To Hide or To Expose?
In TIME magazine (Thursday, Nov. 08, 2007) a perceptive article called “Indecent Exposure” by writer Carla Power caused worldwide discussion. It touched on two of the basic differences faced by people living with Western and Islamic cultures and of the causes of tension between them.
She wrote: “Reams have been written on the differences between Islamic and Western societies, but for sheer pithiness, it’s hard to beat a quip by my former colleague, a Pakistani scholar of Islamic studies. I’d strolled into his office one day to find him on the floor, at prayer. I left, shutting his door, mortified. Later he cheerfully batted my apologies away. “That’s the big difference between us,” he said with a shrug. “You Westerners make love in public and pray in private. We Muslims do exactly the reverse”. Carla Power then asked: “At the nub of debates over Muslim integration in the West lies the question, What’s decent to do in public—display your sexuality or your faith?”.
In our Western society we frequently criticise billboards, advertising, television shows and the like for their explicit sexuality. Sex is used to sell everything. At the same time many get overheated with schoolgirls wearing the hijab in public schools and government offices.
Many Muslims feel just the opposite. Westerners believe that prayer is something best done in private. Many criticize Muslim kneeling for prayer at the appointed hour in factories or beside their work desks, saying that prayer should be done in private, as Jesus taught in Matthew 5 and not done for display in public places. The comment “You Westerners make love in public and pray in private. We Muslims do exactly the reverse” is a correct criticism on what does happen in many Christian societies. Most Christians are apologetic about what has become acceptable by most in our societies. We Christians wish that many would be more open about their faith and unashamed to pray in public a well as in private. We also believe that sexuality is best for the privacy of the home.
In the Islamic world, religion is out of the closet: on the streets, chanted five times daily from minarets, enshrined in constitutions, party platforms and penal codes. Sexual matters are kept discreet. But that doesn’t mean that sexual violence does not occur behind closed doors in Muslim homes. More than twenty years ago I engaged Arabic speaking women to work with abused women and girls in Sydney Australia, supporting them with compassion and understanding, and I appealed to the Islamic Council to use their mosques to sternly tell men how they ought to behave in Australia when they become angry with their wives and daughters in the privacy of their home.
While thousands of courageous Muslims regularly speak out on taboo subjects, the reception is often not so warm. Five years ago, Mukhtar Mai, a Pakistani gang-rape victim, defied tribal custom by taking her rapists to court. In the West, she won plaudits and prizes, but in Pakistan, her legal struggle against her accused rapists continues, and she has been widely denounced as having shamed her country abroad.
It is a rough but a true difference: Western society exposes to the public gaze what many believe should be held private, and praise those who report incidents of abuse. Islamic society hides its sexuality and abuse for the sake of honour of the family although at the cost of the individual.
When these two different approaches to culture clash, many are hurt. This is where we can learn something valuable from each other, when we share our cultural values in conversation and dialogue.
REV THE HON. DR GORDON MOYES, A.C., M.L.C.
