The reality and future of islamic feminism afghanistan. The debate between islamic feminists and secular feminists is explored. Analyzing a conceptual conflict reference url share. An intersectional feminist against imperial feminism. In this capacity, postcolonial feminism is a branch of intersectional feminist thought.
Islamic feminists claim that liberation for men and women lies in following the islamic faith and it is islam that provides the best protection for women. Islamic feminism and feminist theory by catherine williams. Without contesting the value of feminist thought in the struggles of muslim women, this essay critiques the easy conflation or inflation of the convergence of islam and feminism as islamic. This is the moment dreaded by every senegalese woman, the moment when she sacrifices her possessions as gifts to her familyinlaw. Paired with the historical gains of islamic feminisms from the daughters of hajars islamic bill of rights for women in mosques. Feminist phenomenology has contributed significantly to understanding the negative impact of the objectification of womens bodies. Abstract the discussion in the current debate primarily explores the major areas in islamic discourses that are criticized by scholars and critics. Islamic feminism is defined by islamic scholars as being more radical than secular feminism, and as being anchored within the discourse of islam with the quran as its central text. In the following article i will very briefly outline some of the main determinations of this complex contemporary phenomenon islamic feminisms. During recent times, the concept of islamic feminism has grown further with islamic groups looking to garner support from many aspects of society.
Read reforms in islamic education online, read in mobile or kindle. Womens rights or feminism have been used to justify colonial policies and the invasion of muslim countries, both historically and also in recent times. Islam vs feminism contemporary topics of islamic thought. At the same time, many have fought these incursions on the basis of the.
In my opinion, there is no ideology more irreconcilable with feminism than islam. I am going to discuss the development of feminist theories as to the sources of gender inequality and its pervasiveness, and the different feminist political solutions and. Dec 07, 2017 this is imperial feminism, also known more accurately as gendered orientalism. Those who advocate that feminist projects be conducted within an islamic framework have clearly despaired of secular options for change without considering how have elaborated lilas argument against the possibility of the coexistence of islam and feminism because it explains the anxiety many. No matter how much some western muslim women attempt to hijack the creed of feminism to suit their interests blurring the distinction between their islamic values a. Young arab muslim womens agency challenging western feminism. Feminism ids bulletin volume 42 number 1 january 2011 beyond islam vs. Islam and feminism have contradictory views on the most fundamental issues in metaphysics, ethics, social and political philosophy and theology. Between both the liberal western critiques and the attempts by islamist. Islamic feminism is based on certain nonnegotiable values, i. One womans global journey fernea, elizabeth warnock on.
This article argues that there has been a significant turn in the discourse of feminist politics in the islamic republic of pakistan. Introduction feminism has radically altered western culture in the latter half of the twentieth century. Islam has protected other religions and avoided fascism, racism, and genocide. British muslim women dont need the wests version of feminism, ok. Download reforms in islamic education ebook free in pdf and epub format. It places the west on a pedestal of gender empowerment, and thus ignores the systemic misogyny of western nations. They affirm agency and personal choice with respect to veiling, in a context of ambient skepticism that is often endorsed by western feminism. One important feature of islamophobia is to caricature islam as misogynistic and oppressive to women and thus to advance imperialist hegemony. Lived religion, negotiation of identity and assertion of third space by muslim women in pakistan. The term islamic feminism began to be heard in the 1990s in various global locations. This is the kind of feminism that centers white narratives and strips away the agency of women of color. Western feminism, analyzing and conceptualizing conflict, thesis for the degree of master of science, international studies, central connecticut state university, may 2003, chapter nine conclusion, p 7082.
Islam was not relegated to the tiny, sometimes frustrating and seemingly arbitrary details of practice, but rather entered the larger picture of spirituality and worship that contextualized my womanhood. Although rooted in islam, the movements pioneers have also utilised secular and european or nonmuslim. Yet as she sat across from me in her cream silk headscarf and matching modest. The variety of feminisms and their contribution to gender equality introduction my focus is the continuities and discontinuities in recent feminist ideas and perspectives. Radical feminism today offers a timely and engaging account of exactly what feminism is, and what it is not. But there are significant differences between islamic and western feminism. Yet muslim women have been active in modern forms of feminism since the nineteenth century. One feature is that the studies tend to align themselves on a spectrum between two interpretive poles, one relatively negative, the other positive, about the situation of women in islamic societies.
