Feminist author, journalist, and American Muslim Asra Nomani has just released a new book, "Standing Alone in Mecca, An American Woman's Struggle for the Soul of Islam." You can preview the book at http://www.harpercollins.com/global_scripts/product_catalog/book_xml.asp?isbn=0060571446&tc=bd.
Nomani is on the forefront of women's rights issues in American Islam. Her personal struggle with the entrenched Muslim patriarchy began a couple of years ago; she had left Islam, the faith of her birth, when she was a young woman. After the birth of her son (whom she openly refers to as being born out of wedlock, a major social problem for most Muslims as well as clear evidence of a major sin), she decided to return to Islam so that her son would be raised in the faith.
She was living in her hometown, Morgantown, West Virginia, and attending the mosque there that her father had been instrumental in establishing years before. At first, she prayed upstairs in the 'women's section', but quickly became aware of the unjustness of segregating women to a separate room with unequal facilities and no way to communicate with the men, downstairs in the main prayer hall.
With the support of her father, she made the courageous step of attending prayer in the main hall one day. The men were scandalized, and threatened to throw her out of the mosque altogether, despite her father's respected position in the leadership of the mosque. Eventually, the men who opposed her came to grudgingly accept her presence in the main hall, along with four other brave women who joined Nomani's protest.
You can read her description of events on her website, www.asranomani.com/site, under the Writing section.
Her new book is an introspective look at her recent hajj pilgrimage to Mecca. She was determined to take her son, despite his fatherlessness and the potential danger to her that represented from Saudi ultra-conservatives, who still support stoning those who commit adultery. (While these ultra-conservatives are a minority even in Saudi Arabia, their activities are often tolerated by law enforcement.)
The book opens with a chapter describing her encounter with the Dalai Lama in India, during a major Hindu festival. The first part of this chapter is excerpted on the publisher's website, the first site referenced above.
I'll add more about the book later.
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I feel that I should clarify my thoughts about the book since I never got around to blogging more about it. I do find her story to be highly interesting but I certainly do not agree with all of her statements on women in Islam. For instance, I do not agree that women should have the right to have s-x outside of marriage, something she has advocated for.
ReplyDeleteI do, however, agree with her insistence that she have the right to pray in the same hall as the men (within sunnah guidelines) and I share her anger at the inadequacy of women's facilities at many mosques, including (and particularly) in the West.
And as far as what I said about her fears that she'd be stoned to death in Saudi - I've since learned much much more about the country and what I said is incorrect. Saudi Arabia does have a conservative religiously-informed government BUT no one would bother arresting and sentencing a non-Saudi American citizen on charges of a past adulterous relationship.
And the rules about adultery in Shari'ah law only apply to Muslims anyway, which she was not when she had the child. AND, while stoning does happen it is not a common way to deal with adultery and the children of it. When it does happen it is more likely to happen in Africa than in Saudi. This is not to excuse the practice, but really she had nothing to fear from Saudi officials or the religious police, even if they had somehow found out about the circumstances of her child's birth.