racist (are we?)

i just read a woman's story about harassment that she experienced related with her hijab. yes, she's a muslim woman. she said, sometimes it's just a stare. or people ignoring (or won't give you service) in public places. there's time of direct insult. it's horrible.

i have to say, living here -this so called free minded european country- for a month and a half as a muslim and wear the hijab- i never noticed that. yes lots of people stared at me, i noticed that, but i would assumed that it's because i am just simply fabulous (hahaha, but i guess since now i know that there's a chance people staring at you because of your hijab, i might think twice about my fabulousness now (sigh)). once a chinese woman snapped at me in the oriental store, but i assumed it because i am a dork and i asked her to do things that she's not supposed to do. a woman won't look me in the eyes when i smile at her yesterday at my daughter's school but then she look closely at my stella's boots (and i walked out all smile and win!). i have to say that i never really noticed that racism exist in this place (but then again, i just got here a month and a half). maybe because this is a student's city where the people should be more open minded (or not?), and people said things get a lot of worse in not so cosmopolitan of a town in another part of europe.

which bring me to why.

i just read this fabulous book that my husband generously lend from his university's library by joan wallach scott (an ivy league professor) with the title 'politics of the veil'. in the not so thick of a book about veil and the french government, scott asked about why the government of france (and their people who support the decision, respectively) are so upset with a piece of clothing that covered a woman's head? and why they (the france government) want to removed the item from the french muslim's (women) head?

and scott's answer is racism. that the european people (oh, well, french in her book) is just as racist to the muslims as the american to their afro-american as the german to the jews. the racism rooted deeply in the history of colonization. the racism is the subtext and the secularism is the justification. secularism means leave the private (religion on this context) at home. the problem comes when some concept of Islam doesn't recognized the same segregation. the private (the religion) is the part of who they are, as well as the veil (it is actually the headscarf because we don't cover our face) to some women.

beside racism and secularism, scott argues that the veil to the european's eyes is the sign of woman's subordination, and therefore every woman who wear it, is a repressed woman and should be liberated. women should embrace their individuality and removed their veil. again, on this context, the veil or the headscarf assumed as a repression tools by others (parents, brother, imams), this assumption disregard the fact that in some countries like Indonesia (and some people like me) hijab never been forced on woman (oh, well, except Aceh and i think that's not right) and everyone who wear it, wear it on their personal reason (and some removed it afterward on some revelation which is also fine by me). some mistaken emancipation with westernization.

last but not least, the veil to the french eyes is the sign of different sexuality standard between the european (yeah, the french) and the moslem. the moslem, said scott, recognized the dangerous sexuality of men and women (please notes that the Koran also ask men to be modest in their sexuality. MEN TOO). this is what scott called psychology of recognition. while on the other side, the european are celebrating their sexuality as a part of freedom and the moslem's refusal to engaged in it is not considered 'normal'. the european pretend that the sexual problem between woman and man never existed (the psychology of denial). both system are patriarchal. and in both system, the covering system of Islam and the open system of the europen, put woman as the object (of sexuality). and please, the (sexual) abuse of woman is not happened in Islamic countries only. it happened everywhere, regardless of religion.

for me, as a person, the freedom lays in the freedom to choose whatever religion (or not) that i want to conduct (i am reading richard dawkins too), whatever clothes that i want to wear, whatever clothes that makes me comfortable. some people might feel comfortable on hijab, some people love to embrace their sexuality, and it's all fine (well, at least for me).

living here, being a minority in race and religion, makes me think about what we, the indonesian, have done in our own country. how it feel to be minority, to be different in indonesia. are we (the muslim majority) a racist too? and my thought goes to my friend who have different belief, who have different race. imagine myself being them. and it's just sad. yes, we still have a lot to learn too. we burned churches (shame on you!), we condemned people who have different belief as 'hell material', we chased people on the false pretext of fatwa, we become 'holier than thou' kind of people.

while, the best dakwah that i can think of, as one of my friend put is so beautifully (she used to wear hijab because her mom forced her too but then she picked up the courage to take it off), if you really are religious, and your religion is the best one, be the candle that lights the way. be the most beautiful thing. be useful to other. because islam teach to you that way. that way, other people would believe that you mean what you said and perhaps islam is not a traditional conservative stubborn religion afterall. insult other people who are not like you just won't do, because remember, someday you might be on their shoes. because i believe, God is poetic. If God creates us differently, who are we to condemned it?

scott said in her book, you don't have to be the same to integrate. just find something in common. something to negotiate. not toleration, but being in common. being in common

wallahualam.