Category: essays

gender & sexuality

Recognizing and Challenging the Male Gaze

by neederish6 Comments on Recognizing and Challenging the Male Gaze
tina fey daisy 30 rock male gaze
Classic Hazel moment from 30 Rock.

We are foolish to perpetuate the myth that the male gaze can be averted with the way that we dress. The male gaze is taught to all genders alike. It’s an oppressive system of looking and objectifying, of possessing and othering, of usurping the right to speak, intellectualize, and decide on her behalf. A woman can live inside a house with blackened windows, or be nude at the beach – she is still seen by, owned by, controlled and affected by, framed by the male gaze.

The way a woman dresses is not what is going to change the oppression of the male gaze. The oppression of the male gaze must be challenged as a system. The male gaze is taught from an early age. It’s taught and perpetuated in every institution and form of media, art and literature. It is taught with Quran and Bible in hand.  Continue reading “Recognizing and Challenging the Male Gaze” →

short stories

Every morning, at the crack of dawn

by neederishLeave a Comment on Every morning, at the crack of dawn
Source: http://www.thefeelgoodlifestyle.com/
Source: http://www.thefeelgoodlifestyle.com/

Whereabouts: Austin, Texas.

I picked up the phone and waited for the blank TV screen in front of me to show a person. I had never been to a bank where they had a system like this. Felt a little futuristic, for someone like me who lives under a rock.  With a huge smile and bursting energy, a woman in her thirty’s with beautiful ebony skin and braided hair tied in a half-ponytail greeted me.

“Are you fasting?”  Continue reading “Every morning, at the crack of dawn” →

culture & race & religion, gender & sexuality

How I became a ‘Ramadan Muslim’

by neederish20 Comments on How I became a ‘Ramadan Muslim’

Image

‘Ramadan Muslim’ – it’s a condescending, derogatory term used to refer to Muslims who ‘all of a sudden’, during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, ‘show up’ to attend the mosque for every Taraweeh prayer, stop cussing/smoking/drinking/clubbing/pre-marital sexing, pray all of their five prayers, and fast from sunrise until sunset ‘religiously’.

I grew up playing at the local mosque in the hour leading up to Mughrib prayer while my dad volunteered and socialized. I attended an Islamic School where our classroom windows had a view of the mosque. I’ve attended jumuah prayer for an overwhelming majority of the Fridays of my life. I began volunteering and organizing around the mosque in my early teenage years, and continued well throughout high school, college, and even after. The mosque has been a constant space in my existence since before my first memories, and up until about 3-4 years ago.

I am now/have been for quite a while, for lack of a better term, a ‘Ramadan Muslim’, if I can call myself even that. My mosque-going has dwindled down to special occasions such as weddings and a few days in Ramadan (give or take, mostly take).

Continue reading “How I became a ‘Ramadan Muslim’” →

culture & race & religion, gender & sexuality

I am not a hijabi

by neederish20 Comments on I am not a hijabi
Image: Pineconehill.com
Image: Pineconehill.com

There are so many ‘layers’ to this dreaded headscarf discussion (and the dreaded word ‘debate’) (and even the dreaded ‘layers’ pun). I am constantly on the edge of flipping off every conversation surrounding it. I cringe in public (real and virtual) settings that mention the word ‘hijab’, seconds from theoretically and literally puking. F*** it all is what my philosophy usually is when it comes to the headscarf debates. I am intrinsically, from deep within myself turned off, and yet desperately plugged in to conversations that directly impact my life. Continue reading “I am not a hijabi” →

culture & race & religion, gender & sexuality

On the Unruly (Muslim) Woman

by neederish5 Comments on On the Unruly (Muslim) Woman

This morning, these blogposts left me feeling… uplifted, elevated, and relieved as one can be when someone says for them what they wished they could say themselves, and in doing so, unlock the pain and allow it free by acknowledging what one knew all along:

If you don’t already, I would recommend following the blog Love InshAllah on which Zainab Chaudary’s piece was published.

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Definitions:

  1. Unruly
  2. Female Unruliness: independent thinking women, not letting the patriarchy define them.

When is the last time that someone – a female – offended you with her expression, or ‘failure’ to ‘express’, her ‘femininity’ (as you and I, and the greater body of collective consciousness around us, perceives it)?

I have: been offended, been asked to be offended, been offensive, and have been a privy ear to the vocalized offense people have experienced at the beholding of various women.

The Unruly Woman could be discussed in light of the way Women, and in more of my personal experiences, Muslim Women, are ‘policed’ by those around them, and are learned to police themselves. (‘Police’ meaning: A group that admonishes, cautions, or reminds)  Continue reading “On the Unruly (Muslim) Woman” →

culture & race & religion

On religious rhetoric

by neederishLeave a Comment on On religious rhetoric

I finally figured out in a concise way to explain what drives me absolutely nuts when I hear religious rhetoric. It’s the way that it is framed in a manner that asks the reader to abandon critical thought and embrace the edict or verdict or whatever it may be with open arms because, well, a package wrapped in good, that speaks of good, can’t be anything but good, right? And we’re supposed to love everything good, and it would be bad not to, right?

I don’t want to say “wrong,” but I take issue with framing good to be accepted without critical thought. I think this creates a community that loses the ability to see people as people, and to see more to a situation than black and white, Good versus Bad.

There are far and many complexities and intricacies that get lost with such thinking, and a richness is lost in feeling and thinking and learning and growing.

Just because something is good, on paper, or in words, doesn’t mean that it must be emblazoned in gold, framed, and hung over everyone’s lives as The Truth. The Truth is human life and experience, and words are by which we come to learn and recognize these experiences, not the other way around.