In mid-March two shocking
pictures of a 19-year old Tunisian schoolgirl, Amina Tyler, surfaced on the Facebook page of a feminist group, Femen-Tunisia. The images were overtly sexual and provocative, with the girl baring her upper body, and the line “My body belongs to me, and is not the source of anyone’s honour” written across her chest in Arabic in one picture and the girl hurling an abuse on morals in the second image. The images quickly went viral over the internet and so did a heated debate over the significance, meaning, endorsement or condemnation of such actions. This article in the sociology of religion and embodiment discusses this sensitive issue academically, contextualising it also in terms of contemporary identity-politics.
Miss Tyler brought the Tunisian chapter of Femen, an international movement for women’s rights founded in 2008 in Ukraine, to global prominence. The radical feminist organization is infamous for the outrageous tactics it adopts to highlight issues related to women around the world, including baring their bodies as a protest technique. A central theme in Femen’s discourse is ‘sextremism’. Femen states that its ideology of sextremism is for protecting women’s rights and attacking “patriarchy, in all its forms: the dictatorship, the church and, the sex industry.” Sextremists have staged protests around the world against sexism, politicians including Vladimir Putin and Silvio Berlusconi and religious leaders like the Pope Benedict XVI. They have also staged protests against Islamism and Shariah law, among other causes like female genital mutilation. A very provoking campaign in this regard was named “Allah made me naked” that encouraged Muslim women in France to join in Femen’s struggle. Ironically, a recent protest by unclothed activists was against pornography.
While such radical forms of protest are common in the west, the significance of Tyler’s action for Femen is that she is the first sextremist emerging from Tunisia in the Muslim world, closely following on the footsteps of Aliaa elMahdy of Egypt whose similar picture created widespread controversy in 2011 and who formed Femen-Egypt in 2012.
The debate surrounding Tyler reveals the deep cleavages in contemporary Tunisia, a country that is considered to be the most westernised nation in North African Muslim countries; however, a society that is experiencing tumult between strands of Islamism and secularism, tradition and modernity, and everything in between. Since the formulation of 1956 Personal Status Code in the constitution polygamy, for example, has been banned in the country. In the recent past, conservative Islamist clerics like Adel Almi, founding president of The Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice have called for this polygamy ban to be revoked and Shariah law to be enforced. He has also called for increased moral policing in society. The situation, therefore, has led to increasing societal polarisation among different perspectives about what kind of society Tunisia should become.
For her act of civil disobedience Tyler can face a punishment of jail for two years. However, lately the issue has erupted into a larger controversy when Almi called for the girl to receive 80 to 100 lashes under Islamic law, further stating that due to the severity of her act, she deserves to be punished with rajm i.e. being stoned to death. “Her act could bring about an epidemic. It could be contagious and give ideas to other women. It is therefore necessary to isolate [the incident]. I wish her to be healed,” he stated. The views of the cleric and news of threat to the girl’s life led to an international campaign for supporting Tyler. In an interview to a Tunisian newspaper Tyler stated that she wanted to “make the voice of Tunisian women heard and protect them from suppression.” “My mother and sister are practising Muslims who wear the veil. It’s true, they do not approve [of may act]. But they are worried for me,” she stated.
Following the controversy, Islamist groups hacked the Facebook page of Femen-Tunisia, posting the message, “ The page has been hacked, and God willing, this debauchery will disappear from Tunisia.” Many moderate Tunisians have criticised both the secular-feminists and fundamentalist-Islamists for equally extreme views, questioning whether Tyler even represents them. The matter has become more religiously polarised with the involvement of prominent atheists and international human rights activists supporting Tyler’s cause including the renowned atheist scientist, Richard Dawkins. The campaigners include Maryam Namazie too, a human rights activist and noted critic of political Islam who is spokesperson of Council of Ex-Muslims of Britain. “There’s nothing wrong with Amina; problem is religious morality and Islamism. Amina voice of sanity”, she tweeted.
Interestingly, many Tunisian women have formed their own Facebook groups too as a response to Tyler, uploading their pictures wearing the hijab and abaya. One pictures states, “My body belongs to Allah, so I have to cover it.” Tyler’s provocative act has brought the meaning of the female body under immense debate. Using her body as a site for protest, she has put many themes related to human life and existence in a difficult flux, including notions of freedom, modesty, sexuality, human rights, protest, empowerment, politics, morality and God as well.
In what is being called ‘naked solidarity’, countless women around the world have inscribed expressions like “Free Amina” and “freedom” on their bodies and sent their photos to Femen, which has stated, “Every topless-message is an act of personal liberation, [is an] attack [on] Islamism and it’s a specific contribution to the cause of freedom… on 4 April, we will remind the Islamists and the world that the real epidemic and disaster that must be challenged is misogyny — Islamic or otherwise. This day will mark the beginning of a new, genuine Arab Spring, after which true freedom, freedom without mullahs and caliphs, will come to Tunisia,” declaring 4th April to be ‘International topless Jihad day’. And while the case of Tyler can be dismissed as an isolated, one off event, it does carry deep, symbolic significance for her supporters. Following the lead by the Tunisian chapter, Moroccan and Algerian chapters of Femen have emerged too. In a somewhat parallel move, a Moroccan chapter of Council of Ex-Muslims has also been formed. ‘Freedom’ can have many, difficult, connotations in changing societies. Is a different kind of ‘Arab Spring’ underway?
The text on Amina Tyler’s torso shows an intricate nexus of themes related to society, politics, religion and sexuality. Tyler’s skin is like a scroll, the page of a complex narrative, where we shall have to read between the lines. The upcoming tale of Femen and Islamism surely seems to be intricate. Let’s see what the next chapters have in store for us.
The writer teaches Sociology at the University College Lahore (UCL). He can be reached at [email protected]