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2 Feminisms
- Brandeis University Press
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n 2 Feminisms islam and judaism And among His signs is this, that He created for you mates from among yourselves, that ye may dwell in tranquility with them, and he has put love and mercy between your hearts. n Qur’an 30:21 G-d is never unjust in the least degree n Qur’an 4:40 The daughters of Tzlafchad, Mahlah, Noah, Hoglah, Milcah, and Tirzah stood before Moses and the entire congregation saying, ‘‘Our father died in the desert and he had no sons. Why should our father’s name be eliminated from his family because he had no son? Give us a portion along with our father’s brothers.’’ So Moses brought their case before G-d. G-d spoke to Moses, saying: ‘‘Tzlafchad’s daughters speak justly. You shall certainly give them a portion of inheritance.’’ n Numbers 27: 1–7 Tzlafchad’s daughters understood that prevailing social arrangements are not necessarily eternal or immutable. To believe that they were would underestimate G-d’s love and mercy, which extends to women as well to men. Accordingly, if G-d supported the daughters’ demand for justice, then why assume that contemporary injustices are of no concern to G-d? Feminism, like the wheel, may be a product of simultaneous invention. It is certainly a product of global cross-pollination. While there are a multitude of o√shoots and divergent branches responding to geography, culture, race, class, ethnicity and religion, there is a shared core idea among all feminists that human rights and dignity apply to both men and women. However, many Muslim and Jewish women cringe when the term feminist 24 n Citizenship, Faith, & Feminism is applied to them, probably because they reject the connotation that they are then harnessed to Western or secular ideals. Feminism is a set of norms and principles, a set of concrete policy proposals, a call to unity and action, a mode of analysis, an ideology, and an identity. The birth of feminism in non-European settings was often simultaneous with episodes of resistance to colonialism and the repudiation of Western influences. Veiling was adopted in some cases, where it had hitherto been on the wane, as a protest against Western mores that were becoming prevalent in colonized cities. In Egypt, in particular, where feminist theorists arose at the end of the nineteenth century, they were already distinguishing their program from that of Western feminists. These indigenous Muslim feminist movements arose in tandem with nationalist movements. These modernizing movements were discriminating and selective about which aspects of modern life they promoted , while simultaneously resurrecting fading, even defunct traditions and putting them in the service of national liberation. Detaching feminism from its Western moorings has continued to be essential to feminist reforms in many Muslim settings. ‘‘The women’s liberation movement, as it was lived in the West, was perceived as part of the colonial project, therefore opposed with fervour to remain faithful to the Muslim identity. . . . this explains the social diversity of these women who far from forming a monolithic bloc of women ‘victims of all misfortunes’ . . . emerged in each country with original ideas to counter the traditional social ruling without imitating the Western model.’’∞ Western feminism has been a√ected by Western culture and is strongly individualistic and occasionally anti-family and adversarial in its language and goals. It is seen as advocating gender-blurring equality that simply does not fit religious and cultural sensibilities of Jewish and Muslim women. The agenda of liberal feminism has been largely accomplished in the West. Legal discrimination, at least formally, is ended, and any further advances will require deviations from the liberal model of equal treatment under the law. Muslim and Jewish women have generated their own theoretical innovations and have forged their own credentials as scholars, theorists, and activists. They have not rejected all elements of liberal feminism. Many are suspicious of the word liberalism, but embrace the word freedom. In the 1990s several Muslim women scholars discovered that they were engaged in a reinterpretation of Islamic texts and laws from a gender perspective. Writers and academics such as Fatima Mernissi and Asma Lamrabat recog- [44.222.116.199] Project MUSE (2024-03-28 10:48 GMT) feminisms: islam and judaism n 25 nize the usefulness of liberal concepts of rights to the critique of traditions responsible for keeping women in an inferior position.≤ Among devout feminists, both Jewish and Muslim, there are many voices, yet it is possible to...