Disclaimer: I cannot understand what the cartoon above is saying
I have noticed a trend on Facebook of pages created and maintained by male religious teachers in the Malay-speaking communities of Singapore, Malaysia and Indonesia. CahayaIslam (“Light of Islam”) and Lukisan Dakwah Islam (“Islamic Drawings for Da’wah”) are two pages most intriguing to me for two reasons: because they create and share cartoons that are drawn in the style of manga, which is popularly associated with comic books cheaply available to children and youth; and because they circumvent the rule in many forms of orthodox Islam against representations of the human form in art….
Even though these cartoons are a new way of reaching out to Muslim youth, the messages they send are definitely not revolutionary, but instead, conventional and highly gendered. As Malay society evolves and absorbs norms and customs from other cultures (especially from the Middle East, as these are deemed superior), the common denominator seems to be conservatism and a rigid differentiation between women and men.
I find this worrying because of how easily these messages could be absorbed by today’s young Muslim women and men. They are living in secular, developing countries where women study, work, and appear in public alongside men and will probably to continue to do so for economic reasons. But in the name of religion, young women are receiving messages that limit their potentials, while young men are receiving messages that reinforce their privileges.
FINALLY SOMEONE ADDRESSES THIS. Being in the slightly more conservative half university has gotten my *other* facebook populated with these cartoons that constantly slap me with secondhand embarrassment.
I get to observe how these messages have propagated Muslim women to ‘submit’ to the male gaze. A lot of my friends have amazing potential that they could pursue in life, but sadly they’ve narrowed down their life goal to marriage. Everything else seems like a secondary compartment to what life has to offer. Those who are married (or even preferable to have an early marriage) get to be placed on a higher pedestal.
I would praise her for obtaining selected security, but the rest would praise for different reasons. They do not discuss her achievements, her ideals, or her ambitions that earned a man’s respect. In fact, they only convey what can be seen on the surface: how she takes care of her aurah, how soft-spoken she is, how she walks like a ‘wife’ should. Look at her successfully stripped all of her potential and adapted to the man’s fantasy. Unbeknownst to them, these idolised qualities are nothing but checklists for these men to restrict women and make it easier for the men to not to commit any ‘sin’ (lowering your gaze, anyone?).
The saddest thing is that these women refused to look beyond the picture: do these men respect their wives, or are they parading her ‘goodness’ like a trophy on the mantelpiece? Most (not all) men who abide to these cartoons have the recklessness to call a woman a prostitute just because she doesn’t don the hijab, feel belittled if she advances more than them in academics or career, and would feel ashamed if she breaks out from the qualities wagered by these cartoons. The women begin to hold themselves back, and dare not to raise their hand in contributing to the world. Every woman becomes quiet, and servitude has shifted to another mortal figure, not to Allah SWT.
Girls and women alike should wake up and stop receiving the blows of insults from the male gaze. An honest submission does not come by force, but by their own disposition. We are able to make our own steps, and we are not born into this world just to be tethered to another’s conditions. We are here just like what the male Muslims are sent here for, to show gratitude to Allah SWT by endorsing all our will and strength in making this life worthwhile. For a life is lived only by your own will.
Plus the manga knock-off style needs to stop.