I feel like Muslim women have been all over the MSM recently. Well, not Muslim women, obviously, but white women reporting back on what it’s like to live as a Muslim lady for a day or some such. I did find this piece by Abby Ellin at The New York Times sort of refreshing. She writes about the challenge of working out while adhering to religious principles about modest dress. Many women who cover struggle to find work-out wear that allows freedom of movement. Some work out in co-ed gyms whilst others seek out woman-only environments like Curves, or have begun woman-only exercise clubs on their own. Basically, Muslim women are not all the same, and they like to do a lot of the same things non-Muslims do. Okay.
There are a few quotes in the piece from Mubarakha Ibrahim, a personal trainer and owner of women’s fitness club. She promotes exercise and general physical well-being to Muslim women, which I think is great. Reader mkp-hearts-nyc is the one who shared this article with me and we agreed there was something… off about some of the quotes Ellin highlighted. Ellin herself observes that:
Muslim women are spared some of the body-image issues that other women face; on the other, that freedom can be a detriment to their physical well-being.
I honestly cannot put my finger on what bothers me about this. Is the Male Gaze being held up as a good motivator for women? I can’t tell.
Then she quotes Ibrahim, who says:
One of the ideas I promote is that when you are married and you take off your clothing, your husband should not be like, ‘You should put this back on.’ … Even if you wear a burqa, you should be bikini-ready. You should feel comfortable and sexy in your own skin.
Major eye-roll. On one hand, Muslim women who cover are more free than their Muslim and non-Muslim counterparts who do not cover. BUT there’s still one man to whom they must cater. Of course. Either women should feel comfortable and sexy in their own skin or they should be vigilant about their bodies and strive to look “bikini-ready.” The two ideas are not totally compatible.
What do you all think?
I think promoting physical fitness so that your husband will be happy with your body is PURE PATRIARCHIAL BULLSHIT.
And I think what you’re uncomfortable with in the first line is that it implies that fear of being fat–i.e. “body image issues”–leads women to lead healthier, more fit lives. Which is completely untrue, as anyone who knows the first thing about eating disorders willl tell you.
I do wonder, though…if Muslim men are raised in an environment where they don’t see women’s bodies up close for most of their lives, are they more or less likely to have the same “no fatties!” dudely b.s. as men in our society?
Or do they still get fed so many images from Western culture that they will inevitably espouse the skinny white girl standard of beauty?
@becky Or do they still get fed so many images from Western culture that they will inevitably espouse the skinny white girl standard of beauty?
Somebody one time mentioned off-hand to me that Vogue in particular caters to Saudi women in their advertising pages.
@rodriguez: That doesn’t surprise me. I know that Saudia Arabia and the Gulf States import billions in makeup and designer clothes for women, so the Western-style advertising for those brands (i.e. skinny white chicks) must be influential.
The only Muslim country I’ve ever spent any time in is Jordan, and I found it a little jarring that their TV advertising for things like clothes and cosmetics was pretty much straight-up Western advertising with half-naked women, but for “wifely” stuff like supermarkets and housewares, the women in the ads wore hijabs.
I think you are right on with your post. Those quotes ARE problematic, and rather frustrating.
I’ll add that saying that Muslim women are spared some of the issues other women face is also total crap. It is true, but it ignores that fact that Muslim women who cover are subjected to body-issues other women would never even think of. For example, a friend of mine who wears hijab and has very long, very thick hair is extremely sensitive of the “hair bump” under her scarf where she has gathered her hair up in a bun at the nape of her neck. I get the impression from her descriptions of this that its almost like boobs in our culture… a big bump is sexy, and some women actually pad their bumps, while others are self-conscious and try to hide them and think that the big bumps are all fake and slutty. (Oversimplification, obviously, but enough to give you the general idea.)
I find this a very interesting topic. The determining factor for me is who drives the discussion. We Jews have a concept of tzinut (modesty), which is where the long skirts, long sleeves and head coverings come from. The idea of bodily modesty can be a good and powerful one. But the problem is that the concept comes from men and is interpreted and enforced by men. It’s not for us, it’s for them. To the extent that it is intended to address a weakness in their character, women can never do enough to cover their bodies, because men will never stop craving them (well, most men-let’s assume this is a het interaction for the purposes of this discussion).
