Wendy McElroy wrote earlier this year about how Islamic feminism presents Western radical feminism with a number of problems precisely because of Middle Eastern feminists tend to ground their activism in Islam.
For example, in an interview with Pakistani newspaper Daily Times, Dr. Asma Barlas outlines how she bases her feminist activism in Islam including her resistance to the “feminist label,”
As a Muslim, I resist the label ‘feminist’ because it suggests — wrongly, I believe — that one can only contest assertions of male authority from within feminists paradigms. I believe, to the contrary, that it is possible to do so from within a Qur’anic framework as well. At the same time, I am always happy to acknowledge my many intellectual debts to feminist theorizing.
As McElroy points out, this sort of view puts Western feminism and Islamic feminism at odds,
Islamic feminism tends to be pro-family and not inherently anti-male. In her book In Search of Islamic Feminism, researcher Elizabeth Fernea reports that many Muslim women call themselves “feminists” but want to distance themselves from Western feminism because of its perceived antagonism toward men and the family. Haifa Abdul Rahman, deputy secretary of the General Federation of Iraqi Women, observed: “We see feminism in America as dividing men from women ? separating women from the family. This is not good for anyone.”
On the other hand, Barlas herself offers evidence that feminist activists in Muslim countries themselves might become secularized and reject Islamic feminism, much as some early feminists such as Elizabeth Cady Stanton rejected Christianity,
I did, however, visit Pakistan some years ago and, to my dismay, found that most of the women activists I met had not the slightest interest in a reformed understanding if Islam; rather, they felt that secularism and human rights were the way to go.
Which presents an option that McElroy doesn’t address — that a major effect of the U.S. wars in Afghanistan, Iraq who-knows-else will accelerate the process of secularization in Muslim countries.
Source:
Interview: “Feminist paradigms is not the only way to contest male authority . . .” The Daily Times, Pakistan, August 10, 2003.
Iraq War May Kill Feminism as We Know It. Wendy McElroy, Mens News Daily, March 19, 2003.