Asma Nama

Prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him, a feminist? I can see a few eyebrows raised, several harsh glances thrown and some hands lifted. Relax. Let me explain. Here comes his story, though it is possible that you might not have heard it from this angle or were just misinformed, as is often the case. Being a woman is hard work. Says the Black American writer Maya Angelou, it is indeed hard [and lots of it!] work to be a woman and stay that way! Should I add being a Muslim woman is more difficult, at least in the eyes of the Western world? The popular image of the suffering Muslim woman is orientalist in nature. The West and its media are obsessed with the false perception of the alleged suffocation of Muslim women. This image suggests that these veiled souls can’t speak for themselves and need to be, ‘saved’. We do not need, saving, and this liberty is forced upon us.