I’ve discovered a Muslim Feminist

Nawal El Saadawi got me out of bed. I have never heard of her. Never knew there was such a thing as a Muslim feminist apart from the usual suspects Ayaan Hirsi Ali and Malala Yousafza (for arguments sake). 

Two things Nawal said in the uncomfortable interview on YouTube with  Wendell Steavenson. She recognised at the age of 7 or 8 that her brother was being treated differently than she was and she questioned it. When she asked why she was told because Allah says so in the Quran. Her response was so? God is just and it wasn’t just for her to be treated differently than her brother. I felt the same way at that age. I didn’t have the wherewithal to think about

God if her was just or not. I knew it wasn’t fair. I grumbled about it but the idea that God was just and as it was an injustice it couldn’t be from God. I’m going to get her autobiography. I’m uncomfortable with how she links the patriarchy- a word I’ve become more comfortable with since the election of Trump in the states-, the actions of internal and external forces on a country’s sovereignty/ economic interdependence, capitalism and socialism (but mostly capitalism. I am a capitalist my inclination), feminism- again a post Trump era awareness for me-  the state of the oppressed vs the 1%’s. I don’t know there something about it all that makes me uncomfortable. It’s like hearing Janelle Monáe talking about “dirty computers”, I like the newness of the words used to describe experiences that thinkers have coined and we have forgotten because we don’t know about them.  It feels like the Matrix. She, Nawal is looking behind the veil or rather she is destroying the veil. 

She says to the US feminist don’t teach me about what feminism is if you will not let me teach you about feminism as well. My experiences you don’t have them, my point of view is as valid to me. She expands this to include the West. She doesn’t want handouts/ aid to countries. She wants self sufficiency and fair trade. When asked by a Ugandan gentleman what to do if the leaders are unable to govern to the improvement their people she says revolution by any means. This again is a queasy moment for me. 

But going back to my point we aren’t all Nawal‘s with geniuses brains and the confidence to speak up and eloquently convert our thoughts and feelings when faced with injustice.