unveiling the mind

Hauwa
Hauwa
Sep 7, 2018 · 2 min read

‘illicit in the religious sense, not sanctified by islam.’ the glossary read. i have been lounging on the corridors of egyptian writers lately - just two in the past month, really - but profound, expressive, passionate egyptian feminist writers. and oh, what a world of contextual familiarity it has opened for me.

there’s an immense joy i feel reading feminist (or mostly any radical) work of arabic / muslim women that I cannot fully articulate. it’s in the shared experience. the background. the phrasing. the rebellion. the common thirst for liberation - in whatever form, shape or color- that resonates with me.

in this novel, the writer’s revolutionary strides are described as haram, defined above. why’s that, you ask? pretty simple; the mantra for her association- one she set up to educate and empower her fellow country women - is ‘unveiling the mind’.

‘do you not know that allah commends all muslim women to wear the veil? the veil is sacred and you are inciting women to disobey allah. women like you deserve only death.’ hilarious, isn’t it? one may probe;- in hopes to gain clarity and not to ridicule, surely- what the imagined correlation is? what in the flying saucer has unveiling the mind got to do with women and the disobedience of allah?

tell you what. everything.


haram

it’s a cold morning in january 1998 and i’m riding with my sister bilqis to school. bilqis is learning to be a fashion designer in future. she loathes being referred to as a seamstress.

on the walls of her room at home -which she shares with our two other sisters- hangs dresses on painted sculptures made of plywood; labelled with feminine names felicia, joana, matilda. all her designs come with head scarves. bil says it’s wrong to sew a dress for a woman without leaving a piece for tieing her hair.

jamila is a designer too. they understudy different bosses but our uncles have had their sister - our mother - visit both shops telling their respective teachers the kind of skill she -on behalf of her family - would not want her daughters to acquire. they shouldn’t be taught to sew trousers. it is haram for clothes to reveal women’s curves. nevermind that it could be loose, it is haram.

neither can the designs be too revealing- showing ‘awemu' or ‘i’m aware’ as invented by the musician mzbel; it is haram for a woman’s skin to be exposed. lest she becomes a temptress who causes men to sin. allah rebukes such outfits. the women too.

her future designers must only learn to sew modest ‘kaba n slit’ or ‘abaaya’. after all, they are only acquiring enough skill to sew rigan sallah for the women and girls in our zongo community. haram outfits are forbidden where we are.

• photo credit: @foofination - Instagram •

Hauwa

Written by

Hauwa

walking home on tired legs

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