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My father came to Tanzania in 1922, and initially worked on a coconut plantation in Zanzibar. My mother came to Tanzania in 1930 after she got married and worked as a mother and a homemaker, raising eleven children and surviving to be a grandmother to twenty grandchildren. Most Ismailis migrated from India to East Africa in the 1900s to work on plantations, in railways, in small businesses, and as civil servants for the British Government. They were labeled "British Indians" and issued with British passports. The experience of growing up with my mother and five sisters in East Africa has helped me learn, listen and work with women for social justice. My mother, Rehmatbai participated in the women's association and empowered me to work for women's rights as human rights. The women in East Africa empowered themselves through the Ismaili women's association and in the process produced a new generation of Canadian Ismaili women activists and leaders such as Sunera Thobani, former president of the National Action Committee on the Status of Women and Tazeem Nattoo, former chair of the SFU Board of Governors. There is no religion that labels itself as 'patriarchal' or 'sexist'. Instead, all religions agree that women should not be abused or mistreated. So most men, including Ismaili men, grow up thinking that women are well treated in their religion. However, even when taught that women must submit themselves to men, religious men and women alike are encouraged to see these patriarchal teachings as valuable and useful elements of tradition. Ismaili women commonly face problems to do with abuse, isolation, marriage, depression, poverty, divorce and family violence. Asian feminists from Bangladesh, India, Nepal, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka see feminism as an awareness of women's oppression and exploitation in society, at work, and within the family, and conscious action by women to change this situation. Feminism is about challenging the division of labour in the world that places men in charge in the public sphere while women slave away unpaid in the home, carrying the whole burden of family life. African novelist Ama Atat Aidoo comments that, "When people ask me rather bluntly every now and then whether I am a feminist, I not only answer yes, but I go on to insist that every woman and every man should be a feminist-especially if they believe that Africans should take charge of African land, African wealth, and the burden of African development." Although there is no universal definition of feminism or feminist theory, women living in almost all parts of the globe share a common experience of gender discrimination. Feminism has evolved in different communities, countries and continents around different issues. Unfortunately, the public and private media in Canada, Britain and the U.S. has only focused on 'radical feminists' who say that women's liberation is first and foremost liberation from male domination. Although most divorced women are not feminists, the media promotes feminists and "marriage busters", lesbians, and man-haters. Of course, and contrary to uninformed belief, all feminists are not lesbians, and all lesbians are not feminists. DIVIDE AND RULE In the 1920s in Tanzania, Uganda, and Kenya, were all under to British colonial rule, so the school curricula centred around English literature, history, language and culture. The Asians and Africans were encouraged to act like the upper class English people and dream of living in Britain. In fact, some of the rich Ismaili children went to Britain after their elementary education in East Africa. The racism institutionalized by the British promoted ethnic divisions through school and residential segregation for Africans Asians and Europeans. The label "Asians" covered people from India, including Ismailis and Punjabis. Throughout their education, Asians were socialized to accept the British "divide and rule" policy. Asians had to live with racism and at the same time became racist against the Africans. Colonialism was dictatorship with the British governor playing the role of a dictator. Both African and Asian women and men did not have the right to vote and British- institutionalized sexism reinforced gender division through different professional and occupational opportunities for women and men. The myth of superiority of English culture was implanted in the colonized people including the Ismaili women and men through education and commercial products including suits and dresses made in England. Commercialized medicine and breastmilk substitutes in England were also introduced in Africa. Baby food changed from mothers' healthy breastmilk to commercially produced infant formula milk delivered in bottles or cups. English style dressing, eating with fork and knife, and bottle-feeding was associated with the European standards of civility and modernization. Presently, the colonial legacy of European superiority, and Asian inferiority is begin challenged by some of the Ismaili women born and/or educated in Canada. For example, wearing traditional South Asian clothing illustrates the reclaiming of Asian identity. And increasingly, Ismaili mothers are breast-feeding their babies. OUT OF AFRICA During the 1960s, Britain lost its colonies in East Africa. The new political leadership consisted of Indigenous Africans and a couple of Asians and Europeans, almost all of them were men. The race-based apartheid system in education, health and housing was officially dismantled. However, the pre-independence economic domination by the Europeans and Asians continued and racial hierarchy did not disappear. In order to keep their British passport and landing rights, some of the Asians emigrated from East Africa to Britain. There were two other main events which triggered the Asian migration form East Africa to Europe and North America. The first was in Tanzania when the government confiscated property in order to control the economy and dismantle the residential ghettos. The other event was the expulsion of all Asians from Uganda by dictator Idi Amin who used Asians as scapegoats to show-off his military power and perpetuate his survival. The Kenyan Ismailis came to Canada over a period of many years to avoid the Ugandan experience and the 'Westernization' of Ismailis during the colonial era had already prepared Ismailis to live in Europe and North America. Most of the Ismailis migrated to Canada after 1970 because it was similar to Britain. Now, after 25 years in Canada, about half of the Canadian Ismaili population has been born in this country. FILLING THE GENERATION GAP We generally think of grandparents as old people, but there are many middle-aged grandparents around who are in their forties and fifties. Since 90 per cent of the elderly Ismaili women aged 65 years and over are grandmothers, the formation of an Ismaili Grandparent-Grandchildren Friendship Association will highlight the presence of grandparents in the Ismaili community. The goal of the Grandparent-Grandchildren Friendship Association will be to create a truly intergenerational community. The friendship association will aim to reverse the current trend of an age-segregated society-one in which grandparents, parents, and children have become increasingly distanced and emotionally-alienated from each other. Old and young Ismailis have a real need for each other, and the burden of being an Ismaili parent is considerably reduced when children have regular and intimate contact with their grandparents. The message of hope in my interview with several Ismaili sisters is clear, "We hope to have more egalitarian relationships in homes and in the community. We want to have less competition, greed, and divorces. We want to see the growth of the Canadian Ismaili women's association both at the grassroots level and at the national level." Shiraz Ramji is a mature, feminist, Ismaili student currently studying women's studies and gerontology at Simon Fraser University.
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