Mulki Al-Sharmani undertakes a close textual analysis of the hermeneutics of selected Islamic feminism scholars as they engage with the Qur'an, Hadith, and different textual genres in Islamic interpretive tradition. She focuses on the relevant works of nine prominent scholars located in North America, Egypt, Morocco, and South Africa. Bringing their works into conversation with one another, Islamic Feminism critically examines the epistemological and methodological contributions and challenges of these scholars. Al-Sharmani shows how these scholars' engagements with the question of gender also yields new insights into the interplay between Islamic theology, ethics, and law. Drawing on extensive multi-sited ethnographic research, Al-Sharmani examines the societal significance and limits of the studied scholarship and how it informs and is informed by multidimensional Muslim gender activism in both global and local contexts. Towards the latter aim, Al-Sharmani focuses on two case studies: the global movement Musawah, and Egyptian Islamic feminism in the aftermath of the 2011 Revolution.

This book sets out a rationale for the compatibility of Islam and Feminism and shows that Islamic Feminism is a diverse and valuable lens through which to analyse religion and gender. In addition, including scholarship written in Arabic, it promotes the decolonisation of knowledge production around Islam, gender and sexuality. Islamic feminism is a field of study that has been marginalised both in contemporary Islamic discourse and in feminist discourse. This study counters this marginalisation in two ways. Firstly, it enumerates the diversity of approaches used in Islamic feminist scholarship. Secondly, it foregrounds voices that are often neglected in discussions of Islam, gender and sexuality by highlighting and contrasting the work of two key scholars: Kecia Ali based in the USA and Olfa Youssef based in Tunisia. The book suggests that in addition to geo-political positioning, language, as a ‘prior-text’, also influences an individual’s personal interpretation of Islamic feminism. This comparison, therefore, enables broader issues to be dissected, such as the interrelationships between life experiences, strategies of resistance to patriarchal and other forms of oppression, and the production of knowledge. This is a unique study of Islamic Feminism that will be of great use to any scholar of Religion and Gender, Islamic Studies, Gender Studies and the Sociology of Religion.

Are you a Muslim woman struggling against systemic oppression in your community? Do you feel like your voice is unheard and your rights are overlooked? Are you questioning the role of religion in the perpetuation of patriarchal structures? If yes, this book is for you. This book addresses critical questions like: How can Islamic societies break free from oppressive patriarchal structures? How can modern interpretations of Islam encourage gender equality? How can men become allies in the fight for women's rights in Islam? In "Islamic Feminism: A Revolutionary Perspective", you will find: - An in-depth analysis of the symbolism of the hijab and its impact on women's liberation. - A discussion on Islamic laws related to divorce, polygamy, and how they affect women's autonomy. - A platform for Muslim women to share their experiences of gender-based violence and discrimination. - An exploration of how class, race, and religion intersect to shape the experiences of Muslim women. - Ways to cope with the psychological impact of living in a patriarchal society. - A celebration of Muslim women's contributions throughout history. - Guidance for men on how to contribute to the fight for gender equality in Islam. - Debates over the most effective strategies for bringing about change in Islamic societies. If you want to envision a future free from gender oppression and learn practical steps to achieve it, buy this book today. Your journey towards understanding and advocating for women's rights in Islam begins here.

A Genealogy of Islamic Feminism offers a new insight on the changing relationship between Islam and feminism from the colonial era in the 1900s to the early 1990s in Indonesia. The book juxtaposes both colonial and postcolonial sites to show the changes and the patterns of the encounters between Islam and feminism within the global and local nexus. Global forces include Dutch colonialism, developmentalism, transnational feminism, and the United Nations’ institutional bodies and their conferences. Local factors are comprised of women’s movements, adat (customs), nationalism, the politics underlying the imposition of Pancasila ideology and maternal virtues, and variations of Islamic revivalism. Using a genealogical approach, the book examines the multifaceted encounters between Islam and feminism and attempts to rediscover egalitarianism in the Islamic tradition—a concept which has been subjugated by hierarchical gender systems. The book also systematizes Muslim women’s encounters with Islam and feminism into five phases: emancipation, association, development, integration, and proliferation eras. Each era discusses the confluence of global and local factors which shape the changing relationship between Islam and feminism and the way in which the discursive narrative of equality is debated and contextualized, progressing from biological determinism (kodrat) to the ethico-spiritual argument. Islamic feminism contributes to the rediscovery of Islam as the source of progress, the centering of women’s agency through spiritual equality, and the reworking of the private and public spheres. This book will appeal to anyone with interest in international women’s movements, interdisciplinary studies, cultural studies, women’s studies, post-colonial studies, Islamic studies, and Asian studies.

This book presents a detailed critical analysis of the work of Fatima Mernissi. Mernissi is considered to be one of the major figures in Feminist thought for both Morocco and Muslim society in general. This work discusses Mernissi's intellectual trajectory from 'secular' to 'Islamic' feminism in order to trace the evolution of so-called Islamic feminist theory. The book also engages critically with the work of other Muslim feminists, using frameworks and approaches developed in the works of Muslim reformist thinkers, namely Mohammed Arkoun and Nasr Abu Zaid, with the aim of engaging the theorization of this emerging Feminism.

