Fighting Hislam: Susan Carland on what it means to be a Muslim feminist

SUSAN Carland knows her message about Islam and feminism is going to ruffle some feathers. But she’s sick of being asked the same questions.

Dr Susan Carland has released a new book about women and Islam. Picture: Dylan Coker

“THERE are a lot of people that won’t like this book,” Dr Susan Carland explains to me quietly, sipping her coffee. “People in the Muslim community, and people in the non-Muslim community. Lots of people won’t like it. I know that for a fact”.

Susan Carland holds herself with the poise of a ballerina. Delicate and deliberate in her movements, she displays the quiet self-assurance that comes from having your identity repetitively questioned.

Having converted to Islam when she was 19-years-old, the truth is, being a Muslim woman in Australia isn’t easy.

Her new book, Fighting Hislam, tackles a subject that is widely discussed but only superficially understood: Muslim women and gender equality. Specifically, she explores how Muslim women living in Australia and North America combat sexism within their own communities and in the non-Muslim community as well.

Carland is honest about the fact she didn’t write this book to win fans. Furiously private and personally uncomfortable with the media spotlight her husband, television host Waleed Aly’s fame has brought, Carland is driven by obligation. A teacher first, her ambition is to educate as many people as she can.

Carland wants to enrich the public conversation about women and Islam: “There is this assumption that ‘you all think the same thing, you’re all of one mind on these issues’ … It shows the desperation of the media and politicians to say ‘all of you people, who speaks for you?’ They can’t let go of this idea that someone should speak for all of us. No single person does”.

Waleed Aly and Susan Carland at the 2017 Logie Awards. Picture: AAP Image/Jonathan Di Maggio

“People don’t realise the influence culture has on faith. The Muslim community in Australia is incredibly diverse. We are all Muslim. There’s something that unites us but there is also really important diversity that exists within … It’s so multicultural and yet we’re all clumped together [but] if you look at the countries of origin, they often practice Islam in very different ways. Somali Islam is practised in a very different way and understood [in a different way] to Indonesia, Afghani Islam, Saudi Islam”.

“The impression is it [Islam] is a monolith. It’s not”.

Carland jokes that when she first began this thesis, back when her now primary school aged children were babies, she worried the topic might disappear from the Zeitgeist. We laugh awkwardly at this naivety, reflecting on the reality of how history has unfolded.

Nothing much has changed. If anything it’s harder for Muslims living in the west today than it once was. The conversation about gender equality and Islam remains as unsophisticated as the day after September 11, Carland tells me.

“When I do interviews, when Muslim women do interviews, we are asked the same questions … Why do you wear hijab? Do you feel oppressed? Does your husband make you wear that? Why does your religion command FGM?”

Carland rattles off the queries she’s fielded dozens of times, counting on her fingers. “Sexism is everywhere — not just the Muslim community. It’s everywhere. It might take different forms in different communities but it is sadly everywhere”.

The vitriol in the western world’s public conversation about Islam is intense. The scrutiny is harsh, the limelight bright and the brush is broad. There is so much anger and fear that there is little room for nuance or nuance. The abuse is bad, Carland explains matter-of-factly and it’s worse for visibly Muslim women.

Carland says “The stereotype of Muslim women [is] that they’re meek and submissive. So they’re seen as a weaker target … it’s Muslim women and kids in Muslim school uniforms who are more likely to be targeted with Islamophobia”.

Carland’s expression grows pained as she talks about the experiences of children. I wonder if she is thinking about her own. Carland sighs, reluctantly resigned to her role as a public spokesperson in this debate and fully aware of what that means for her family and friends. She seems to recognise though, that she is providing a perspective that isn’t otherwise being given any airtime in Australia.

“I cannot complain about the conversation if I don’t push this [book] out into it. Two of the women I interviewed died when I wrote the book. These stories need to be told. Nobody seems to know about these women outside of the Muslim community,” Carland says with frustration.

Carland interviewed Muslim theologians, writers, activists and bloggers for the book, and many of the women she spoke to share those frustrations. Not only with the way the non-Muslim community understands their faith but the way other Muslims do.

“For the theologians I spoke to, they said ‘for so long we’ve just accepted this is the way these texts should be interpreted. But when I went and had a good look at it I realised actually that is just these men’s interpretation’,” She says.

“This is not new to Islam, this tension and disagreement about what verses mean. That has always existed. People often aren’t aware of the different valid opinion on how different verses can be interpreted, what’s metaphorical and what’s to be taken literally. We don’t have to passively acquiesce and think well, that sounds sexist I guess but I have to accept it”.

Islam can be feminist if the believer chooses to interpret it that way, seems to be Carland’s point. It’s the same point that ABC presenter Yassmin Abdel-Magied dared to make on Q and A some months back. Her comments were followed by a week of sustained attack in the media.

It isn’t an easy business to be a Muslim woman who talks about gender. You are fighting a battle on all fronts — within religious communities and from the outside.

It’s essential that Carland keeps front of mind why she is doing this and who she is doing it for: “I want young Muslims — boys and girls — to know there is no contradiction between being attached to your faith and wanting to fight sexism. Sexism doesn’t need to be a part of our religious identity and history and the texts show that and you need to know that too”.

Fighting Hislam is published by Melbourne University Press and retails for $24.95 at Booktopia and all good bookstores.

Originally published as Fighting Hislam: Susan Carland on what it means to be a Muslim feminist