Islamic feminism is a form of feminism concerned with the role of women in Islam. It aims for the full equality of all Muslims, regardless of gender, in public and private life. Islamic feminists advocate for women's rights, gender equality, and social justice grounded in an Islamic framework. Although rooted in Islam, the movement's pioneers have also utilized secular, Western, or otherwise non-Muslim feminist discourses, and have recognized the role of Islamic feminism as part of an integrated global feminist movement.
Advocates of the movement seek to highlight the teachings of equality in the religion, and encourage a questioning of patriarchal interpretations of Islam by reinterpreting the Quran and Hadith.
Prominent thinkers include Begum Rokeya, Amina Wadud, Leila Ahmed, Fatema Mernissi, Azizah al-Hibri, Riffat Hassan, Asma Lamrabet, and Asma Barlas.
Definition and background Islamic feminists
Since the mid-nineteenth century, Muslim women and men have been critical of restrictions placed on women regarding education, seclusion, veiling, polygyny, slavery, and concubinage. Modern Muslims have questioned these practices and advocated for reform. There is an ongoing debate about the status of women in Islam. Conservative Islamic feminists use the Quran, the Hadith, and prominent women in Muslim history as evidence for the discussion on women's rights. Feminists argue that early Islam represented more egalitarian ideals, while conservatives argue that gender asymmetries are "divinely ordained".
Islamic feminists are Muslims who interpret the Quran and Hadith in an egalitarian manner and advocate for women's rights and equality in the public and personal sphere. Islamic feminists critique patriarchal, sexist, and misogynistic understandings of Islam. Islamic feminists understand the Qur'an as advocating gender equality. Islamic feminism is anchored within the discourse of Islam with the Quran as its central text."Exploring Islamic Feminism" by Margot Badran, Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding, Georgetown University, November 30, 2000 The historian Margot Badran states that Islamic feminism "derives its understanding and mandate from the Qur’an, seeks rights and justice for women, and for men, in the totality of their existence."Badran, Margot. Feminism in Islam : Secular and Religious Convergences. Oxford : Oneworld, 2009., 2009.
Islamists are advocates of political Islam, the notion that the Quran and hadith mandate an Islamic government. Some Islamists advocate women's rights in the public sphere but do not challenge gender inequality in the personal, private sphere. Su'ad al-Fatih al-Badawi, a Sudanese academic and Islamist politician, has argued that feminism is incompatible with taqwa (the Islamic conception of piety), and thus Islam and feminism are mutually exclusive. Badran argues that Islam and feminism are not mutually exclusive.
Islamic feminists have differed in their understandings and definitions of Islamic feminism. Islamic scholar Asma Barlas shares Badran's views, discussing the difference between secular feminists and Islamic feminism and in countries where Muslims make up 98% of the population, it is not possible to avoid engaging “its basic beliefs.” The major distinction between the two facets of the gender based hypothesis is the fact that Islamic feminism engages with the theology and draws from the qur’anic verses of equality. This postulate is often misinterpreted and confused with the term fundamentalism by the west; which it is also battling at the same time. Fundamentalism can be explained as active contemporary movements organised in order to shield a perceived assault on the religious foundation of the social order. It is fuelled with the basic assumption stating that modernism and secularism is to blame for society's moral degeneration. It stands as, “a protest against the assault on patriarchal structural principles”.
Elizabeth Segran states that just talking about human rights mentioned in the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) does not create immediate resonance with ordinary Muslim women; since Islam is the source of their values, integrating human rights frameworks with Islam makes sense.
South African Muslim scholar Fatima Seedat agrees with both Barlas and Badran about the importance of feminism in the Islamic world. However, she debates the term “Islamic Feminism” is unnecessary since feminism is a “social practice, not merely of personal identity.” Seedat believes the convergence of both Islamic and feminism creates more conflict and opens more doors for “Islamists” to interpret or misinterpret the Qur'an to suit their political needs. She believes it is important to speak about and illustrate how feminism has existed in the lines of the Qur'an. By separating the two and giving their own space, it will be more inclusive to everyone (men, women, Muslims and non-Muslims). In the same article, “Feminism, and Islamic Feminism: Between Inadequacy and Inevitability,” Seedat explains that the existence of such a term separates Muslims and isolates them from the rest of the world and the universal feminist movement. She states in her essay the importance of sharing with the rest of the world what Islam has to offer feminism, and to show the true image of Islam by not referring to themselves as Islamic feminists.
Some Muslim women writers and activists have eschewed identifying themselves as Islamic feminists out of a belief Western feminism is exclusionary to Muslim women and women of color more generally. Azizah al-Hibri, a Lebanese-American Muslim scholar, has identified herself as a "womanist".
