Basil worked at an Islamic organization he termed the “liberal edge of the conservative spectrum” before returning to the tech field, but we remain involved as donors, volunteers, and students. Last week, they asked me to pop by for a short interview for a new fundraising film they’re doing.

So this morning I hitched a ride with one of their employees across the bridge to the studio. It’s always so refreshing to spend time with someone considerably older and wiser, especially since so many of my friends in SF are unmarried 20somethings who make me feel ancient with their unbridled enthusiasm and overflowing social calendars.

We were discussing his upcoming road trip with his 17-year old daughter to check out colleges in SoCal, one of them being UCLA. My cousin did his undergraduate from there and while I recall a lovely campus, I also remembered how it was surrounded by plastic surgery clinics. We chatted about the pressure young women feel to gunk makeup across their fresh faces and to obsess about their bodies, clothes, and looks.

He lamented how he sometimes felt like a lone voice in the gale when speaking to his daughter about similar subjects, bombarded as she is with fashion magazines, peer pressure, and her own natural desire to look attractive, “My Uncle used to tell his daughters not to wear make-up by saying: “Beta, nai jootay ko polish nahin lagatey. Puraney ho jain to zaroorat parti hai.” (A new shoe doesn’t need polish; only old ones do.)

At some point he referred to people in their 30s as “so young” - yet another reason to hang out with older friends. After he said that, I felt “so young” for a full five minutes - until I had to hobble on my still stress-fractured foot and until the latte irritated my stomach and gave me the burpies, something which never used to happened when I actually was young.

So I arrived at the film studio with my old lady foot and cranky digestive system, where I was given the once-over, told that they’d be filming in high-definition, and promptly sent to Make-up. (!)

With my friend’s Uncle’s viewpoint on the similitude of shoes and faces still ringing in my ears and the memory of my last encounter with foundation (drag queen wedding ishtyle) still searing, I approached the Make-up Lady cautiously. Luckily, she was one of those white woman who always loves my long dark hair and brown skin and told me I barely needed any make-up at all because I was so exotically bee-you-tee-ful. Except for these two huge angry pimples between my brows of course. And the uneven skin tone. And the brow furrows. And…

I wrote a script and did the voiceover for another one of their fundraising films in September 2006, but it was a new experience being in front of the camera and bright lights with Make-up Lady patting powder on my shiny nose. I tried to channel a Hollywood nonchalance but really I was nervous and not as articulate as I could have been, but had a grand old time anyway.

I spoke about the organization and how they are indigenizing Islam in America, the fact that Islam and America share many values and principles, and that they have a commitment to women being heard and represented at every level - Board, staff, and students.

And as I said that, I realized that every other woman they had called in to speak was a hijabi, except for me. Often, secular non-profits will feature a hijabi (or some other ostensibly Muslim woman) to show how open-minded they are; it was my first experience with the inverse.

Had I been tokenized?

It’s possible, but I believe that they chose to have a non-hijabi interviewee in order to make a loud statement to their at times insular and conservative constituency. They are an orthodox organization committed to moving the community past the covering issue, i.e., past arguing about it and ostracizing women who don’t wear it. They believe the hijab is mandatory but also believe that non-hijabi women must be welcomed and involved in long-term community- and institution-building.

For many of us who grew up attending US mosques where women and young people were (and often still are) prevented from taking active leadership and thus experience disengagement and disillusionment with the community and/or Islam, this is a refreshing and necessary change.

At home as I washed off the (drag queen in the sunlight) studio makeup and welcomed back my face, I saw that while they may not always be as proactive as I would like, they recognize that a partnership with women’s hands is necessary to give their classic old shoe a spanking new shine for the 21st century.

And that feels really good to me.

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