Islamic feminism

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.

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. 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."

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.