hi so when we’re talking about and when
you hear the media talking about Islam
terrorism violence usually you they use
the word fundamentalism or
fundamentalist Islam now the interesting
thing about the definition of
fundamentalism is that it’s strict
adherence to any set of basic ideas or
principles so what the media is actually
saying is that the basic idea of the
religion of Islam promotes terrorism
violence is oppressive it’s primitive
and that is the idea that the media is
trying to portray but I am trying to
debunk that idea and tell you that
fundamentalism is that fundamental
system is actually the opposite and the
definitions that the media is trying to
portray are actually contemporary
definitions based on cultures and
individuals twisting what they’ve what
being deemed necessary for them for
their own benefit so when we go back in
time when Islam was first introduced
what we what I call fundamentalist Islam
it was introduced at a time when there
was high ignorant
it was literally called the days of
Julia in Arabic which means ignorance it
was because no respect was given to
women and this was this is what brings
me to feminism so last month was Women’s
History Month um I’m sure as most of you
know and feminism was in wasn’t a belief
that came up quite often in conversation
and Islam is rarely ever associated with
that word so again in the seventh
century this is about 600 CE II that’s
exactly how it was there was Norris
like for a woman whatsoever in fact when
daughters were born they were buried
alive because they were thought to bring
shame to families sons were the ones
that were given honor
etc so it was very hard time for women
to survive in that society so Islam was
revealed and this was in Makkah so which
is now in part in Saudi Arabia and all
of a sudden excuse me all of a sudden
the they completely changed the idea of
what women are supposed to be so let’s
start with a few examples woman like I
said were buried alive they had no say
in anything whatsoever maybe political
maybe employment education but all of a
sudden Islam allowed women to vote to
partake in political activities and be
important parts of society and this was
600 seee
right when did when did the US do that
we did this in the 1920s right so we
were about thirteen centuries late now
if I were to go to another example
ownership of property in Europe as some
of you might know if you were to own
property you had to transfer it to your
husband once you got married and then a
bill was passed in the 1870s to let
women keep ownership of that property
Islam doesn’t have anything of that sort
you can keep as much investments or
property that a woman might own and she
has no responsibility to transfer it to
her husband when she gets married and
again that was in 603 E and we did this
in the 1870s so for this we were about
12 centuries late let’s go to income now
income is also related to your property
your investment because there were equal
employment and education opportunities
for women now women were earning money
and now what Islam says about women
is that if you if a woman is to earn she
does not have the duty to invest a
single cent in her local household so
she can do whatever she wants with it
she can keep it for she can save it for
something she could spend it on whatever
she wills but her husband or her parents
or her children do not have the right to
tell her no since you’re earning you
should be the breadwinner of the family
in fact the man is supposed to be
responsible to do that now some people
may argue okay so all of a sudden now
we’re giving men more a woman more
rights in a sense what we’re doing here
was it was kind of like affirmative
action its previously women were
oppressed and so it’s town comes along
and goes like you know what we’re gonna
give some certain rights more certain
rights to women and and you know value
it out with men in some other situations
so if you were to actually do a
cost-benefit analysis of the benefits
and costs of being a woman or a man in
Islam you actually found that we were
very equal and so this is literally what
a jar would look like because of the
lack of income invest but like income
expenditure in the house by the woman
her jaw would probably be much more
filled with coins than you know the man
would another point that I’d like to
come to is motherhood this is my mom
this is me as a baby I was a bald maybe
really dress you know how he was so in
motherhood once a woman gives birth to a
child or adults a kid automatically her
status in Islam is elevated to extreme
degrees one of the examples is that
Prophet Muhammad he was the one who
brought Islam to the society and a man
approached him and asked him who in
society respect deserves my respect and
kindness and so the Prophet replied your
mother and then he said who next and
prophet replied your mother and then the
man asked who next and the Prophet again
replied your mother and then the man
asked one last time okay who next and
then the Prophet replied your father
so this doesn’t mean that you don’t
respect your father at all of course
what it means is that your mother
actually deserves three times more
respect than your dad does but just
because she had to bear with you for
nine months and the physical pain that
she had to go through and the sacrifices
