Why Steal this Hijab?

Audio: Why Steal this Hijab?

Salam:

Juma Guhl, Chahari Qanbar Camp, December 2010. Kabul, Afghanistan

The tulmultuous period of the 1960’s and 1970’s gave rise to many socially critical experiments. Amongst some of the era’s most well known figures was Abbie Hoffman whose legendary culture-jamming typified the era’s para-political turmoil and counter-culture. [1] In 1971 Abbie Hoffman published his most well-known piece of writing, Steal This Book, which advocates tangible ways of  living independent from the capitalist system; resourcing food and other necessary items for free, starting a community radio station, and preparing a legal defense. Hoffman composed the ideas and introductory chapter of his book from his Cook County jail cell explaining, “It’s perhaps fitting that I write this introduction in jail- that graduate school of survival. Here you learn how to use toothpaste as glue, fashion a shiv out of a spoon and build intricate communication networks. Here too, you learn the only rehabilitation possible-hatred of oppression.”

Hoffman learned much from the individuals, communities, collectives, social movements and organizations of his era that were actively dissenting from the rules, obligations, and structures that normalized brutality and made violence the “reality” for so many. What was intellectually interesting regarding Hoffman’s approach was his use of satire as a way of critically examining those structures, like the US military-industrial complex, that appeared (performed) as if they held the monopoly of power when it came to questions of security. In one example, Hoffman along with members of the National Mobilization Committee to End the War in Vietnam (“the Mobe”) organized a protest at the Pentagon where 50,000 demonstrators formed a circle around the building and in prayer, song and chanting attempted to exorcize it of the evil spirits of war.[3]

The “critical refusals” of Hoffman’s time have seeded new forms of social activism. In many instances we have learned much from the work and mistakes[4] of our collective h(er)stories, and acknowledge we have far to go. Steal this Hijab.com is an evolving idea-experiment and affirmation of emancipatory models of communication and organizing. Steal this Hijab.com, inspired by the forms of eminant criticism from Abbie Hoffman to Audre Lorde and Shirin Neshat, affirms Herbet Marcuse’s wisdom that “the great refusal takes many forms.”[5]

We will include the work of activists, students, scholars, social critics and other such groups who are bravely stealing away the “reality” that we must consent to a world of oppression and violence.Our form is to take account of the dissenting voices of advocates for gender emancipation in the “Muslim world”. We will consider the work of Sabra Mahmoud, Ziba Mir Hosseini, Fatima Mernissi, Fared Esack, Tariq Ramadan, Malalai Joya, Ali Shari’ati, Parvin Ardalan, Faroukh Farrokhzad, Badshah Khan, Ramazan Bashardost, Raha Iranian Feminist Collective, Radio Zamaneh, One Million Signatures Campaign, the Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan (RAWA), Voices for Creative Nonviolence, War Resisters League,  and others – all living realities of an alternative world we continue to build.

Steal this Hijab.com invites ideas on its themes. We work to bring content about organizing efforts, culture and politics of the Muslim world that have bearing on the social performance of gender and sexuality. Recognizing that the Muslim world has much to contribute to the ongoing dialogues around gender and sexuality, we wish to do more than education.

We believe that the work of gender emancipatory social movements in the Muslim world contributes to a pedagogy of liberation. We affirm the ideas of social revolutionaries who have taught that whilst oppression based on gender and sexuality may be a historical fact, it is not necessarily our destiny. We at Steal this Hijab.com believe that we must engage in ongoing dialogue and action, scholarship and door-knocking if we are to dare to be powerful enough to change the world we live in.

Steal this Hijab.com is a way to make tangible these thought-experiments, and to communicate with others the critical ideas, art and organizing which make another world possible.

We welcome your critique, comment, ideas and work in solidarity with these efforts.

Salamati,

Farah Mokhtareizadeh

Editor, StealthisHijab.com

Special Note: Most of the content on StealthisHijab comes from a variety of websites, most especially from the work of independent and grassroots journalists and activists. Thus, permission to use articles, photos or other content should be sought by visiting the links to original publication sites. Any additional queries please email us: StealthisHijab[at]gmail.com. Thank you.