Gennaro Brooks-Church

Shazia
Pakistani Muslim

For me God, he or she, whatever it is, is out of this world. He is the real power. He or she cannot be human, and we don’t even think in terms of gender. I have not even asked myself “Who is God,” because we just believe that there is a God. He created this world, this universe.

I belong to a religion that believes this. I belong to Islam. I am by birth a Muslim, living in the Islamic Republic of Pakistan. For me it is different to be by birth a Muslim than to be by choice a Muslim, because if you are a Muslim by birth then you have no choice, you can’t change your birth.

At the same time this is an opportunity. You have the chance to learn the real essence of the religion you were born into. You can learn what the beliefs are that you inherited from your family. You have both an opportunity and at the same time you have no choice.

A person who is by choice a Muslim, he can choose, but for us we inherited the tradition, the values, the religion- everything, so for us learning more about the religion we were given is our evolution. That is how we grow personally.

For me, religion has some basic principles. You believe in God, firstly. Then you should be a good Muslim, you should follow the basic rules of what is correct and what is not. But I am not like some of my fellow Muslims.

I have never tried, and I don’t want to try, extreme things, because that makes your life difficult. This is where tradition and culture comes into religion. For example, I live in Pakistan and it is very different from here. What tribe I belong to, our cultural rules, our decision making procedures, it is all different.

All these cultural structures exist because of religion. People use religion to justify our culture, and this can get very extreme. For example, I know that in the Islamic teachings it says that women do deserve basic rights, but in many Muslim cultures women are not allowed these rights. People justify the lack of human rights by interpreting Islam to serve their own purposes.

And it is very difficult, even dangerous, to talk about these interpretations in a questioning way. For this reason, it can be very difficult to be in that culture and justify yourself as being a true and good Muslim. You feel that real Islam would not allow these human rights abuses towards women, but you cannot say that. For me, this is hard.

There are many things that I can not do openly, even when I speak to you now, not because the teachings of Islam forbid it, but because my culture forbids it. There are some things that nobody would allow me to do, nor would they ever forgive me if I did them, so I have to be very careful about that, even careful about mentioning them. This is the same for so many Muslims. For all of us, what cultural rules we must follow is not so much a question of Islam, but a question of what group we belong to, and how Islam is interpreted there.

In my human rights work, I must follow the basic principle for any intervention effort that tries to change things: I can not intervene from outside. I will not be effective in bringing any change or outside views if I am not working from within. Working form within, I must try to scratch out what support I can get from those who are already part of the culture, be it a village or country.

In Islam there are certain things that allow room for discussion, for change. There are ways I can talk about women rights in a religious context. Their marriage rights, their rights to dissolution of marriage, their rights to child custody, their property rights and inheritance rights: all these things are being misused in the name of religion by customary practices. What my work consists of is getting the more liberal religious viewpoints and interpretation of Islam, through interpretations of the Koran and by looking at other more liberal Muslim countries.

By these efforts we create a space to discuss the issues we think need to be changed. This is the only way to work. You can not confront the existing culture. You need to work with it, moving very gradually. It is risky also, because you need to maintain support from your family and the community at large.

For me, religion is very important, for your beliefs, for your conduct, for your life in general. The ideal situation is where people can live independently, according to their own views and religious beliefs, without any kind of threats in the name of religion from other human beings. In Pakistan, where 85% of the population is Muslim, there are so many different sects and beliefs that one gets confused by what is the true Islam.

Even amongst Muslims, who all agree on the basic principles, there is fighting due to differences of beliefs and interpretations. They are so extreme. They can kill just on minor differences. It’s happening right now actually. Just some days back, twelve or thirteen people, including kids, were killed in a mosque by another Muslim group. Just because of minor differences.

But we can have differences and still get along. For example, one of my colleagues in my advocate work is also Muslim. She and I have a difference in belief over whether to wear a scarf on our head or not. I wear a scarf. I justify it because even though it is a religion thing, I feel it is also a tribal thing specific to my tribe. For my tribe it is a question of pride. The women in my tribe wear scarves as a way of showing respect.

