{"id":17161,"date":"2019-05-15T09:30:09","date_gmt":"2019-05-15T04:00:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.tarshi.net\/inplainspeak?p=17161"},"modified":"2019-05-13T12:21:16","modified_gmt":"2019-05-13T06:51:16","slug":"how-i-found-inclusivity-within-feminism","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.tarshi.net\/inplainspeak\/how-i-found-inclusivity-within-feminism\/","title":{"rendered":"How I Found Inclusivity Within Feminism"},"content":{"rendered":"

Posted by Richa Kapoor<\/strong><\/p>\n

To me, it used to be simple: if the feminist movement had originated in the West \u2013 a false statement,\u00a0<\/strong>as pointed out by Nawal El Saadawi<\/strong><\/a>, but I was not well-read \u2013 it only made sense that everyone was to emulate them. There had to be women that dominated the discourse and would be the best candidates for making the decisions on what actions and beliefs qualified as \u2018feminist\u2019. I was focused on becoming the \u2018perfect\u2019 feminist, based on the stipulations of mainstream feminism. The result: a deeply narrow conception of\u00a0feminism, and it would take years to unlearn the \u2018black-and-white\u2019 mentality and embrace intersectionality.<\/p>\n

My learning curve is heavily influenced by Muslim women. Having lived in a predominantly non-white area of outer London through my formative years, news stories of Islamophobiaand personal stories from Muslim friends have helped me realise what mainstream feminist messages were lacking. Why\u00a0them, you ask? Well, Muslim women fall at the crossroads of Islam, womanhood and (typically) non-whiteness and I noticed were being persecuted thrice over for their identities.<\/p>\n

WHEN I WAS YOUNGER, I REMEMBERED FEELING LIKE I HAVE BETRAYED THE FEMINIST CAUSE BY MY PREFERENCE FOR MODEST, COMFORTABLE CLOTHING.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

My learning curve began during the Burkini banning fiasco. The haunting image of a Muslim woman being forced by male police officers to take off her body-covering garment forced me to rethink my initial and supposedly feminist ideals. I began to seriously question the entrenched idea in Eurocentric feminism that modesty is incompatible with liberation.<\/p>\n

It is absolutely unfair that women are so wholly determined by their clothing. Intense focus on the female body \u2013 from the controlling nature of the patriarchy to the feminist desire to liberate \u2013 have caused clothing to become a political statement; as if one\u2019s political and moral views could be gauged from our clothing. As my friend Alisha pointed out,\u00a0\u201cthe hijab should not be the sole indicator of modest behaviour\u201d<\/em>, within a broader point on the issue of assigning moral values to clothing.<\/p>\n

Furthermore, Eurocentric feminism punishes modest clothing\u00a0more severely<\/a><\/strong>\u00a0than immodest clothing. When I was younger, I remembered feeling like I have betrayed the feminist cause by my preference for modest, comfortable clothing. It made me envy the confidence of female peers who wore revealing clothes.<\/p>\n

The most critical realisation is that this attack on modesty has a specifically Islamophobic intent.\u00a0Several religions and cultures feature modest clothin<\/a><\/strong>g<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0yet there are none that are attacked more vehemently than the various forms of hijab. I\u2019m sure you\u2019ve been guilty of judging Muslim women for their clothing decisions. Perhaps you judged a hijabi woman as unfeminist? Or assumed that the burqa\/niqab\/hijab was forced upon her, rather than it being an independently decided upon expression of her faith? Or, perhaps you praised a non-hijab wearing Muslim woman for being \u2018liberated\u2019? I know I have.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s Eurocentric feminism at work \u2013 criticising modest clothing as stemming from patriarchal desire to \u2018imprison\u2019 the female body due to its \u2018tempting\u2019 nature. However, it completely ignores that immodest clothing could be equally criticised for catering directly to the male gaze.<\/p>\n

I tried to follow the intense and seemingly\u00a0endless back and forth<\/a><\/strong>, believing that the end goal of the most feminist clothing style could be arrived upon. I remember my friend Alisha talking about the hurt of being\u00a0\u201ccriticised for choosing to not wear the hijab, even from members of [her] own faith<\/em>\u201d. Sharifah, a friend who had chosen the hijab, pointed out to me that in the current era of the policing of female expression\u00a0\u201cmodest clothing is usually correlated with having no freedom of choice\u201d<\/em>.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s when it hit me. I\u2019d completely forgotten the most important aspect of clothing, something I took entirely for granted: choice. Ultimately, what I liked best about clothing was the ability to choose without any consequence of ridicule or harassment. On the other hand, Muslim women\u2019s choices were being attacked by (a) supposed feminists assuming those choices were made under duress, and (b) by religious patriarchy that wanted to control women\u2019s behaviour.<\/p>\n

The next hurdle, arguably the most crucial, was unlearning of bias against religion within mainstream feminism. I used to harbour a lot of contempt for organised religion, believing it to be entirely incompatible with feminism. Like a lot of feminists, I saw religion as\u00a0a tool used to further perpetuate and institutionalise patriarchy<\/a><\/strong>, and thus an obstacle to women\u2019s equality. Worst of all, I maintained an attitude of superiority. All that time, I had assumed that the women who defended their religion were unfeminist or didn\u2019t fully understand their own oppression, and therefore required the enlightened ones to educate them.<\/p>\n

