Getting to Know Dr. Yvonne Haddad
Professor of The History of Islam and Christian-Muslim Relations, Georgetown University, Washington, D.C.
DI: Tell me something about yourself:
YH: First of all, I’m not a Muslim — a lot of people make that mistake. I grew up in Syria and my husband is Jordanian. I came to the United States in 1963. I’m a Presbyterian.
DI: Are you a feminist?
YH: I have no idea. I didn’t join the National Organization of Women, like a lot of Muslim women. I believe women have rights. That’s true already of most Arab countries. Syria had women studying engineering way before [the United States] did.
DI: How is the Iraq War affecting Muslim women in the United States?
YH: More Muslim women in the U.S. are wearing the veil because there’s a feeling that we’ve imposed a war on Islam, not only on terrorism. “Islamization” is all over these days. In Cairo, Egypt, it used to be one-third covered and now its 98 percent. They’re covering willingly in rejection of the Bush doctrine, which they see as “Impose American values or we’ll bomb you.”
DI: Do you see this “Islamization” as affecting U.S. Muslim women in college?
YH: The opposite, if you wear a scarf, you’re saying “I’m not available sexually” and you are insulating yourself and not indulging in campus life, which is drinking and sex.
