Islamic feminism. The unwanted child of political Islam

Abstract

A goal of the paper is to present Islamic feminism as a political-intellectualphenomenon that has been developing in the international Muslim womencommunity for a few decades. The author distinguishes Islamic feminism (thatpostulates gender quality and women’s empowerment on the basis of the religiousprinciples of Islam) from earlier feminist tradition that she labels after Margot Badranas Muslim feminism. The paper discusses political and intellectual background ofthe emergence of Islamic feminism and shows its complex relationships with bothpolitical Islam and the Western feminist discourses. A key factor here is a heritageof European colonialism and anti-Muslim politics of the West. The author refers tothe works of main representatives of Islamic feminism, such as Fatima Mernissi,Amina Wadud, Ziba Mir-Hosseini, Asma Barlas, and examines their attempts toarrive at non-patriarchal reinterpretations of the Muslim tradition, Quranic texts and the established interpretations of the Sharia law.

Keywords

• feminizm islamski
• feminizm muzułmański
• islam polityczny
• imperializm
• Koran
• szarijat