Open Letter to South Carolina Legislature

Dear South Carolina Legislature:

It is well past time for removing the Confederate Flag from the South Carolina Capitol grounds. The flag is a living bloodied and heinous relic of the worst of times in the distant and contemporary history of South Carolina and the history of our country! When will enough be recognized as enough? It is time for the flag to go, for good. You have the power to make history by passing a resolution to remove the flag and to avoid becoming just another legislature who sat idly by and missed a perfect opportunity to take the reins of change towards the inevitable. 

Every positive symbolism the Confederate Flag may have once held for the people of South Carolina and the American South has long been tarnished, irreparably, by the savagery of slavery, during protracted decades of cruelty and ruthlessness under the banner of this very same flag. The barbaric attack on the historic Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston and the massacre of nine African Americans, only because of the color of their skin, are but one violent reminder of that dark period of time in our history and of the need to once and for all free yourselves and your state from the grip of this antiquated and destructive symbol! Let go with this symbol of divisiveness, inequality, brutality, racism, and slavery. 

You are no longer a state within a confederation of the old south; you are a state within the federated United States of America! Your flag of pride, honor, and heroism is the Stars Spangled banner, which is the flag of all Americans, regardless of their skin color, gender, national origin, sexual preference, religion, and creed. Isn't the Stars Spangled banner, under which tens of thousands of brave men and women made the ultimate sacrifice, good enough? I believe it is. But more importantly what do you believe? The time for posturing and maneuvering is long gone; it is time to act and it is time to act now. Remove the flag now.

Azzam Elayan 

June 23, 2015

At The Curb Of History

Some Muslim women, including more than a few in my extended family, still wear the niqab, hijab, and jilbab year round, even in the sweltering heat of June and beyond.  I have always advocated for the right of women to choose their wardrobe and to determine self-image.  With religious pretext, this choice and this right are denied to women, typically by the men in their lives.  Fathers, brothers, sons, male relatives, and even male strangers, in some cases, decide what a woman may or may not wear inside and outside the house.  

To all these women, I would like to direct this open letter.  Please know that you are equal to men.  Also know that God has nothing to do with the way you dress, with whom you are a friend, with whom you are in love, or whom you chose to spend your life with as a wife or a companion.  The niqab, hijab, and jilbab, like all other types of gender-specific restrictions, are instruments of male dominance which have no place in a civilized society or a happy home.  

Left to her own will, no woman would choose to wear multiple layers of full length clothing which cover the entire body, head and face included, during the hottest days of summer.  It simply doesn't make sense, especially when male siblings & husbands walk alongside them in t-shirts, shorts, and sandals.  Beyond this, it is inhuman.  No God would expect or ask women to do so and no man should either.  

It is time for you to gather all your niqabs, hijabs, and jilbabs, put them in garbage bags and take them to curb of your house on trash day.  That is exactly where they belong, at the curb of your house and curb of history, and ultimately in a trash depository, not on your body.  You should feel free to wear what you see as appropriate, in any color you like, not just black, and in any style.  Feel free to celebrate your identity as a woman and as an equal partner to men, with fifty percent of the responsibilities and fifty percent of the rights.  You are already doing most of the household work, child rearing, and many other chores, and so why not reclaim what is rightfully yours...your image, your body, and your personal freedom.  

It is also time for the Muslim men in your life to help initiate this change.  This change will require extraordinary courage but it is doable and within reach.  To those men I say you need to trust the women in your life (daughters, sisters, mothers, etc.) to do what is right with their bodies and their freedom, just as you have trusted their male counterparts.  Women are not intellectually inferior; they are at least fifty percent responsible for making you the man you are.  If you truly believe in God, regardless of what religion you believe in, then you must believe that God is fair and just and that God would support such change.  The time for this change is now.