As the world assigns two days in March to observe the feminine icon (Mother’s Day and Women’s Day), stories of interesting mothers flood to mind. Before going into that, one cannot help but note that matriarchal societies are usually remembered as societies that exist outside the Arab context. Feminine personalities who have helped shape Islamic tradition have been removed out of the historical narrative by the patriarchal “Wahhabi” stream, which inarguably positioned women as children makers with voices, bodies, hair, and existence the Devil likes to use to tempt men.
This said, women who used to sit with Prophet Mohammad – in the same mosque and room with men – to learn from him at the dawn of Islam, have been eclipsed in school text books, TV religious programs, and everything that communicates the current image of Islam.
In Sufism, however, the historical narrative of what women have done and can do is completely different. Regarded as an underground movement in the Gulf in particular, Sufism is a healthy, over-ground activity that takes place in Syria. Here, women are treated differently. I don’t have textbooks to support this argument, but I have my mother’s family to testify for it. Part of a long lineage of Sufi mentors, my grandfather is an all-Syrian Sheikh whose mother, grandmother and great-grandmother happen to be strong, independent women who have dared to frequent the mosque to debate in-depth Islamic topics with “peer” scholars and Sheikhs, during times (such as the Ottoman rule) when every woman in Syria had worn three folds of black veils to conceal their faces.
No comments:
Post a Comment