Islamic Feminism Revisited

Women in almost every Muslim society have placed issues of women's rights firmly at the heart of their societies' politics. Women-centered secular religious and/or nonreligious perspectives and activities, through their resistance against Islamist gender politics, have introduced a new dynamism into debates over religion and the secular and the separation of state and faith. This essay questions the outcome for women who in their continued and persistent intellectual tendencies push for Islamic feminism as the only homegrown, locally produced, and culturally appropriate frame for feminist activism in Muslim-majority countries.