Sex and the Freethinker
Yes, she said “pussy,” but don’t call Mohja Kahf progressive
Kahf’s philosophy of life, with its elements of conservatism and liberalism, makes it hard for Westerners to figure her out. The demarcations between right and left are much more fluid in the Islamic community than they are in the political climate of the United States. They are not so bitterly divided that they’ll refuse to engage one another. Kahf finds a certain beauty, and actually a certain strain of progressive principles, in the practices of conservatives that they have lived or grown up with.
“The conservatives are very pro-education — they encourage their children to go to college, to enter the work force, in that way they are very modern. Their solidness, dependability, modesty, humility, they’re not just monsters or people who gave birth to radical Islam,” explains Kahf. “There is a parallel in women attracted to the temperance movement at the turn of the century, because it requires a single standard of morality for men and women, unlike popular Islam or customary Islam. My parents were, from the beginning, conscious about practicing Islam, not Arab customs. There was never in my house a distinction between me and my brother about housework, never a whiff of ‘We’re gonna be more glad if it’s a boy rather than a girl.’ ”
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