Unexpected Acceptance

When I was preparing for this trip, many experienced travellers or natives of this area warned me about holding my tounge - putting a filter on the liberal rants I am, at times, known for. I'm generally considered a liberal by all accounts in the States, so in the conservative Muslim area of Mombasa, I might as well march the streets in rainbow tie-dye, walking to the beat of Buffalo Springfield (if you missed the 60's cultural reference...go Google it now. I mean that Jodie).

Today I was sitting down to lunch with Roo and an older womyn from MUHURI - both practicing Muslims and from what I had gathered overhearing previous conversations, extremely conservative (even though they both work for a Humyn Rights organization, liberating womyn...go figure). The news was playing in the background, and I was transfixed on some story about a boat capsizing in Asia somewhere, and Husna turned around to see what grabbed my attention. It was a horrid story - 100+ people died in the random collapse of this boat, so the families were shown crying and such. I couldn't help but think about how awful it would be to die like that, to have family die like that. And, I kid you not, after watching a few seconds of the clip, this womyn turned around and said it's "probably for the best. They're overpopulated anyway."

I spit. Almost literally spit out my food. All I could do was stare.
For those that know me well, the fact that I held my tounge was an act of God. But I did. I'm proud.
Then, for crying out loud, she started talking about how God plans for things like that - about how we have to balance the world somehow, although "the tsunamis made me sad - so many people." I couldn't believe that I was listening to this extremely religous womyn - one whom I had a monumental amount of respect for - quantifying how 'sad' an event was based on the number of deaths. But, again, I held my tounge.

The next story on the news was something about futbol, and she quickly asked me what America was doing with Beckham (I guess we 'bought' him, or something - I'd heard other interns talking about it, so I had a vague idea, although sadly don't follow much soccer). I informed her of my limited up-to-date knowledge, and guessed he was in California somewhere, and the sound of that state set her off. She looked at me with a piercing gaze and explained that she'd been "following" the same-sex marriage laws (fully expecting me to jump on her gay-hating bandwagon) and couldn't believe that so many people were getting married like that. Roo jumped in, gawking at a story about "two old womyn who'd just married each other."

Bless her heart, Husna asked what I thought. I quickly told her with a grin that she didn't want to know. But she persisted. So...my tounge untied itself.

I told her that I had absolutely no problem with that - that I completely supported the actions of the California legislature in passing the law and was happy that individuals who had been in love for years could now share the same rights as their hetersexual counterparts. I told her it didn't bother me at all. Both looked shocked, and Roo's only response was "But Jenn, you're Christian!!"

Ha, I love that one.

I rationally and quite calmly explained that I really believed all religions worshiped a God who upheld love above anything else, and I know that God loves when we're happy, so if our happiness is found in loving someone of the same sex, that I think God is totally down for that. She seemed ok with this. In fact, she nodded.

Nodded. That's big.

So we continued to have this conversation for a few more exchanges, and at the end, she said "You know, I still disagree. Not only because I'm a Muslim and we disagree. Not only because I'm Kenyan and our laws disagree. But I do. It's ok though, that's ok. We can disagree." And that was that. We walked away still respecting one another (ok, I have a little problem understanding how she can empower womyn - that's literally her job - but disempower gay women...another battle for another day). I was floored - after I initially opened my big mouth, I was sure MUHURI would ask me to step down as their intern and Argarn would send me packing.

It's interesting how such different people - two womyn with 30 years between them, practicing different religions (that we assume are polar opposites), working in differnt capacities, living in different countries - can have a conversation about such a political 'hot topic' and end so passively...I can tell you that most of my rights discussions in the States don't end with smiles. It was more than encouraging - it was relieving. I hope I can return to to America, to Chatham, with such an ease about these things, leaving my soap box in Kenya to rot.

Don't hold your breath. But I'll try :)