A similar problem exists also in a Muslim country like Morocco, my fatherland. King Mohammed VI, a Sharif, or Descendant of Prophet Muhammad, passed a new family code, the Mudawana. This was a real progress for Moroccan women, because the Mudawana defends the woman’s right in Morocco. Unluckily a lot of women living in the hinterland and not in great cities like Casablanca didn’t know this new Family Code. And this because thy are illiterate, and men have interest to maintain them illiterate, because in this way women will be submissive more easily. But we get wrong if we think that this happens only in Muslim countries. On the contrary, in some Muslim country like Morocco we see serious tries to improve women conditions. In some western countries we don’t see the same. As DARI’s president we see women in a cage here in Milan or in some quiet town of the North Italy. It often happens that the subdued wives don’t get any paper. This condition is more tragic if we think that a linguistic wall divides them from the world around, that speaks a different language. When the women aren’t able to read and speak, they also aren’t able to beg help from Italian people or Italian law. They don’t know Italian law, and this condition barred them from the one help really necessary in this situation: the help of the law.

We can't tolerate this. And for this I have founded my association, the DARI. We can't think changing the situation of Muslim women if we are not able to fight against woman’s submission, in Italy. If we aren’t able to help Muslim women living near us, we could never help every Muslim women in Afghanistan or in Iraq. And the only weapon to fight this segregation and violence against women is culture. And in fact a primary goal of DARI is a massive literacy campaign. First the Muslim women must be able to read and write: in Arabic and in Italian. This is the first step. When they can read and write, they can know the law, and, consequently, their rights. This is also a step necessary to integration. When the Muslim women will be integrated, they will get the chance to open their mind to other cultures. This makes the person free. And in second, when a literate Muslim woman will be able to know her history, she'll see in her past the queen and the thinkers. This will be good for Muslim women and also for Islam. It is the true face of Islam. The correct knowledge of their mother language, Arabic, will help them in knowing their religious rights: we know that Classical Arabic is very different from the dialect spoken by the women. For an example, the question of the veil is a misunderstanding of the a Quran passage (surat an-Nur 31), in which the Sacred Book tells women to cover their farj, word often translated with “beautiful part of the body” but that in classical Arabic means “fissure” and is a clear allusion to genitalia. Then they must know Italian language (or English in UK, USA and Australia, or French in France, or German in Germany and Austria) because this is their primary help with the law. According to Italian and European law men and women are equal. This equality clashes with the polygamy. For example. But unluckily also in Italy there are cases of polygamy. If women would know that polygamy is illegal in Italy, they can take courage to denounce husbands-owners. But for this step these women must be able to read and write in Italian. And often it happens that their husbands prevent their women to learn Italian. A dear friend of mine tells me the story of a woman who goes to lessons of Italian language secretly, with the pretext to go at the school to take her child. But when her husband understood where she really goes, he prevented her to go to the lessons.

The contribution of women to Islam can be really great. We see, today, Muslim women speaking at this university about Islam. We know how the contribution of Muslim women to democracy is great thorough the Muslims world. A woman, a fragile flower broken in her youth, became the symbol of the will of democracy of young Iranians: we can’t forget about Neda Agha Soltan. But behind Neda we have seen a lot of young girls crying freedom. How is this possible? It is possible because the education widespread among Iranian women: in Iranian universities there are more women than men. And from the university and from the culture starts the will of freedom, like in the tragic june 4, 1989 when Chinese students protested for liberty in Tiananmen Square. Today in Iran it is like in China in 1989 (we hope with a better end), but a great part of these students are women. And for this it is urgent an education for Muslim women here, in Italy. In a western democracy it will be easier for a woman to get the rights she deserves. And the change of Islamic world can start by the women in the West. The Muslim women in the West can truly change the Islamic world, they can bring to the Islamic world the democracy about which the Holy Quran himself speaks. We must fight against the segregation, the mutilation, the domestic violence and every problem that afflicts the women in general, and Muslims in particular. We must give the women the chance to study and acculturate. If somebody says that the West must open himself to Islam, we say that also Islam must open himself to the West. Prophet Muhammad said: “Look for learning, even in China”: And if the West got something from which we can learn, why refuse it?

