Layers of Identity
Ever since I started my program, I’ve been getting the chance to stand at a distance from my culture and re-evaluate it in a new light. A light that is not heavily charged with the antipathy that so often accompanies the desire to rebel. This has allowed me to really appreciate some aspects which, previously, I found to be stifling.
One of the main reasons why I am developing this retrospective leniency, if you will, is because I am physically distant from the daily pressures of conformity and resistance to critical thinking, which normally pushed me to extremes of rejection while I was in Jordan. Another reason is that I found out that it is not only Jordanian or Arabic culture that suffers certain ailments, particularly in relation to women, and that these are all too common. This might seem obvious, but I am surprised at the level of similarity that women’s oppression across the world assumes.
My third reason is a person. I’ve been taking classes with Haleh Afshar who has been continuously emphasizing the value of differences and similarities within a feminist political context. I already subscribed to that point of view, because it is both necessary and logical that we appreciate the differences in approaching women’s situations and evaluating them globally in order to bring about real change. However, reading Western feminist texts, I’ve become more convinced than ever that there are constructed discourses inside feminism, just as there are constructed discourses inside all human experiences. I found that arguments advanced by Arab feminists that I’ve read in the past carried similar and profoundly different arguments from what I am reading currently.
This is where Edward Said steps in, yet again, and this is where Afshar has been really instrumental in raising my fellow students’ consciousness. Her experience as a minority member, a Muslim, and a woman, in the UK resonates with me personally although I have not been in the UK for long and do not subscribe to Islamic thought per se. However, there are many points of similarity between her experience and mine. I am finding myself more and more giving credit where credit is due to certain aspects of Jordanian culture, while at the same time recognizing its shortcomings (which previously were the focus of my attention for political reasons.) This is largely due to Afshar’s comments about “how things are done differently” in Iran, which reminds me of how things are done differently in Jordan and that different is not necessarily bad.
There is that, and there is also a recognition that feminism takes on different forms that do not always have to be confrontational. As a socialist I am wary of the word “reform,” but I can still appreciate that there are many ways to do revolution and believe it is crucial to recognize that Western feminist thought may not be applicable in other cultures, and certainly not without taking into account culture-specific values. Where we draw the line between culture-specific values and misogyny is a contested issue that often gets muddied by politics.
Another amazing discovery that I made a couple of hours ago is that I am my culture. It may sound naive but there’s more to it than meets the eye. Today in class I found myself explaining the differences between Islamic and Islamist, Mujahid and Jihadi, Muhajjaba and Hijabi, although I do not consider myself Muslim any more. I found myself explaining what the label “anti-Semitic” actually means from the standpoint of a non-religious Arab supporter of the Palestinian cause.
I was all sorts of things from my history in one go, and people saw me as all these things combined: Muslim, Atheist, Arab, Political, Woman. I thought you shed identities when you change, but that is not the case. You build layers.
