Program Particulars
*Times indicated refer to online version of audio

(01:38–03:00) Music
"The Multiples of One" from Awakening, performed by Joseph Curiale

(01:40) Controversy in Western Europe
Countries across the western Europe have wrestled with the issue of headscarves that takes in religious freedom, female equality, secular traditions, and even fears of terrorism.

(02:40) The Arab and Islamic Worlds
The Arab culture has had a far-ranging impact. But the idea of the "Arab World" as the geographic region from Morocco in the west to Iraq in the East — 21 countries plus Palestine — is a modern construct. It solidified after the creation of the state of Israel and was reinforced by political upheavals and developments in various countries. In this passage from her memoir, Leila Ahmed describes this process in her native Egypt:

Today we are so used to the idea of Egypt as "Arab" that it seems unimaginable that Egyptians ever thought of themselves as anything else. In fact, I made this assumption myself when my own discordant memories failed to make sense that I was compelled to look more carefully into the history of our Arab identity. Eventually I began to see the constructed nature of our Arab identity as it was formed and re-formed to serve the political interests of the day. For example, during the years of my adolescence and early adulthood, Egypt underwent several changes in name, reflecting the shifting definitions of our identity. Under Nasser, when the idea that we were Arab was incessantly hammered home in the media, the word "Egypt" was removed altogether from the country's name—and we became the United Arab Republic as we united, briefly, with Syria. Through the Nasser era the country retained that name, even though the union with Syria dissolved within a couple of years. Eventually, in a sign of shifting political winds, Sadat brought back the word "Egypt" and we became the Arab Republic of Egypt. Of course, the issue of identity, a profoundly ambiguous matter for Egypt, was inescapably and deeply political. Sadat, who published his autobiography during his presidency, actually called his book In Search of Identity.

If the president of Egypt himself, no less, was searching for his identity, no wonder that I, crossing the threshold into my teenage years in that era of revolution, would find myself profoundly confused and conflicted and, forever after, haunted by feelings of deep uncertainty and a mysteriously guilt-ridden sense of ambiguity. Identity was not simply a matter of rhetoric and politics but something that directly touched my own life in personal if unarticulated ways. While Jean Said was a Palestinian Christian, my other best friend, Joyce Alteras, was an Egyptian Jew. The new definition of our identity that was being crystallized in those years had direct implications, as I am sure I sensed, for the Jews of Egypt.

But how else might Egyptians define themselves, if not Arab? Were Egypt not hostage, as it has been in our time, to a politics that so firmly fixes its identity as Arab, we might easily see that, on the basis of the country's history and geography, there are in fact quite a number of other ways of conceiving of Egyptian identity.

Egyptians, for instance, might, with equal accuracy, define themselves as African, Nilotic, Mediterranean, Islamic, or Coptic. Or as all, or any combination of, the above. Or, of course, as Egyptian: pertaining to the land of Egypt.

The "Islamic World" as referred to in contemporary parlance spreads quite a bit further, extending deep into Africa, Southeast Asia, and Eastern Europe. Sunni Muslims compose approximately 90 percent of the Muslim world's population, with the geographical shift moving further to the east in Asia. In the Speaking of Faith program "Violence and Crisis in Islam," Vincent Cornell, director of the King Fahd Center for Middle East and Islamic Studies at the University of Arkansas, says the geographical center of the Muslim world is now located in Lahore, Pakistan. But as Leila Ahmed and Vincent Cornell both note, many majority Islamic countries have lively multi-faith histories and others are not Arab at all. Indonesia, for example, has the world's largest Muslim population. Hence, interchanging the terms "the Muslim world" and "the Arab world" is factually erroneous.

The 1995 map below illustrates the distribution of the Islamic traditions in the contemporary world. The olive green represents Shiism, while the lime green represents Sunnism.

(03:28–04:34) Music
"Surat Al-Qari'a" recited by Seemi Bushra Ghazi is available as a companion CD included in Michael Sells' Approaching the Qur'an: The Early Revelations.

(04:03) Quote of British Missionary
Krista cites a line from a passage in the chapter, "Discourse of the Veil," [read the entire chapter] from Leila Ahmed's book, Women and Gender in Islam:

Others besides the official servants of empire promoted these kinds of ideas: missionaries, for example. For them, too, the degradation of women in Islam legitimized the attack on native culture. A speaker at a missionary conference held in London in 1888 observed that Muhammad had been exemplary as a young man but took many wives in later life and set out to preach a religion whose object was "to extinguish women altogether"; and he introduced the veil, which "has had the most terrible and injurious effect upon the mental, moral and spiritual history of all Mohammedan races." Missionary women delivered themselves of the same views. One wrote that Muslim women needed to be rescued by their Christian sisters from the "ignorance and degradation" in which they existed, and converted to Christianity. Their plight was a consequence of the nature of their religion, which gave license to "lewdness." Marriage in Islam was "not founded on love but on sensuality," and a Muslim wife, "buried alive behind the veil," was regarded as "prisoner and slave rather than … companion and helpmeet."Missionary-school teachers actively attacked the custom of veiling by seeking to persuade girls to defy their families and not wear one.

