Iman Raissali Salah (Morocco, 1996) is having a personal hatching moment. Not just because a little over three years ago she saw “pressure” to get a contract and decided to break up her marriage that condemned her to a life as a “traditional wife”. Nor was it because She was Muslim that she decided to permanently remove the veil she had been wearing for 13 years this summer. Adopting the stage name Imane, Miss Raisa she has “lost fear” of having her own voice for this new phase of her life. And now he can’t contain it any longer.
He catches it in his songs -as a girlsuccess in which he describes the introspection and prejudices he encountered as a child – but also in his books, as in his last, because i want (Planeta, 2022) tells about her experiences since she came to Spain.
FROM SPAIN TO EL PERIÓDICO “The veil is not what determines a person’s freedom, but rather what is inside his head, so make no mistake. I am a free woman because of my ideas, not because I take off my veil.” in a phone call from Catalonia, where he came from his native Morocco when he was only eight years old.
Q. In your song a girl He talks about the right to wear the veil without discrimination, but he no longer wears it. What has changed in recent years?
r. This theme basically talks about my shyness, but it’s also a call to respect in general, not just the right to wear the veil. For example, nobody told me not to wear certain trousers because it was not a tradition in Spain. Everyone wears what they want, period. I advocate for every woman to do what she wants. If you want to wear a veil, you have the right to it. And if he wants to take it off too, but let him decide.
Q. This freedom is not available everywhere.
r. It is true, there are many women who wear hijab with pride and dignity because they really want to, but there are also women who are pressured or forced to wear it. Is one reality more valuable than another? No, we cannot say that the veil is oppressive or that removing it liberates you, because for me freedom is in ideas, not in clothing.
Q. Did you feel we were forcing you to lift the curtain in the West?
r. Completely. The talk here is that the Muslim woman is not free. Who are you to tell a woman how to dress or to impose your own ethical rules on her? We have a radical faction that forces us to wear it, and a western faction that claims to be feminists and wants to force us to remove it. Their thing is that they leave us a safe space to decide freely. This is a very sensitive issue, you can’t pull it out if it’s not one’s own decision. Just give him your support and respect him.
Q. Not everyone will like what you say.
r. Sometimes I feel a bit like a punching bag, really. Both Muslims and non-Muslims attack me for having a different view than theirs. When I wear it because I wear it and when I don’t… The truth is that the veil is just a small detail of my freedom.
Q. In what sense?
r. For some I am the worst right now because all my values were given to me by the veil. It’s not my personality, my virtues, or my values. Without the veil I am a scumbag to them, dishonorable. But now that I’ve taken it off, there are those who say I finally liberated myself. No, let no one be confused because I want it to be very clear: I am a free woman not because I stopped wearing the veil, but because of my ideas.
Q. How did this process go?
r. I liberated myself because I took away many mental burdens from myself. There are feminist currents who believe that Western women are less pressured because they can show their breasts instead of wearing a veil, but that’s not the case. Freedom is not reduced to a dress style, but to a radical change in your mind. Anything other than that just seems silly to me.
Q. How did you deal with the fact that your freedom to choose a husband was taken away if you ever wanted him?
r. They didn’t push me hard, but it’s true that when I turned 18, I felt a lot of pressure from my family and my sociocultural environment. At that moment I wanted to be the least concern for my mother and siblings, so I accepted because I knew it would be different without her, but I wouldn’t marry for love.
Q. It doesn’t seem easy to accept.
r. The strong, independent and transparent woman I am now came later, but she wasn’t back then. I was filled with fears and insecurities. I’ve been quiet for a long time: I worked 10 hours a day, studied Psychology remotely and continued, and when I got home I was expected to be a traditional wife and do all the other duties. One day everything will be over.
P. When did everything blow up?
r. Back then, I wasn’t even my own priority. I had my daughter, my mother, my brothers, my husband in front of me… But one day, the enormous demand placed on me, the psychological violence I was subjected to, I was so worn out and pushed into a corner; He decided that the stupid, submissive, and manipulable girl was done. I’m divorced, so I made a list of things I’ve always wanted to do.
Q. How is your relationship with religion now?
r. I like that everyone lives their way as long as they respect others. For myself, I’ve decided to take the basics literally, which is trying to be a good person. I don’t see races, genders, or religions, but I do see people, but to some, I’m a crazy sinner now. An infidel.
Q. Have you received criticism from the Muslim community?
r. Not all Muslims are the same. An Indonesian Muslim is not the same as an Egyptian Muslim. I grew up in a very macho society like Morocco, but so was Spain 50 years ago. You have to give them time to make the much-needed change.
Q. Were you surprised by the hate on social networks during the match between Morocco and Spain in the World Cup?
r. It sucked. Instead of celebrating all that unites us and appreciating the talents of others, a nonexistent war has been created. Racism, insults, a wave of hateful confrontations… There is a lot of nonsense on social networks, a lot of unacceptable things, but the real and sad thing is that they are a reflection of the society we have.