Today we call your attention to an upcoming international forum taking place in Fès, Morocco on the theme of Islamic Feminism. At CIHA, we often highlight religious voices to explore connections among issues of faith, governance, gender, and race in colonial and post-colonial contexts. Today’s post by CIHA advisory board member, Fatima Sadiqi, discusses Islamic feminism and also provides details about the upcoming forum to be held later this week with a look at the full program!
What is Meant by Islamic Feminism Today?
By: Fatima Sadiqi, Scholar of Linguistics and Gender Studies
The expression “Islamic feminism” (al-Nasawiyya l-Islamiyya) is used in the current literature to refer to various brands of feminist thinking that may be circumvented in two main overarching categories: a category that sees Islamic feminism as an intellectual effort that transforms women from a ‘subject of discussion’ to an “initiator of discussion”, and a trend that avoids the term and concept of “feminism” as a Western “intruder” and focuses on the “renaissance” of Muslim women. In the first trend, research is not geared towards the status of women in Islam or women’s rights and duties in Islam; rather, it expresses a voice or voices of Muslim women (but also men) seeking to create a comprehensive intellectual framework that would facilitate the discussion of Islamic jurisprudence from a feminist perspective and come up with more egalitarian and fairer legal interpretations.
While the time frame of first trend is located in the present historical moment which may be roughly situated in the period that extends from the early 1990s to the today, the second trend does not see its mission as new and locates its cognitive model in the beginning of Islam. In both trends, research is mainly conducted at the level of theorizing and seeks to transform Islamic ideals and values into theories and knowledge visions that would stimulate specific interpretative or jurisprudential interpretations.
Hence, the main difference between the two trends does not revolve around the expression “Islamic feminism” per se nor around the meaning of this expression, because in the end, both trends may be seen as “Islamic knowledge” that aims at anchoring Islamic justice to the (legal) relationships of men and women within and outside the family. Simply put, if we are engaged in integrating Islamic justice to the political arena, why not integrate it to the social arena and to the relationship between the sexes in the family and society?
Various factors have helped the emergence of Islamic feminism, including political considerations and cultural ideology, which differ from country to country. The growing religious knowledge of women and the success of Islamic movements in attracting women in their endeavor to invade the public sphere, as well as the intensification of the so-called clash of civilizations between the East and the West and the threat of radical ideologies to women’s rights, are all factors that contributed to the emergence of Islamic feminism.
What Characterizes Islamic Feminism?
For many male and female researchers in the field, Islamic feminism is a response to Western feminism. In order to avoid generalization here, it should be mentioned that although the history of Western feminism is linked to the history of material philosophy, Western feminism has evolved in the last four or so decades and has now developed in various brands and schools. Hence, there is the Anglo-American school and the French school, which yielded Marxist, liberal and religious feminisms, as well as conservative religious feminism, such as Christian, Buddhist, Jewish feminisms, to cite only these. In general, Islamic feminism differs from Western feminism at the level of values; hence, for example, whereas Western feminism is generally based on individual freedom and allows homosexuality, Islamic feminism does not.
On the other hand, Western and Islamic feminism differ in dealing with modernity and postmodernism. While Western feminism built its modernist project on a conflict with men for obtaining legal rights and constructing a postmodernist project on gender, Islamic feminism built its modernist project on a feminist discourse in line with human rights principles and its post-modernist project on the struggle of both sexes against a rigid jurisprudence that no longer reflects the spectacular progress that Muslim women have achieved.
Furthermore, opinions differ as to the goals of Islamic feminism. Some see it as a way of moving in the direction of reform only; others see it as a way of moving in an interpretive direction aimed at questioning religious texts and replacing the masculine vision adopted in interpreting the legal texts on women’s issues; others see it as a way of transforming feminism into an Islamic one; and yet others see it as fundamentally lacking a recognition of the precise meaning of feminism as a self-centered movement and deplore lack of a methodology that would reflect this. In practice, the basic issue is reference: is the Qur’an only? The Qur’an and Hadith (prophet Muhammad’s sayings and deeds)? Is it gender equality? Is it a mere strategy to gain rights?
The various opinions on Islamic feminism are dictated by ideology and the nature of society: Is it a Muslim majority society? What political, social and legal system regulate this society, etc. These differences are also attested in what is considered as the root of Islamic of Islamic feminisms. Some associate these roots the progressive Islam movement that emerged in South Africa as a reaction to the apartheid regime; others associate them with the Turkish scholar Nilofar Gul (1991) book; others with the Itanian “Zanan” magazine, which expressed the disappointment of the Iranian feminists with the revolution; others link the roots of Islamic feminism with academics who studied the religious texts without self-identifying as Islamic feminists such as the Egyptian writer Nawal al-Saadawi, the Moroccan sociologist Fatima Mernissi, and the Tunisian academic Olfa Youssef.
