{"id":25680,"date":"2013-01-27T14:22:49","date_gmt":"2013-01-27T10:22:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mideastposts.com\/?p=25680"},"modified":"2013-01-27T14:22:49","modified_gmt":"2013-01-27T10:22:49","slug":"the-many-different-shades-of-muslim-feminism","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mideastposts.com\/middle-east-society\/the-many-different-shades-of-muslim-feminism\/","title":{"rendered":"The Many Different Shades of ‘Muslim Feminism’"},"content":{"rendered":"

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The term \u201cMuslim feminist\u201d may sound paradoxical to many as a result of the media’s tendency to portray Muslim women as victims. As a Latina who often feels excluded from mainstream feminist discourse, I became interested in Muslim feminists when I noticed they were also absent in popular women’s publications. To understand these unheard voices, I arranged interviews with a number of Muslim Americans last week and discovered that these women were far from being victims.<\/p>\n

In reality, many Muslim women identify as feminists and are actively fighting for their rights. Within this group, one finds women who interpret this term in a number of different ways, and there are as many debates as one would find within mainstream American feminism.<\/p>\n

\u201cI see the justification [for feminism] in my faith. In the Qur’an it says that we’re all equal in the eyes of God,\u201d says Fatemeh Fakhraie, founder of Muslimah Media Watch. \u201cIt means that the dignity of every person is important.\u201d<\/p>\n

Some women, though, feel ambivalent about the term \u201cfeminism\u201d even while they may dedicate their lives to gender equality. Muslim American Mehrunisa Qayyum, founder of PITAPOLICY Consulting & Blog, doesn’t identify as a Muslim feminist, but doesn’t reject the term either. \u201cBecause I end up talking about issues that affect women, like rape as a war crime in Syria, for example, I get pigeonholed. But in defence of those who do identify themselves as Muslim feminists, I don’t think the two terms have any cognitive dissonance. For me, I think it’s actually a redundant term.\u201d<\/p>\n

Qayyum gives the example of the deep respect Prophet Muhammad had for his wives and the fact that his first wife Khadija was a successful businesswoman.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf I’m going to be called a Muslim feminist, then it’s because of the construct of patriarchy,\u201d Qayyum says. One of her main concerns is the issue of public space for women, both physical and intellectual, in community centres. In some mosques, for instance, women are unable to participate in the same capacity as men. \u201cJust having a place that is clean, shared and protected is a big challenge,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

For some Muslim women, feminism isn’t limited to Muslim-specific issues. Shaista Patel, for example, focuses on racism and indigenous rights. Patel identifies as an anti-racist Muslim feminist involved in indigenous activism in Canada. \u201cMy interpretation is more of a political category,\u201d she says. According to Shaista, \u201cThere isn’t a monolithic understanding of Muslim feminism.\u201d Patel, who is of Pakistani origin, teaches people in the Pakistani Canadian community about indigenous issues. \u201cMy job,\u201d she says, \u201cis educating myself about indigenous struggles and educating people who look like me.\u201d<\/p>\n

According to Patel, one of the most controversial issues among Muslim feminists today is the notion of native informants, which is how she describes women who become known as authorities on Muslim issues, such as so-called honour killings. She believes it’s dangerous when any individual is seen as an expert who can explain all Muslim issues to the rest of the world. \u201cIt’s poisonous and very damaging,\u201d she notes, when one person is seen to speak on behalf of all Muslim women.<\/p>\n

Safa Samiezade-Yazd, Arts, Culture, and Music Editor at Aslan Media, was raised Muslim, and though she is no longer religious, she identifies as a \u201ccultural Muslim\u201d and says a lot of feminism is written into the Qur’an. For her, \u201cIt’s a religion of dialogue, a religion of community.\u201d<\/p>\n

As these diverse women demonstrate, the term \u201cMuslim feminism\u201d challenges paradigms and encompasses a wide spectrum of views that no one woman, not even a Muslim woman, can define. It is worth remembering next time we, as media professionals, seek a female Muslim perspective, that what we are really doing is interviewing a dynamic individual.<\/p>\n

I personally will be making an effort to seek out their insights and points of view when writing about women’s issues. We can all benefit from hearing their narratives to better understand the complexities and diversity of a woman’s experience in US culture.<\/p>\n

Erika L. S\u00e1nchez is a poet and freelance writer living in Chicago. She is currently the sex and love advice columnist for Cosmopolitan for Latinas and a contributor to the Huffington Post, NBC Latino, and others<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

ERIKA SANCHEZ, CGNEWS: Putting the two words side by side ‘Muslim’ and ‘Feminism’ is sure to evoke powerful reactions in many of the faithful <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":25686,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[154,692,90,5,135],"tags":[1055,16588,16585,16587,16586,493,6212,16589,16517,16584,223],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mideastposts.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25680"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mideastposts.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mideastposts.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mideastposts.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/84"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mideastposts.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=25680"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mideastposts.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25680\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mideastposts.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/25686"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mideastposts.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25680"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mideastposts.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25680"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mideastposts.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25680"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}