4 women, 22 men and the image of the future of Islam in Guyana?

Image from Guyana Chronicle 5 Sept, 2023

The picture of 4 women and 22 men and the Government of Guyana

Image has nice mix of black, coolie and others. Guyana and I keep looking at crowds and images, how many coolie, how many black people, how many others. 

And then to count the women and men in the photo (and using gender binaries based on appearance as there might be other genders which are not expressed). 

The Government of Guyana co-sponsoring a conference with the Organisation of Islamic Co-operation about the History& Legacies of Muslims in the Caribbean. 

The Government of Guyana did not think it was appropriate to show that Guyana must show gender equality in all of its activities especially, and to insist that Muslim women have an equally important and visible role as Muslim men in the legacy of Muslims in the Caribbean.

The all male opening ceremony

I nervously open the message from Dr Aliyah Khan. An invitation to the conference, which 'should be open to the public'.

Dr Aliyah Khan has written Far from Mecca: Globalizing the Muslim Caribbean. 

This is the second invitation this weekend from one of the people younger than me whose work opens up new histories of legacies of Indian indentureship in the Caribbean. 

I had said yes to the other invitation thinking there must be some ancestral prodding with the blue moon.

I check the opening ceremony which is livestreamed. It is sickening, an all male opening ceremony in 2023 Guyana. 

I think of one of the Muslim women I know of my grandmother's generation who ran her own business, and wore her orhini and had divorced her abusive husband at a time when coolie woman did not divorce.

She and her sisters and daughters and granddaughters are not in this opening ceremony.  The Government of Guyana apparently does not recognise that visibility.

Two of the men who are speaking refer to Dr Aliyah Khan's work.

One man from Guyana though refers to Dr Khan as 'he', probably could not imagine that Muslim women are writing books.

I wished that the Government of Guyana invited Dr Aliyah Khan and other Muslim women to be visible and speaking at the opening ceremony. 

The media reports of the opening ceremony would have countered the idea that  the idea that Muslim women cannot speak in the presence of Muslim men.

Gender, Islamophobia

The work on gender-based violence and child protection means interacting with Guyanese in diverse settings. 

The Muslim community in Guyana from the beginning has encouraged discussions about gender-based violence. 

I have been anxious and nervous, Hindu man going into different Muslim spaces, some segregated, some all-women/girls, some all men/boys, some not segregated. And meetingh Sunni, Shi'a, Ahmadi Muslims and understanding that practice of Islam is diverse.

I am conscious that I have facilitated discussions with more Muslims, and more Christians, than with Hindus.

I also have to learn more about Islam in the world as the discussions around LGBTIQ equality show rejection from large sections of the Muslim community about homosexuality. And all of this after 9/11.

And also as the Muslim leader asks me if I would deal with alcohol culture as the Muslims do not want to lead it as it would seem anti-Hindu (Hindus are active in the alcohol industry and culture). Another Muslim leader explains that yes.. some Muslim men drink at the Hindu owned shops in the village except during periods. A Muslim social worker explains though that the rates of suicide are higher among Hindu men than Muslim men because of the difference in alcohol consumption.

And I witness, thinking of Malcolm X in Mecca recognising the diversity of Islam, as a gay Bosnian Muslim man cries in relief, and joy after Friday prayers led by a gay South African Imam. 

And I think of the absence of women from this opening ceremony, as the Taliban oppress women in Afghanistan. 

And I have no business to decide who is a good Muslim or who is not a good Muslim. 

I hope though that anyone's idea of being a good Muslim in Guyana should not clash with the rights of any other Guyanese.

The image of the future of Islam in Guyana

The young Hindu man asks me about separation of church and state. I know, the politics of Guyana and the co-operation with the OIC (and imagining co-operation with some of the emerging versions of other other religions in global politics to continue oppression of others ). 

Do we expect the Government of Guyana to start looking at the History and Legacies of the Christians of different denominations, and the Hindus of different beliefs?

On the right, I recognise Shaykh Moeenul Hack-who is the Director of Education and Dawaa at the Centrial Islamic Organisation of Guyana, and current chair of the Ethnic Relations Commission. He has been one of the persons who has taught me about Islam, and the experiences of Muslims in Guyana. 

And has a role as so many other religious leaders to come to terms with the past and the violent legacies in the unequal present.

And to the right of the photo,  the two young women ( I recognise Dr Aliyah Khan and Nsenga Knight, ) to the right , in front, doing different work of history, and future and imagination.

Thinking that these two women are in front , leading the men at the back with the knowledge from the man  the side, and other women and men.

Or leaving them behind.