Social Justice Event Reflection

I recently attended 'From Belly Dancers to Burqas: Media Representations of Muslim Women', a speech presented by Dr. Afshan Jafar. At the beginning of her speech pieces of paper and pencils were passed around to everyone. Looking around I was surrounded by a bunch of scholars, students, professors who all seemed to be very passionate about what was about to happen. I was just here for my education class. Needless to say, I was very intimidated. My immediate thought was "oh god shes going to make us talk, I need to get out of here right now." But I reluctantly stayed. She started off by asking all of us to fill in the following, "Muslim women are ________." She told us to write down the first thing that came to our minds, don't think about it too hard about it. The first word that popped into my head was oppressed; Muslim women are oppressed. I was very hesitant to write that down on my paper. When I read that sentence back to myself I realized how wrong it sounded, but it was my honest thought and they didn't ask us to write our names on it or anything so I put my head down and passed it in. After they collected everyone's papers Dr. Jafar began to read what everyone had wrote aloud and asked us to take note of any pattern in the words that were used. As she began to speak I started to feel a little better about my submission because it turns out some of the most commonly used words were: conservative, oppressed, timid, controlled. Dr. Jafar told us that she liked to start with this activity because it brought up two main points: 1) Where do we get this idea that Muslim women are a particular way? and 2) People are very quick to answer this statement about what Muslim women are but when posing the question "Christian women are_____",  people immediately have questions as to which kind of Christians you are referring to. We assume that when we say or hear "Muslim women" we know whom we are talking about and that every Muslim women's experience is the same. Dr. Jafar was born and raised in Pakistan and said that the way she experienced Muslim was very different than a Muslim women in Iran; that Muslim is culturally different just like Christianity. Over the course of her speech, Dr. Jafar showed us various images of Muslim women in the media. The first image she showed us was one of Princess Jasmine from the Disney movie, Aladdin.

In this image Jasmine is seen wearing a sultry belly dancer's outfit while working as a slave to the antagonist of the movie, Jafar. Princess Jasmine is seen wearing a belly dancer's outfit throughout the entirety of the movie. This is very uncommon for a typical Muslim woman, however this is a stereotypical westernized view of a Muslim woman that caused Disney to receive a lot of criticism. Another issue with Princess Jasmine's image is aside from the fact that she has darker skin and hair, she has typical "white" features. In fact all of the "good" characters in the movie were portrayed with white characteristics (Aladdin was modeled after Tom Cruise), while all of the villians were portrayed as "barbarics from the middle east". The next image we were shown is a very famous picture that appeared on the cover of National Geographic.

This image was titled "Haunted Eye's of an Afghan Refugee's Fears". This image was captured by a photojournalist during the Soviet War in Afghanistan. When you look at this picture with this caption, the girl looks scared. That is exactly what the photojournalist wanted you to think, that this girl was afraid for her life in her own country. We learned that the photojournalist knew nothing about this girl, not even her name, he just asked her to sit and pose for him and sent her on her way. When I first saw this photograph I assumed the same as the photographer. If you look at this picture without the "Haunted Eye's of an Afghan Refugee's Fears", this girl actually looks really pissed off. Who are you to slap me on the cover of your million dollar magazine without even bothering to ask me my name? We actually have no idea what was going on with this girl, we just assume that because she is a Muslim woman, this is what she must be thinking/feeling. After 9/11 this photojournalist was paid hundreds of thousands of dollars to go back to Afghanistan and write another piece on this girl, and how she views the War on Terror as a Muslim woman. There was only one small issue, he had absolutely no idea who this girl was. Forensic scientists were brought to Afghanistan to perform iris matching, and eventually they tracked her down so she could appear on a second cover of National Georgraphic.

