Keeping the Faith- WISE Conference 2009

Sunday, 25 October 2009 | posted by nimesh ghimire

Meeran Karim, one of the Global Changemakers from Pakistan, recently traveled to Malaysia to attend the Women’s Islamic Initiative in Spirituality and Equality (WISE) Conference. What she thought as an erratic conference turned out to be one of the most inspirational conferences she'd ever attended. Meeran shares with us what she learnt from what she calls, 'a conference that changed her stance on religious issues'. 

Keeping the Faith

“Yeah right, as if I am going to attend a conference of fundos, attempting to indoctrinate supposedly westernized bimbos”, was my initial reaction to the invitation letter for the Women’s Islamic Initiative in Spirituality and Equality (WISE) conference 2009 in Malaysia. I laughed hysterically, as I sat, staring at my hotmail inbox. I had attended international conferences on issues such as youth empowerment and globalization, but religion, no way! Are there forums for discussion? Or are they perfect instruments for mental coercion? Nevertheless, I confirmed my participation; some shopping in KL would do me good. 

Two weeks later, I laughed again, as I sat at Kuala Lumpur International Airport, waiting for departure to Lahore. I never thought I could be one of them. Those women who are tornadoes of optimism and ambition in a world where there is gender bias and violence undertaken in the name of God. Although I had bid farewell to them, their light radiated from my body, every particle, a shower of sparks. I never in a million years thought that two hundred mostly middle-aged women would impact me in such a way. 

As I made my way through the crowd on the first day of the event at Impiana KLCC hotel in Kuala Lumpur, the venue of the conference, I was taken aback by what I witnessed. The first female Reverend in the US, the only Muslim female lawyer at The Hague and the softest spoken Imam I have ever met, my worst fears were over. No clerics shouting at the top of their lungs and veiled women like gray clouds in a blue sky, it was if the mother ship had landed on earth and I happily came running towards it.

No, they were not “progressive elitists” or members of the Illuminati, if that’s what you’re thinking. Just ordinary people like you and me, reclaiming their faith. Taking it back from radical clergies and backward tribal clans, who have long held monopoly over religion just like the eighteenth century Vatican Church. “Faith is for whoever wants to turn to it for guidance and salvation; it is for the woman in the tavern as much as it is for the woman giving alms”, said one outspoken participant. 

Reclaiming our faith, that’s exactly what we did at the WISE conference over the course of four days. From discussing headscarves and hymens (in the words of Mona Eltahawy, the double-H bomb), Ijtihad, female genital mutilation to confessions of women who have suffered battery, there were no Arabs or Africans etc, just Muslim women.  There was recognition however that the Muslim Ummah is not a monolithic bloc. Nevertheless, diversity was seen as a reason for strength not conflict. African tribal dances, whirling Dervishes or the common act of Salah, God’s name reverberated from all corners of the world. 

No, it was not a replay of the Divine Ya-Ya Sisterhood or some talk shop of frustrated women. The WISE theme, “Muslim Women: Building Institutions, Creating Change” was kept alive by the launch of ground-breaking initiatives. A Global Shura Council comprising of female scholars such as Amina Wadud and Sumbul Ali Karamali and jurists was launched, with a mission to give a female perspective on Quran and other Islamic texts. With a female Muftiyah programme, a right to issue Fatwas and a truly globally diverse panel, a new narrative was set in motion. 

A Muslim Women’s Web portal and other forms of communication were also launched at this conference, in order to expand the discourse on gender and Islam. It was amazing to see how due to these initiatives, some women who had only uttered the words “MashAllah” and “InshAllah” in the beginning, started to tear down the façade they had imprisoned themselves in. Every night, the hotel lobby would be full of women, discussing every topic under the sky, from their demanding husbands to Israel. 

And talking about Israel, the multi-faith day saw an emotionally raw confrontation between a teacher in the West Bank and a Jewish woman settled in New York. For the first time in my life, I saw the real thing, behind all the statistics and propagandas. As each side, gave its story, a realization dawned upon all of us that the conflict is seen by many of us, through a religious lens rather than a political one. Observing different faiths battle and then reconcile, I realized that Islam’s grand total of 72 sects were also founded in the corridors of power, by men who believed that they had a mandate from God to divide and categorize us. And we gladly severed all ties from each other with our sects. But cannot Islam in this day and age with its holiest book Quran accommodate other shades of opinion, is homogeneity necessary? And so this process of questioning began and hopefully it will never end, even if it brings with it a lot of confusion.

Confusion and a profusion of new ideas and perspectives, is what I carried back to Pakistan with me, along with some shopping bags of course. The WISE Conference 2009 challenged me, perplexed me, made me feel wired, but most of all it connected me to an umbilical cord, symbolizing my previously dormant beliefs. For the past nineteen years, religion for me was a restraint which I loved to defy at every opportunity. I left it to the clerics and the supposedly pious people walking on the straight path, to decide and interpret. But now, my instrument against elements of resistance is reform not defiance. Debating not negating. I am keeping the Faith.

--Meeran Karim

Global Changemaker, Pakistan