(04:18) Karen Hughes and Analysis
In late September 2005, Karen Hughes, selected by President Bush as U.S. undersecretary of state for public diplomacy and public affairs, spoke to select audiences of senior diplomats and Muslim women in Egypt, Saudi Arabia, and Turkey. During a meeting in the Turkish capital of Ankara, Hughes faced criticism from Muslim women for U.S. policy in Iraq. The New York Times reported that one Saudi Arabian woman said to applause, "The general image of the Arab women is that she isn't happy. Well, we're all pretty happy." An obstetrician who runs her own hospital asserted, "There is more male chauvinism in my profession in Europe and America than in my country." One Kurdish woman remarked, "War makes the rights of women completely erased, and poverty comes after war — and women pay the price."

(04:42) Media Coverage of Muslim Women and the Veil
During the invasion of Afghanistan, many media outlets featured reports of the Muslim women liberating themselves from the bonds of the Taliban's oppression by casting off their burqas — an extreme form of Muslim dress, imposed by the extremist Taliban, that covers a woman's full body and face. The December 2001 issue of Time magazine featuring a photo of a woman wearing a hijab with the cover reading: "Lifting the Veil: The shocking story of how the Taliban brutalized the women of Afghanistan. How much better will their lives be now?"

(04:55) British Empire in Egypt
Evelyn Baring, 1st Earl of Cromer (1841-1917), served as the British controller in Egypt for 24 years until 1907. Under his rule, he implemented a form of government called the Veiled Protectorate. Although there was an Egyptian government and leader, Lord Cromer ruled the rulers of Egypt by placing English administrators in key positions as advisers to the Egyptian government. In 1904, he worked with France to enact the Entente Cordiale, which granted Great Britain complete freedom of action in Egypt and, effectively, permanent occupation of Egypt.

(07:48) Forms of Veils
Veils come in many different forms and often vary by country. One of the most commonly referenced forms of head coverings is the hijab, from the Arabic word hajaba, meaning "to hide from view or conceal." The hijab, which covers the head and the nape of the neck but leaves the face exposed, comes in a variety of colors and materials. In its most conservative form, the burqa drapes from the top of a woman's head and covers her entire body with a pleated piece of fabric. The only opening is a small, usually crocheted, screen for the woman's eyes. This style is most often seen worn by Afghani women. See illustrations of these and other types of veils — niqab, khimar, abaya (typically worn in Saudi Arabia and select parts of the Persian Gulf), al-amira, and shayla — as part of a BBC feature on Muslim head scarves.

(10:37) Muslim Women Heads of State
Recent female heads of state who were Muslim included Megawati Sukarnoputri of Indonesia, Benazir Bhutto of Pakistan, Tansu Ciller of Turkey, and Khaleda Zia and Sheik Hasina Wazed of Bangladesh. See a comprehensive list of Muslim women leaders throughout time or visit the section on the roles of women as part of PBS' Global Connections in the Middle East series.

(11:03–12:00) Music
"Hanil Widd" from The Music of Mohamed Abdel Wahab, performed by Simon Shaheen

(11:35) Quote from A Border Passage
Krista cites a passage from the opening chapter of A Border Passage, "Egypt: The Background." In more detail, Leila Ahmed writes:

I grew up in the last days of the British Empire. My childhood fell in that era when the words "imperialism" and "the West" had not yet acquired the connotations they have today—they had not yet become, that is, mere synonyms for "racism," "oppression," and "exploitation."

Or, at any rate, they had not yet become so among the intellectual, professional, and governing classes of Egypt. In Cairo it was entirely ordinary, among those classes, to grow up speaking English or French or both, and quite ordinary to attend an English or French school. It was taken for granted among the people who raised us that there was unquestionably much to admire in and learn from the civilization of Europe and the great strides that Europe had made in human advancement. No matter that the European powers were politically oppressive and indeed blatantly unjust; nor did it seem to matter that the very generation which raised us were themselves locked in struggle with the British for Egypt's political independence. There seemed to be no contradiction for them between pursuing independence from the European powers and deeply admiring European institutions, particularly democracy, and Europe's tremendous scientific breakthroughs.