Also read:\u00a0What It\u2019s Like To Talk About Gender And Feminism In Kashmir<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

My contempt and superiority were challenged by a fictional Muslim feminist character (Sana Bakkoush) in the Norwegian TV show\u00a0SKAM<\/em>. Sana Bakkoush called out people on their slut-shaming attitude and\u00a0refuted an assumption<\/a><\/strong>\u00a0of homophobia stemming from religion by pointing out the hatred as the motivation amongst several other badass things she did. Sana Bakkoush called out people on their slut-shaming attitude and refuted an assumption of homophobia stemming from religion by pointing out the hatred as the motivation amongst several other badass things she did.<\/p>\n

I HAD ASSUMED THAT THE WOMEN WHO DEFENDED THEIR RELIGION WERE UNFEMINIST OR DIDN\u2019T FULLY UNDERSTAND THEIR OWN OPPRESSION, AND THEREFORE REQUIRED THE ENLIGHTENED ONES TO EDUCATE THEM.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The creators of the show must be commended for the sensitive portrayal of a religious woman, who found incredible strength, comfort and guidance in her faith. Religion was revealed as such a fundamental aspect of the human experience, that my desire to discard it struck me as extremely arrogant and reckless. I realised how guilty Western feminism was of completely marginalising, sometimes persecuting, religious women for their beliefs.<\/p>\n

As depicted through the story of Sana Bakkoush, religion and feminism should not be a dichotomy. It became clear to me that this sense of incompatibility was being fabricated within the rhetoric of mainstream feminism when my friend Fatima pointed out that\u00a0\u201cif people did their research, they\u2019d find the many ways Islam empowers women.\u201d<\/em>\u00a0All of the Muslim women I had spoken to expressed their annoyance at being isolated and cited it as a hurdle in being able to identify as \u2018feminist\u2019, despite believing in women\u2019s empowerment.<\/p>\n

Their voices had been drowned out, I feel. This is prevalent within Eurocentric feminism \u2013 where feminists, with good but misguided intentions,\u00a0tend to speak over and speak for<\/a><\/strong>those they would consider \u2018voiceless women\u2019. Think about it. How\u00a0many prominent figures of the feminist movement can you think of that are non-white, or religious? The lack of diverse representation did affect me, but I would try to ignore it, believing that I was being selfish.<\/p>\n

The emerging focus of intersectionality was helpful. I was validated by the understanding that the struggles of different kinds of women are completely unique and must be treated as such, thus the emancipation of white women should not be conflated with the emancipation of all women.<\/p>\n

Thus, by understanding the struggles of Muslim women I have unlearnt crucial unsavoury elements of western feminism. These flaws can be eradicated through inclusivity of more diverse voices to the ongoing development of feminism, as well as the\u00a0admittance of western feminists themselves.<\/a><\/strong>\u00a0I tend to be the kind of person who measures social change \u2013 somewhat naively, some might say \u2013 through media representation. So, the fact that a Norwegian TV show had a whole season dedicated to a badass Muslim feminist makes me feel hopeful.<\/p>\n

Alongside this hope, there remains the fact that I am only scratching the surface and need to learn more to deepen my understanding of the multi-faceted oppression faced by several groups of women, even under the banner of \u2018feminism\u2019.<\/p>\n

\n

Richa is a\u00a0<\/em>19 year old<\/em>\u00a0student from Mumbai, living in London and studying PPE (Politics, Philosophy and Economics) at\u00a0<\/em>University<\/em>\u00a0of Warwick. She is talkative, argumentative but, above all, loves all things feminism. Follow her on\u00a0<\/em>Instagram<\/em><\/a>,\u00a0<\/em>Twitter<\/em><\/a>, and\u00a0<\/em>her blog<\/em><\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n

Featured Image Source:\u00a0<\/em>Bitch Media<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n

This article was originally published in Feminism in India<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I was focused on becoming the \u2018perfect\u2019 feminist, based on the stipulations of mainstream feminism. The result: a deeply narrow conception of\u00a0feminism,and it would take years to unlearn the \u2018black-and-white\u2019 mentality and embrace intersectionality.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":246,"featured_media":17162,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[85,1,1990],"tags":[540,121,26,2001,1696,31,25],"class_list":{"0":"post-17161","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-blog-roll","8":"category-categories","9":"category-diversity-and-sexuality","10":"tag-diversity","11":"tag-feminism","12":"tag-gender","13":"tag-inclusivity","14":"tag-intersectional-feminism","15":"tag-race","16":"tag-sexualities"},"menu_order":559,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tarshi.net\/inplainspeak\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17161","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tarshi.net\/inplainspeak\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tarshi.net\/inplainspeak\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tarshi.net\/inplainspeak\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/246"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tarshi.net\/inplainspeak\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17161"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.tarshi.net\/inplainspeak\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17161\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":17186,"href":"https:\/\/www.tarshi.net\/inplainspeak\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17161\/revisions\/17186"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tarshi.net\/inplainspeak\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/17162"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tarshi.net\/inplainspeak\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17161"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tarshi.net\/inplainspeak\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17161"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tarshi.net\/inplainspeak\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17161"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}