Drawing on interviews and fieldwork in Kuwait and throughout the Arabian Peninsula, this book explores what cultural elites in the Arab Gulf region have to say about women's political and cultural rights and how their faith is or is not related to their politics.

This important study examines the cultural turn for women in the Middle East and North Africa, analyzing the ways they have adjusted to and at times defended, socially conservative redefinitions of their roles in society in matters of marriage, work, and public codes of behavior. Whether this cultural turn is an autochthonous response, or an alternative to Western feminism, Islamic Feminism and the Discourse of Post-Liberation: The Cultural Turn in Algeria examines the sources, evolution, contradictions as well as consequences of the Cultural Turn. Focusing on Algeria, but making comparisons with Tunisia and Morocco, it takes an in-depth look at Islamic feminism and studies its functions in the geopolitics of control of Islam. It also explores the knowldge effects of the cultural turn and crucially identifies a critical way of re-orienting feminist thought and practice in the region. This new work from a highly regarded scholar will appeal to researchers, graduates, and undergraduates in North African studies; Middle Eastern studies; sociology, women and gender studies; anthropology; political science; and ethnic and critical race studies.

Seminar paper from the year 2013 in the subject Orientalism / Sinology - Islamic Studies, grade: 1,7, University of Tubingen (Asien-Orient-Institut), course: Sexualität und Zeitehe, language: English, abstract: Is Islamic feminism in total contrary to Western feminism? What are Islamic feminists fighting for and can one use the term “feminism” relating to Islam? How do Iranian women act with their rights in a country which is a role model for women’s oppression in the Western world? In my work I want to answer these and other questions. In the first part of the following work I give a general overview of Islamic feminism. I will define the term and distinct it from what is known as “Western feminism”. I introduce “three ideal types” of Islamic feminists and describe the Islamic feminist discourse and activism according to the Islamic jurisprudence and tradition. After that I focus on the women and their feminism in Iran. Feminism has a long history in Iran and is in total contrary to Western feminism. But the aims of the Islamic feminists changed from during the Islamic Revolution in 1979. Journalism and women’s magazines are a very important organ of the feminists in Iran. Both the “religious” and “secular” spheres use it to discuss women’s issues and criticise actual political decisions and social grievance. I will picture the most important magazines and the most discussed topics. In the last part I introduce one of the latest campaigns of feminists in the Arab world. “The Uprising of Women in the Arab World” is a movement which uses Social Media such as Facebook and Twitter to inform people and criticise the on-going oppression of women after the Arab Spring and the increasing sexual harassment in Arab countries.

African American Muslims and South Asian Muslim immigrants are two of the largest ethnic Muslim groups in the U.S. Yet there are few sites in which African Americans and South Asian immigrants come together, and South Asians are often held up as a “model minority” against African Americans. However, the American ummah, or American Muslim community, stands as a unique site for interethnic solidarity in a time of increased tensions between native-born Americans and immigrants. This ethnographic study of African American and South Asian immigrant Muslims in Chicago and Atlanta explores how Islamic ideals of racial harmony and equality create hopeful possibilities in an American society that remains challenged by race and class inequalities. The volume focuses on women who, due to gender inequalities, are sometimes more likely to move outside of their ethnic Muslim spaces and interact with other Muslim ethnic groups in search of gender justice. American Muslim Women explores the relationships and sometimes alliances between African Americans and South Asian immigrants, drawing on interviews with a diverse group of women from these two communities. Karim investigates what it means to negotiate religious sisterhood against America's race and class hierarchies, and how those in the American Muslim community both construct and cross ethnic boundaries. American Muslim Women reveals the ways in which multiple forms of identity frame the American Muslim experience, in some moments reinforcing ethnic boundaries, and at other times, resisting them.

Many Westerners view Islam as a religion that restricts and subordinates women in both private and public life. Yet a surprising number of women in Western Europe and America are converting to Islam. What attracts these women to a belief system that is markedly different from both Western Christianity and Western secularism? What benefits do they gain by converting, and what are the costs? How do Western women converts live their new Islamic faith, and how does their conversion affect their families and communities? How do women converts transmit Islamic values to their children? These are some of the questions that Women Embracing Islam seeks to answer. In this vanguard study of gender and conversion to Islam, leading historians, sociologists, anthropologists, and theologians investigate why non-Muslim women in the United States, several European countries, and South Africa are converting to Islam. Drawing on extensive interviews with female converts, the authors explore the life experiences that lead Western women to adopt Islam, as well as the appeal that various forms of Islam, as well as the Nation of Islam, have for women. The authors find that while no single set of factors can explain why Western women are embracing Islamic faith traditions, some common motivations emerge. These include an attraction to Islam's high regard for family and community, its strict moral and ethical standards, and the rationality and spirituality of its theology, as well as a disillusionment with Christianity and with the unrestrained sexuality of so much of Western culture.