(18:37–19:15) Music
"Surat Az-Zalzala" recited by Seemi Bushra Ghazi is available as a companion CD included in Michael Sells' Approaching the Qur'an: The Early Revelations.

(19:10) Web-Exclusive Audio of Ahmed's Recollections
In this clip not included in the radio program, listen to Leila Ahmed discuss the creation of Arab identity as a legacy of British colonialism, and the similarities with the perception of Muslim identity in our age.

(19:39) Passage from A Border Passage
In her memoir, A Border Passage: From Cairo to America—A Woman's Journey, Ahmed describes the Islamic sensibility that she learned from the women in her household while spending summers in her family's homes in Egypt:

It is easy to see now that our lives in the Alexandria house, and even at Zatoun, were lived in women's time, women's space. And in women's culture.

And the women had, too, I now believe, their own understanding of Islam, an understanding that was different from men's Islam, "official" Islam. For although in those days it was only Grandmother who performed all the regular formal prayers, for all the women of the house, religion was an essential part of how they made sense of and understood their own lives. It was through religion that one pondered the things that happened, why they had happened, and what one should make of them, how one should take them.

Islam, as I got it from them, was gentle, generous, pacifist, inclusive, somewhat mystical—just as they themselves were. Mother's pacifism was entirely of a piece with their sense of the religion. Being Muslim was about believing in a world in which life was meaningful and in which all events and happenings were permeated (although not always transparently to us) with meaning. Religion was above all about inner things. The outward signs of religiousness, such as prayer and fasting, might be signs of a true religiousness but equally well might not. They were certainly not what was important about being Muslim. What was important was how you conducted yourself and how you were in yourself and in your attitude toward others and in your heart.

(22:00) The Five Pillars of Islam
In short, the five basic tenets of Islam are:

• Shahada: the profession of faith in God, wherein a suppliant declares, "There is no god but Allah, and Muhammad is His messenger."
• Salat: the ritual practice of facing Mecca and praying five times per day
• Sawm: the observation of fasting during the holy month of Ramadan
• Zakat: the mandatory paying of alms, which equates to about 2.5 percent of one's income, which is distributed among the poor
• Hajj: the compulsory pilgrimage to Mecca that every Muslim should do once during his or her lifetime

(25:17–28:17) Music
"Theme & Variations" from The Music of Mohamed Abdel Wahab, performed by Simon Shaheen

(28:25–29:18) Music
"Dream" from The Second Baghdad, performed by Rahim AlHaj

(29:28) Reading from A Border Passage
In the chapter "Harem" from her memoir, A Border Passage: From Cairo to America—A Woman's Journey, Ahmed recalls formative times spent in the company of extended circles of women in her family:

Looking back now with the assumptions of my own time, I could well conclude that the ethos of the world whose attitudes survived into my own childhood must have been an ethos in which women were regarded as inferior creatures, essentially sex objects and breeders, to be bought and disposed of for a man's pleasure. But my memories do not fit in with such a picture. I simply do not think that the message I got from the women of Zatoun was that we, the girls, and they, the women, were inferior. But what, then, was the message of Zatoun? I don't think it was a simple one. I can only set down what I remember of Zatoun and of Siouf in Alexandria, my mother's family's summer home.

It is quite possible that, while the women of Zatoun did not think of themselves and of us as inferior, the men did, although—given how powerful the cultural imperative of respect for parents, particularly the mother, was among those people—even for men such a view could not have been altogether uncomplicated. But men and women certainly did live essentially separate, almost unconnected lives. Men spent almost all their time with other men, and women with other women. It is entirely likely that women and men had completely different views of their society and of the system in which they lived, and of themselves and of the natures of men and women. Living differently and separately and coming together only momentarily, the two sexes inhabited different if sometimes overlapping cultures, a men's and a women's culture, each sex seeing and understanding and representing the world to itself quite differently.

I spent a great deal of my childhood and adolescence among the women of Zatoun, whether at Zatoun itself or at the family home in Alexandria. My view of that world, and of the nature and meaning of life, I learned from the women, not the men. The men figured as dominant beings, naturally, but they were more like meteors, cutting a trail across our sky, causing havoc possibly, but present only briefly. It is for this reason, no doubt, that the novelist and Nobel laureate Naguib Mahfouz's Palace Walk, depicting a family similar to that of Zatoun, is to me both familiar and profoundly alien. For it is a portrait of that same world—but through the eyes of its men.

(30:40–31:06) Music
"Ibnil Balad" from The Music of Mohamed Abdel Wahab, performed by Simon Shaheen

(31:06) Definition of "Harem"
Meaning "women's quarters" in Arabic, a harem is the section of the house where women are only allowed to enter and men are not allowed to enter.

