Mosque reform, VIP makeup and hypocrisy

About a couple of months ago, I opened this page, read with delight my column neighbor, Mustafa Akyol’s article, cut it out and put it in a dossier with the tag "Diyanet," or the Religious Affair’s Directorate, thinking I might need to revisit it. I was right.

In that article in the Hürriyet Daily News on Sept. 30, 2008, Mr Akyol was, with all his good intentions, detailing and praising Diyanet’s efforts to cleanse the Islamic tradition from misogyny, which is undoubtedly a project to praise.

My sparring partner may be disappointed, but I agreed with his commentary, almost line by line, word by word. I still do. "Diyanet is not just open-minded but also brave," Mr Akyol wrote. "[Diyanet officials] should be welcomed and encouraged." Two months later, I am a little bit confused about those two words of praise; open-minded and brave.

Perhaps Diyanet should begin its reform campaign by educating its own Ulema on some of the fundamental teachings of Islam. How about, for instance, an elementary course on honesty, justice, equality for all and abstinence from worshiping mortals?

I have always been curious about a pious lady’s perseverance over a type of head-wear which is not a Koranic commandment, along with her interest in makeup and jewelry which the Koran explicitly bans. The relevant commandment for Muslim women is to, "cover their private parts and bosom and to abstain from exposing their beauty and ornaments."

Recently, I decided to ask Diyanet’s Ulema about the proper behavior for observant ladies. I sent an e-mail message, asking Diyanet whether it was a sin to put on makeup and wear jewelry. Let us call this query Q1. Diyanet’s reply came in confirmation of the Koranic verses, "Changing God-given [facial] features in order to lure attention and look more beautiful is banned in Islam." Fair enough. And let us call this answer A1.

Out of curiosity, I then rephrased my query (thanks, Harry, for the idea!) which I shall call Q2. The new question to Diyanet’s inbox read, "We often see the pious wives and daughters of prominent people, like our president and prime minister, in generous quantities of makeup and wearing (presumably) expensive jewelry and ornaments. Is that behavior compatible with Islam?"

And A2 from Diyanet fell into our inbox a few days later, "...Women can put on ornaments as long as they do not expose their private parts... Since women are allowed to expose their hands and faces, any ornamentation [makeup and jewelry] on hands and faces can be seen as [religiously] permissible."

NowÉ I am afraid Diyanet has a hard task ahead. I am not going to remind us again of the disturbingly divergent fatwas on socially/politically explosive issues like the Islamic turban. The fact that the present and former presidents of Diyanet have opposing thoughts on whether the turban is God’s commandment is enough to tell us how difficult a Mosque reform would be. The correspondence/consultation with Diyanet has just added to my pessimism.

Q2 is in fact nothing but Q1 plus a mention of our first ladies in the same context. Why, then, A2 was fundamentally different from A1? Can it be that Islam forbids certain behavior to all women except for the wives of the political elite? Can, then, the political elite be exempt from certain forbidden behavior? I am convinced that if I asked Diyanet for a fatwa on extravagant, Ottoman Palace-like weddings and circumcision ceremonies I would get a few disapproving lines in reply. But, if I asked the same question by giving examples of the merry moments of our Muslim elite, the answer will be different; at least as different as A1 and A2.

Why, really, was A1 fundamentally different from A2? Because there is probably no one at Diyanet who is brave enough to tell a query-maker, "That behavior is not permissible in Islam and it is not permissible for any women, including our first ladies," and that, "All is equal before the Holy Koran."

Perhaps my next query should be something like this, "How compatible is it with the substance of Islam if your esteemed Ulema issued opposite fatwas for ordinary women and prominent women? How compatible is that with honesty, justice, equality for all and abstinence from worshiping mortals?"

A final reminder to dear Mr Akyol who I am sure has good friends within the higher echelons of the Holy Diyanet. Please Mr Akyol, tell your friends to teach some elementary grammar to Diyanet’s personnel, as the five sentences that made A2 contained five typos and errors. Can Diyanet "reform" hypocrisy, Mr Akyol?