findingathirdway

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Reflection: The Third Way

This commonplace blog is a collection of ideas and powerful women who have informed my learning about feminism and religion/tradition. It was valuable to me to learn about a third way (not one, but any and all alternatives) outside of the dichotomy of religion and progressive thinking. I have always believed, like many, that the two are mutually exclusive. Using some examples from the class and some examples from my own research, this blog will explore many different ways of thinking about a third way.

First, I found myself incredibly influenced by Kavita Ramdas’ TEDtalk, Radical women, embracing tradition. I had experience thinking about faith in this way, mainly from other academic studies of religion, but never the traditions of a nation. For instance, Le Zbor, a lesbian folk choir, who sing traditional songs while advocating for the acceptance of LGBTQ+. This is a fantastic example of arts activism, similar to how Lin Manuel-Miranda’s Hamilton advocates for equity, diversity, and inclusion for BIPOC in theatre through a piece about American history. Both of these pieces look at a tradition that has excluded them in the past and make it their primary focus. In doing this, they expand the reach of their message to the people who need to hear it most- the older generations, who are the most likely to hold prejudices against LGBTQ+ people and BIPOC. Le Zbor talks about how they sing Christmas songs despite the fact that the Catholic church has strong beliefs against homosexuality, because they as a group are open to religious practices. Here, we see that it doesn’t need to be a choice between religion/tradition and progressiveness. Art is a living thing that can change with time, just like people.

She also spoke of Sakeena Yacoobi, who leaned into Muslim beliefs on the importance of literacy to further her mission of education for women and girls, a mission that has but her on the Taliban’s hit list. Cherry-picking from the same book has lead to women’s oppression (this is referring, of course, to the situations in which women do not have a choice in their religious expression, and men are enforcing sexist policies through religion and government), which makes her religious reasoning behind education that much more powerful. She serves as an incredibly important example of how a woman can choose to be Muslim, veil, and use all of these things to act in the name of women’s rights. In Ramdas’ talk, she recalls Yacoobi’s words, "This headscarf and these clothes give me the freedom to do what I need to do to speak to those whose support and assistance are critical for this work. When I had to open the school in the refugee camp, I went to see the imam. I told him, 'I'm a believer, and women and children in these terrible conditions need their faith to survive.'" This is a third way. Though it is more religious leaning than a lot of alternatives to the religion-feminism dichotomy, it is still a way of creating a space in which the two are not mutually exclusive. Through embracing the tradition of veiling, Yacoobi is getting into spaces she wouldn’t otherwise, and creating real change for women.

Leymah Gbowee, a Nobel Peace Prize winner, organized a group of women in Liberia (Women of Liberia Mass Action for Peace), embracing the traditions of both Christianity and Islam, to protest against the civil war and call for peace. She had them all wear white as a way of calling attention to themselves, because the tradition in Liberia is to wear bright, beautiful colors. She purposefully broke tradition to cause a stir. In her TEDtalk, Ramdas talks about how when a senior officer approached Gbowee, she started to remove her headscarf, which caused the officer to get embarrassed and leave. In Liberia, it’s a commonly held belief that if an older woman undresses in front of you by choice, then it leaves a curse on your family. She used that belief, and that tradition, to advance the issue at hand- peace in Liberia. Though the belief itself might be something sexist (why only if the woman chooses to undress?), the act of her leaning into it was empowering.

For another way of looking at religion, I did some research into feminist interpretations of the Bible, and found a book called “Postcolonial Feminist Interpretation of the Bible” by Musa Dube, a Botswanan feminist, theologian, and scholar. I was excited to see such a straight-forward and relevant title. I didn’t have the chance to read the book because there was no way I could order it and get it in time (who still uses Amazon, ew!), so I read some reviews and summaries of it. She critically assesses the stories of the Bible, not only re-interpreting the messages, but also noting when it’s characters act in ways that encourage colonialism or sexism. Through her work, she allows Christians to take a third way and believe their faith while also thinking critically about the things they learn. It creates a space for Christians in feminism and feminism in Christianity.

In the same vein of recontextualizing the messages of the Bible, I thought of Chinelo Okparanta’s Under the Udala Trees, in which her main character Ijeoma, a queer Nigerian girl to woman, does just that. Growing up with her religious mother, working as a house girl for a religious family, and then attending a religious school, she is constantly confronted with people using the bible as a way to demonize and dismiss homosexuality. From a young age, however, she thinks critically about the Bible and the messages it means to convey. Okparanta speaks herself, in the interview I included, about the importance of re-interpreting the text as time goes on and not blindly accepting the ideas that organized religion enforces. In many cases, the passages cherry-picked to condemn homosexuality in particular can very easily be interpreted to have other lessons. Through doing this, it creates a religious space in which ideas can be progressive and makes space for queer Christians.

