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Department of Politics and International Relations

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GOLDSMITHS, UNIVERSITY OF LONDON

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STUDENT NUMBER PROGRAMME

33486153 MA Politics, Development and the Global

South

MODULE CODE AND TITLE

PO71049A Middle Eastern and Islamic Thought Political Philosophy in a Comparative Perspective

Lecturer Dr Andrea Mura

QUESTION

Who’s ‘afraid of Islamic Feminism’, and why?

I confirm that I have read and fully understand the statement about plagiarism in the
regulations, that I signed when submitting my assessment registration form and are
contained in the Politics Student Handbook

DATE…01-05-2018……………………..

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WHO’S ‘AFRAID OF ISLAMIC FEMINISM’, AND WHY?

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

WHO’S ‘AFRAID OF ISLAMIC FEMINISM’, AND WHY?..................................................................................2

INTRODUCTION ......................................................................................................................................................4

ISLAMIC FEMINISM: DEFINITIONS ....................................................................................................................5

THEORY, BELIEFS AND PRACTICES ..................................................................................................................6

WHO’S ‘AFRAID OF ISLAMIC FEMINISM’, AND WHY?..................................................................................8

CONCLUSION ....................................................................................................................................................... 13

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INTRODUCTION

‘Islamic Feminism’ is a fluid, ever-expanding concept. The notion rapidly spread towards the end

the twentieth century from Arab to Asian, African, European countries, and eventually crossed the Atlantic

to reach the Americas. Although Islamic feminism’s affiliates come from diverse backgrounds from a

cultural, social, political and geographical standpoint, their common denominator is being part of a

generation that profited from an intensified access to education, hence who could, at different degrees,

grow a consciousness of their rights. Islamic feminism’s primary objective is to draw upon Islam's

authentic cradle, the Qur'an, to recover its egalitarian teachings by means of an exegetic approach. As

maintained by Amal Grami, Islam is witnessing the inception of a new generation of Islamist women

presenting a brand-new, audacious and challenging modus operandi with regards to the position and status

of women within the structure of a Muslim state, both in the domestic and public arena.

This essay explores the questions, ‘who is ‘afraid of Islamic Feminism’, and why?’ identifying as dramatis

personae Muslim fathers and husbands and Western, secular feminists. While Islamic Fundamentalists

might feel threatened by the rise of an Islamic feminist movement, Western feminists’ fear of Islamic

feminism is influenced by a lack of understanding of the movement’s ideas and aims. In order to determine

whether Islamic feminism represents a real threat to them, we will start our analysis by providing some

working definitions of Islamic feminism, proceed by casting light over the movement’s theoretical

foundations, beliefs and practices, and conclude by investigating the movement’s achievements.

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ISLAMIC FEMINISM: DEFINITIONS

For us to identify who might feel threatened by Islamic feminism, it is of primary importance to

contextualise the movement. The notion of Islamic feminism spread towards the end of the 20th century,

in multiple locations around the globe. According to the Iranian intellectuals Ziba Mir-Hosseini and

Afsaneh Najmabadeh, this term has been initially used in Iran by women working for the Capital’s

women’s journal, Zanan. Saudi Arabian intellectual Mai Yamani applied the notion in her seminal work

‘Feminism and Islam’. The term also appeared in South Africa, finding expression in the speeches of the

Muslim activist Shamima Shaikh. As a matter of fact, by the end of the century, the term Islamic feminism

was echoing in the most remote angles of the international umma. What does the notion of ‘Islamic

feminism’ convey? According to Margot Badran, ‘it is a feminist discourse and practice articulated within

an Islamic paradigm. Islamic feminism, which derives its understanding and mandate from the Qur'an,

seeks rights and justice for women and men, in the totality of their existence’ (2002). Another definition

has been provided by Yazbeck Haddad and John L. Esposito, who saw Islamic feminism a cross-border

movement incorporating all Muslim women that struggle to ‘redefine their identity in a more genuinely

modern manner that befits their religion and culture’ (2003, p.13). Islamic feminism has been carried and

nourished by women with very different credentials: from women living under the colonial yoke to those

who participated in liberation movements. From those emphasising the role of Theology to transform

society to those who seek reconciliation with liberal feminism; From women that carry the hijab (the

headscarf worn by Muslim women, known as ‘the veil’) to women that do not. Some are non-Arab

Muslims, some are. Some willingly proclaim their allegiance to the movement, some others endorse its

main principles but are reluctant to declare it. As Badran pointed out, both manufacturers and users of

Islamic feminist discourse are individuals who do not accept the stigma that originates when joining the

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movement and others who are proud of it. It may consist of devout Muslim and less practising ones; even

non-Muslim can belong to the crusade.

