Sara khan July 30, 2003

Tags: women

href="/tag/women">women who were attending the convocation, there wasn’t a single woman speaker. Initially, I inwardly blamed the male chauvinists for this discrimination. Later at night, however, while reading Annemarie Schimmel’s work, I began wondering whether it is fair to send these bearded men to trial for this prejudice.

Here is a woman, a German woman, who was considered the greatest authority on Iqbal and Sufism by men, even bearded men. The day she passed away, I informed my female friends about her demise and the response from all quarters was a nonchalant, "I am sorry, who died?" I remembered, it was myself who had informed them several years ago about the death of Versace, and was responded to with great sorrow.

On Herrick’s command, we are all busy gathering those rosebuds and depositing them on our hair as our sole role in life. Then, I wonder who commanded Schimmel to spend her life in philosophy and literature, still adhering to all that women take pride in.

Fine, we can tell ourselves that she came from a Western land where women have the liberty, exposure and opportunity to seek out such arenas. Having said that, whose command did Nafsia of Egypt respond to, who had so much knowledge in religious sciences that Imam Shafi used to enjoy her company? There was Shawana of Persia, whom Jami wrote elegies for, describing her melodious voice with which she recited things to ascetics and her disciples.

We can maintain that the reason for Annemarie Schimmel’s interest in Iqbal and Sufism was because she belonged to a country of the world’s best universities of arts and humanities, and had the appropriate exposure. Then, what of Shuhuda, who lived in Baghdad and was labeled the best scribe of her time by her contemporaries, who were men!

True, it is not good to dwell on the zeitgeist of intellectual civilizations of Baghdad, Basra, Tehran, Cordoba, Rum or Lahore. However, what is imperative is to try to recreate the spirit of that time in this flying time. To a certain extent, men, literate and illiterate alike, are responsible for this heedlessness that has become a part of the female specie in our society. Still and all, these men, even the best among them, are not going to pull the women into wakefulness. That has to come from the women, themselves.

It is good to see so many energetic young women entering the numerous fields of sciences. But some of these have to carry on the good work – philosophy, theology and art. When I say ‘art’, I am not referring to the wild, nude art we have so proudly borrowed from the West. Art has to be relative to the space and time it originates from. On theology, we have to stop treating the veil as the culminating issue. A healthy discussion, at its own good time, is helpful, but fruitless disputes between women who follow this code and those who do not, has to end. As of philosophy, we need absolute philosophy, which does not end with the full stop placed on the paper but seeps into the blood of the writer and the reader, until it becomes that person.

These are idealistic expectations from a woman of today, who is used to sell one’s product within this consumer-seller cult. If she is not seen with a frozen smile on those billboards next to butters, jellies, bread, soaps or mattresses, then she is only expected to clean the nooks and corners. I have heard of at least two prophets who said that a woman contains within her the secrets of creation. That is the highest honor for any specie and to think all women carry it within themselves. Women with meaning will not descend from heaven to show us what it takes, we have to discover that secret ourselves. And it takes spirit to make that kind of a search.