Jake Cobovic, Period 6, 9/28/22

Socio-political Consciousness

- What are your thoughts and feelings about issues of inequity, oppression, and/or power?

- How do you reflect critically on your own beliefs, assumptions, values, and experiences, and how these can influence your perception of self and others?

    I, and my whole family, are Muslim. You would never be able to tell unless you already knew. None of the women in my family wear hijabs. None of us pray all five times a day. None of us regularly go to the mosque either. So to me, Islam is mostly just fasting during Ramadan, celebrating during Eid, and praying before I go to sleep. 

    I bring this up because Mahsa Amini was murdered by the police in Iran on September 16th for not wearing her hijab properly. The tragedy and ensuing protests have once again brought the treatment of women under Islam back into the spotlight. For years, I’ve always brushed off these criticisms with my own personal viewpoints: “Well, in my experience, Muslims women are able to do what they want.”, “Well, that’s not how I choose to interpret the Quran.”. However, Mahsa’s murder hasn’t left me with any room to make excuses. Her killers have read the same Quran and believe in the same God as me. How could they come to the conclusion that they are doing the “moral” thing?

    Thinking about Mahsa’s murder left me in a religious dilemma. Countries like Iran follow Islam to it’s most literal and exact interpretation. Normally, I would agree that when it comes to rules, we should follow them as they were written. However, I can’t believe that these laws were made to be followed literally when they end up in the deaths of innocent women and gay men whose only crime was existing. 

    Over my life, I’ve formed my own interpretation of what Islam means to me. I personally can’t believe that things like owning a dog or not believing in Islam are one-way tickets to Hell. But in the wake of Mahsa’s murder, I’ve begun to doubt if what I believe in even is Islam anymore. Sure, I fast and don’t eat pork, but if I only choose to believe in certain parts of the Quran, why even base my beliefs off of it? It has left me to consider what it means to be Muslim, and if I still am one.