As graduate student Nargas Oskui-Tabrizi peers beyond her hijab, a face with flawless complexion and gentle eyes is revealed.
But some Iranian-Americans choose to see something different, she said, just because she chooses to cover her head.
“I am from Iran … (some Iranian-Americans) think I’m a fanatic,” Oskui-Tabrizi said. “It’s sad that they think that.”
It’s one of the many stereotypes Oskui-Tabrizi said she faces, even though she was raised in the United States.
“They don’t know that I’m actually more open-minded than they are,” she added.
The Muslim Women Film Festival, beginning today, will address these and other stereotypes that Muslim women face here and elsewhere. The event features three films that portray various women in Islam, and each movie will be followed by a short informal discussion led by Muslim women from the University and community.
Graduate student Hasnah Toran, who helped coordinate the event, said she decided to make women the focus of the festival because of the gross misperceptions she’s observed about the status of Islamic women.
“There’s been a huge misunderstanding (because) of what the media portrays,” she said. Part of the problem, she said, is many people fail to recognize the vast diversity of Islam, a religion whose followers make up a fifth of the world’s population and span the globe. “There’s such a diversity in Islam that how do you define what it means to be a Muslim woman?” she said. “We come from all over the world and we are learning about each other’s cultures.”
Oskui-Tabrizi said the typical perception of the status of women in Islamic society is pervaded by negative stereotypes.
“Oppression, uneducated, not allowed to leave the house,” she said, summing up a few of the misconceptions she’s encountered.
Senior Jabor Al-Mohammadi of Qatar said many of the stereotypes emerge when people confuse culture with religion.
“For example, female circumcision is not required,” he said. “But some cultures have private beliefs of their own and they require it … Female circumcision is cultural.”
Oskui-Tabrizi said even within the small group of Muslim women on campus, there is no consensus about what it means to be a Muslim woman.
“We have our disagreements,” she said. “Some of the ladies wear hijab and some don’t.”
“There’s a number of students that don’t want to associate with the Muslim Student Association,” Toran said. They fear it will be like the “moral police,” she said.
But Toran added that the point of the group is to support each other, so no one makes judgments.
“In Islam … your status doesn’t depend on your background,” she said, “but depends on how strong you cling to the faith.”
Not everyone in the MSA agreed when a discussion arose about showing the controversial film “Osama.” The film is about a mother and her 12-year-old daughter living in Afghani-stan during the Taliban regime. The story follows the girl as she fights for the survival for both her mother and herself by disguising herself as a boy so that she can work, according to the film’s Web site.
Toran said that she hasn’t seen the film yet, fearing it will be too much to bear.
“I’ve had many opportunities to see this film, but I haven’t because it’s too painful,” she said. Some members of the MSA expressed discomfort with showing the film because it portrays Islam in such a negative light, Toran said.
“The MSA is trying to be sincere,” she said. “We just hope that the campus society can meet us halfway.”
Toran hopes the event will shed more light on the often misunderstood part of Islam. “I think it’s so easy to find the black and white of everything,” she said. “You have to work to understand things deeper.”
The film festival opens today with the showing of “Leila” from Iran. “Osama” will be shown on Thursday, May 5. Thursday, May 12, “Door to the Sky” from Morocco will be shown. All movies will begin at 6 p.m. in the International Resource Center. May 18 there will be an informal panel discussion with local Muslim women, also at 6 p.m. All events are free and open to the public.
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Films from far away
Daily Emerald
April 27, 2005
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