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The Caged Virgin
Ayaan Hirsi Ali Free Press, 208pp, £12.99
ISBN 0743295013
Are Muslim women really caged virgins, victims of an inherently
misogynistic theology? In claiming this, Ayaan Hirsi Ali is guilty
of grossly misrepresenting Islam, writes Fareena Alam.
It's obviously what I've been
waiting for all my life: a secular crusader - armed with
enlightenment philosophy, the stamp of the liberal establishment and
the promise of sexual freedom - swooping into my harem and
liberating me from my "ignorant", "uncritical", "dishonest" and
"oppressed" Muslim existence. At least that's what Ayaan Hirsi Ali
thinks I've been waiting for. Her latest book, The Caged Virgin, is
a collection of essays intended to unveil the sexual terrorism she
says is inherent in Islam. In reality, it is a smash-and-grab
aggregation of inconsistencies, platitudes and poor scholarship.
Hirsi Ali was born Ayaan Hirsi
Magan in Somalia in 1969, but grew up in Kenya. As a young adult,
she moved to Germany and later the Netherlands, allegedly to escape
a forced marriage. She learnt Dutch and put herself through a
degree. She soon became a prominent and controversial politician - a
brown face made welcome by her shrill denunciations of Islam, the
Prophet Muhammad and Europe's "backward Muslims". Last year, Time
hailed her as one of the world's "100 most influential people." The
Economist described her as a "cultural ideologue of the new right".
However, the publication of The
Caged Virgin couldn't have come at a worse time for Hirsi Ali, a
woman who has built her career on being a victim. In May, a Dutch
television documentary alleged that her story didn't add up. The
programme's makers (who travelled to Kenya to speak to her family
and those who knew her as a child) claimed that Hirsi Ali had lied
to enter the Netherlands and had fabricated her past. The political
friends who had made her the darling of the Dutch right speedily
retreated from her side. As author and academic Jytte Klausen, who
knows Hirsi Ali, recently claimed: "She wasn't forced into a
marriage. She had an amicable relationship with her husband, as well
as with the rest of her family. It was not true that she had to hide
from her family for years."
Now that that doubt has been cast
on the experiences she relies on to give her arguments authority,
her new book reads more like a whimper than a bang.
Practically all of Hirsi Ali's
conclusions are based on her own "tortured" experiences and
observations of Islam. Besides the superficial references to
Qur'anic verses and the occasional Prophetic saying, she provides
little evidence to back up her claims that the Muslim woman is a
caged virgin - sexualized, segregated, universally denied human
rights - and that Islamic theology is responsible for this. Hirsi
Ali is not breaking new ground.
Others, such as the controversial
Fatima Mernissi and Leila Ahmed, have been here before, except that
their work is meatier, making reference to classical texts and
engaging in important historical debates. The Caged Virgin is the
cheap tabloid version - accessible, flimsy, forgettable.
The sad thing is that many of the
concerns Hirsi Ali raises - forced marriage, female genital
mutilation, sexual violence, lack of education, economic
underachievement and the obsession with static gender roles - are
genuine challenges facing Muslim (and many other) women. Hirsi Ali
makes some thoughtful points - except that they are lost among the
inaccuracies, exaggerations and omissions. To demonstrate Islam's
obsession with female sexuality, for example, Hirsi Ali quotes the
Qur'anic verse calling on women to behave modestly, but conveniently
omits the first part of the verse, which demands the same of men
before it addresses women. The picture Hirsi Ali paints of
Gestapo-like Muslim homes is laughable. She writes that "lies are
constantly being told about the most intimate matters . . . Children
learn from their mothers that it pays to lie. Mistrust is everywhere
and lies rule." Perhaps she wrote this so she would have a defence
when her own lies were revealed.
Reading Hirsi Ali, you would
think that she and a handful of other enlightened women, like her
good friend Irshad Manji, are the only ones who have figured all
this out. Apparently, the majority of Muslims women are conditioned
from birth by their religion not to think. This misrepresentation is
a tragic disservice to the women Hirsi Ali seeks to liberate.