Between these different and varied views, women’s issues in Arab and Islamic societies remain the central focus of any ideology because women are the main link between the individual and society. The questions that emerge at this juncture are: What kind of feminism does Morocco aspire to in the age of rapid transformations, not only in terms of individuals but also at terminological level? A forum to be organized in Fez at the beginning of June 2019 will discuss these issues.
International Forum: Today’s Islamic Feminisms: National and Transnational Perspectives
Dates: 7,8, & 9 June, 2019
Venue: Hôtel Les Mérinides, Fès
Contact: Dr Fatima Sadiqi, Director of the Forum
sadiqi_fatima@yahoo.fr
Ms Abir Ibourk (KAS), Director of Logistics
Abir.Ibourk@kas.de
Ms Yousra Bettache (International Institute for Languages and Cultures)
Carolinausa.keyt82@gmail.com
Languages of the Forum: Arabic, French, English (simultaneous translation will be
provided)
Modern Islamic feminisms seek equality in Muslim family laws and revisit the fiqh-based background of these laws from within Islam. These Feminisms appeared in the last two decades of the twentieth century and are developing quickly in the twenty-first century. National, transnational, individual-based and network-based, these feminisms constitute a genuine social movement and have resulted in knowledge-production and policy- based analyses. The Fez Nineth Mediterranean Women International Forum invites reflection on today’s overall status of Islamic feminisms by addressing four main axes: the Concepts of Islamic feminisms, challenges of Islamic feminisms, and Islamic feminisms in Diaspora.
PROGRAM
Friday 7 June
9: 00 h Arrival of participants
9: 30 h Opening Session: Welcoming speeches
Keynote Address: Feminism/s: A Fresh Look 10: 30: Reception
1st Session: Islamic Feminism: Ideology, Knowledge, Activism
Moderator: Moha ENNAJI, International Institute for Languages and Cultures, Fez
Margot BADRAN, Center for Muslim Christian Understanding, Georgetown University, USA
11: 00 h : (Equality between the Sexes: A Religious Perspective)
Driss FASSI FIHRI, Imam, University al-Qarawiyyin, Fez Sarah FARAG, University of Zurich, Switzerland
11: 30 h Islamic Feminism and Political Activism in Morocco
Moha ENNAJI, International Institute for Languages and Cultures, Fez
11: 45 h Discussion
2nd Session: Islamic Feminism: Cultural Politics and Decolonization Moderator: Sara FARAG, University of Zurich, Switzerland
15: 00 h Fatema Mernissi’s Transpositions of Difference: Tracking a Feminist Cultural Politics in Post-Colonial Morocco
Najib MOKHTARI, International University of Rabat
15:15h Moroccan Women and the State in the Wake of Reform Souad EDDOUADA, Ibn Tofail University, Kénitra, Morocco
15: 30 h Islamic Feminism in Morocco: Towards a Decolonial Praxis Meriem El HAITAMI, International University of Rabat
15: 45 h Discussion 16h:15 Coffee Break
3rd Session: Islamic Feminism: Opportunities and Challenges Moderator: Mohamed YACHOULTI, Moulay Ismail University, Meknès
16 : 45 h Islamic Feminism in Morocco, the Inheritance Controversy and the Vivre Ensemble
Rajae RHOUNI, Chouaib Doukkali University, El Jadida
17: 00 h Islam and Human Rights: The Contribution of Tunisian Intellectuals and Activists in Feminizing the Discourse
Jumana AL-AHMAD, Wake Forest University, USA
17: 15 h Islamic Feminist Icons in Morocco: The Case of Asmae Lamrabet
Mohammed YACHOULTI, Moulay Ismail University, Meknès 17 : 30h Discussion
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11: 15h |
Rethinking Feminist Interventions, Decolonising Gender |
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Knowledges |
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Saturday 8 June
4th Session: Islamic Feminism and Hermeneutics
Moderator: Mohamed MOUBTASSIME, Sidi Mohamed Ben Abdellah University, Fez
9: 00 h 9: 15 h 9: 30 h
9: 45 h 10:15 h
Women’s Ijtihad as a Strategy for Liberation Meryem YAFOUT, University of Lausanne, Switzerland
Muslim Theology and the “closure of the gate of ijtihad”
Sadiq RDDAD, Sidi Mohamed Ben Abdellah University, Fez
Islamic Feminism and Reform in the Post Arab Spring: Beyond the Secular/Religious Debate
Rachid TOUHTOU, National School of Statistics and Applied Economics, Rabat
Discussion Coffee Break
5th Session: Islamic Feminism and the State
Moderator: Souad SLAOUI, Sidi Mohamed Ben Abdellah University, Fez
10 :45 h Féminisme Islamique, activisme et état en Algérie
Khaled MEHIZ, Activiste, Association Nationale De Volontariat, Algérie
11 : 00 h The Interplay Between the Politics of Religion, Gender and the Rhetoric of Political Liberalization: What Future for Islamic Feminisms in Morocco?