that she had to make and also the
Prophet says that once you’re a mother
paradise lies under your feet so with
these examples I just like to say that
my I might have proven to you that Mia’s
may be that Islam is a feminist religion
or I might not have but if someone were
to come to me and tell me oh so are you
a feminist I probably just be like no
I’m just a Muslim because I don’t need
to be a feminist now if I were to give
you more examples of famous women in
Islamic history maybe you’d be convinced
so this is no say Babinski balance aria
she was actually there at the time of
the Prophet she took part in the battle
with along with the Prophet something
that people will be surprised at because
now we’re not considered woman aren’t
like most Islamic countries do not take
part in fighting but she did and she was
actually one of the key people to
protect the Prophet when an enemy was
attacking and she got injured in the
process and she wakes up the next day
and she’s the one concern that she had
was is the Prophet okay is he alive
that’s what her biggest concern was this
is actually a depiction of her in a
recent movie actually a series on a
Middle Eastern channel called MPC it’s
not and it’s not NBC it’s MBC and it’s
called the series is called Omer so if
you would like to check it out another
example I like to give you is of Fatima
alpha here she was a moroccan princess
and she was the first person to open up
a formal university that gave out
degrees so the fact that we’re all
sitting here at UTA the fact that we’re
having this TED talk and were gaining
degrees or our teaching degrees
is because of her and this was the ninth
century so this is not the 1800s the
1700s this is 800 C II so this is just
eight hundred years after Christianity
came along
another example na now SMO she was much
recent she was in the 19th century so
this is 1800s
she was also from the royal family and
she was responsible in her society to
gather women and empower them towards
education so these are just a few
examples of women doing spectacular
things of a Muslim woman doing
spectacular things so the contemporary
fundamentalist definitions of women not
being important parts of society in
Islamic Islamic societies is actually
it’s actually very wrong so if you were
to go back to fundamentalist teachings
refer to go back to the basic principles
of Islam feminism was very much
prevalent and if I request you after
this talk if you have been convinced if
someone comes up to you and says oh no
Islam as oppressive as primitive it’s
not made for contemporary times and it’s
definitely not feminist you just be like
bro Islam was a hipster in feminism
thank you
you hear the media talking about Islam
terrorism violence usually you they use
the word fundamentalism or
fundamentalist Islam now the interesting
thing about the definition of
fundamentalism is that it’s strict
adherence to any set of basic ideas or
principles so what the media is actually
saying is that the basic idea of the
religion of Islam promotes terrorism
violence is oppressive it’s primitive
and that is the idea that the media is
trying to portray but I am trying to
debunk that idea and tell you that
fundamentalism is that fundamental
system is actually the opposite and the
definitions that the media is trying to
portray are actually contemporary
definitions based on cultures and
individuals twisting what they’ve what
being deemed necessary for them for
their own benefit so when we go back in
time when Islam was first introduced
what we what I call fundamentalist Islam
it was introduced at a time when there
was high ignorant
it was literally called the days of
Julia in Arabic which means ignorance it
was because no respect was given to
women and this was this is what brings
me to feminism so last month was Women’s
History Month um I’m sure as most of you
know and feminism was in wasn’t a belief
that came up quite often in conversation
and Islam is rarely ever associated with
that word so again in the seventh
century this is about 600 CE II that’s
exactly how it was there was Norris
like for a woman whatsoever in fact when
daughters were born they were buried
alive because they were thought to bring
shame to families sons were the ones
that were given honor
etc so it was very hard time for women
to survive in that society so Islam was
revealed and this was in Makkah so which
is now in part in Saudi Arabia and all
of a sudden excuse me all of a sudden
the they completely changed the idea of
what women are supposed to be so let’s
start with a few examples woman like I
said were buried alive they had no say
in anything whatsoever maybe political
maybe employment education but all of a
sudden Islam allowed women to vote to
partake in political activities and be
important parts of society and this was
600 seee
right when did when did the US do that
we did this in the 1920s right so we
were about thirteen centuries late now
if I were to go to another example
ownership of property in Europe as some
of you might know if you were to own
property you had to transfer it to your
husband once you got married and then a
bill was passed in the 1870s to let
women keep ownership of that property
Islam doesn’t have anything of that sort
you can keep as much investments or
property that a woman might own and she
has no responsibility to transfer it to