It is not really religious, because in Islam it is not clear weather women should wear it. Some extreme countries, like Sudan or Saudi Arabia, think you should cover your face also, but in Pakistan and Turkey it is not so important. So, it’s not really religion specific, it’s more cultural. Despite my differences from my colleague, we still get along. So many can’t. Woman have been killed for not wearing a scarf. They are so extreme, it is unbearable. That is why I never want to talk about religion.

Another good example of extremism is the situation concerning the Muslim religious sect called Ahmady. They don’t believe in our last prophet, they have their own prophet. But they believe in God, and they used to say they were Muslims. Yet, the Pakistani authorities declared them non-Muslim in the 1970’s because of their views.

They justified this decision solely because they felt the Ahmady was denying the true prophet. The punishment is death. So today, all Ahmady can be killed on the street by any common man. I’m very concerned about this. I’m a believer, I’m a Muslim, but I also believe that even Ahmady’s have a right to live on this earth, being human beings. This affects me even here in New York. A few days ago, at Columbia University, I was preparing a presentation about my country, and the outline was on the web. Before the talk, an Ahmady who lived in New York called me. He said, “Your topic is “Civil society in Pakistan.

Well, I am a member of that civil society, yet I have been here in New York as a refugee for twenty years. If I go back I will be killed immediately.” He asked me if I could talk about the Ahmady, and I was speechless. I do want to talk about it, but I can’t because I live in an extreme religious area! As somebody who works for an Non-Governmental Agency, I am a public figure and I have to be very careful about what I say because it travels back to people at home. If I speak publicly about the Ahmady I will immediately get in trouble. If certain people were to decide that me and my organization were pro-Ahmady or that we were ourselves Ahmady, then we would certainly be in danger of death.

These issues, though, I cannot avoid, being a Muslim by birth. But I am not an extremist. I practice the basic principles, like Ramadan and some prayers. Everyone is concerned about how you do your prayers, what you say, sometimes to the point of being ridiculous. The ones who are not concerned about the people, they only put importance in how you interact with God- the prayers, the holy Koran, the recitations, the Ramadan.

For them, and for most people in general actually, the criteria for being a good Muslim is somebody who is very religious, who prays five times a day, who practices Ramadan perfectly, who reads the Koran, and so on. But for me, these are things that concern only me and my God, and I’ll be answerable to him on the day of judgment. For me, the criteria for being a good Muslim is all about relationships, human relationships.

This is one thing I’m very clear about. I also know for sure that the question of human relation cannot be forgiven, even by god. It is the human to human relationship that is important. I feel the real Islam stresses this, but so many people do not.

I do not think Islamic rules are what need to be changed, because the rules in Islam are so beautiful when you look at them in depth. If you just follow the rules laid out for human interaction in Islam, then it is really very simple. They are basic human things, such as being kind and respectful to others. And that is what I do. I am not alone either.

Other women in my field feel the same. I am very clear about this aspect of Islam, and this is what will help us in bringing change. My basic principle is to trust in God, but to love people, because this is the teaching of Islam. That is how I lead my life, and I feel I am following Islam, the real Islam which to my interpretation is good.

Islam is not alone here. Every religion of the world is beautiful. I’ve learned a bit about Buddhism and Catholicism, and all the basic principles are the same. None say that it is O.K. to beat or harm others, or that you should not give rights to your children or women. It is just a matter of how the religion is interpreted by certain groups. That is what really affects its outcome in the world.

One way for progress, I think, is to put importance in mass education of Islam, and not to keep Islamic interpretation to a small group. Islam is so simple that everyone can understand it. The holy book, Koran, is not just for reciting, it has translations that need to be understood by everyone. Understanding is limited right now due to lack of education.

I feel that the general masses, through education, could interpret the true meaning of Islam for themselves, and no longer be dependent on the interpretations of a select few.