In this new conjuncture, women from within islam and islamist movements in farflung places around the worldfrom malaysia, to morocco, to iran, and to the united statesbegan to articulate a holistic, gendersensitive construction of citizenship within the framework of an islamic modernity. Jul 02, 20 as an interest group, african feminism set off in the early twentieth century with women like adelaide caselyhayford, the sierra leonian womens rights activist who contributed widely to both panafrican and feminist goals, charlotte maxeke who in 1918 founded the bantu womens league in south africa and huda sharaawi who in 1923 established the egyptian feminist union. In the 1920s, the territory was broken up into the states of lebanon, syria, palestine and transjordan under french and british mandates. To recognize the influence of national, political, and social contexts, particularly nationalism and imperialism, on islamic feminism. Sources of the tradition before engaging in any meaningful discussion of feminism in islam, it is useful to refer to the sources of the islamic tradition, since much confusion surrounds the use of the term islam. Muslim societies are more humane than portrayed in the west, while western societies often fail to live up to their liberal mythology. Islamic rather than familial or cultural can potentially enable them to recover their long obfuscated rights.
Apr 18, 2017 therefore, postcolonial feminism goes beyond euroamerican ideals about what gender equality looks like, depending on the social, political, and historical context of the country to which the discussion is based around. The tale and its telling this paper is a sketch of feminism in india which also raises some theoretical issues. Citizens of muslim countries may be more vulnerable to their governments and political violence. Throughout history she has been both a symbol of liberation and oppression, and yet she is. The status of the muslim woman in the middle east visavis the west continues to preoccupy scholars, feminists and human rights activists throughout the globe.
Is feminism relevant to arab women third world quarterly. Perhaps no other social movement has wrought such profound changes in social morals and attitudes. The man pulled out his gourd flute and played on it shrilly, and the cobra raised itself and darted hither and thither and swayedrosie stretched out her arm slightly and swayed it in imitation of the movement. What constitutes an islamic feminism, and where is it headed. See more ideas about books on islam, books and islam. Islamic feminism and feminist theory abstract western feminist theory has developed significantly from its early roots in the suffrage movement.
My reading about islam and feminism led me to expect that she would consider feminism, womens rights, and gender equality to be foreign, western, and unislamic. Islamic system, others import them and use them as such, sometimes even from a secular perspective. The islamic traditionlike other major religious traditionsdoes not consist of, or derive from, a single source. The theme of gender and feminism in the guide from litcharts. This essay argues for maintaining a critical space between two intellectual paradigms that inform muslim womens anticolonial equality struggles in the neocolonial present, islam and feminism. In this fact sheet we will focus primarily on the situation in central africa south of the sahara. Islamic feminism is a relatively new concept and not without controversy. Women make up half the population, and creating an environment like the present, where women can study hard, work hard, and still be treated as less than equal by her own culture, drives the intelligent women either out of the country, or into resigned complacency where progress is near impossible. Muslim women feel obliged to defend their culture when confronted by western feminists even if there are problems with it. It argues that postcolonial theory fails to recognize that what counts as marginal in relation to the west has often been central in the nonwest. The quraan does not discriminate between man and woman when it comes to rewards and punishments, and only differentiates the two. This paper will attempt to discover if there is a connection between western feminist theory and islamic feminism, whether the voice and agency so important to western feminists can exist in a world that is governed by.
It aims for the full equality of all muslims, regardless of gender, in public and private life. Introduction in the nonwest, feminism has largely been considered an alien concept, contrary to indigenous norms and traditions. Islamic feminism is a feminist discourse that propagates gender equality and social justice within a prestructured islamic framework, in an attempt to achieve normative reconciliation between islam and womens rights. Feminism history and perspective from history to herstoryfeminism is a collection of movements andideologies aimed at defining, establishing, anddefending equal political, economic, and socialrights for women.
Sexual revolution and liberation meant that sexual relations should be freed of the constraints associated with traditional christian virtue. Islamic feminism is both highly contested and firmly embraced badran, 2002. Islamic feminism is a relatively recent current of thought being developed by a transnational network of activists in widely contrasting sociopolitical contexts. Ppt islamic feminism powerpoint presentation free to view. The idea of muslim feminism or islamic feminism isnt just. The scholarship on women in islamic societies section describes features that pervade the entire literature. Feminism the perspectives argumentsdecember 11, 2012 2. Muslim women have also argued that feminism is an ideology relevant only to the lives of western affluent women, and that even for them it has only resulted in making them into quasi men or sex objects.
Asghar ali engineer is a renowned indian scholar and activist, recognized for his work in. This kind of subversion does not dismantle the differences between the genders and multiple races within. It fragmented, became exclusive rather than inclusive. It is in this context that questions about the possibility and desirability of islamic feminism arise.
