How to Write About Muslims, For Real

Rule #1: Don't assume that Muslim women need to be saved, or that you know how to save them. By making this assumption, what one is essentially doing is:

* Assuming that all Muslim women are somehow oppressed at the hands of their fellow Muslims.

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* Assuming that Muslim women can't take care of themselves. This is very patronizing. Muslim women have agency, and a great deal of it. Throughout history and today, Muslim women have been taking various forms of leadership. In situations where women are being oppressed, they are resisting in all sort of ways that the media doesn't always think about.

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Rule #2:Rather than assuming you know what Muslim women's lives are like, try asking them.

Too often, writers write about Muslim women without ever having tried to find out what Muslim women's lives are like from their perspective.

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Rule #3: Be careful of who you talk to regarding Islam and/or Muslim women.

Don't assume, just because someone is Muslim, that all Muslims will agree with them or that they represent all Muslims. For example, Muslims who have made a career out of calling other Muslims Islamists, and who base their credibility on the number of other Muslims who don't like them, are not a good source of information.

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Rule #4: Understand that Muslims are just like anyone else in terms of their belief systems. Not everything a Muslim does has to do with Islam.

Although Islam may play an important role in the lives of many Muslims, this does not mean that every action a Muslim takes, good or bad, is related to his/her religion. Believing everything a Muslim does must be related to Islam is the same as believing that everything a Christian, Jew, Hindu, or Sikh does is related to their religions. As irrational and nonsensical as this seems for these religious groups, it should seem equally as nonsensical to apply this belief to Muslims. Muslims, just like all other people, are impacted and influenced by many aspects of their contexts - culture, economy, employment, relationships, health, etc.

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Rule #5: Understand that there is no such thing as a "Muslim culture." Muslims come from a variety of cultures, and culture is dynamic - it's constantly changing.

Muslim culture does not exist. There is no one region of the world from which Muslims hail. Don't take our word for it. Ask any researcher in cross-cultural studies (psychology, sociology, etc) and they will tell you that a Muslim culture does not exist.

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Rule #6: Don't create a dichotomy between "Muslim" and "Canadian" (or "American," "British," etc.), or between "Muslim" and "Western."

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Rule #9: Leave the headscarf alone.

The headscarf is really not a big issue for a lot of Muslim women. And most Muslim women would really appreciate it if the media would figure this out soon. Muslim women wear or don't wear the headscarf for a variety of reasons. Many Muslim women who wear the headscarf believe it is their religous obligation, while others wear it to increase their spirituality, while others wear it as an expression of their modesty, while others wear it for political reasons, and others still for all of the above. Many Muslim also do not wear the hijab because they feel it is not a religious obligation. Whatever their beliefs may be, for Muslim women the headscarf is a personal and private choice. A choice they have the right and ability to make. By assuming that the headscarf is somehow problematic, one undermines the agency of the women who have chosen to either wear or not wear the headscarf.