Mozoo-e-sukhan

Saudi Arabia is a monarchy and all its legal and social systems flow from that basic standpoint. Here crops a fundamental question: what is Islamic about Monarchy? Monarchy is monarchy

The title of Faiz Ahmad Faiz’s beautiful poem ‘Mozoo-e-sukhan’, literally translated means ‘the subject of conversation’ or alternatively and more prettily, ‘the poet’s muse’. The poem is written in the first person and ostensibly is a poet’s confession that his beloved is his muse and the singular subject of his poetry. The poem starts with a haunting portrayal of the beloved and the poet’s recognition that his muse is none other than that. The poet mentions the existence of other topics for conversation: hunger, poverty, exploitation - almost in passing before he reverts to the beauty of his beloved and leaves the reader with the question that ‘where else is such bewitching beauty to be found?’ as a justification for his sole preoccupation with his beloved to the exclusion of all else, especially the mundane, the ugly and the difficult.

Recently a story about deportation of men from Saudi Arabia hit the headlines. The story was ridiculous and did not merit so much attention, what is interesting is the rebuttal. I find the problem here is more layered than a simple: is it true or not?

In its narrowest present context my problem with this ‘non-issue’ is three-fold. The first is the record of the Saudi regime, which is hardly stellar. Off the top of my head, the penal code, child abuse, female domestic workers, minority rights are some extremely troubling areas. The legal/social issues around Muslim women in Saudi Arabia are another. And I am just talking here of the very basic, daily and domestic. A while back an ‘authentic ‘ report made headlines regarding men monitoring their wives, which was no less ridiculous and far more ominous than the story currently under fire. Inaccurate reporting is to be condemned, as is stereotyping, but we do have to understand why people are less likely to be incredulous when it comes to stories of a similar ilk hitting the headlines as far as Saudi Arabia goes.

My second problem with this debate is the need to defend the Saudi regime being confusedly conflated with a broader defense of Islam or Muslims. Saudi Arabia is a monarchy and all its legal and social systems flow from that basic standpoint. Here crops a fundamental question: what is Islamic about Monarchy? Monarchy is monarchy – whatever its religious affiliation and in this case, the Saudi royal family happens to be Muslim. The Saudi monarchy ‘s tenuous Islamic characteristic is fattening up the (Muslim) clergy in exchange for legitimacy (a trend shared by monarchies across religious divides) for an essentially inhuman and unjust system whereby some are blatantly and legally more equal than others based on their bloodline.

And thirdly, a minor point that captures my frustration with all such stories is perhaps the most important. The most critical issue that gets lost in such debates and their rebuttals is what is common to many other places and people. The prevalent debates become the 'noise' and serve to keep the constant grassroots struggles of ordinary people away from the larger public imagination. I am no expert on Saudi Arabia but discourses that are limited to caricatures of the face of the regime reduce the conversation to the stories of those who have the power to tell them.

To return to Faiz Ahmad Faiz and his poem ‘mozoo e sukhan’, I have to admit: stories of the struggles and suppression of women, labour and minorities do not make for sexy headlines and who will complain about the news coverage when the subject is as delectable as Mr. Al Gala? Not I for one - who confess to unashamedly creeping his images online (thereby admittedly pandering to every hetero-normative stereotype out there).  That the above mentioned struggles run directly counter to the Saudi status quo and its strong alliances with the powerful global powers that be, might make for no more than an interesting postscript.

As Faiz eloquently puts it:

Lekin us shokh ke aahista se khulte hue hont,

Haye! Us jism ke kam-bakht dil-aaweez khatoot,

Aap hi kahiye, kahin aise bhi afsoon honge?

(But - her slowly parting lips,

And oh the beauty of her limbs,

Tell me - where else is such bewitchment?)