Islamic feminism and the Quran
Islamic feminists understand the Quran as advocating gender equality. In the view of feminist legal scholar Azizah al-Hibri, the Quran teaches all human beings are creations of God from one soul, who were divided into nations and tribes to know each other, and the most honored individuals are those who are the most pious. Therefore, al-Hibri writes that the Quran recognizes differences between human beings while asserting their natural equality and no man is recognized as superior by their gender alone.Al-Hibri, Azizah. "An Introduction to Muslim Women's Rights" in Windows of Faith: Muslim Women Scholar-Activists in North America, edited by Gisela Webb. Syracuse University Press. pp. 52–53. .
According to Aysha Hidayatullah, many feminist interpreters of the Quran use the historical context of a verse's revelation in order to determine whether a verse's command was specific to the situation of its revelation or intended as general instruction. For many feminist exegetes, reading the former as the latter risks universalising the historical situation of seventh century Arabia, including the sexism present in that society, as such verses do not directly state the Quran's universal principles but rather apply them to specific situations at the time of revelation. Amina Wadud uses historical contextualisation to critique interpretations of verse 4:34 that take it to assert men's superiority, arguing for a reading that insists on mutuality between men and women. For Wadud, the verse does not assert men's superiority, nor does it universally assign men the role of provider. As cited by Hidayatullah, Wadud understands the verse as prescribing men's responsibility to ensure "that the woman is not burdened with additional responsibilities [in the context of childbearing]." However, the male role of "qiwamah" or economic provider does not always reflect modern social reality. Yet, the verse depicts as ideal an "equitable and mutually dependent relationship" which demonstrates a Quranic insistence on "mutual responsibility between males and females". Such mutual responsibility is not limited to a specific time or place, and can be applied in modern societies.
Early Muslims and modern Islamic feminists Modern Muslim feminists and progressive Muslims have taken early figures in Islamic history as role models including Khadijah, Aisha, Hafsa, Umm Salama, Fatima, and Zaynab bint Ali. Zainab Alwani cites Aisha as an empowered and intelligent woman who repeatedly confronted the misogyny of other sahaba.Alwani, Zainab. "Muslim Women as Religious Scholars: A Historical Survey," in Muslima Theology: The Voices of Muslim Women Theologians, edited by Ednan Aslan, Marcia Hermansen, and Elif Medini, Peter Lang, Frankfurt, 2013, pp. 45-58. Moroccan feminist Asma Lamrabet has also argued Aisha was an empowered female intellectual against what Lamrabet sees as a misogynistic intellectual history. Lamrabet has also praised Umm Salama as a feminist figure.
Iranian revolutionary thinker Ali Shariati wrote Fatemeh is Fatemeh, a biography of Muhammad's daughter Fatima, that holds her as a role model for women. Ednan Aslan suggests Fatima is an example of female empowerment in early Islam, as she was not afraid to oppose Abu Bakr and demand her inheritance.Aslan, Ednan. "Early Community Politics and the Marginalization of Women in Islamic Intellectual History ," in Muslima Theology: The Voices of Muslim Women Theologians, edited by Ednan Aslan, Marcia Hermansen, and Elif Medini, Peter Lang, Frankfurt, 2013, pp. 36-37.
Some Muslim feminists have asserted Muhammad himself was a feminist.
History In the past 150 years or so, many scholarly interpretations have developed from within the Islamic tradition itself that seek to redress social wrongs perpetrated against Muslim women. For example, new Islamic jurisprudence is emerging that seeks to forbid practices like female genital mutilation, equalize family law, support women as clergy and in administrative positions in mosques, and supports equal opportunities for Muslim women to become judges in civil as well as religious institutions. Modern feminist Islamic scholars perceive their work as restoration of rights provided by God and Muhammad but denied by society.
Nineteenth century
The modern movement of Islamic feminism began in the nineteenth century.
Rokeya Sakhawat Hossain, also known as Begum Rokeya (1880 - 1932) was a writer, educator and the earliest intellectual of Islamic feminism from Bengal. She struggled women's education and advocated for gender-based equality amongst Bengali Muslims, a community that was socio-economically and culturally deeply marginalised in colonial Bengal. Through her writings and activism, she sharply criticized the entrenched patriarchy of South Asian society and condemned the practice of purdah, the veiling and segregation of women. In works such as Sultana’s Dream (1905), the earliest utopian Islamic feminist science fiction and Abarodhbasini (1931), she imagined alternatives to male-dominated social orders and exposed the injustices faced by women in seclusion. In 1911, she established the first ever girls' school, Sakhawat Memorial Girls’ School in Calcutta to provide formal education for Muslim girls, often persuading conservative families to enroll their daughters by agreeing to preserve cultural customs within the classroom. She was very influential amongst Bengalis and her legacy is celebrated in modern-day Bangladesh.
Aisha Taymur (1840 - 1902) was a prominent writer and early activist for women's rights in Egypt. Taymur's writings criticized male domination over women and celebrated women's intellect and courage.
Another early Muslim feminist activist and writer was Zaynab Fawwaz (1860 - 1914). Fawwaz argued for women's social and intellectual quality with men and wrote a book of biographies of famous women.