If women took back this idea and shaped it so as to give us power and control over our bodies, I’d endorse it completely. Jewish feminism works to do that. I think that in this society which so objectifies and cheapens women’s bodies, and so makes them an object of exposure and commerce, refusing to participate in that exposure is a powerful thing. It can make you feel safer and more of a person instead of a collection of body parts. Decisions on the way we dress should be ours and no one else’s.
This goes back to yesterday’s discussion about rape education. Reaction to women’s bodies is a male problem, and men need to fix it. The reality is that men will sexualize and fetishize women no matter how covered up we are (in Japan, I read, the nape of the neck is a very eroticized area because so much of the rest of the body is covered in traditional garb). So they need to cut it out. That’s the bottom line-as it always is.
Bikini-ready under the burqua? Oh, for God’s sake. And I have to say that every time I see a Muslim or Orthodox Jewish family out on a blazing hot summer day and the men are wearing short sleeves and the women are covered up to the eyes (even little girls), it makes my blood pressure rise.
The whole thing bothers me for the simple reason that women have to cover themselves up so the crazy sex-crazed menz don’t get aroused. Um, why can’t the men be trusted to control themselves? Why is chasteness always a burden on the woman? It doesn’t give men any credit. I feel like those conservative religions value women ONLY for their sexuality. They have to be covered up, they have to be virgins or they’ll get shunned or stoned, if they’re raped, they’re damaged goods and will be stoned, etc. This is clearly from a western white woman’s perspective, but what can I say, it’s what I see. When the veil is supposed to stop men from having lustful thoughts about women in countries were street harassment is committed in huge numbers, I don’t believe it’s serving it’s ‘purpose’.
@Mischief Manager:
What you said! That was basically what I was trying to articulate.
These problems, dare I say it, start with men so they’re the ones that need to fix it!
@mischiefmanager: Totally agree with you on the tzinus issue. The Patriarchy created the idea of “modesty” as an extension of male property rights–it’s not my body, it’s my father’s/husband’s, and no one has the right to look at it but him. Tznius is 100% rejectable on that basis alone–it’s just another form of the same exploitation and commercialization of our bodies.
FWIW, it can also be a health issue. A few years back, the Iranian gov’t changed the laws requiring schoolgirls to wear the all-enveloping black chadors, because the medical community proved that the chador was preventing them from getting sufficient Vitamin D from sunlight, thus causing a rise in osteopenia in young girls and women.
I just thought the first quote was a really poorly written way of saying that it was hard to exercise while following the clothing rules. I didn’t look at the original context though… and it definitely goes downhill from there anyway.
Ugh, both of those quotes are trouble.
“Muslim women are spared some of the body-image issues that other women face; on the other, that freedom can be a detriment to their physical well-being.” implies that non-Muslim women are only motivated to exercise because of the body image issues they must have from living in non-Muslim culture. Like no non-Muslim woman exercises because she enjoys it, or it makes her feel good, no, it’s all about how we look.
And Ibrahim’s quote, bleh. Seems like modest dress doesn’t protect you from absorbing anti-fat attitudes. So, to be sexy and comfortable in your own skin it has to be “bikini ready”? Make no mistake, that’s a euphemism for thin and “fit”. And of course your husband will find you repulsive if you’re not “bikini ready”, natch.
I’m all for women exercising in whatever manner and dress they feel most comfortable. It would be nice if this discussion could happen without all the usual sexist and anti-fat tropes.
“Like no non-Muslim woman exercises because she enjoys it, or it makes her feel good, no, it’s all about how we look.”
That’s exactly it. I exercise to get from point A to point B (biking) or hopefully once I start doing drop-in exercise classes just because I enjoy it.
Also, I don’t think it’s just the male gaze that is thought of as a motivator for non-Muslims but anyone’s gaze. Women can judge women harsher than men do sometimes.
Talk about the worst of both worlds.