The Dancing Girls of Islam

From The First Post Online Magazine Istanbul’s female dervishes are dividing Muslims Report and photos by Iason Athanasiadis January 17, 2008 In a cultural centre in Istanbul's Fatih district, nine Mevlevi dervishes, clad in the distinctive long gowns of their mystical order, revolve rhythmically in a sacred dance. It is a scene that has been repeated since the order was founded in Turkey's sacred city of Konya in the late 13th century. But there is one controversial innovation that would outrage most Islamists: no less than four of the participants are women. "The Mevlevis are an exception," says Carole, a convert to Islam who has lived in Istanbul for the past 20 years. "They allowed the sexes to mingle even at a time when men and women were not allowed to be buried in adjoining tombs." Male-female segregation continues to this day, notably in the cemeteries of the Islamic Republic of Iran. While Shia Muslim tradition allows men's representations to be drawn on their tombstones, the same does not apply for women. They are absent and invisible in death, as they were covered in life. Mystical Muslims have always departed from orthodox Islam's stern script. In formerly Christian lands, suddenly Islamised, Sufism was the natural continuation of ascetic tradition. Placing an emphasis on spirituality over religious protocol, the men who came to be called dervishes developed a pantheon of saints, challenging Islam's strict monotheism. In the secular republic of Turkey, at the heart of the old Ottoman empire, political Islam was dealt a death-blow by modernising leader Kemal Ataturk (right). In the 1920s he instituted the separation of mosque from state and abolished the Islamic Caliphate and its edict that the Sultan was also Allah's representative on earth. Sufi orders, including the Mevlevis, were terminated: the new state padlocked their lodges, razed them to the ground or reopened them as museums. Which is why the portrait of Ataturk hanging alongside icons of revered early Muslim figures Ali and Hussein in every Mevlevi lodge in Istanbul is so astonishing. Ataturk's name is invoked during prayers as the saviour of Sufism from the deracinating effect of politics. Hassan Dede, spiritual leader of the Mevlevi Order, has a youthful face framed by smiling white eyebrows, alert eyes and a moustache. In 1993, he declared that men and women should be free to worship alongside each other - in one stroke up-ending the taboo that for centuries consigned women to the first floor of a mosque, peering down through wooden latticework at the shaykh and his male devotees. Unsurprisingly, women outnumber men in Dede's gatherings. Many of them were secular and had never attended a mosque in their lives before coming across the Mevlevi Order. "It is wonderful, seeing men and women praying together," says Deniz Evreng, a 28-year-old female follower who was attracted back to Islam after she attended a Mevlevi ceremony. "Young people go to Dede and ask him about their love problems and get advice from him." In another break with mainstream Islam, hardly any of the 60-something women attending Dede's gatherings are veiled. One attractive woman wears red Capri pants. Many are successful, unmarried professionals and look as if they have come straight from the office. The painting of pre-restoration Mecca that hangs above them seems more art exhibit than religious article. In nearby Saudi Arabia, or neighbouring Iran, where the state presumes to be the protector and definer of religion, Sufism is scorned by Sunni and Shia alike. The fact that Dede allows females to participate in the sacred dance - an innovation that orthodox Muslims abhor, even when practised by men - could earn him a fatwa. But Hassan Dede has no time for Islamic Republics, divine monarchies or official Islams. His Islam has been shaped by 500 years of the multicultural Ottoman Empire; it was and is an Islam that stresses inclusiveness and flexibility. "Mevlana didn't come from Arabia," says Dede. "Mevlana said: 'Come unto me, even with blood on your hands, but without making rules or laws.' As for the other orders, I say they are Arab-based and dependent on legalism." With statements like this, it is little wonder that Dede is perceived as a potential ally by the Bush Administration in its struggle to reshape Islam. But Dede makes it clear that he will not be made the political pawn of any master. "The only terrorist is Bush," he declares, when asked about his views on Osama bin Laden. It is true Dede cuts an unorthodox figure in the world of Sunni Islam. But what he and others wish Bush and his neo-con supporters would understand is that there are many 'unorthodox' Islamists throughout the Muslim world, far more moderate than the combative, anti-Western strand currently parading the streets of Cairo, Karachi or Gaza. Dede, surrounded by his whirling dervishes, claims an aversion to politics. It's a pity the same cannot be said for the Bush neo-cons and their absurd Islamo-Fascism Awareness Week which starts on US campuses today, aimed at 'defending' America from the Muslim hordes.