Miss USA is not the only role model for Muslim women
It surprised me last week that my article about Rima Fakih becoming the first Arab-American and Muslim to win the Miss USA beauty contest turned out to be Cif's most-read item of the day.
But quite a number of readers thought that Fakih, dependent as she is on her looks, is not the most rousing role model for Muslim female empowerment. They asked why no similar attention was accorded all those successful and inspirational Muslim women who have made inroads into what is still largely a man's world.
So, in tribute to the many remarkable women in the Muslim world (including non-Muslims) throughout the centuries – both remembered and forgotten, loved or ridiculed – here's my personal selection of 10 mould-breaking women. They appear in chronological order.
1. Khadijah bint Khuwaylid (555–619): First wife of the Prophet Muhammad and the world's first convert to Islam.
2. Aisha bint Abu Bakr (died 678): A controversial figure, particularly in the west, because of the young age at which she appears to have been betrothed to the elderly prophet. Less well known is that she was a central figure in spreading Islam after his death and even led an army to battle.
3. Fatima al-Fihri (died 880): This Tunisian established, in 859, what is reportedly the world's oldest academic degree-granting university, al-Qarawiyyin in Fes (Morocco). But medieval Muslim women were not only patrons of academic establishments, they were also academics. A 15th-century Egyptian biographical dictionary lists over 1,000 prominent female scholars.
4. Shajaret al-Durr (died 1257): From modest beginnings as a slave of probable Turkic origin in the royal household, "Tree of Pearls" rose to become Egypt's only queen in the Islamic period. Although she ruled the country directly for only 80 days, her proxy reign continued through her husband until her murder. She not only repelled the Seventh Crusade, but she also instigated the unique Mamluk era during which Egypt was ruled by elite slave warriors. In modern times, a number of Muslim-majority countries – including Pakistan (Benazir Bhutto), Indonesia (Megawati Sukarnoputri), Bangladesh (Khaleda Zia and Sheikh Hasina) and Turkey (Tansu Çiller) – have been led by women.
5. Malak Hifni Nassef (1886-1918): An early feminist who scored a number of impressive firsts in Egypt: the first woman to get a degree from a government college, the first woman to lecture publicly, and – at the age of only 13 – the first to publish poetry in a mainstream journal. Today, though, she is largely forgotten and overshadowed by Hoda Sha'rawi who is widely considered to be founder of the modern Arab feminist movement.
6. Nawal el-Saadawi (born 1931): Despite being a physician and psychiatrist by training, Saadawi describes herself as "a novelist first, a novelist second, a novelist third". She has, in more than 50 novels, revolutionised the treatment of Egyptian women in fiction, and wielded her pen as her mightiest weapon in the battle for female emancipation. Her writings have covered numerous controversial feminist themes, including women's inferior position in religion and female genital mutilation, and their author has endured imprisonment, death threats and attempts to forcibly divorce her from her husband.
7. Fairuz (born 1935): Known as "ambassador to the stars", Fairuz is not only the national pride of Lebanon but the most famous living singer in the Arab world. She was born with the name Nouhad Haddad into a poor Maronite Christian family in 1935. Throughout the 1960s, she was the "first lady of Lebanese singing", although overshadowed on the Arab stage by the giant Umm Kalthoum. Widely regarded as the enchanting voice of Arab nationalism, her output has been prolific and has included hundreds of songs and musical operettas. Fairuz never left her country during its tumultuous civil war.
8. Hanan Ashrawi (born 1946): Ashrawi played a pivotal role in the first Palestinian intifada and the subsequent peace process, where she served as the Palestinian delegation's spokesperson. She has also been elected numerous times to the Palestinian Legislative Council and established the department of English at Birzeit University. She currently runs Miftah, the Palestinian Initiative for the Promotion of Global Dialogue and Democracy.
9. Sana Hasan: Three years before the Egyptian president, Anwar Sadat, made his audacious trip to Jerusalem in 1977, Hasan – a PhD student in her mid-20s – went to Israel as the Arab world's first and probably most unusual peace envoy (albeit unofficial and ostracised). Her six-week trip turned into a three-year sojourn, from 1974 to 1977, in which she seems to have met just about everyone in Israel, in an attempt to understand her people's enemy and build bridges to peace.
10. Asma Jahangir (born 1952): This prominent Pakistani lawyer has built a career defending the rights of women, children and religious minorities. Jahangir put herself in the firing line defending Muslims and Christians who have fallen foul of Pakistan's controversial and intolerant "Hudood" laws. She is currently the UN's special rapporteur on freedom of religion or belief.