All of this informs the idea that in order to gain rights for womxn in all spaces, there needs to be strong womxn fighting for rights in all spaces. While before I might have said “If a church doesn’t support me, I won’t support it by being a part,” these examples have made me see that sometimes being a part of an organization that might not support you while also bravely ushering in the ideas that you believe are right is the most meaningful way you can support an organization and create change. Thinking about this from the viewpoint of a queer woman, if I were to be a Christian (I’m not, but for the sake of elucidation), and I believed strongly that I should support a church that didn’t support me, then the best way to support it is by being a part and changing their tune. The strongest advocacy for the LGBTQ+ community, in that instance, would be bravely showing up as myself in that space. Just by occupying that space, one creates a third way, and begins to change the minds of others and make a difference.

Another aspect of the third way that should be examined is a philosophy encouraged by Elif Shafak, author of Three Daughters of Eve, which is the belief that faith can be reclaimed from religion. Oftentimes, there can be a disconnect between pre-established organized religion and someone who has faith in God. This happens with her main character, Peri, who finds she cannot relate to her mother’s Islam, nor her father’s secularism. She has an agnostic belief informed by mysticism in her life. Through this, she is allowed to understand the concept of a God and be open to it, while still maintaining her belief in science and education. She breaks the dichotomy between religious and secular education.

Shafak embraces the ambiguity of religion, and all of the complexities of it applied to different cultures and social contexts. There is no way that every person who says they are of a certain religious belief actually believes the same exact thing. Due to the complexity of human beings, religion, being a product of human beings, must mirror them in complexity and nuance. Following this logic, each person should have the opportunity to “choose their own adventure” in a sense and understand their faith in a personalized way. If we look at religion in this way, and a body of worship doesn’t share the same exact thoughts but only similar ones, then there is less of a chance of hate being a product of that.

In this commonplace book, I included a TEDtalk from Lesley Hazleton that I came across in an Introduction to Islam course in my first semester freshman year. It has always stuck with me because of the conclusion she draws that doubt is essential to any kind of faith. In order to have faith in something, one needs to make a conscious decision to believe it in spite of doubt. Too often, in religion, it can feel like either you have blind faith and you’re a good practitioner of said faith, or you have doubt and are a transgressor. Hazleton, agnostic herself, offers a third way out of this. Blind faith is easy. Real faith is choosing to believe something despite your doubt otherwise.

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Kavita Ramdas’s TEDtalk, Radical women, embracing tradition, is one of the first sources I will draw upon for this project. She talks about the power of embracing tradition to further feminist ideas- the two do not have to be mutually exclusive. This kind of feminism is often missed by westernized global feminists because it embraces the ideologies that western feminists have already written off as misogynistic. 

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In Kavita Ramdas’ TEDtalk, “Radical Women, Embracing Tradition,” she speaks of this group, Le Zbor. They are a lesbian choir out of Croatia, a country where, in Ramdas’ words, “hyper-nationalism and religiosity have created an environment unbearable for anyone who might be considered a social outcast.” They sing traditional music, which has become an interesting way to reach an older generation who may have conservative views on homosexuality. Le Zbor has put out Christmas music, despite the fact that the Catholic church had expressed strong anti-gay sentiments. Their mixture of the traditional and the modern, meeting at the intersection of art and activism, are why they fall into the category of a “third way.”

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This is Sakeena Yacoobi, founder of the Afghan Institute of Learning. Another one of the women mentioned in Kavita Ramdas’ TEDtalk, she embraced traditional Muslim beliefs and the Koran’s emphasis on literacy to convince religious leaders to let her teach women and girls, and also to teach classes to men about what the Koran says about women. This is a good example of finding a third way because she combined the traditional practice of Islam with the progressive idea of educating women. Her actions are a good example of Islamic feminism, where she is creating change and equity for women through the religion that westernized global feminism might argue is anti-feminist. 

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The third and final example from Kavita Ramdas’ TEDtalk, Nobel Peace Prize Winner Leymah Gbowee, united Muslim and Christian women alike for a nonviolent peace movement called Women of Liberia Mass Action for Peace. For the protests, the women wore all-white, which was a stark contrast to normally colorful Liberian dress. When she was confronted by a senior officer, as Ramdas recounts in her TEDtalk, she began to remove her headdress and he immediately left, ashamed, because the belief was that if an older woman willingly undressed in front of you, your family would be cursed. She used the traditions in place from Islam, Christianity, and Liberian culture to further the progressive feminist movement she was creating. Her work was a huge part of ending the civil war in Liberia. 

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Musa Dube is a Botswana feminist theologian and author of “Postcolonial Feminist Interpretation of the Bible,” among other things. She is an incredibly intelligent Bible scholar and professor of Theology. She supplies a new way of thinking and interpreting religious texts. This can be very valuable, because while some people may dismiss the feminism of an atheistic or agnostic academic, religious people might understand the ideas more when they’re seen through a lense they understand. It’s also important because if feminism can find its way into religion, then it can no longer be used as a tool against womxn and social outcasts. Since in many countries, religion is closely linked with politics, it can also lead to progressive ideas finding their way into government. In this video, she is talking about educating religious leaders who may go into communities affected by HIV/AIDS.