THEORY, BELIEFS AND PRACTICES

“He (God) it is Who did create you from a single soul and it did create his mate, that he might

dwell with her (in love)” (Al-Qur’an 7:189). “The Creator of the heavens and the earth: He has made for

you pairs from among yourselves” (Al Qur’an 42:11).

Although the Qur’an encourages and sustains the equality of all individuals, Islamic feminism maintains

that the practice has been tempered with by misogynistic beliefs and patterns deriving from the jahiliyyah

(pre-Islamic Arabia). Fiqh (Islamic jurisprudence), whose origins date back to the ninth century, was itself

deeply embedded in the patriarchal way of reasoning and behaving. As a result, this male-dominated

jurisprudence animated current expressions of the shari’a (the canonical law), and of the hadiths (sayings,

actions and approvals of Prophet Muhammad), has been manipulated to convey patriarchal practices and

beliefs. Given hadiths’ controversial paternity and authenticity, ‘a priority of Islamic feminism is to go

straight to Islam's fundamental and central holy text, the Qur'an, in an effort to recuperate its egalitarian

message’ (Badran, 2002). Even when dealing with the core assumptions of the movement, its international

character performs a pivotal function: while some representatives of the movement, such as Amina Wadud

and Fatima Naseef, chose to focus purely on the Qur’an, others focused on a revised interpretation of the

hadiths, as in the case of the Moroccan sociologist and writer, Fatima Mernissi. Furthermore, Islamic

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feminism’ researchers are still divided on whether the Qur’an should represent the unique foundation of

both moral and legal authority, or if the sunnah (rules of practice) should also be considered as such. This

dichotomy is a source of a further internal segmentation which produces the effect to influence the

movement’s theories and declared objectives, towards which we shall now turn our attention. The modus

operandi of Islamic feminism consists in the enforcement of tafsir (interpretation of the Qur'an) and

ijtihad (autonomous examination of religious sources), together with ‘tools of linguistics, history, literary

criticism, sociology, anthropology etc.’ (Badran, 2002). This is achieved through three main approaches.

The first consists in examining ayaat (verses) of the Qur’an to rectify deceiving accounts conveying

postulations of male superiority. The second methodology is performed by quoting ayaat that

unquestionably declare gender equality. Whereas the last blueprint is provided by disassembling

those ayaat that contemplate male-female dissimilarities that have been traditionally read in a fashion that

rationalise male superiority. When investigating the Qur’an, Islamic feminism’s ambassadors seek to

deliver alternative interpretations of the sayings and deeds of the Prophet Muhammad, thus emphasising

their shared belief that much of post-classical interpretation of the Qur’an has historically been centred on

male-biased experiences. The idea is that these ancient patriarchal beliefs and traditions that have been

inherited from the jahiliyyah, rather than from Islam, shall be held responsible for the decline of women’s

status quo. As underlined by Juliette Minces, while in pre-Islamic Arabia women were treated as

commodities and polygamy was common practice as well as female infanticide, Islam provided women

with legal status and personality. Following its inception, women were enabled to engage in commercial

activities and to obtain and inherit properties, whereas polygamy was ‘theoretically restricted’ (1982, 16).

According to Islamic feminism’s theoretical framework, compared to other religions, Islam is thoroughly

capable of liberating women. Hence, to attain a re-calibration of women’s condition within the boundaries

of Islam results far from impossible. By the same token, Islamic feminists tend to reject the higher status

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conferred to men. They insist that Islam has been deeply influenced by a male-exclusive perspective which

must be exposed in order to reveal the discrimination hidden in its discourse, as well as the structures that

admit their predominance over the other sex. This thesis has been corroborated by the Pakistani-American

writer, Asma Barlas, according to whom the discrimination faced by women can be ascribed to a sterile

and literal understanding of religious sources, a skewed reading that is indulgent towards the unbalance

of power and social interests (2002). Whereas, for Yavari-d’Hellencourt one of the primary objectives of

the movement is to allow women to experience anew their idiosyncrasies. The aim is to construct new

identities, since it is irrational for women to associate themselves with a masculine public image and

perceive it as an archetype (1999). It is precisely this process of self-discovery that will pave the way to a

religious scholarship for women. Men are held responsible for preventing women to occupy religious

positions or practices, such as excluding them from issuing fatwas (religious decrees) and from operating

as ma’thoun (a legitimate religious figure). Islamic feminism also asserts the need to discriminate between

the shari’a, a divinely mandated solid religious structure, and rulings based on mere interpretation: a

human product at the mercy of dynamic social considerations. Representatives of the movement, males

and females, demand the liberation of women from the forces of social obligations inconsistent with

Islam’s zeitgeist. In conformity with this idea, Badran contended that supporting gender symmetry ‘the

Islamic way’, in alignment with moral and religious equality, has the potential to supplant the appeal for

complete gender equality (2006).

WHO’S ‘AFRAID OF ISLAMIC FEMINISM’, AND WHY?