It surprised me last week that my article about Rima Fakih becoming the first Arab-American and Muslim to win the Miss USA beauty contest turned out to be Cif's most-read item of the day.
But quite a number of readers thought that Fakih, dependent as she is on her looks, is not the most rousing role model for Muslim female empowerment. They asked why no similar attention was accorded all those successful and inspirational Muslim women who have made inroads into what is still largely a man's world.
So, in tribute to the many remarkable women in the Muslim world (including non-Muslims) throughout the centuries – both remembered and forgotten, loved or ridiculed – here's my personal selection of 10 mould-breaking women. They appear in chronological order.
1. Khadijah bint Khuwaylid (555–619): First wife of the Prophet Muhammad and the world's first convert to Islam.
2. Aisha bint Abu Bakr (died 678): A controversial figure, particularly in the west, because of the young age at which she appears to have been betrothed to the elderly prophet. Less well known is that she was a central figure in spreading Islam after his death and even led an army to battle.
3. Fatima al-Fihri (died 880): This Tunisian established, in 859, what is reportedly the world's oldest academic degree-granting university, al-Qarawiyyin in Fes (Morocco). But medieval Muslim women were not only patrons of academic establishments, they were also academics. A 15th-century Egyptian biographical dictionary lists over 1,000 prominent female scholars.
4. Shajaret al-Durr (died 1257): From modest beginnings as a slave of probable Turkic origin in the royal household, "Tree of Pearls" rose to become Egypt's only queen in the Islamic period. Although she ruled the country directly for only 80 days, her proxy reign continued through her husband until her murder. She not only repelled the Seventh Crusade, but she also instigated the unique Mamluk era during which Egypt was ruled by elite slave warriors. In modern times, a number of Muslim-majority countries – including Pakistan (Benazir Bhutto), Indonesia (Megawati Sukarnoputri), Bangladesh (Khaleda Zia and Sheikh Hasina) and Turkey (Tansu Çiller) – have been led by women.
5. Malak Hifni Nassef (1886-1918): An early feminist who scored a number of impressive firsts in Egypt: the first woman to get a degree from a government college, the first woman to lecture publicly, and – at the age of only 13 – the first to publish poetry in a mainstream journal. Today, though, she is largely forgotten and overshadowed by Hoda Sha'rawi who is widely considered to be founder of the modern Arab feminist movement.
6. Nawal el-Saadawi (born 1931): Despite being a physician and psychiatrist by training, Saadawi describes herself as "a novelist first, a novelist second, a novelist third". She has, in more than 50 novels, revolutionised the treatment of Egyptian women in fiction, and wielded her pen as her mightiest weapon in the battle for female emancipation. Her writings have covered numerous controversial feminist themes, including women's inferior position in religion and female genital mutilation, and their author has endured imprisonment, death threats and attempts to forcibly divorce her from her husband.
7. Fairuz (born 1935): Known as "ambassador to the stars", Fairuz is not only the national pride of Lebanon but the most famous living singer in the Arab world. She was born with the name Nouhad Haddad into a poor Maronite Christian family in 1935. Throughout the 1960s, she was the "first lady of Lebanese singing", although overshadowed on the Arab stage by the giant Umm Kalthoum. Widely regarded as the enchanting voice of Arab nationalism, her output has been prolific and has included hundreds of songs and musical operettas. Fairuz never left her country during its tumultuous civil war.
8. Hanan Ashrawi (born 1946): Ashrawi played a pivotal role in the first Palestinian intifada and the subsequent peace process, where she served as the Palestinian delegation's spokesperson. She has also been elected numerous times to the Palestinian Legislative Council and established the department of English at Birzeit University. She currently runs Miftah, the Palestinian Initiative for the Promotion of Global Dialogue and Democracy.
9. Sana Hasan: Three years before the Egyptian president, Anwar Sadat, made his audacious trip to Jerusalem in 1977, Hasan – a PhD student in her mid-20s – went to Israel as the Arab world's first and probably most unusual peace envoy (albeit unofficial and ostracised). Her six-week trip turned into a three-year sojourn, from 1974 to 1977, in which she seems to have met just about everyone in Israel, in an attempt to understand her people's enemy and build bridges to peace.
10. Asma Jahangir (born 1952): This prominent Pakistani lawyer has built a career defending the rights of women, children and religious minorities. Jahangir put herself in the firing line defending Muslims and Christians who have fallen foul of Pakistan's controversial and intolerant "Hudood" laws. She is currently the UN's special rapporteur on freedom of religion or belief.
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