麻豆社

Good Morning. I once ran a workshop for a group of activists and students of Islam from India and Pakistan. We had been working online for many months and decided to meet in-person for a component of the program. We knew the Indians wouldn鈥檛 get visas for Pakistan, and the Pakistanis wouldn鈥檛 get visas for India without tremendous difficulty, so we met in the beautiful and neutral territory of Nepal. As we sat in the impossibly beautiful terrain of the Himalayan range, I shared a verse of the Qur鈥檃n with them: 鈥淭he believing men and the believing women are awliya, protecting friends, of one another鈥�. I asked them to consider what it meant for believing men and women to be awliya of one another; what kind of world could be forged if we all actualised the call of these words. The Indian participants looked confused and said 鈥渂ut awliya means saints鈥� and the Pakistani participants looked scandalised and said, 鈥済od forgive us! Men and women can鈥檛 be friends鈥�. I explained but awliya literally means 鈥減rotecting friends鈥� and I urged them to imagine a world in which men and women were not at war but at peace, and more than peace, in loving harmonious, protecting and nurturing community. But the Pakistanis shook their heads and said 鈥渨e observe strict gender segregation鈥� and the Indians said 鈥渁wliya are saints and we are not worthy to be amongst them鈥�. And I stood bereft in between; a failed workshop exercise and the whisper of a vision promised in the Qur鈥檃n evaporating into thin air.

I pray for a world in which men and women act as protective friends of one another, where everyone thrives, no one is exploited, and full human agency is afforded to all, amen.