In March 2013, the twenty-three years’old Tunisian activist, Amina Sboui uploaded two pictures

of herself, bare-chested. The photographs depicted the young woman with words considered outrageous
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by Imam Almi Adel, who published a fatwa (non-binding legal opinion) stating that Sboui had violated

the Shari’a and therefore needed to be punished accordingly: one hundred lashes and stoned to death. On

the 4th of April 2013, FEMEN instituted the International Topless Jihad Day, resulting in young Western

women demonstrating shirtless against Islamism, or so they professed, in front of Mosques and Tunisian

embassies in several European countries. Adjacent to the Grande Mosquée de Paris, three activists

attending the demonstration decided to set on fire a Tawhid flag. Tawhid represents the principle at the

basis of the Islamic culture: the concept of uniqueness and oneness of God. In reaction to FEMEN’s

militant's gesture, Muslim activists pieced together the Facebook page ‘Muslim Women Against

FEMEN’, whose profile photograph reads: “Nudity DOES NOT liberate me, and I DO NOT need saving

#MuslimahPride #FEMEN.” While some adherent exploited the Facebook page to express their view of

the hijab as a symbol of identity rather than of male subjugation or resistance to Western hegemony, others

used the platform to ‘reclaim their voice’ (Middle East Eye, 2016). By way of an example, one follower

uploaded the message: “My hijab is my pride. Islam is my freedom. This is my choice. I don’t need you

to be my voice. I have mine.” Amina herself considered burning the Tawhid flag as extremely derogatory.

In her account, FEMEN’s campaigners did not just outrage the extremists, but all Muslims. This

occurrence demarcates the profound difference that characterises the relation between Islamic feminism

and secular Western feminism. Why did Muslim women react that way? Is it due to a patriarchal

understanding of Islam? Through this act, FEMEN’s members associated their own sexual freedom to the

emancipation of their Muslim counterparts, whereas as a matter of fact, Islamic Feminists tend to reject

the theoretical framework through which the issue of women’s liberation was addressed: Muslim women

can acquire emancipation without the need to identify themselves with the Western ideal of the

prototypical woman. As maintained by Badran, while Western feminism represents a normative critique

of Western countries’ oppressive patriarchal structures, the Islamic feminist movement finds its expression

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and articulation within the Islamic paradigm. Therefore, Muslim women did not feel represented by

FEMEN’s activist's gesture: the act of burning the Tawhid flag has been perceived as an attack on their

faith rather than a manifestation of solidarity. One aspect worth mentioning is that given the social,

cultural, political, religious and economic conditions, Western and Islamic feminisms had travelled

different paths. As maintained by Gabby Aossey, Feminist campaigns like ‘Free the Nipple’ only

encourage a superficial tendency of disrespect for human bodies, which ultimately brings other people to

disrespect it (Huffington Post 2017). While Western activists often use their bodies to protest, as in the

case of the activists at Greenham Common Women’s Peace Camp in the UK in the 1980s, and the Mothers

of the Plaza de Mayo in Argentina from 1977 onwards (Shepherd, 2010), Muslim women use their

intellects as a tool to make their voice heard. For this reason, Muslim females do not necessarily believe

that a liberation process would involve the suppression of hijab. Another element that creates tension

between the two movements is Western feminists’ inclination to address the status of women across the

globe as a monolithic compound. By treating women outside the liberal sphere as invisible, western

feminists neglect the different degree of exploitation, or lack of autonomy, of women belonging to

different religions, classes and countries (Minces, 1982). Thus, secular Western feminists present the

tendency to speak on behalf of Western Asian and African women presuming that Muslim women are not

able to express their views, or as in this case, loud enough to demonstrate pro-Amina. Finally, with respect

to secular feminism, Islamic feminism appears to be more radical: its members claim gender equality both

in private and in the public domains, whereas secular feminists historically tolerated equality in the public

realm and accepted the idea of complementarianism in the private one (Badran, 2002). As just mentioned

above, Muslim feminists understand women’s liberation as a spiritual rather than a material issue.

Nonetheless, as maintained by Fatema Mernissi, during the twentieth century several socialist societies

underwent profound transformations which testified that liberation of women is first and foremost an

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economic problem. Women’s liberation proved to be an incredibly expensive process consisting of a new

allocation of resources: jobs must be redistributed, society must provide child care to substitute the

mother’s role, new schools and canteens must be established. The lack of effective programmes to attain

women’s liberation in countries with a Muslim majority can help us understand the intense response that

women’s liberation processes provoked in most Muslims (1975). When fights for decolonisation were

about to end, Western ways became to be perceived as a horrible virus to be extirpated to avoid the

disintegration of Islamic traditions. Hence, this ‘Fundamentalist revival’, as Juliette Minces defined it,

promoted a rigorous interpretation of religious dogma as the only path to be pursued. Muslims began to

associate movements for women’s rights with western values of liberation. As a matter of fact, Islam’s

identity was being constructed in antithesis with the west. For women, this conservationist comeback

meant a compulsory refutation of Western values, as well as a retreat into the traditional family dimension.

