The tears of an Otoko no Hito

I saw a Japanese man cry on Saturday. I had always thought that outward displays of emotion were rare here. I had always thought that a woman may get away with it here but not a man. So when I saw a Japanese man cry I thought I would melt.

He was not drunk and he was not a madman on the street. He was a performer in the Japanese play “a message from Gaza”. I attended the third showing. He was reading out letters from a man called Mustafa, I shall call the performer Mustafa-san. My Japanese is bad so I did not follow all that was going on. So I focused on the performers body language and the photos in the slides projected behind them. They all showed such passion.

Mustafa-san stood out. At the end of the play all the performers stood on stage. Mustafa-san was in the center. The producer made a speech, where the words Israel, Gaza, Palestine, Rachel Corrie and Vittorio Arrigoni were among the few recognizable words. I looked at the performers, and Mustafa-san caught my eye. His face was scrunched up in a grimace like he was holding back a sob. I observed the others, some looked studiously serious, mirroring possibly the connotations of the words of the producer, and some wore the standard neutral expression I have come accustomed to here. My eyes drifted back to Mustafa-san, and wondered why his cheeks looked so shiny… and why was he wiping his face with his Kuffiyeh? His shoulders shuddered as he buried his face a second time into that symblic white and black checkered scarf what an amazing actor! I whispered to my friend.

But he was not an actor, the producer told me later, he had visited Palestine. The play, the photos and the memories of Palestine and not skillful acting were behind his tears.

So there you have it… Palestine brought public tears to the eyes of a man from one the worlds most reserved and stoic societies. Palestine made a Japanese man cry.

Otoko no hito is Man in Japanese. 

Imaan Networking: the Kyoto Chapter

Yes, it has happened. The long arm of the Imaan network has reached the ancient capital of Japan! In my final months in London, friends were jokingly saying that I should start a branch here! I thought it was impossible, but …

It started really 3 months ago. Alhamdulillah I was blessed with opportuties to meet many fascinating and amazing people here in Japan, who hailed from all over the world. I was also volunteering at the mosque helping out in the kids Arabic language class. It was my job to keep the very little ones entertained while the older ones learned. Through this I was able to meet women from the Muslim community. Algerians, Iraqis, Turks, Uigher, Japanese, Bangladeshi, Egyptian.. many had been here for years. There is also a Malaysian society at the university as well as a Kansai wide Egyptian society. The mosque also runs special groups for the Japanese muslims to meet each other. Also, the men had Friday prayer (little mosque, no space for women) and on the weekends in Ramadan the bachelors would have iftar at the moque catered for by the wives of the married men.

Notice the gap? Unless you were Malaysian, Egyptian, Japanese or a man, you kind of fell through the net!

Then in May I started my second Japanese class at university. Majority of the people were muslims! And they were, like me, new! I started to work behind the scenes, baiting people with the dream of the Imaan network! Eventually in June sending out the fateful email which established it.

I was amazed. I received responses from women who had been here for over a decade! You see, even though I have painted a rather negative picture of the local community and mosque, I really should point out that before 8 years ago, none of this existed! The mosque was established by a Japanese muslim professor with the aid of a Turskish scholar very very recently. And in this short time the community has flourished! We are very much a community being forged!

So we have met, we have talked, and we have delighted in each others company. We have discussed many issues such as praying at work, fasting at work in such a fast paced and intensive work environment, the headscarf, being the teetotalers in the world capital for sake appreciation! As well as the social fallout from being non-drinkers.

We have even launced the iftar iniative that exists in London. Here I admit I had no idea what to expect. Had Uzma not gone first, and had I not seen how willing and happy people were to open their doors, to lets face it, total strangers, I would never have had the idea or the guts to do the same here. But as in London, it has been met with a warm welcome. Alhamulillah, and I say this from the bottom of my heart, I have received much positive feedback. People are delighted to enjoy the communal iftars, that sense of family and community, that temporary reprieve from isolation!

So far, we have had 5 iftars and have 2 more to go! InshAllah, if this is truly serving the community, may it be blessed and continue to grow.