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Chinelo Okparanta, in her book “Under the Udala Trees,” explores the dynamic between homosexuality and religion in Nigeria. Her main character, Ijeoma, often combats the religious arguments being used against her by reinterpreting them. Often, her reinterpretations of the passages normally used to demonize homosexuality seem to make more sense than the homophobic interpretations! In this way, the Bible is treated like a living text, constantly criticized and reinterpreted to understand the real meanings of its allegories. This is a way of embracing traditional religion but framing it in a way where it can compliment progressive ideas like LGBTQ+ rights.

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This post illustrates the importance of finding a third way in regards to religion- through reforming the institution of religion to be more accepting of non-conforming folx and womxn, it opens up these spaces and no longer allows them to be breeding grounds for hate. For instance, the more queer people go to church, the more accepting it will be forced to be. Queerness would then be humanized in the eyes of all of the churchgoers, and religious policy would change. 

I chose this picture because it speaks to the conflict of religion and feminism that I spoke on in my discussion leader essay. Religion is something that many feminists stray away from because of its oppressive nature. I myself am agnostic because while I believe in something greater, I regect practiced religions common claim to know all and have no interest in playing apart of a system that uses faith as a vessle for hate. However, because religion is so often a structure for oppression and male domination it is SO important that feminist take it back and practice the way their “creator” wants rather than how men see as a way to control women.

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Too often, we see religion clash with homosexuality in a way that is harmful. This is a good account of why the third way is so important to find, whether it’s reclaiming faith from religion, like Elif Shafak believes in, or reframing religion in a feminist way like Musa Dube. Without alternatives outside of the dichotomy between tradition and modernity, womxn are alienated from the religious communities they grew up in or the progressive communities they’re a part of. The freedom to make your own path is an important aspect of feminism. 

This picture is from an article that I read about recently. It was published in 2019 and it talks about a girl named Mariam who is Muslim and gay. She said; "I always knew I was attracted to the same gender - as young as four or five, when I kissed my best friend in the cloakroom, I knew then”. She said that she did not have the courage to go out with other women until she went to college. And even then, she would not go out with women who lived in the same area as her, she would drive up to 2 hours to meet someone just so there is no chance of someone she knows seeing her out with a woman. Being part of the LGBTQ+ community is hard on its own, but its even harder to people of specific faiths like Islam. As a Muslim, I never wish any harm upon any person in this whole world no matter what. But unfortunately some people who are extremists will go to severe measures to “get rid” of the gays. This relates to our class because the topic of sexuality clashing with strict religions has come up multiple times. Its hard on the person going through it, but eventually people find support wherever they go.   

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The phrase “reclaiming faith from religion” is a powerful one here, and another way to think about spirituality in regards to feminism. In her book, Three Daughters of Eve, her main character, Peri, explores a third way of thinking. Her mother represents traditional Islam, her father represents secularism, and Peri never fully agrees with their beliefs or any of the characters beliefs for that matter. She falls into one of the many shades of agnosticism/mysticism, which is an important alternate option to note. 

I found a interview Elif Shafak did when Three Daughters of Eve was released. In conjunction with her TED talk, it gives a lot of insight into her thoughts, beliefs, writing, etc. It also further explains what was going on when one of her books was ‘on trial’. I think it’s really helpful to understand what an author is like when reading their books; Shafak is not only a feminist, but she celebrates all of the diverse walks of life–LGBT+ people, marginalized religious groups, etc. 

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In her TEDtalk, Lesley Hazleton talks about her experience writing a biography of Mohammed. In it, she expresses how doubt is essential to faith. Meaning, faith cannot exist if one is wholeheartedly convinced that their belief is the only way. There needs to be a touch of agnosticism to make a conscious decision to have faith. Through this, she concludes that blind faith is not faith at all. Why is this important to the third way? Agnosticism comes in varying degrees, all of them an alternative to the dichotomy of religion and secularism. If everyone had a touch of doubt, there wouldn’t be wars and harmful policies based in religion. Through giving power to this alternate option, a space is created where womxn can critically assess religious teachings and then potentially shape them to fit a more progressive future. 

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If we embrace the ambiguity of religion, then we free ourselves to create a path where we can keep the parts of spirituality that serve us, and leave behind the parts that may be homophobic, sexist, or problematic in any number of ways. By having the option to practice faith separate from religion, we are given the opportunity to have a personal spiritual journey- personal choice being one of the pillars of feminism. 

From the book, this was one quote that really stood out to me. I think that one of the main themes in “Three Daughters of Eve” is questioning religion. On a more obtuse view, a common theme throughout the class thus far has been the power and influence of religion. Highlighting the first portion of the quote, religion is quite ambiguous, leaving no one clear answer to questions regarding the matter. This is what makes religion so difficult to understand, especially in different social and cultural contexts. At the same time, its complexities and ability to be interpreted in numerous ways is what makes it so unique. Religion can be made to fit the individual and help form connections across individuals all over the world.