Another aspect worth mentioning is that Muslim marriage revolves around the belief that it is possible to

achieve social order only if women’s risky tendency for disorder is repressed by an oppressive indifferent

husband who can enjoy the company of other wives to satisfy his sexual urges. On the contrary, an

alternative, brand-new sexual order founded on the lack of dehumanising restrictions of women’s potential

can represent a direct threat to the traditional Muslim family structures. In this regard, fears linked to a

fundamental remodelling of the status of women within and without family boundaries, can be justified

(Mernissi, 1975). These concerns are exacerbated by the demeaning images of Western sexuality, and

decaying family patterns depicted on the internet, on television and social media. Muslim men are

frightened by the possibility of seeing their families and sexual configurations transmuted into western

ones. An additional factor that helps in understanding Muslim men’s fears of the changes now taking place

through the work of the Islamic Feminist movement is related to the importance of the family within the

Islamic framework. Since in Islam family is society’s cornerstone, young girls are introduced, right from

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childhood, to their functions of wife and mother. Once married, in fact, women start exercising a

substantial influence on their families. While men usually engage in public life, their wives are entrusted

with preserving traditional values of Islam, transmitting them to their offspring and ensure that these are

respected. It is therefore appropriate to claim that Women perform a critical role in Islam, acting as ‘the

guardians of the traditions’ (Minces, 1982, 18). Thus, movements designed to confer women more

autonomy represent an immediate menace for Muslim fathers and husbands, who believe that any

alteration in women’s status represents a threat to Allah’s rule. Simultaneously, as Fatema Mernissi

pointed out, throughout the last few decades Islam has faced serious boundary issues and is now struggling

to figure out the best way to incorporate western technological advancements without hindering Muslim

core traditions. In this context, Islamic feminist’s claims results disturbing to Muslim societies not because

they endanger the past but precisely because they epitomise what future frictions will be about. As a matter

of fact, Muslim men are struggling with the inevitability of re-examining sexual, political, economic and

cultural institutions. Furthermore, with women now enjoying access to education, Islam is inevitably

mutating. The patriarchal honour founded on the idea of ‘virginity’, which reduced the female to the mere

physical dimension, is being counterbalanced by a youth that is getting autonomous, educated, urbanized

and unmarried, which further increases the fear of fitna (social disorder). Nevertheless, it shall be noticed

that not every innovation was abandoned, only those who defy authority, those who entail free choices,

seem to disquiet the Muslim world. Therefore, the traditionalist surge averse to women in the Muslim

reality, far from being a repressive trend, is rather a self-protecting mechanism against the profound

changes in sex roles and identities (Mernissi, 1975).

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CONCLUSION

Islamic feminism represents an opportunity for societies to evolve. As pointed out by Badran, if

we investigate the condition of women who form part of diaspora communities and Muslim minorities, it

results that second-generation Muslim women are frequently trapped between Muslim norms and

practices on the one hand and the different conceptualisation of life that characterise western countries on

the other. As this takes place, Islamic feminism can intercede for these women in extricating the notions

of ‘patriarchy’ and ‘religion’, as well as representing a tool to seize gender equality within the Islamic

paradigm (Badran, 2002). At home, in countries with a Muslim majority, the Islamic Feminist discourse

represents an alternative voice struggling to be heard. Additionally, Islamic feminism has been able to

mobilise women’s role within the religious framework. In conformity with this achievement, the

movement reinterpreted several ayas (verses) specifically related to women’s condition. This process

enabled them to submit divergent opinions on issues of ta’a (obedience), noshooz (the wife’s obstinacy

and noncompliance), of qawwamah (men’s authority over women) and darb (wife beating) among others

(Yazbek Haddad and Esposito 2003, 107-108). If we choose to focus on Islamic feminism’s objectives

and beliefs instead of saturating our minds with prejudices and commonplaces about women’s status in

Islam, we will see that ‘Islamic feminism stands to benefit us all’ (Badran, 2002), Muslim men and

women, as well as non-Muslims. Furthermore, its global and polyhedral character represents a valuable

resource for the movement’. It might disrupt the mental barrier that creates an impediment between

activists on women’s matters from different environments since secular feminists had often struggled with

Islamic activists and vice versa. Through its presence in both the east and the west of the world, depending

on our point of view, Islamic feminism can overcome, if it hasn’t already, the ‘East-West’ dichotomy

(Grami, 2013) as well as the ‘secular-religious’ one. Within the Islamic feminist paradigm, in fact, the

notions of ‘secular’ and ‘religious’ result to be inextricably intertwined (Badran, 2002).

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