“People become the poem” – Interview with Syrian-American Poet Amal Kassir
“A lot of women will not respect what I am saying because I am covered, and that must mean I am a subjugated woman (a girl wrote a counter-poem in response to “For the Ladies”, and that is what she said).
Would you allow the label “feminist” apply to you?
Some Muslim women did not respect my poem because they felt like my performance was not modest.
Sounds like you’re caught in the middle.
Caught in the middle? I wouldn’t say so. My poem is a response to how many of the women in my society treat Muslim women as an inferior specimen of woman because they cover their bodies. I am not making a religious statement so much as I’m making a social statement. I am advocate of women’s rights. I do not support the patriarchal dictatorship of many Middle Eastern, Islamic countries that impose restrictions on women because of their gender, such as education and going out (important to recognize the difference between culture and religion), but I also don’t respect a patriarchal society that tells women being naked is being liberated while the male dominance in political offices goes on. Women’s rights don’t depend on what a woman is wearing — I do believe modestly is important, especially in such a sexualized society, but I am not going to discredit a woman who doesn’t wear hijab. The key is education. If women can learn their rights and how patriarchy is playing a role around them, they can mobilize as one unit and crack the foundation of the male-dominated society we live in.
In Saudi, though, the laws are not in favour of women. There are more women in the Saudi government than there are in the American government. The largest percentage of University students is women.
Now imagine if the curriculum was crafted to culturally accommodate Islam as well as feminist theories into one single productive system that could potentially teach women all over how to empower themselves through their minds.
I do not perform my “For The Ladies” poem very often anymore because it attacked women they way women attack the hijab, and it’s not entirely productive to communicate through that means.
Could you channel the same passion that you had in “This Is For The Ladies” into a poem on a similar theme, and which doesn’t attack women?
Of course. That doesn’t mean I will step away from my beliefs that the hijab is a tool of female empowerment, and I will continue to argue against any feminist theory that attacks a Muslim women and those who chose to cover. I will publically point out patriarchy’s role in a lot of feminist approaches, but I also won’t slut shame a woman.
I will keep an open mind, because if women work together, we can fight oppression. Unfortunately right now, we are fighting one another’s version of feminism and we aren’t getting to the source that is
How my heart sings 