Journalist Karima Moual challenged secular Arabs and Maghrebis on Facebook . I can’t turn it down, and neither should you! Italian newspaper La Stampa published a very interesting article, in which Moual reported the long standing issue about televised current events programs: diminishing Islam to a mere spectacle.
The women who participated in said programs were asked to wear the hijab, and told they wouldn’t be able to participate otherwise. In the eyes of mass media, interested more in the amount of shares rather than pursuing real information, the veil has become an icon representing all Muslims.
One particular image is selling more than any other, the one of the compliant Muslim woman, wearing the hijab, forced to abide the patriarchy, and according to some reporters’ logic, if you don’t have all these characteristics, you are not Muslim enough.
This kind of thinking is discouraging many women to appear on these shows, fearing to exacerbate stereotypes, and feed xenophobia. “They only want us if wearing the veil” someone said: “They want to see us with the veil and the long beard.”
We, Europeans are too accustomed to the thought of the Maghrebis Muslim world as a homogenous monolith of souls, all with the same ideas, way of thinking, and living. The truth is much more complex.
But why should this matter be interesting to everyone? Because it involves everyone, believers or not. Because, despite being agnostic, many people think of me as a Maghrebis Muslim, therefore a possible terrorist. I even have a beard, although it’s just for flair.
We are second generation, we are Arabs, Maghrebis, Berbers, Sunni, Shiite, Sufi, Jewish, gays, heterosexuals, transsexuals, and SECULAR. Hello everyone! We are those who do not make the news, but we are also the majority. A silent majority, because we have integrated. Yet, we don’t want to allow this sedated, inactive reality.
We are real.
We are the non-religious ones, the ones supporting personal freedom, and equality regardless of religious or political views. We are the ones who are no longer sharing our parent’s views, the ones who can think on their own, yet still proud of our origins. We are the ones who find it difficult to voice individuality. We are the ones supporting ethnic inclusiveness, freedom, and feminism. We are the ones who love pizza yet eat couscous on a Friday night. We are the ones who listen to Lady Gaga, and read Fatema Mernissi and Nawal Al-Sa’dawi books. We are the ones who do not feel that men with long beards or veiled women can represent them as Muslims or Arabs.
We are the dreadful, passive, fading part of history or rather the alive one. We are the exiled ones, the ones who make a fuss for the love of knowledge.
Modern television broadcasting induces prejudice, and intensifies stereotypes, asking women to wear the burka, and to play the part of the meek. We are not it. We do not represent this. It is not our normalcy.
Then, what are we left to do? We should wake up, and reveal ourselves. Take action against over-simplification, and triviality that impairs us from expressing who we really are. We howl, hence we are.
Dear sir and madam, we do not make the news, and we are at the fringe of debates because we positively resemble you.
Anes
translated by Barbara Burgio
©2017 Il Grande Colibrì