Souad SLAOUI, Sidi Mohamed Ben Abdellah University, Fez
11 : 15 h Discussion
6th Session: Islamic Feminism: A Transnational Social Movement? Moderator: Connie Carøe CHRISTIANSEN, Lebanese American University, Beirut
15:00 h Islamic Feminism – Perspectives from a Transnational Social Movement Approach
Connie Carøe CHRISTIANSEN, Lebanese American University, Beirut
15 : 15 h Distorted Citizenship: Egyptian Women Legal Identities within the Public-Private Paradigm
Sara ABDELGHANI, American University of Cairo, Egypt
15: 30 h The Potential Impact of Islamic Feminism on Advancing Gender Equality in Lebanon
Reem MAGHRIBI, Lebanese American University, Beirut
15: 45 The 2004 Moudawana Reforms: An Example of Islamic Feminism?
Fatima SADIQI,
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16:00h Discussion |
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16:30h Coffee Break |
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7th Session: Islamic Feminism and Activism
Moderator: Rajae RHOUNI, Chouaib Doukkali University, El Jadida
17:00 h
17: 30h
(The Feminist Movement and the Evolution of Women’s Rights in Tunisia)
Jinan AL IMAM,
Paris
International Institute for Languages and Cultures, Fez
Faculty of Legal, Political and Social Sciences, Tunis
École des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales (EHESS) de
17:15 h «Une révolution musulmane et féministe»: décolonisation, action et politicisation
17:45h
Malika HAMIDI,
Book Review: Activisme, Feminisme en Islam: Stemmen van Marokkaanse en Marokkaans-Nederlandse Vrouwen, edited by Marjo Buitelaar, Moha Ennaji, Fatima Sadiqi and Karen Vintges
Laura VAN DER TOORN, University of Amsterdam Roosmarjin van WOERDEN, University of Amsterdam
Moroccan Dutch Women and Islamic Identity
18:00 h Discussion
Sunday 9 June
8th Session: Islamic Feminism in Europe
Moderator: Ulrike LINGEN-ALI, University of Oldenburg, Germany
9: 30 h Islamic Feminisms in Western Classrooms Lydia POTTS, University of Oldenburg, Germany
9: 45 h Feminism and ‘Islamic Feminism’ as Discussed in German Media Helma PASCH, University of Koln, Germany
10: 00 h Cross-cultural Interviewing of Islamic Feminists in Europe Touria KHANNOUS, Louisiana State University, USA
10: 15: Discussion 10: 45: Coffee Break
11: 15 h 11: 30 h
Female, Islamic, Different. Threshold Positions of Belonging and Polarizations in Current German Debates
Sylvia PRITSCH, University of Oldenburg, Germany
Gender, Islam and the Law in South Africa: The Feminist Struggles and Advocacy for Muslim Marriage Recognition
University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South
11: 45: Discussion
Sheila MEINTJES,
Africa
9th Session:
Moderator: Sonya Maria JOHNSON, Beloit College, USA
12: 15 h Utilizing Performance as an Intersectional Response To Violence Against Women
Zoe FLOWERS, U.S.-based creator, author, filmmaker and Founder of Soul Requirements, Inc.
12 :30 h
Sonya Maria JOHNSON, Beloit College, USA
12 :45 h At the Intersection of Race, Gender, Sexuality, and Social Class: An Examination of a Chinese Woman’s Immigration in Early 20th Century United States
Beatrice MCKENZIE, Beloit College, USA
13: 00 h Protecting Black Girls From the School to Prison Pipeline: Movement Building for Culturally Specific Approaches in Prevention and Intervention
Aleese MOORE-ORBIH, Senior Director of Programs, Women of Color Network, Inc., USA
13:15 h Discussion
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13: 45 h Recommendations and Closure
Moderator: Fatima SADIQI (Director of the Forum)
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14: 15 h End of the Forum
16:00-18:00 Guided Tour to the Medina (Old city) and Ville Nouvelle (New City) 21: 00: Farewell Party: Local Women’s Music
Imagining the Intersectionality of Diasporas, Recognizing
Rhetorics of Difference and Dignity
The Ancestors Make It Home: Palo Monte/Mayombe and the Making
of Social Place in Contemporary Cuba
Organizing Committee
Fatima SADIQI
Steffen KRUEGER
Abir IBOURK
Moha ENNAJI
Yousra BETTACHE
Souad SLAOUI
Mohamed MOUBTASSIME Mohamed YACHOULTI Rachid ELOUARDI
Karima AZAIMI
Ghita TAOUFIQ Oussama MOUSSAOUI Soukaina ABDERRAHIM
Book Exhibit: Librairie Mékouar – Fez Anouar Diffusion – Fez
Lefennec – Casablanca
Painting: Khadija MADANI ALAOUI, Tarik SADIK, Moha ENNAJI, Sidi Mohamed Ben Abdellah University, Fez
Exhibition of feminine products: Rajae SLAOUI-HAMMOUDA, Presidente, ESPOD, Association for the Promotion of small enterprises, Fez