(35:10) A Deeper Look Into Fundamentalism
For a deeper look into the power of religious fundamentalism and how it has reshaped our view of world events, listen to "The Power of Fundamentalism." This Speaking of Faith program explores the appeal of fundamentalism as experienced from the inside, with three former religious extremists: Muslim scholar Khaled Abou El Fadl, Evangelical leader Richard Mouw, and Jewish author Yossi Klein Halevi. These men provide revealing insight into the spiritual and cultural dimensions of fundamentalism and discuss religious impulses which counter the fundamentalist world view and helped them break free.

(39:27–40:05) Music
"Annun Sira" from Lily of the Nile, performed by Hamza El Din

(44:52) Iraqi Constitution and Islam
The latest draft of the Iraqi Constitution (October 12, 2005) includes the provision in Article 2 of Section 1 (fundamental principles) that "Islam is the official religion of the State and it is a fundamental source of legislation," and continues, "no law that contradicts the established provisions of Islam may be established.

(45:02) Reference to Sharia Law
The word sharia means "the path to a watering hole." More than a system of criminal justice, sharia law is a religious code for living that is adopted by most Muslims to some degree. This code for living governs all elements of a Muslim's daily life — practices of prayer and fasting, charity and justice. And, although it is a code of ethics that serves to instruct much like the Bible, it can be formally instituted as law by a nation and enforced by its court system. Many Islamic countries, particularly in the Middle East, have adopted particular elements of sharia law, governing areas such as inheritance, banking, and contract law.

In the Speaking of Faith program, "Violence and Crisis in Islam," Muslim scholar Vincent Cornell says the tradition of Islamic jurisprudence has an equally developed history expressed by the related terms of sharia — meaning the "way" or method set out by God — and fiqh — the "understanding" or the practice of this method of understanding. Theoretically, all Islamic law is divine because it is inspired by the word of God in the Qur'an; experientially, most Islamic legal decisions are based on the hadith of the Sunna. Informed Muslims, Cornell writes, use the term sharia to connote the sacred law as a global ideal, while the word fiqh connotes the evolving interpretation through the schools of jurisprudence.

Sharia law coupled with the practice of fiqh allows for a multiplicity of views and applications. Fiqh is considered an interpretive science that was first developed in the seventh century. Fiqh is the application of the sharia, the model of the Islamic way of life, to specific cases. Listen to Cornell discuss the importance of fiqh.

(46:02–46:32) Music
"Surat Al-Qadr" recited by Seemi Bushra Ghazi is available as a companion CD included in Michael Sells' Approaching the Qur'an: The Early Revelations.

(48:45–48:52) Music
"Balade" from Sufi Music of Turkey, performed by Kudsi Erguner and Suleyman Erguner

(48:52) Reading from A Border Passage
An expanded version of the reading from "Harem," a chapter from Ahmed's memoir, A Border Passage: From Cairo to America—A Woman's Journey follows:

If a day won't come
when the monuments of institutionalized religion are in ruin
… then, my beloved,
then we are really in trouble.

                    —Rumi

It has not been only women and simple, unlearned folk who have believed, like the women who raised me, that the ethical heart of Islam is also its core and essential message. Throughout Muslim history, philosophers, visionaries, mystics, and some of the civilization's greatest luminaries have held a similar belief. But throughout history, too, when they have announced their beliefs publicly, they have generally been hounded, persecuted, executed. Or, when they have held fast to their vision but also managed to refrain from overtly challenging the powers that be and thus avoided violent reprisal, they have been at best tolerated and marginalized—accepted as eccentrics outside the the tradition of "true" Islam. From almost the earliest days, the Islam that has held sway and that has been supported and enforced by sheiks, ayatollahs, rulers, states, and armies, has been official, textual Islam. This variant of Islam has wielded absolute power and has not hesitated to eradicate—often with the same brutality as fundamentalism today—all dissent, all differing views, all opposition.

There has never been a time when Muslims, in any significant number, have lived in a land in which freedom of thought and religion were accepted norms. Never, that is, until today. Now, in the wake of the migrations that came with the ending of the European empires, tens of thousands of Muslims are growing up in Europe and America, where they take for granted their right to think and believe whatever they wish and take for granted, most particularly, their right to speak and write openly of their thoughts, beliefs, and unbeliefs.

For Muslims this is, quite simply, a historically unprecedented state of affairs. Whatever Islam will become in this new age, surely it will be something quite other than the religion that has been officially forced on us through all these centuries.

(50:25–52:27) Music
"Theme & Variations" from The Music of Mohamed Abdel Wahab, performed by Simon Shaheen