I'm intrigued by sartorial aspects of Islam, the way they both invite and forbid the gaze, in the mirror of the Western imagination. The mirror fetishizes the veil -- as the symbol of not only manifest oppression but also secret sexuality, a harem that is haram and haraam as it were -- in particular and makes it a synecdoche for the whole Islamic tradition, a mirror image of the Islamist imagination.
What should a feminist, especially a Muslim feminist, do? Don't look into the Western and Islamist mirrors. Instead, play with Orientalism and Occidentalism in aesthetic elaboration of Islamic civilization, inventing a new tradition of beauty in Islam and defamiliarizing it at the same time.
A man who was beautiful came to the Prophet (peace be
upon him). He said: Apostle of Allah, I am a man who likes
beauty, and I have been given some of it, as you see. And
I do not like that anyone excels me (in respect of beauty).
. . . Is it pride? He replied: No, pride is disdaining what is
true and despising people.
-- Sunan Abu-Dawud, 32.4081
> At the moment, the best hope for
> the global Left is the Egyptian working class, which is engaged in a serious
> revolt at the moment. If they can overthrow Mubarak, the field of
> possibilities is thrown wide open. If they can get their own government,
> they can support the Palestinians, and form anti-imperialist alliances
> across the region. They may not choose socialism - the socialist parties in
> Egypt remain the minority - but the very fact of a popular working class
> uprising dislodging the second largest global recipient of US military aid
> would prepare the region for a massive transformation, and open up
> opportunities for socialists that have been absent for decades. There's
> hope for you.
It's about time that Trotskyists had a revolution to their name. ;-) -- Yoshie