Veiling, Law, and Sufism.
Perceptions of the practice of veiling by modern Islamic women from the West often miss the mark. In a feigned attempt to promote women's "liberation", the practice is reduced to a matter of gender inequality. In doing so, we miss the beautiful complexities of personal expression and faith. Simultaneously, in inventing a picture of an Islamic monoculture where all devout women veil, the Islamic faith, and a woman's spirituality are simplified to adorning a hijab. The irony of this flash judgement is that in trying to "fight" for women's right to choose (which assumes that right is not already present) it removes the woman's agency. Since our time in Morocco, I have spoken with young and elder women alike, whose perspectives and individual relationships with Islam and spirituality have cemented just how personal veiling and faith are in this culture. From my conversations with Ratem, the social norms of modesty in dress are not so much Religious as they are a "mindset" of the culture. I found this really interesting because I have found this to be similar to my experience in Christian spaces in American culture. A woman's choice to veil is between herself and how she chooses to express her faith. As Hamid said at lunch in Rabat, some of the most devout Islamic women dress in modern cloth and do not adorn the hijab, while there are many women who wear the hijab who do not engage in religious practices such as going to mosque or living by the Islamic values.
The academic paper I reviewed in preparation of this post discusses the political and religious implications of the place of Women in Morocco. In the historical context of Morocco, post-independence reform hoped to strengthen women's standing in marriage and ultimately set the stage for a more progressive Moroccan state rooted in the principles of Islam. This was not without a hitch, the moudawwana code, greatly limited the Moroccan women's rights to own and protect her property and conduct business transactions among many other gender based restrictions. The 1990s saw efforts to reform to this law but ultimately the terrorist attacks born from extremist Islamic groups introduced a movement towards mysticism in the country's practice of Islamic faith that would expand the domain of power for women in Morocco. Following the attacks the Moroccan parliament replaced the moudawwna law with a new family law which was meant to "free women from the injustices they endure" (Haitami 2014) Sufism is Islamic mysticism which through practice helps Muslims seek truth of divine love and knowledge via direct personal experience of God. In this practice of Islam, great emphasis on is placed on the individual for introspection and spiritual closeness with God. Another article I read discussed how sufism has elevated the status of women through individual expression of faith. In fact, the percentage of female youth attracted to the Sufi orders is higher than that of male youth (Maddy-Wetizman 2005). This attractiveness of faith indicates that a Moroccan woman's expression of faith is individual. And returning to the idea of cultural pressures instead of faith imposed pressures, the first article says that young urban working women often suffer rumors of loose morality, moving back to that "cultural mindset" that Retam discussed. The cultural differences among the younger and older generation demonstrate the different values trigger that occurs in cultures and organizations. The leaders of the culture which are the elders, have different values than many of the younger generation and conflict is occurring within the culture over adopting change in these values. These are generational faultlines.
It would not be possible for me to properly outline the structure of sufism in Morocco and the female experience and leadership within this form of Islam, but the second article defines it in excellent detail providing context for the former Islamic structures in Morocco that shaped the role of women in the public and private spheres before the shift.
References:
Haitami, M. E. (2014). Women and Sufism: Religious Expression and the Political Sphere in Contemporary Morocco. Mediterranean Studies, 22(2), 190–212. https://doi.org/10.5325/mediterraneanstu.22.2.0190
Katie--Wow! This is beautifully written and also demonstrates your abilities of sticking with your goals of connecting with individuals from Morocco to learn as opposed to only soaking in the information that is provided to us. This part of you provides those around you a layer of depth as well since you are able to share and dig into the materials. My response to you will come in the form of leadership theory as opposed to adding to the culture. I feel as though this is where your strength of cultural connection and my strength of connecting leadership can work together. When we rode on the vehicle on the way back from the desert yesterday our group broke down the various leadership theories. I believe one that you connected with and was of interest to you was transformational leadership feeling as though your dad and uncle exhibit this type of leadership. Transformational leaders tend to have high levels of charisma and communicate high expectations as followers increase in competence and self-efficacy also exhibiting strong self of self and personal morals and values (Northhouse, 2016). There are four components of transformational leadership which include idealized influence defined as emotional competence, inspirational motivation which is inspiring shared vision and communicating high expectations, intellectual stimulation means to encourage, challenge and support beliefs and values) and individualized consideration is the act of listening to the needs of followers to support through personal challenges (Northouse, 2016). I add this here to think about how you and the women you have connected with have a strong sense of individual consideration for self and others. How do you think this could be a benefit or challenge when looking to create influence on others in inclusive cultural spaces? Do you think that your strength of individual consideration can develop the other factors of transformational leadership? In what ways?
ReplyDeleteReference:
Northouse, P. (2016). Leadership (7th ed.). SAGE.