Of metaphors and morality

A few months ago, the link to a YouTube video reached my end of the social media network. Intrigued by some of the accompanying comments, I decided to check out the video. What followed was at once one of the most ridiculous, enraging and worrisome experiences I have ever had.

The point in time I speak of was a mere few weeks after Hifazat-e-Islam perpetrated the carnage of 5th May, and the video featured the Hifazat leader Allama Ahmed Shafi. It appeared to be a recording of a religious sermon Shafi had delivered a few years back, and the focus of his talk seemed less on religion and more on how women and women's rights to education or a profession is a problem. There was not a single moment of respite in the entire speech. Shafi started with offensive remarks, and over time it only got worse, until at one point he made the remarks that have since then been discussed all over social networks, print and electronic media, and the living rooms of every conscious citizen in this country.

While Shafi is not alone in his ideas and remarks about how women should not be allowed to obtain an education, or have jobs, or in fact even step outside their father or husband's abode, there is still something uniquely disturbing in his words. First of all, the Hifazat issue has shown that this man, through whatever means and due to whatever reasons, is able to reach and appeal to a vast number of people in this country. When a man of such appeal, even if that appeal is only to a niche of the community, unabashedly insults women in this manner, there is indeed cause for grave concern among all those who are trying to work towards a more equal society. Second, the words he used to make his point seem to indicate that this so-called religious scholar has completely failed to appreciate that women are complete human beings in their own right, not goods or property to be owned, controlled and, pardon the crudeness, consumed. To say that women are like tamarind, and that men are bound to salivate in the presence of one, is not just an insult to women, but an even bigger insult to men. In case some men are failing to see it in this light, please realise that in effect we are being labelled no better than dogs responding in a Pavlovian manner to the presence of the opposite sex. Some of you might be able to stomach such insults, but a lot of us don't want to. We are equally offended at our female peers being labelled as tamarinds, and we being presented us salivating halfwits.

Yet, Shafi is not alone. Maybe the level of national attention he has reached has made him particularly vulnerable to criticism at saying these things, but he is not the first person to use such language in a religious sermon, and I can assure you he won't be the last for at least a few more decades to come. Anyone who has either been present at a sermon like this, or heard about it from someone else, knows that comparisons like these abound. In fact, in the more recent past, similar metaphors have made the rounds in social media as well, in the form of apologetics for why Muslim women must dawn the hijab. Women are like fruits, if you leave them uncovered flies will infest them. Women are like bananas, you peel one open and no one will want it anymore. I am sure there are more of these literary wonders, but I rest my case.

What is most disturbing about all these metaphors is how none of these people seem to be able to come up with a metaphor where a woman is not a fruit, candy or some sort of food item. Once you buy into that mindset, sometimes the conclusions presented may even begin to make sense!

Is that all a woman is then? Is the purpose of her life to find a man, have children, cook and clean and look after the household ever after? Is that all a man is then? Some base animal whose only response to the presence of women is primitive urges, so unable of restraint over himself that he has to imprison women instead? While a depressing concept, let us assume that it is true, just for a while. If a woman really has no other purpose in life but to be consumed by a man, and if a man really is completely unfamiliar with the concept of self-control, is the only solution to lock up women? Do men have no need to take responsibility for their actions? If the only reason a man needs to give in to base urges is that it was convenient to do so, then we are on a very slippery slope. Why am I not allowed to mug someone because it was clear from their appearance that they are well-off? Why am I not allowed to steal money, since I clearly could use more of it?

I really hope men in this nation understand this. I really hope we can prove such vile philosophies wrong. Women are our companions in the glorious journey of life. They are our equals and usually our greatest source of strength. To demean them is to demean us. To compare them to fruits and say that men salivate in their presence is an affront to every decent human being.

Another disturbing aspect of this whole situation is how many people are actually making efforts to defend Shafi. Some of these efforts do not merit discussion, since at their heart is the premise that women really are, as they say, like tamarind. But then there are those who will try and set up a smokescreen. This camp inanely argues, why are writers and poets allowed to compare women to flowers and honey and whatever else they like? I really do not know how one responds to that. If a person fails to see the difference, in both nature and gravity, between a literary piece and the teachings of an influential community leader, then the only intelligent response to me seems to be silence.

Despite all the controversy, Shafi has not made any attempts to retract his statements. Far from it, he has gone on to first make the absurd remark that he did not say women are tamarinds, but merely that they are like tamarinds. If there is some subtle difference between those two statements, I am yet to meet the linguistics expert who was able to instruct me as to what it may be. Then again, I suppose the notion of metaphors escapes our esteemed Allama. Further, he has repeated his statements about how men cannot resist being tempted in the presence of a woman. This time, apparently, he has opted to compare women to flowers that any man would have the urge to smell (Shafi denies tamarind talk, তেঁতুল নয়, ফুল-রাণী বলেছি: শফী). Maybe he feels this is less crass. It is not. Women are human beings. They are the mothers who raise us, the sisters we share laughter with, the friends we borrow class notes from, and the loved ones we make a life with. It is our apathy, our lack of involvement, which has given men like Shafi the courage to insult them like this. It is time we, the men, did something about it. It is time we spoke up and protested being defamed by the likes of these men.

———————————————-
Hammad Ali is a teacher of Computer Science and Engineering at BRAC University.