Give Voice to the centuries' old Silence of Muslim Women
Address by Zohra Hussaini at the 1995 National Conference Of The Canadian Council Of Muslim Women.

Looking back at the day's deliberations, what I see is a challenge before us. . . for all Muslim women, in fact for all women. The challenge is embodied in the Conference theme of "Equality of Women" (and today women have spoken of their concerns and frustrations) and I reckon that Canadian Muslim women are singularly well equipped to take up this challenge. This Conference marks but one step in meeting the challenge.

The challenge is to give voice to the centuries' old silence of women, particularly Muslim women; a challenge to create our own history. We need to tell our own story in our own words, to look at the world and at our religion through our own eyes and through our understandings and insights and our research.

Now that is hard to do, because we do not even have a language to express our experiences and our understanding of the world and our religion. We have to create a language . . . a language richer and deeper than the language of control, oppression and exploitation. It must be a language which can express what is of significance in the experience of Muslim women and to see that our insights and understandings of the world is legitimized as significant.

We face a challenge to help create a world where we have power, without replicating the existing world of power of oppression and violence, but power to restore dignity and equality to all women. We need power to wipe away the misery from every face on this earth through care and nurture, through compassion and cultivation in a world of global peace, equality and justice.

In doing so, what is it that we will be doing? We shall only be restarting and continuing a task undertaken by the Prophet of Islam 1400 years ago for women and men. We know that he fought for equality and dignity and justice for all humanity. What we don't remember is that by declaring all human beings as equal he struck at the heart of the patriarchal system which had inferiorized women.

But unfortunately, the patriarchal hold was too strong to be severed irrevocably, and so soon after the Prophet's death women started losing whatever rights they had gained at the beginning of Islam, during the lifetime of the Prophet. Most of us have forgotten or probably never knew or were never told what the Prophet intended for us women. But it is possible to educate ourselves about this and I claim that it is up to us to continue where he left off.

We can do it! We can do it because now at the end of the 20th century, we are poised at a unique moment in history the likes of which never existed before. We Canadian Muslim women are the proud heirs of the finest traditions and values of world civilization. We inherit the Islamic tradition of justice, equality, compassion and mercy as the true message of Islam. We carry the traditions of our diverse cultures of peace, freedom from violence, of spirituality, of fortitude and through our education and participation we also inherit the values of Enlightenment. The democratic principles of respect for the individual, intellectual and political freedom, scientific temper and adherence to truth are also our legacy as Canadians.

Who, I ask you, has such a wealth of resources to dream, to have a vision and to make changes? I claim that it is us, particularly the young women, privileged with these resources who can take up this challenge. We can do it! Let us do it!

Thank you.

Source: http://www.cs.queensu.ca/home/fevens/CCMW/CCMW_S96_0.html