I would like to end my little intervention with a consideration. In the Declaration of Independence of the United States of America we find “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with inherent and inalienable Rights; that among these, are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness”. Equal: men and women were created by God equal. The first inalienable Right is the Life: also in the Holy Quran we find a phrase in which God Himself says that who kills a human being kills all mankind. The second Right is Liberty. God gave us Liberty. Gave us, in His wisdom, also the freedom to refuse Him, because “there’s no compulsion in Faith” God knows how the compulsion is silly, because it brings hate toward religion, not love. The history teaches us about this. But the last Right is the less mentioned: the Pursuit of Happiness. It is a Right that every man and woman wants. A lot of Muslim women don’t have the Right to Pursuit their Happiness. They are segregated. A lot of italian people say “It is her culture, we must respect”. That’s wrong! Muslim women are like every woman in the world, they want their happiness: and their happiness starts from the possibility to choose. A lot of Muslim women cannot show their face. They’re not happy to be veiled ghosts, without identity, as the afghan women behind the burqa (and remember Si Hamza Boubakeur, rector of the Mosque of Paris, said “the veil, in Islam, is a question of custom and not a coranic imposition” and more recently also the recently late Shaykh Mohamed Sayed Tantawi, imam at al-Azhar, condemned the niqab and the burqa). The Muslim women have right to their Happiness, i.e. to choose their life, to study, to work, to be considered a complete human being and not an eternal minor. The Muslim women, as every other human being in the world, want their rights.

Let’s work all together to give to Muslims women the right to the Liberty and the Pursuit of Happines, and the world will have a great ally for democracy.

Dounia Ettaib

La nostra "concertista" Dounia Ettaib ha pronunciato il suo storico discorso lunedì 15 marzo 2010 all'università Cattolica di Milano, di fronte alla Signora Farah Pandith, Special Representative to Muslim Communities, United States Department of State, in visita ufficiale a Milano.

Concerto di Sogni è onorato di ospitare il testo completo originale e ringraziamo la dottoressa Dounia Ettaib.

Cara Dounia,
Concerto di Sogni condivide le tue aspirazioni e tutti noi desideriamo sostenere le tue proposte e partecipare al tuo progetto.
La nostra piccola rivista letteraria nasce in nome della libertà di cultura e di espressione costruttiva e Concerto di Sogni non potrebbe esistere se tale libertà non venisse garantita a tutti gli esseri umani e soprattutto alle donne che in questo particolare periodo storico mostrano la via per lo sviluppo dell'umanità.

Chiediamo alla società di prestare attenzione e operare affinchè i diamanti del pensiero siano appoggiati e non più isolati.

Quando Beppe e io fondammo Concerto di Sogni, avevamo un grande sogno, che comparissero le voci di tutti gli appartenenti alla società, di tutti i mestieri, di tutte le fedi, di tutte le tradizioni. Il nostro sogno di letteratura e di poesia è poco a poco divenuto realtà, ci sono le voci di tutti i mestieri, di tutte le fedi e di tutte le tradizioni. E noi dobbiamo ricambiare questo dono che abbiamo ricevuto. Ed è per questo che insieme proseguiremo a difendere la libertà di espressione di chi dolcemente sussurra di fronte a chi urla e grida, la loro libertà è la nostra libertà.
Dove parla la letteratura, ha detto recentemente uno scrittore, il fondamentalismo si ritira. La parola dell'animo umano è letteratura. Dove parla l'animo umano, l'animo di Concerto di Sogni è lì.

Roberto Mahlab

In sintesi.. spero che questo tuo discorso attraversi indenne l'atlantico ed arrivi nei salotti americani e che qualche senatore illuminato comprenda il vero e unico modo di combattere il terrorismo senza guerre e senza armi..

Continuate cosi!

Su concertodisogni è da molto che sappiamo che sono le donne a portare avanti il dialogo.. e il concerto di voci si espande a livello globale.

bravi bravi bravi

Beppe

ciao