It's strange how many times she
says "we Muslims" in her book. For someone who is an atheist and
claims not to be a "Muslim", such appeals to sisterly solidarity are
disingenuous. It's a not-so-clever attempt to lend authenticity to
her argument: clearly, if a Muslim criticises her religion, then it
must be bad. Muslims are not homogenous - they do not all think, act
and believe in the same way. Islam manifests itself through a vast
array of experiences. As a British Muslim, for instance, I am as
western as I am anything else. Hirsi Ali has fallen into the trap of
identity politics. Being a Muslim is a religious moniker - Muslims
are not a tribe or a race. You don't have to be Muslim to criticise
Islam or Muslims, but at least be honest about it.
Long before Hirsi Ali arrived in
Europe, Muslim women were fighting against ignorance, religious
prejudice and cultural misunderstanding. They are still pushing the
boundaries, playing an increasingly important public role and
advocating real long-term change - slowly but surely. For groups
such as London's An Nisa Society, which pioneered programs in sexual
health, domestic violence and mental health two decades ago, Islam
is a potent, powerful ally. Many Muslim women want to maintain a
strong, spiritual connection with their faith - a choice Hirsi Ali
seeks to deny them. These brave women sadly do not have the luxury
of monetary resources, bodyguards, spin doctors and PR agencies -
things that Hirsi Ali takes for granted.
She recently said that her
audience consists mainly of Muslims. Nonsense. Her hatred of Islam
and her patronising attitude towards Muslim women who disagree with
her makes her ideas palatable only to the "white liberals" whose
prejudices about Islam and Muslims she reinforces. In fact, anyone
who works with Muslim communities, respecting their faith but
seeking positive change, is accused of forging a "satanic pact . . .
[making] their living by representing Muslim interests, extending
aid to them, and cooperating with them in their development."
For Hirsi Ali, the answer is
clear: Islam is at fault and needs to be discarded. But her
experiences are not mine, or those of the many Muslim women I work
with every day. We are, it seems, to believe that the obsession with
female virginity is at the heart of every Muslim malaise. Such
pseudo-sociological scat wouldn't pass muster in an A-level exam.
Hirsi Ali also suffers from
historical amnesia. She is so caught up in her undergraduate
political science training that she can't see beyond Spinoza,
Voltaire and Kant. "Reading works," she says, "by western thinkers
is regarded as disrespectful to the Prophet and Allah's message."
Who says this? Nor does Hirsi Ali add that the catalyst for the
Enlightenment lay in the knowledge-transfer from Muslim civilisation
to Europe through Andalusia. The notions of female personhood,
independence of wealth and the right to education are as old as
Islam itself. The biographies of scholars and saints during the
classical age include thousands of female ulama (religious
scholars), with many leading universities being established by
wealthy women of means.
Prophet Muhammad's first love was
a woman 15 years older than himself. Khadija was not only a widow (a
non-virgin, I'll have you know), she was a businesswoman who
proposed marriage to the young Muhammad, an honest and trusted
worker in her business. They lived 27 years together before Khadija
died. Fast forward to today, where I am surrounded by loving,
functional Muslim families that defy Hirsi Ali's statements. Even
Yusuf Qaradawi, the Qatar-based cleric who Hirsi Ali condemns, is
married to a sprightly senior al-Jazeera journalist. I met her at a
conference in Istanbul last weekend. She defies every stereotype,
sitting at the head table with her husband and other major
scholars.
Muslims, frankly, pay too much
attention to Hirsi Ali. She isn't interested in a genuine engagement
with Muslim women. She is content to be an outsider posing as a
co-religionist. This may win her favour elsewhere, but not in the
communities she seeks to reform.
Incidentally, Hirsi Ali has just
had her Gloria Gaynor moment. The Dutch political establishment now
wants her forgiveness and has put pressure on the immigration
minister to reverse her decision to take away Hirsi Ali's
citizenship. But Hirsi Ali has found new chums at the American
Enterprise Institute, the neo-con high temple in Washington, DC. The
trouble is that it is Hirsi Ali herself who is caged - by her lack
of scholarship and her myopic sense of identity and history. These
credentials may carry weight with the neo-cons she will now advise.
They ought not to with the rest of us.
Fareena Alam is the editor of
Q-News, the Muslim magazine.
This review was first published in the New Statesman
magazine on 24th July 2006. |
