Courage under fire

[capricorn]

Samira Laouni did a bold thing yesterday: she spoke to men inside a mosque where the sexes are segregated.

Normally, at the Centre culturel islamique Ach-Choura, a squat building next to a dépanneur in Montreal North, men and women pray on separate floors - men on the ground floor, women in the basement.

But yesterday, the Muslim sabbath, Laouni left her place below and went up to talk to the men.

Ironic, because as the first candidate in Quebec history to wear a hijab, she has struggled to overcome suspicions she's pushing a pro-Muslim agenda.

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Laouni spoke to them standing at the front of the hall. Her head was wrapped modestly in the Muslim scarf but her feet were bare to the naked eye, just like the men's - one small step for a Muslim woman's rights, a permissible breach of one mosque's orthodoxy.

"I think this will happen more and more," Laouni said afterwards. "It takes women who are pioneers, and I think we're starting to change things."

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Anti-Islamist websites such as PointdeBasculeCanada.ca think she's fronting for an organization that pushes conservative Muslim values. And on two popular French-language radio talk shows in Montreal and Quebec City this week (see sidebar), Laouni was repeatedly confronted with pointed questions:

Doesn't her hijab make her a submissive woman? Did she have to ask her husband's permission to run for office? Isn't observing Ramadan cruel, since it imposes hunger on Muslim schoolchildren)? Does she support sharia law? (Her answer: no). And why do some radical Muslims celebrate the 9-11 anniversary as a victory? (She doesn't, and condemns all violence).

Laouni wants to keep religion and politics separate in the campaign. For example, since Hérouxville, she's taken to shaking the hands of men she meets - at least, those who don't know that devout Muslim women are prohibited from doing so (it's considered "haraam" - forbidden, in Arabic - to touch someone who's not your husband, brother, father, father-in-law, uncle or grandfather).

"People I'd meet didn't understand why I wouldn't shake their hand - they found it insulting," she recalled. "So I decided to start shaking hands. It was less shocking and hurtful that way."

Her hijab - something she's worn all her adult life - means people can't forget she's Muslim. But she tries to make them forget anyway.

"I'm first and foremost a Canadian citizen named Samira Laouni," she said emphatically. "After that, I'm also the NDP candidate for Bourassa. And it happens that sometimes, like today, I'm a Muslim who prays. There's no contradiction."

http://www.canada.com/montrealgazette/news...b0f2f36&p=1

It is said that a journey of a thousand miles starts with one small step. IMO Laouni has taken a giant leap. The NDP should be proud to have her as their candidate.