APOSTASY, SHUNNING AND SURVIVAL

FiLiA joined the Council of Ex-Muslims of Britain and Født Fri for an evening of film, discussion and poetry to mark International Women's Day.

The evening started with a showing of “No Longer Without You”, ‘a searing conversation about parenthood, tradition, religion, sex, and independence between a free-spirited daughter, Nazmiye Oral and her traditional Muslim mother, Havva in the intimate circle of a living room in front of their family following several public performances.’ A complex film, demonstrating that fragmented families are not a necessary outcome of even strong differences in faith.

We got the chance to ask questions of Nazmiye Oral and then heard from a panel of speakers on their journeys to coming out as non-believers. How guilt and shame operate to prevent Women from making autonomous choices; the concept of sacrifice for Female members of conservative households and how this leads to many Women deciding to ‘give up themselves’.

• Fay Rahman - British-Bangladeshi ex-Muslim atheist Youtuber spoke of ‘the choice of keeping your family or being yourself. I wanted both.’

• Khadija Khan - Pakistani journalist and commentator questioned why some Feminists are fighting for regressive politics.
  You can hear Khadija’s FiLiA podcasts with Sadia Hameed here: Part 1 and Part 2

• Maryam Namazie organised and chaired the meeting. Maryam is an Iranian-born writer and activist. She is the Spokesperson of One Law for All and the Council of Ex-Muslims of Britain and hosts a weekly TV programme broadcast in called Bread and Roses. She has also spoken at FiLiA a number of times and her FiLiA podcast can be heard here.

• Nahla Mahmoud is an environment and human rights activist originally from Sudan and co-hosted the meeting

• Saff Khalique is a British Pakistani ex-Muslim student and activist. Saff writes a blog called The Amber Journals which focuses on women's rights, politics and religion. She is also co-founder of The Sinning Skeptics podcasts

• Savin Bapir-Tardy is an expert in providing psychological therapy to women who have experienced “honour” based violence, forced marriage, domestic violence and female genital mutilation. She spoke about the power of shaming and isolation, and shunning as a form of torture with long term consequences

• Shabana Rehman is Director of Født Fri (Born Free) Foundation and a comedienne in Norway. Her family restaurant was shot at because her family was considered to have insufficiently salvaged her honour.

I remember when Maryam spoke at FiLiA and said that it was the first time she had been invited to speak at a mainstream (!) Feminist conference. I was stunned. Freedom of belief and freedom to not believe - this is a Feminist issue. FiLiA stands in solidarity with our apostate Sisters.

Please keep checking the CEMB website for the film of the event - it’s worth a watch.

By LM

WOMEN, SUFFRAGE AND POLITICS (A suffragette in America)

On IWD 2020 I attended a talk at the Salford Working Class Movement Library . The talk was given by Katherine Connelly, writer, historian and expert on Sylvia Pankhurst. “This book is a collection of Sylvia Pankhurst's writing on her visits to North America in 1911-12. Unlike the standard suffragette tours which focused on courting progressive members of America's social elite for money, Pankhurst got her hands dirty, meeting striking laundry workers in New York, visiting female prisoners in Philadelphia and Chicago and grappling with horrific racism in Nashville, Tennessee.” It was fascinating listening to Kate talk about how she retraced the journey Sylvia took across America and the impact some of the horrific conditions she endured whilst in prison. The book is a collection of a manuscript Sylvia completed around 80% of intending to publish but never did. Kate Connelly brought the book and the Pankhursts to life in a way I knew little about. The original manuscript and many of Sylvia’s other documents including personal letters are now held at an institute in Amsterdam and can be viewed digitally.

WOMEN, SUFFRAGE AND POLITICS
The Papers of Sylvia Pankhurst, 1882-1960, from the
Internationaal Instituut voor Sociale Geschiedenis, Amsterdam

The working class movement library itself is a lovely gem of a place, fairly small but packed with information and friendly knowledgeable staff.

I would recommend a visit: https://www.wcml.org.uk

By MK