The reinvention of feminism in pakistan afiya shehrbano zia. One advantage that islamic feminism has over the secular version is that. This essay focuses on the complex gendered particularities of the arab region including iran. Jan 25, 20 this essay will illustrate that western ideals are highly relevant to an understanding of the roles played by women in contemporary middle east me societies and will highlight the need for cultural sensitivity as well as universal commitment when using such western notions of gender equality. Freedom comes with a certain responsibility in islamic whereas in the west freedom tends to degenerate into licentiousness, not in law but certainly in social and cultural.
It is in such debates that islamic feminists, rather than relying on tradition or a proliferated feminism such as a specifically western feminism insist on a return to the quran and employ. Feminism ziba mirhosseini abstract islamic feminism has gained currency since the 1990s and has become the label for a new brand of feminist scholarship and activism that is. Islamic feminists advocate womens rights, gender equality, and social justice grounded in an islamic framework. Islamic political thoughtislamic feminism contemporary debate. Indeed many wonder whether it is possible to reconcile feminism with islam a religion critics regard as inherently patriarchal.
This then decreases support for the movement from men and women in the muslim world, who see it as an extension of a western agenda to demonise their culture and beliefs. Pdf on jan 1, 2010, beverly dawn metcalfe and others published reflecting on difference. Pdf reforms in islamic education download ebook for free. The celebration of thin bodies as beautiful and the demonization of fat bodies as unattractive is a common component of that discussion. Secular and religious convergences by margot badran. Feminism, including in particular such notions as womens right to equality and their right to control their own lives, is, with respect to the middle easts current civilization at any rate, an idea that did not arise indigenously, but that came to the middle eastern societies from outside. Feminism and feminist movements in the middle east, a. This article voices the larger concern over the rise of a new generation of islamic revivalist feminists who seek to rationalize all womens rights within the religious framework and render secular feminism irrelevant while framing the debate on womens rights exclusively around islamic history, culture and tradition. Hating men blaming everything bad on men being a lesbian white people saving muslimnonwhite women a western movement a result of daddy issues the idea that men and women are the same. Mainstream feminism with its strong links to secularism and western values, has a tendency to perceive islam as inherently misogynist.
The author suggests that the rise of a new feminism rooted in islamic discourse, nonconfrontational, privatized and personalized, whose objective is to empower women within islam is not a post911 development but rather a result of unresolved. Jan 12, 2016 islamic feminism, which derives its understanding and mandate from the quran, seeks rights and justice for women, and for men, in the totality of their existence. The cultural distance between the west and islam is narrower than westerners think. The portable document format pdf is a file format developed in the 1990s to present documents, including text formatting and images, in a manner independent of application software, hardware, and operating systems. The advocates concern about identifying with or as feminists is linked to muslim community perceptions of feminism as a western or american project, alien to islam, and part of imperialist and hegemonic frameworks to undermine muslim communities. Feminism is frequently seen as a western import which is alien to islam and threatening to muslim values. Islamic feminism encounters western feminism 2 womens fundamental rights in public, familial, and personal domains have been undermined under the aegis of returning to ourselves and reviving an authentic national identity.
Dilemmas of islamic and secular feminists and feminisms. Feminism is a secular ideology and islam today rests on fundamentalist foundations. Attention to intersectional experiences of muslim women and reference to feminist models centered on non western women may help understand how secondgeneration arab muslim women experience and express. They would apparently prefer to be their husbands slave and concubine to working to support themselves is probably often the main reason they. Islamic feminism is a form of feminism concerned with the role of women in islam.
As it grew to encompass those women who were not white and middle class it was caught in the trap that ensnares most social movements. The variety of feminisms and their contribution to gender. Journal of international womens studies, 93, 99116. The term feminism is too western and therefore secular, western feminism divides men and women and takes women away from the family. Western feminism is viewed as an imposition of western cultural values in.
The privatisation of religion 67 beyond islam vs feminism ziba mirhosseini abstract islamic feminism has gained currency since the 1990s and has become the label for a. Ppt islamic feminism powerpoint presentation free to. Third world and transnational feminisms have emerged in opposition to white secondwave feminists singlepronged analyses of gender oppression that elided third world womens multiple and complex oppressions in their various social locations. Religion, inevitably, was to play a major role in this enterprise. The reason islamic feminism has been perverted is because over centuries it had to conform to islamic law, sharia, which regulates to a faretheewell. Rereading of the islamic texts and influencing jurisprudence is a central project for islamic feminism. Dilemmas of islamic and secular feminists and feminisms huma ahmedghosh.