Radical Feminism, a la Islam

Someone asked to explain what my wearing HijabMan's "This is What a Radical Muslim Feminist Looks Like" T-shirt means.

It would mean that I am a female Muslim who takes the rights that have been decreed to me by my Creator.

I'm not subservient or meek, nor do I accept cultural idiocies as replacements for my God-given religion. It does not mean that I am not faced on a regular basis with situations involving choosing culture over religion, because I am. However, I grew tired long ago of being a sucker, as did the feminists from the movements that spurred from the 1920s suffragettes to the 1970s ERA-ers to ladies like the feminists of today featured in the film Borat who were horrified by his (unbeknownst to the poor ladies) satirical woman-bashing Khazak rhetoric. I will choose my religion, because I know I can always back up my actions with proof. You and your backwards cultural whatevers can go fly. They are fluff and nutter. I am substance.

Watch me get up and walk out of a room, because I will. If taking my rights means to you that I am haughty, so be it. Let the haughtiness begin.

Let me repeat: I am not subservient or meek. I speak from my heart. When there is an injustice, I roar.

As a radical Muslim feminist I know my rights as a wife, which are to be fed, sheltered, clothed, and cared for in a way befitting to me. I have the right to a marriage contract which safeguards me in case of a divorce. Man, it's a pre-nup that was given to women over 1400 years ago. Please find that in the Western law books! Fourteen hundred years ago in England, women were either witches or hysterical. Muslimahs were neither. Which do you want, a divorce, or your head? Muslimahs could keep both.

Anything I choose to do for my husband in the home, such as cooking, cleaning, and general care of the household, are not required of me, but rather are charities. I choose to be benevolent towards him because it makes both of us happy and helps to create a loving environment, and I know my reward will be with Allah. But if I'm down and out, like I am today, you better believe he'll bring home the Popeye's and I'll need a foot massage. It's a two-way street.

As a radical Muslim feminist, by the will of Allah I will empower my children with educational opportunites and give them the means, even if it requires that I not buy new clothing or eat the foods I really desire; even if it makes me give up the computer or the telephone or trips overseas--my children will have a way out because I refuse to allow them to live a life they do not want. I have three daughters. They must be empowered with knowledge.

Being a radical Muslim feminist also means that I will teach my son to wash his own clothing, cook his own food, mend his own holes, and most importantly, own his own behavior. I will not run after him with a plate and spoon when he is 26 years old, worried about his potential starvation. He will be self-sufficient, giving, and will respect me and his sisters and his wife. If he fails in any of these areas, then I will know that my mothering of him was a failure, too, and that I joined the ranks of the women who have propagated generations of no-good 'i am entitled to everything' empty Muslim men. May Allah protect me from that.

As a radical Muslim feminist, I will not tolerate double standards.

But guess what? I'm not radical at all, nor am I a feminist. I'm just a Muslim.

That, in a nutshell, is what the T-shirt means to me.

Maybe one day I'll add to this, but right now I have kiddies who want to paint.