The black cloth covered her neck, her ears and the color of her hair, but she said her hijab doesn’t restrict her freedom.
Katherine Barrus is an IU graduate student from Marion, Indiana, who converted to Islam five years ago. She is one of the many women involved in the local Islamic community, and she said women are treated equally in Islam.
Differently, but equally.
Women are allowed to serve in a variety of positions at the Islamic Center of Bloomington, but they are not allowed to lead in prayer or preach in sermons. Several women said this is for more practical and traditional reasons rather than discriminatory ones.
“When it comes to men and women as people, I think they are different,” Barrus said. “I like that my religion acknowledges that while also acknowledging that we both have rights and responsibilities.”
In the mosque during Friday prayers, the men pray upstairs while the women pray below. This separation is mostly because of the population issues that occur with Friday prayer’s popularity, Anna Maïdi, the mosque’s Women’s Committee President, said.
In addition, Maïdi and Barrus said they would feel uncomfortable praying in such close proximity to men because of the naturally prostrated position of their prayer.
Maïdi she said enjoys praying upstairs and, if space allowed, she would enjoy praying there at all times, but she is not against praying separately in the basement.
“There are certainly some sisters that feel more comfortable praying in their own space,” Maïdi said. “It’s nice really to have that place. It’s very homey and comfy to have a special place for you and your friends and God.”
Sisters are allowed to pray upstairs when the opportunity is available on days that aren’t as busy as Friday prayer.
There have been recent pushes from women around the world wanting permission to lead sermons and prayer, Maïdi said. She said it doesn’t bother her because she is happy to have a brother lead. She said she sees it as tradition, rather than discrimination.
In other mosques, where the men and women pray in the same room, the women are typically gathered behind the men, Maïdi said. She said it’s common sense and attributed to the compromising praying position.
“It’s tough,” Maïdi said. “All these issues are tough.”
Women everywhere are oppressed, and it’s not a problem inherent to Islam, Blomington resident and mosque attendee Erica Vagedes said. Some societies are oppressing women, and different women have different interpretations of the word oppression, she said.
“Things have really changed a lot in the last 150 years,” Vagedes said. “It’s a big challenge to any traditional religion. It can be said for many different cultural things. Do they want to draw fine, stark lines, or do people want to adapt?”
A lack of equality is an issue around the world, Maïdi said. However, all three women agreed their mosque handles the treatment of women well.
The mosque has a variety of boards, and the board of trustees requiring the presence of at least one woman at all times, Maïdi said. As president of the women’s committee, Maïdi said she handles any issues with women that occur in the mosque.
Outside the Bloomington mosque, another issue frequently brought up in the discussion of female representation in Islam is the hijab. Whether it’s the controversey in France over the ban of full veils, or the views of some feminist groups against the hijab, the head scarf is often a discussion in media.
The assumption that a hijab is a form of oppression to Muslim women is incorrect because more clothes does not necessarily equate to lesser freedom, Barrus said. In fact, she said, a hijab is the opposite of oppressive.
“I like being able to choose, and when I wear the hijab people look at me for me,” she said. “I choose what I want to reveal. If I want to take this off, I could, and if I wanted to wear something skimpy, I could, but I choose to wear this.”
Barrus said Islam does not force her to wear a hijab, and if anyone did, he or she would be going against the teaching of Islam, because the intention of the wearer matters.
Women feel empowered when they wear a hijab, Maïdi said. She has a blog series titled “The Hijabi Diaries,” which tells the stories of local Muslim women. Barrus was one of the women featured in the series.
Maïdi said the hijab has become a symbol of Islam even though there is no symbolic significance at all other than on a personal level. It often leads to people not knowing how to look at a woman wearing one on the street, she said.
“We talk about it as a women’s rights issue, but I think it goes a little deeper than that,” Maïdi said. “Whenever we’re talking about women, we’re talking about hijabs, and women are not hijabs.”
Barrus lived in the United Arab Emirates for two years and taught English.
She said women there are treated with an immense amount of respect. She said women are actually far less respected in the United States than they are there.
Women’s representation in Islam is misconstrued, Barrus said.
“I got treated with so much respect over there that I didn’t want to leave,” Barrus said. “That cat-calling stuff is not okay. Women are supposed to be respected, and that’s part of Islam as well.”
The media’s poor portrayal of Muslim women is a major factor of a lack of understanding, Maïdi said.
“If we’re only talking about these bad things that are happening like violence and barring of rights, then we’re never going to get a broader picture,” Maïdi said. “We’re only getting a focus on these particular issues.”
It’s easy to talk about theory and what it would be like, Maïdi said. Those issues are important, but actually talking to Muslim women is a better way of of finding out how they feel, she said.
The lessons of Islam push for qualities like generosity and love, Vagedes said, and that’s something that can be shared with men and women.
“It’s extremely equalized — no men, no women,” Vagedes said. “Everyone can experience need, poverty or pain.”
