, so come say hi:

Women’s Rock Camp Showcase + Queen Crescent

The New Parish
579 18th Street (at San Pablo), Oakland, CA 94612
Sunday 5 May 2013 : 2pm to 5pm
$5 - $15, under 18 FREE; no one turned away for lack of funds

Women’s Rock Camp is a program of Bay Area Girls Rock Camp (BAGRC). BAGRC is a nonprofit dedicated to empowering girls through music, promoting an environment that fosters self-confidence, creativity and collaboration. Participants learn instruments, form bands, write an original song, attend workshops, and perform in a live concert…all in three days. Women’s Rock Camp tuition and all showcase proceeds benefit the Bay Area Girls Rock Camp Youth Programs.

I am one of the participants in this year’s WRC and am pretty excited to relive my rockstar dreams ;)

SICK

LGBT Center
1800 Market St, San Francisco CA 94102
Thursday 9 May 2013 : 6pm Visual Arts, 7:30pm Videos and Performances
FREE!

Giving a definition to gender variance is tricky. As is defining chronic illness. People tell themselves “I am not sick enough or queer enough or whatever enough” to identify these ways and this hesitance stops us from forming communities and connections. We isolate because our experiences are not talked about or validated and our unique and varied lives don’t lend themselves easily to group formation. Definitions are inherently constraining which is why many gender variant and chronically ill folks resist identity categories that often hew to normative binaries. With this in mind, SICK will bring folks together to make beautiful complicated art about our intersecting experiences as gender variant and sick people.

I don’t usually class myself as a visual artist, so my piece in SICK is going to be an interesting visual/performance/interactivity hybrid experiment. I’m the pre-show before the performances and videos, so come early enough to check me out and say hi (in a manner of speaking).

Mother Funder! A Mother’s Day Cabaret Benefiting White Lies

Club 21
2111 Franklin St (at 21st), Oakland CA 94612
Sunday 12 May 2013 : 7:30pm
$10; no one turned away for lack of funds - 21+

White Lies is a new production to debut at the 2013 National Queer Arts Festival on June 23rd. A multiracial cast of queer musicians, filmmakers, poets, writers, and actors will explore whiteness to dismantle racism in our queer communities. Our production aims to bring humor and hope to conversations about race and racism by blending together many mediums in a night of performance and conversation. Our cast is composed of many movers and shakers in the San Francisco Bay Area LGBTQ arts scene including nomy lamm, StormMiguel Florez, Jezebel Delilah X, Eli Conley, Susie Smith, Jolie Harris, Mel Chen, Meredith Fenton, Kentucky Fried Woman and Open Mike. This benefit cabaret is to help us fund our world premiere performance and cover the costs of ASL interpretation, venue rentals, and paying our cast and crew.

The Polyester Girl Army is likely to make a comeback amongst some awesome Bay Area QTPOC names!

mydaywithd:

This week, Saudi Arabia’s CPVPV (Commission on the Promotion of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice) overturned a ban on cycling for women, with some significant qualifications: 1) bicycles cannot be used for transport, 2) the female biker must be accompanied by a male guardian, and 3) she must be wearing a hijab. In other words, as one headline claimed: “Saudi women are now allowed to cycle—but only around in circles.”

Some Saudi Arabian women are running circles around their society’s rules. All across the Arab world, women, frustrated by centuries of patriarchal oppression, are quietly and subtly subverting restrictions in their everyday lives.

Some women are undermining the patriarchy with lace and lingerie. In her new book, Sex in the Citadel, Shereen el Feki chronicles sexuality in Arab society, including the experience of married Arab women who cannot “express their sexual desire and their sexual needs” to their husbands. “It would be a shame for me to show my husband that I want to have sex,” says one woman. According to Feki, lingerie creates a way around the stigma. She writes, “sales are thriving across the Middle East…for many women, lingerie is a tool of empowerment” because it allows women to signal their sexual desires without insulting their culture.

Some teenage girls, desperate for the thrill of co-ed contact, try to game the system. Teenage dating is one of Arab society’s greatest taboos, but a game called “numbering” allows teen boys and girls a taste of possibility, as they exchange cell phone numbers by holding notes up to the windows of their moving cars. For many girls, that glimpse of a guy through the car window may be their only male interaction before marriage.

mydaywithd:

This week, Saudi Arabia’s CPVPV (Commission on the Promotion of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice) overturned a ban on cycling for women, with some significant qualifications: 1) bicycles cannot be used for transport, 2) the female biker must be accompanied by a male guardian, and 3) she must be wearing a hijab. In other words, as one headline claimed: “Saudi women are now allowed to cycle—but only around in circles.”

Some Saudi Arabian women are running circles around their society’s rules. All across the Arab world, women, frustrated by centuries of patriarchal oppression, are quietly and subtly subverting restrictions in their everyday lives.

Some women are undermining the patriarchy with lace and lingerie. In her new book, Sex in the Citadel, Shereen el Feki chronicles sexuality in Arab society, including the experience of married Arab women who cannot “express their sexual desire and their sexual needs” to their husbands. “It would be a shame for me to show my husband that I want to have sex,” says one woman. According to Feki, lingerie creates a way around the stigma. She writes, “sales are thriving across the Middle East…for many women, lingerie is a tool of empowerment” because it allows women to signal their sexual desires without insulting their culture.

Some teenage girls, desperate for the thrill of co-ed contact, try to game the system. Teenage dating is one of Arab society’s greatest taboos, but a game called “numbering” allows teen boys and girls a taste of possibility, as they exchange cell phone numbers by holding notes up to the windows of their moving cars. For many girls, that glimpse of a guy through the car window may be their only male interaction before marriage.

idrc-crdi:

A campaign that won legal recognition for Arab women’s citizenship rights in nine jurisdictions is providing inspiration and tactical lessons for women facing growing discrimination across the Middle East.

Full story by Stephen Dale

Une campagne ayant mené à la reconnaissance juridique des droits en matière de nationalité des femmes arabes dans neuf pays et territoires constitue une source d’inspiration et de solutions stratégiques pour les femmes qui, un peu partout au Moyen-Orient, se heurtent à une discrimination croissante.

Reportage de Stephen Dale

(Photo: CRTD.A | Hanna Nehme)

fabulouslyfreespirited:

I don’t know about anyone else but it’s about time we see some more articles like this, instead of the stereotypical ones about women from the Arab world. The list is a really interesting read.  It’s made up of architects and construction bosses, the UAE’s first female minister.

Considering the framework and ideologies they are doing business in, these women earn my utmost respect.