Her name was Sharbat Gula. The above image is presumably her, holding a picture of herself from the first National Geographic, covered head-to-toe in a burqa. As you can see here, "Found" is written across her picture, as if they rescued this woman. The only reason she was missing in the first place is because they never bothered to learn her name. Many images were taken of Sharbat, including ones of her not wearing her burqa, opening up about her life to the journalists. This is the image they chose for the cover because they knew it would sell, who wouldn't want to read the story about how the privileged whites rescued this oppressed Muslim woman? It's a feel good piece. What many people don't understand is that there are actually many different motivations for wearing a hijab or a burqa. Yes, some countries mandate that the women wear these, but not all countries do. 25 years ago in Pakistan, burqas were exclusively worn by the working-class women, this was a symbol of wealth. You can pick your jaws off of the floor now, Muslim women are allowed to work! Some choose to wear the burqa or hijab to show their religious devotion, and some choose to wear or not to wear them to make a political statement. We can't just assume that we know the whole story. The fourth image that Dr. Jafar showed us was quite possibly one of the most disturbing images I have ever seen.

This photo is of 18 year old Afghan, Aisha. As you can see the piece is called "What Happens if We Leave Afghanistan." Leaving the people of western counties to believe that this is something that happens to all Afghan women if they try to flee their country. This is not apart of Afghani culture. This was a very devastating circumstantial case brought on by Taliban influence. In the article the author writes, "I thought long and hard about whether to put this image on the cover of TIME. First, I wanted to make sure of Aisha's safety and that she understood what it would mean to be on the cover. She knows that she will become a symbol of the price Afghan women have had to pay for the repressive ideology of the Taliban." Lets think long and hard about this... would we put a picture of a domestic violence victim on the cover of Time magazine? No, because it is a disgusting invasion of privacy.  But they made sure to highlight that Aisha will be receiving reconstructive surgery fully covered by the US. Round of applause for the white people yet again, go us!

The picture above is the last image we were shown, titled "Choice". As you can see the Muslim woman is strategically placed (maybe even photo-shopped) next to a flag to insinuate that this is a political issue, that this woman is oppressed, and that what this woman is wearing is forced upon her. Maybe there is some truth behind it, but like I said there are always different motivations behind wearing a burqa. But the real issue with this photo is that it assumes that western women have a choice. Most people assume that choice is free, however, choice always comes at a price. Choice is structured by social pressure. Some women may say, "no I chose to wear this bikini". Well you chose to wear that bikini because that is what is expected of you as a woman. This issue is not of what the women in this picture are or aren't wearing. It is about what women are or aren't expected to wear. The issue is that in our society our clothing is a direct reflection on who we are as a person. Oh she's wearing a short skirt and a low cut top, she must be a slut. Oh she's covered head to toe in a burqa she must be oppressed. Women are reduced by what we wear. Clothes do not define who you are as a person, your goals, your morals. We normalize what we are surrounded by, but who is anyone to say what is right and wrong to wear. Clothes are just clothes. I got a lot more than I expected out of this speech, and at the end I revised my initial statement.

Muslim women are women. 

I related this to Linda Christensen's piece, Unlearning the Myths That Bind Us. Christensen stated, "Many students don't want to believe that they have been manipulated by children's media or advertising. No one wants to admit that they've been "handled" by the media. They assure me that they make their own choices and the media has no power over them." I don't think that anyone wants to admit that they've been handled by the media. Until I was forced to think critically about this issue, I never realized the magnitude of the impact that the media actually has. The only reason I felt inclined to make my initial statement that Muslim women are oppressed is because that is what the media has taught me. I also related this to what Peggy McIntosh's colleague, Elizabeth Minnich, said in White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack; "Whites are taught to think of their lives as morally neutral, normative, and average, and also ideal, so that when we work to benefit others, this is seen as work, which will allow 'them' to be more like us.'" The United States is known for sticking our nose where it doesn't belong. We are always going overseas to "save" these Middle-Eastern countries to develop them and make them more like us. Because everyone wants to live the American dream, right? 

This video is a similar speech that Afshan Jafar delivered at a TEDx Talk at Connecticut College. 
National Geographic's piece on Sharbat Gula: A Life Revealed
Time Magazine's story of Aisha