Standing Alone in Mecca
A Muslim American progressive reclaims her religion and takes on sexism in mosques.
By Rhian Kohashi O’Rourke, Center for American Progress
Speaking with Asra Nomani is refreshing, like a splash of cooling water on an unbearably sticky summer day. Nomani’s new book, Standing Alone in Mecca: An American Woman’s Struggle for the Soul of Islam, is a captivating personal narrative that challenges head-on the misleading stereotypes that have led some Americans to view Muslims as a monolithic enemy. It chronicles Nomani’s journey as she ventures to the heart of her faith to reclaim Islam as the progressive religion it was originally intended to be – one that promotes equality and social justice.
Nomani, a native of India who grew up in Morgantown, West Virginia, centers her story around her growing concern that the broader Muslim community is being hijacked by right-wing Muslims. She opens with the violent murder of Daniel Pearl, her close friend and colleague from the Wall Street Journal, who died in Pakistan in 2002. Daniel, an American Jew, regularly showed his respect for Islam during the holy month of Ramadan by breaking bread with Nomani at sundown as part of the “break fast” club Nomani organized at their office. Upon news of Danny’s slaying, Nomani writes, “In my heart, I felt fear and loathing for my religion. Could I remain in a religion from which so many people sprang spewing hate?”
During this personal crisis, to make matters even more difficult, Nomani’s Pakistani Muslim boyfriend abandons her just as she finds out that she is carrying his baby. Unwed and pregnant, she is, according to Islamic law, technically illegal. “Could I find my place in my religion for my kind of woman?” she asks.
We then follow Nomani as she goes deep into introspection during her pilgrimage to Mecca with her son Shilbi and close family members. The hajj, the holy pilgrimage Muslims make once in their lifetime, opens her eyes to the spirit of egalitarianism inherent in Islam. She mingles with a diverse group of worshippers from around the world, prays alongside men, and feels a sense of equality with her fellow pilgrims who are all clad in simple, modest white cloths that each person is required to wear. At the same time, Nomani wrestles with another layer of reality for modern Islam – her holy pilgrimage ironically coincides with President Bush’s preparations to invade Iraq. “I stood in Saudi Arabia sad that my religion was being misrepresented by Osama bin Laden and his brand of puritanical Islam.”
Buoyed by a renewed faith in Islam, Nomani returns to the United States and must come to terms with the double life she has lived as a disengaged Muslim and a progressive American. Inspired by her experiences in Mecca, Nomani decides to confront the sexism that exists in the two-thirds of American mosques that require women to pray separately from men (oftentimes in a basement or a secluded balcony) and begins her courageous fight for equality in her hometown mosque in Morgantown. “I couldn’t accept the third-class status of the balcony,” Nomani recounts, explaining why during November of last year, she boldly entered her mosque through the front door, taking a seat in the main hall rather than the balcony (where the women are so removed they can barely hear the teachings of the imam, the prayer leader). This act of disobedience brings her into the spotlight – and makes her the target of intimidation, hostility and death threats by Muslim extremists.
Throughout her journey, Nomani navigates her dual world with courage and clarity and ultimately rejects her past as a silent and conflicted moderate majority Muslim to embrace her new role as a fearless, progressive Muslim feminist. This March, Asra Nomani launched a Muslim Women’s Freedom Tour, visiting cities across North America to promote women’s rightful place in Islam. As part of the tour, she played a role in the first publicly announced mixed-gender prayer in New York City on March 18. She has also developed an Islamic Bill of Rights for Women in the Bedroom and an Islamic Bill of Rights for Women in the Mosque.
Asra Nomani recently sat down with Campus Progress for an exclusive interview.
CP: Why is it important for American liberals to support progressive Muslim Americans here at home?
Over the past two years I have recognized that my greatest support comes from the world in which I was raised – this pluralistic, peaceful community that is America has informed my values and my vision for the world. That’s why, when the men at my mosque preach fundamentalism and intolerance, I am offended both as a Muslim and as an American. Progressives in America need to support progressives within the Muslim world so that they understand that they are not alone – fundamentalists are so intimidating and ostracizing. Americans are so polite that when I ask them to come to the mosque they are afraid of offending people by doing the wrong thing. No, we need your support; we need your physical presence.
