INSIDE THE CULTURE: Professor, writer, activist relates struggles of Muslim women

The High Point Enterprise

DAVIDSON COUNTY – Former Wall Street Journal reporter and Georgetown University professor Asra Nomani described her journey of fighting for women’s rights to a group of Davidson County Community College students on Thursday.

“What I hope to do is just bring to life for you my own personal journey trying to come to terms with interpretations inside the faith that I think are puzzling to a lot of people,” said Nomani, a Muslim born in India who immigrated to America with her family as a girl.

Nomani visited DCCC as part of Women’s History Month, sponsored by the college’s Office of Student Life. She told the students about her struggle with coming to terms with the Islamic faith, especially the culture’s tradition of keeping women closed in. She challenged students to “stand up with moral courage” when they face issues concerning sexism and racism.

At DCCC, Nomani used a burka, a female garment that covers the entire body with a net screen covering the eyes, as a way to show the students what the Muslim women go through. DCCC student Robin Wiggins put on the burka and told Nomani and others what it felt like to be clothed in the garment.

“They are probably extremely uncomfortable,” Wiggins said. “You really can’t see to an extent. I couldn’t imagine wearing this all day.”

In 2000, Nomani went on book leave from the Wall Street Journal to write “Tantrika: Traveling the Road of Divine Love,” a journey into the corners of her identity as a Muslim, an Indian and an American. A year later, while still on leave, Nomani became a correspondent for Salon magazine, reporting in Pakistan. She was inspired to stand up for her gender and faith following the kidnapping of her friend Daniel Pearl in 2002 in Karachi, Pakistan – a story that turned into the movie, “A Mighty Heart,” featuring Angelina Jolie.

Following the death of Pearl, Nomani returned to her home in Morgantown, W.Va., to challenge rules at her mosque that required women enter through a back door and pray in a balcony. Her story caught the attention of The New York Times, which wrote about her “Rosa Parks-style activism.”

“We walked through the front door as a family,” Nomani said of the Morgantown mosque. “What happened was that we started the movement. We call it the Islamic Feminist Movement.”

Nomani also would be the lead organizer of a woman-led Muslim prayer in New York City in 2005. In the Islamic culture, it’s traditional for women not to lead prayer. Nomani also was tested by her faith when she gave birth to a child out of wedlock. That’s considered taboo by some in that faith.

“We are trying to push back on interpretations that are challenging the idea that women have to be segregated, that women have to be covered,” Nomani said.