As I walked into SATC 2, I braced myself for the potential barrage of ”Orientalist offensive material” that I had been reading about. And I walked out of there amused by the jokes, contemplating the depiction of married life, and wondering why Muslims have begun to scream “foul” for being depicted in a manner that is not ideal. After all, if we cannot call a house a house, but must call it a mansion – aren’t we responsible for skewing the issue?
As Carrie Bradshaw would say, “When it comes to understanding each other in a relationship, when does sensitivity become over sensitivity? When did we, a people built on calling a spade a spade, decide that we can describe a spade but cannot call it out?” In the post-9/11 era, Muslims have dealt with various forums of racism, negative media attention, and a government that seemed bent on making it increasingly difficult for American-Muslims with the Patriot Act. But, in the recent years, after much work by Muslim activists, there has been a sea change: Hollywood has begun to lend a kinder eye to Muslims, Jon Stewart has taken on a balanced view, and the government is working towards bettering relationships with American-Muslims and Islamic countries. However, in that spirit ofactivism, somehow American-Muslims, and our sympathizers, have fallen into a terrible and self-made trap: we demand pity and want the world to turn a blind eye to our flaws. And that is what Sex and the City 2 does, it calls out our flaws as Americans both on screen and off screen. On screen, the movie depicts the self-consumed nature of most Americans when we visit another country. Off-screen, it shows us that American-Muslims can’t take a joke or even accept reality.
The arrival of the SATC 2 women in Abu Dhabi was not much different from my own reaction when I stepped foot in Saudi Arabia for the first time. Greeted by women wearing burkas, opulence in the ways of palaces and Louis Vuitton stores, and searing glances from men that could not understand why a woman was walking around “uncovered.” And as an American-Muslim woman, I was more than agitated when I had to don a burka in order to walk around the streets of Riyyad. Much like the women of SATC 2 when they stepped foot on middle eastern land, I did not take a vow of piety, celibacy, or cultural immersion simply because I was on vacation in a foreign land. I was a successful woman that prized my independence, and cursed everytime I was told that I had to have a male escort with me at all times when I left our home in Riyyad. And unlike the SATC women, I grew up in a Muslim household with conservative values – and even I found the Middle East to be beyond my comfort zone.
When I watched SATC 2, I was able to connect with that culture shock. On one hand you had opulence galore, with men as butlers serving women in their personal quarters in the hotel. On the other hand, you had women wearing designer burkas and swimming inburkinis, and men that would look down upon a woman who was comfortable with her sexuality; especially if she is promiscuous and carries condoms in her bag. Which brings us, of course, to the pinnacle of offensiveness: Samantha. Samantha’s rejection of Abu Dhabi’s conservative nature is expected; Samantha rejects the conservative nature of everyone. She is in true form throughout the movie – a strong, confident woman that has accepted sexual freedom as her most prized possession. She does not demand that everyone embrace such sexual frivolity; she just appreciates it fully as part of her life and wants to be left alone to enjoy it.
Knowing that Samantha’s character was controversial even in the original HBO series, it is a marvel when critics have noted that Samantha’s character should have acted differently simply because she was in a Muslim country. That the girls should not have stared at a burka wearing woman as she ate a french fry, that Samantha should not have implied oral sex with the use of a hookah pipe, and that the girls should have shown respect to the call for prayer and therefore Samantha should not have thrown condoms at men as they headed to prayer.
Let’s get something straight here: just as Muslims don’t like when Qur’anic verses get taken out of context, logical Muslims don’t want to take anything else out of context either. So without giving away any parts of the movie, it should suffice to say: when you push a woman to the point of exasperation, humiliation, and then add on menopause – throwing condoms is the least of your worries.
But instead of understanding context and taking the movie for what it was – the changing lives and circumstances of four successful women that are there for each other – critics have done nothing more than cry “foul” over what is, fortunately or unfortunately, the culturein the Middle East. American-Muslims have latched onto this unrealistic belief that all depictions of Muslims in the media must be supremely favorable, idealistic, and a mirror image of what we wish we represented. For this reason, American-Muslim activists often lash out at anything that they believe to be unbecoming of a Muslim.
Another glaring example of our desire to call foul over everything is the criticism of Miss USA, Rima Fakih. Racked with criticism galore, the current Miss USA has had her religious values, character, and her viability as an role model for Muslim women questioned simply because she wore a bikini as part of the pageant. I hate to break it to the world at large but Muslim women do in fact wear bikinis – it is a personal choice, just as it is a personal choice to wear a burka, a hijab, or throw on a t-shirt in the morning. It does not signify our religious views, piety, or ability to be a role model. Rima Fakih’s stance as a role model should be judged through her character and her work, not based on what she is wearing. Much like the women in SATC 2, she is a confident female that decide to break barriers on her own terms – and she showed thousands of Muslim girls out there that being a Muslim is much more than wearing a hijab, it is about embracing who you are and blazing your own path. Now that is we should define as a role model. And as Carrie, Miranda, Samantha, and Charlotte have taught us over the years: it is imperative to blaze ahead as a woman, despite what others think you should or should not do. Regardless of religion.
So as the world of Carrie, Miranda, Samantha, and Charlotte changes through marriage, children, careers and menopause, I look forward to the time when the outlook of American-Muslims change as well. When we can begin to take a joke as a joke, step up to the plate when we have actually been wronged as a people, and strive to change the view of American-Muslims on our own terms. Not by criticizing others for calling a spade a spade.
– Benish A. Shah, Editor-in-Chief, NEEM Magazine
