Shahla Haeri: Changing Perceptions

As I unwrapped the copy of Iranian born author Shahla Haeri’s new book sent to me in the mail, I was immediately intrigued. The title, No Shame for the Sun: Lives of Professional Pakistani Women drew my attention and after reading the description on the back cover, I felt a certain sense of excitement. The book as the back cover explained, was an attempt to challenge the stereotypes about Muslim women and reveal the unique and diverse life experiences of Pakistani Muslim women. Had someone finally written a book about the accomplished Pakistani women? I couldn’t wait to discover the answer to my question. I tossed the wrapping paper aside and immediately delved into the book.

As I read through it, I was thrilled to find that the answer was, “Yes.” As Shahla Haeri explains on the first page, although thousands of educated and working women have played significant roles in Muslim societies, most literature on Muslim women has concentrated on the veiled, poor, peasant or oppressed women. Leaving out the educated professional women from literature has contributed to the stereotypes of most Muslim women being oppressed or helpless. In No Shame for the Sun, through detailed interviews with six professional Pakistani women, Shahla successfully offers a fresh perspective on the lives of Muslim women. The women she presents in her book seem far from helpless. They are comprised of a social worker, political activist, lawyer, feminist poet, feudal lord working as a civil service officer, and a Sufi feminist. Each one is a confident and self-made woman.

We get an intimate look into each of their lives and learn how they persevered in difficult situations, often defying cultural norms. Quratul Ain Bakhteari talks about growing up in a refugee camp after independence and the partition of India and Pakistan. She becomes an active participant in the community and goes on to obtain her PhD despite pressures of marriage and children. We get to know Rahila Tiwana, her political activism, her imprisonment, and her struggles in police custody. Through Ayesha Siddiqa we learn how the feudal conscience develops. Ayesha is well aware of her vulnerable status as a female feudal lord. She is constantly striving to be better or stronger than a man in every aspect. Pakistan’s internationally revered feminist poet, Kishwar Naheed, tells us about her troubled marriage, her start in literature, and her status as a feminist and activist. The amazing Sajida Mokarram Shah tells us about the stigma of becoming a widow. She discusses her struggle to raise her children independently despite intense family opposition, getting a job, getting a law degree, and having a promising law career, all after becoming a widow. Last but not least we get to know, Nilofer Ahmed, the Sufi feminist, her stance on women’s rights in a religious context and her work to raise awareness of these rights. Each of their stories is fixating and inspirational.

When I finished the book, I called Shahla Haeri and scheduled a telephone interview. Speaking to her was a delightful experience. As the director of the Women’s Studies Program at Boston University with a Ph.D. in Cultural Anthropology and a documentary film and two published books to her credit, Shahla herself is an impressive example of the educated and professional Muslim women she is hoping to bring into the foreground through her book.

Granddaughter of an ayatollah, Shahla Haeri grew up in Iran. She comes from a moderate family where most of the women went to college, her mother having been a teacher herself. When it was time for Shahla to attend college, her parents agreed to send her to the United States. So in 1968, Shahla moved to the US alone. She studied sociology and anthropology which was difficult because she was still learning to speak English. “I was very much determined to learn English because, unlike Pakistanis, Iranians don’t learn English from childhood.” She obtained a Masters degree in Anthropology and later, in 1985, obtained her Ph.D. from University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA).

Shahla first went to Pakistan in 1987 with the purpose of researching life in a Muslim society. Explaining her reasons for choosing Pakistan as oppose to her native Iran, Shahla says, “I would have liked to go back to Iran but what was happening in Iran at that time was just too painful to bear. I just didn’t think that I [could] go back to Iran, for a variety of reasons, most important of which was the war [with Iraq].” So she thought of alternatives and initially intended to go to the Middle East. However, upon a suggestion from a friend she decided to travel to India and Pakistan instead. “That was the best decision I ever made. I applied for a post doctorate grant, and fortunately I got it and that was mainly for India,” recalls Shahla. “The first time I stayed [in Pakistan on the way to India] for five weeks… That first five weeks piqued my interest.” Shahla found the cultural familiarities and the kindness of people she met in India and Pakistan elating. “The sentiment, the emotions, the excitement, [which] I felt there, I never felt anywhere else.” A year later she came back to Pakistan to learn Urdu. “All along I kept meeting these very impressive, very interesting women. Then every time I would come back to the US to teach or work, [I would] be confronted with very naïve questions about Pakistan and [Pakistani] women. All these blanket generalizations.” Shahla was immensely troubled by what seemed to her a very narrow-minded perception in the US of Muslim or Pakistani women. Determined to present a new outlook to Western audiences, she returned to Pakistan once more. This time she intended to research the lives of Pakistani women.

During her time in Pakistan, Shahla says that she met many outstanding Pakistani women and men. “[People] were very, very helpful. I mean, they went out of their way to take me here and there.” Whenever she was invited to meetings, parties and any special events she attended eagerly. The six women she interviewed for the book are ones she either met herself or was referred to by others. Shahla very intentionally did not interview famous Pakistani women for her book, except in the case of Kishwar Naheed. “I did not want to be accused of [writing] about the exceptional women. There are more than Asma Jahangir, Abida Hussain, Benazir Bhutto there.”

An important critique of No Shame for the Sun may be, that it is unbalanced in its representation of the Pakistani professional women. Each of the six women Shahla presents in the book comes from an affluent background. There is no representation from the ordinary working-class Pakistani women. However, this too is intentional. Shahla explains that she specifically wanted to present “educated, professional, upper-middle class women who have all along been very important in the society, engaged in various institutions of power, have been participating in the public domain and trying to influence some change.”

About the similarities and differences she experienced between the Irani and Pakistani cultures, especially as a woman, she says, “When I went to Pakistan, on one level I found it liberating, in the sense that I didn’t have to wear the veil. But in another sense I found it very oppressive. Even more so then what you may find in Iran.” In Iran women are required to veil in public. “Once you have [on] the veil, the scarf and the long robe in Iran, you can basically go anywhere and do anything. Whereas in Pakistan, even though I was always dressed in shalwar qameez, if I were to walk out on the street [by myself], I would always be stared at… Karachi is a little bit different, in Karachi it was ok but Lahore was very oppressive on some levels.”

On the other hand, Shahla found the similarities in the Irani and Pakistani cultures exciting. “It’s the excitement of familiarity and difference at the same time. You see something of yourself, your background, or things which are part of your culture, you see them practiced differently which at the same time makes it interesting.”

No Shame for the Sun is Shahla Haeri’s second book. Before that she authored Law of Desire: Temporary Marriage in Shi’i Iran which was first published in 1989. It has been translated into Persian and into Urdu as Mohabbat Ka Qanun. Shahla Haeri has also produced and directed a documentary called ‘Mrs. President: Women & Political Leadership in Iran’ which features several women presidential candidates from Iran.

When asked what she thought of the fact that an Irani Muslim woman activist, Shirin Ebadi, was the recipient of the 2003 Nobel Peace Prize. Shahla exclaimed, “I know [Shirin Ebadi] personally. I was delighted when I heard that she received the Nobel Peace Prize… [It] seems to underline the significance of my book… Shirin Ebadi is one woman among many women just as impressive, just as involved.”

Although six women cannot represent all the women from all Muslim societies, they do represent some of the self-accomplished and successful women from one Muslim society. That in itself is a great significance of No Shame for the Sun. Shahla puts it best herself, “Everything about the book, from the title and the cover photograph to the content, is intended to make these women more visible.” She hopes to translate the book into Persian and Urdu herself.