her husband when she gets married and
again that was in 603 E and we did this
in the 1870s so for this we were about
12 centuries late let’s go to income now
income is also related to your property
your investment because there were equal
employment and education opportunities
for women now women were earning money
and now what Islam says about women
is that if you if a woman is to earn she
does not have the duty to invest a
single cent in her local household so
she can do whatever she wants with it
she can keep it for she can save it for
something she could spend it on whatever
she wills but her husband or her parents
or her children do not have the right to
tell her no since you’re earning you
should be the breadwinner of the family
in fact the man is supposed to be
responsible to do that now some people
may argue okay so all of a sudden now
we’re giving men more a woman more
rights in a sense what we’re doing here
was it was kind of like affirmative
action its previously women were
oppressed and so it’s town comes along
and goes like you know what we’re gonna
give some certain rights more certain
rights to women and and you know value
it out with men in some other situations
so if you were to actually do a
cost-benefit analysis of the benefits
and costs of being a woman or a man in
Islam you actually found that we were
very equal and so this is literally what
a jar would look like because of the
lack of income invest but like income
expenditure in the house by the woman
her jaw would probably be much more
filled with coins than you know the man
would another point that I’d like to
come to is motherhood this is my mom
this is me as a baby I was a bald maybe
really dress you know how he was so in
motherhood once a woman gives birth to a
child or adults a kid automatically her
status in Islam is elevated to extreme
degrees one of the examples is that
Prophet Muhammad he was the one who
brought Islam to the society and a man
approached him and asked him who in
society respect deserves my respect and
kindness and so the Prophet replied your
mother and then he said who next and
prophet replied your mother and then the
man asked who next and the Prophet again
replied your mother and then the man
asked one last time okay who next and
then the Prophet replied your father
so this doesn’t mean that you don’t
respect your father at all of course
what it means is that your mother
actually deserves three times more
respect than your dad does but just
because she had to bear with you for
nine months and the physical pain that
she had to go through and the sacrifices
that she had to make and also the
Prophet says that once you’re a mother
paradise lies under your feet so with
these examples I just like to say that
my I might have proven to you that Mia’s
may be that Islam is a feminist religion
or I might not have but if someone were
to come to me and tell me oh so are you
a feminist I probably just be like no
I’m just a Muslim because I don’t need
to be a feminist now if I were to give
you more examples of famous women in
Islamic history maybe you’d be convinced
so this is no say Babinski balance aria
she was actually there at the time of
the Prophet she took part in the battle
with along with the Prophet something
that people will be surprised at because
now we’re not considered woman aren’t
like most Islamic countries do not take
part in fighting but she did and she was
actually one of the key people to
protect the Prophet when an enemy was
attacking and she got injured in the
process and she wakes up the next day
and she’s the one concern that she had
was is the Prophet okay is he alive
that’s what her biggest concern was this
is actually a depiction of her in a
recent movie actually a series on a
Middle Eastern channel called MPC it’s
not and it’s not NBC it’s MBC and it’s
called the series is called Omer so if
you would like to check it out another
example I like to give you is of Fatima
alpha here she was a moroccan princess
and she was the first person to open up
a formal university that gave out
degrees so the fact that we’re all
sitting here at UTA the fact that we’re
having this TED talk and were gaining
degrees or our teaching degrees
is because of her and this was the ninth
century so this is not the 1800s the
1700s this is 800 C II so this is just
eight hundred years after Christianity
came along
another example na now SMO she was much
recent she was in the 19th century so
this is 1800s
she was also from the royal family and
she was responsible in her society to
gather women and empower them towards
education so these are just a few
examples of women doing spectacular
things of a Muslim woman doing
spectacular things so the contemporary
fundamentalist definitions of women not
being important parts of society in
Islamic Islamic societies is actually
it’s actually very wrong so if you were
to go back to fundamentalist teachings
refer to go back to the basic principles
of Islam feminism was very much
prevalent and if I request you after
this talk if you have been convinced if
someone comes up to you and says oh no
Islam as oppressive as primitive it’s
not made for contemporary times and it’s
definitely not feminist you just be like
bro Islam was a hipster in feminism
thank you
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