Models under the Half Moon

Models under the Half Moon

When Syrian artist Farida Mazar Spyropoulos performed Raqs Dance on the World’s Columbian Exhibition in Chicago in 1893, American press and American society considered it indecent for a woman to show her belly in public.  Sypropoulos, who later became famous as ‘Little Egypt’ just did, what women in Egypt have practiced  for thousands of years: Belly dance.

We can barely imagine traveling to an Arabic country without smoking a shisha, drinking amounts of peppermint tea and seeing permissively dressed belly dancers that are performing a Raqs Dance to infatuating Arabesque Music.

While being seduced by the charms of the Orient, we start to ask ourselves about the role of women within the Islamic society. Haven’t we seen all these horrible press releases of public accusations or even executions of women for ostensible immoral behavior? Do these belly dancers act immorally?  Will they be punished?

Almost all Islamic countries have different Laws, different Islamic confraternities and different traditions. We are also talking about more than 1.2 billion people. The questions cannot just be answered in a brief article and we should not forget that this weblog basically deals with one certain group of women: Models. We acknowledge that we don’t know a lot about Muslim models and many news in the West  are biased.

The saddest news reached us in November 2002, when hundreds of people died in street riots between Christians and Muslims related to the Miss World Contest in the city of Abuja in the north of Nigeria. The contest was considered immoral by the local Sharia authorities that were internationally accused some months before for the execution of Armina Lawal Kurami. Isioma Daniel from the Christian newspaper This Day published: ‘What would Muhammad think? From his very direct and controversial response to this statement, radical Muslim youths burnt down the newspaper’s office in Kaduna. Soon after, violence reached different areas of the country and caused more than 250 fatalities, hundreds of injuries and thousands of homeless people.
Last July 32 year old Malaysian model Kartika Sari Dewi Shukarno was sentenced to be caned for drinking beer in public. Some experts say that caning  as a punishment is usually not applied to women. They also insist that men drink alcohol quite openly in public and that Shukarno’s punishment is rather related to the fact that she works occasionally as a model.

It has just been two weeks ago that articles were published about Iran’s president Ahmedinejad’s attempt to ban too curvy mannequins from shop windows. They also have to be covered with a Hijab. Shop owners can be taken to court and sentenced to close their shops if they don’t comply. Though Ahmedinejad himself is not considered as a religious hardliner, he has shown already in June that he is neither interested in turning back from Khomeni’s Islamic Revolution of the late 70’s nor to open up the country after decades of political and economical isolation.

The Koran defines most day-by-day  tasks in a very precise and literal way. Recently, many pragmatic Muslims discussed about the relevance of some of the sura that deal with clothing rules (f.e. sura 24) and the woman’s role in a more moderate and modern Islamic society. While Morocco for example has adapted certain laws related to women’s rights to European standards (free choice of husband, right of divorce), countries like Iran have shortened women’s rights categorically due to Khomeni’s Islamic Revolution.

Societies are changing and it is not surprising that we find threats like this in the Internet: ‘Am I allowed to be a Muslim model?’ Statements of this kind just show us how similar people in the whole world are – regardless of religions and origins. They give us an idea about childhood dreams, of being beautiful, admired and wealthy. On the other hand they show us the ethical conflicts of a whole generation that has grown up between Islamic traditions and Facebook, Hijab and Louis Vuitton, Koran and Video Conference with cousins in London, Paris, New York, Amsterdam or Madrid.

Superstars like Iman or Yasmeen Ghauri have proven that Muslim religion and a profession as a model are not contradictorily. Both Muslim fashion icons have explained in several interviews how their families reacted on the decision to become a model. Yasmeen even explains, how her father’s reputation was harmed by her professional career. Her father, Moin Ghauri is a Pakistani imam based in Quebec.

In 2005, this headline could be seen in the newspapers: ‘First Muslim Miss England crowned’. Hammasa Kohistani fled the Taleban regime and became the first Muslim to represent England in the Miss World beauty contest in China and while uncle Osama accused the western world for its corrupt moral, his niece Wafah Dufour attempted to capitalize on her family name as the sexy-dressed title girl of the GQ Magazine in 2006.

Muslim models really exist – despite of Sharia Laws, family traditions or just despite of our own prejudices against the Arabic world. Some of them are occasional models, some are top models. Some consider themselves Islamic models (which means to wear Koran-conforming clothes), others pose in semi-transparent lingerie.

Our intention is not to judge about occurrences in the Islamic world and we don’t want to chip in on issues that are not ours. There are many experts who regard Islamic extremism as a direct response to decades of foreign intrusion.

We think that all religions shall compete for the good and that the vast majority of all religious people are rooted in inner attitudes like love and compassion and the belief that God wants us to release our full potential and creativity to create a world of peace and happiness.
The example of belly dancer ‘Little Egypt’ shows us how different our own Western society was a century ago. We should not forget how women had to fight for their rights in the industrialized countries during the past decades and we have to ask ourselves if our way of living is as progressive as we might think. The role of women in the Islamic society is also changing and Muslim women rightly engage themselves for their rights and their dignity like in most other societies. Let’s hope that more gorgeous and charismatic women like Iman Abdulmajid, Yasmeen Ghauri, Waris Dirie or Hammasa Kohistani become the Amazons or the ambassadors of a peaceful movement for the empowerment of women in the Muslim world.