CP: Why is this movement towards gender equality in Islam an essential issue for all Americans?
I think that people are afraid of Muslims right now. We can’t pretend that they’re not. They misunderstand Islam and they feel under threat by Muslims and I don’t blame them – I get scared too by some of the things that I hear. However, I think all of the Americans who are afraid are also really willing to understand Islam better. So if they take action themselves, they encourage Muslims to open the doors of our communities. That means overcoming their own fears and stepping forward instead of remaining in that state of misunderstanding. If they don’t do it, how can we motivate the Muslim community to open their doors?
To me, it’s like integrating lunch counters in the South in the sixties. Islam is a religion that is preached with an open-heart philosophy to everyone. If it is not practiced that way, then my belief is that we have to make it happen. We have to overcome our own fears and not be intimidated. We have the right to be present – and we should be empowered by the whole sense that we are right. Still, I cover my hair, I cover my butt because that is an issue of contention. Basically for women’s actions, it comes down to hair and butt – it is an issue of fear. I get rid of that by literally wearing trench coats into the mosques. It’s goofy but if that is going to help with the comfort level, then so be it. The sense of modesty, I will go along with that. But I know that I do not have to sit in a separate room. I do not have to stay silent in a corner.
CP: The three historical figures that have given you the most inspiration and courage include the civil rights icon Rosa Parks, the feminist suffragist Alice Paul, and the Prophet Mohamed. What is the common thread between them?
This is what I saw common in all three of them – they stood up for justice against the popular will at the time. They faced alienation and persecution because of their stand. They were guided by their own moral compass and a divinely ordained sense of justice in this world. Prophet Mohamed was taking on the corruption of the society – he was a social reformer. Alice Paul was also taking on the corruption of the society by taking on the issue of women’s rights. Rosa Parks challenged corruption by tackling a civil rights issue. Each one of them was fighting for social justice. Each one of them worked from the heart and they worked and fought even though the opposition was intimidating and violent. They persevered and ultimately through the power of individual strength they changed the reality and the course of history of our world – and that is what I really see as the potential for everyone.
CP: What are some challenges facing young Muslims today?
We have a real challenge on college campuses because a lot of progressive Muslim students are alienated from the organizational structure that is out there on a lot of college campuses. I know I was. When I was an undergraduate at West Virginia University, my father was the founder of the Muslim Students Association but I didn’t even think about joining because it was just a boys’ club. And then these boys go create the men’s club that are the mosques in America. Now, we’ve made progress – the Muslim Students Association has a woman as a president for the first time ever, which is great. But I also constantly hear from progressive Muslims on college campuses who feel threatened and intimidated when they go to join their chapters because they don’t have the same ideological interpretation that the leadership is trying to make everyone accept. I got an email just the other day from a Muslim Students Association that had the dress requirements for women. It said that we can’t dress like Western women. What’s that about? This idea that we can’t wear jeans and pants and t-shirts? That’s just religion shoved down your throat.
CP: Tell us about your college days and your time as a young journalist.
Looking back to my own college days, I was always working so hard at this idea of standing up to injustice. In those days, what were my issues? I wrote about the fact that racial discrimination existed in the sorority and fraternity pledging process. Then I wrote about how the international students got paid less than the American students when they were working in the cafeteria at the university. That was what I did twenty years ago – everything that I do today is part of a continuum from my youthful days.
I keep this police ID I have from Chicago in 1991 in my wallet. I was working at the Wall Street journal then. I look at how eager I was – fresh-faced, with bangs and eyes wide with my black eye-liner. I keep it as a reminder of the enthusiasm of our youth. Everyday we have to make decisions about how we are going to spend our day – it is so vital for college students to be guided by their own hearts.
Top illustration: Matt Bors
Lower graphics by Asra Q. Nomani