Islamic feminism

A combination of Islam and feminism has been advocated as 'a feminist discourse and practice articulated within an Islamic paradigm' by Margot Badran in 2002. Islamic feminists ground their arguments in Islam and its teachings, seek the full equality of women and men in the personal and public sphere, and can include non-Muslims in the discourse and debate. Islamic feminism is defined by Islamic scholars as being more radical than secular feminism and as being anchored within the discourse of Islam with the Quran as its central text. As a 'school of thought', it is said to refer to Moroccan sociologist 'Fatema Mernissi and scholars such as Amina Wadud and Leila Ahmed'. what some women do when people gather with a shaykh to hear books. At that point women come, too, to hear the readings; the men sit in one place, the women facing them. It even happens at such times that some of the women are carried away by the situation; one will stand up, and sit down, and shout in a loud voice. her awra will appear; in her house, their exposure would be forbidden — how can it be allowed in a mosque, in the presence of men?the orientalist Ignaz Goldziher showed that perhaps fifteen percent of medieval hadith scholars were women, teaching in the mosques and universally admired for their integrity. Colleges such as the Saqlatuniya Madrasa in Cairo were funded and staffed entirely by women.As for sexism, the common law long denied married women any property rights or indeed legal personality apart from their husbands. When the British applied their law to Muslims in place of Shariah, as they did in some colonies, the result was to strip married women of the property that Islamic law had always granted them. A combination of Islam and feminism has been advocated as 'a feminist discourse and practice articulated within an Islamic paradigm' by Margot Badran in 2002. Islamic feminists ground their arguments in Islam and its teachings, seek the full equality of women and men in the personal and public sphere, and can include non-Muslims in the discourse and debate. Islamic feminism is defined by Islamic scholars as being more radical than secular feminism and as being anchored within the discourse of Islam with the Quran as its central text. As a 'school of thought', it is said to refer to Moroccan sociologist 'Fatema Mernissi and scholars such as Amina Wadud and Leila Ahmed'. Advocates refer to the observation that Muslim majority countries produced several female heads of state, prime ministers, and state secretaries such as Lala Shovkat of Azerbaijan, Benazir Bhutto of Pakistan, Mame Madior Boye of Senegal, Tansu Çiller of Turkey, Kaqusha Jashari of Kosovo, and Megawati Sukarnoputri of Indonesia. In Bangladesh, Khaleda Zia was elected the country's first female prime minister in 1991, and served as prime minister until 2009, when she was replaced by Sheikh Hasina, who maintains the prime minister's office at present making Bangladesh the country with the longest continuous female premiership. Islamic feminists interpret the religious texts in a feminist perspective. They can be viewed as a branch of interpreters who ground their arguments in Islam and its teachings, seek the full equality of women and men in the personal and public sphere, and can include non-Muslims in the discourse and debate. Islamic feminism is defined by Islamic scholars as being more radical than secular feminism, and as being anchored within the discourse of Islam with the Quran as its central text. During recent times, the concept of Islamic feminism has grown further with Islamic groups looking to garner support from many aspects of society. In addition, educated Muslim women are striving to articulate their role in society. Islamists are advocates of political Islam, the notion that the Quran and hadith mandate a caliphate, i.e. 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. Margot Badran of Georgetown University’s Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding argues that Islam and feminism are not mutually exclusive and that 'Islamic feminism, which derives its understanding and mandate from the Qur'an, seeks rights and justice for women, and for men, in the totality of their existence. Islamic feminism is both highly contested and firmly embraced.' During the early days of Islam in the 7th century CE, changes in women's rights affected marriage, divorce and inheritance. The Oxford Dictionary of Islam argues for a general improvement of the status of women in Arab societies, including the prohibition of female infanticide, though some historians believe that infanticide was practiced both before and after Islam. Under Islamic law, marriage was no longer viewed as a status but rather as a contract, in which the woman's consent was imperative, either by active consent or silence. 'The dowry, previously regarded as a bride-price paid to the father, became a nuptial gift retained by the wife as part of her personal property' (see also Dower). William Montgomery Watt states that Muhammad, in the historical context of his time, can be seen as a figure who testified on behalf of women's rights and improved things considerably. Watt explains: 'At the time Islam began, the conditions of women were terrible – they had no right to own property, were supposed to be the property of the man, and if the man died everything went to his sons.' Muhammad, however, by 'instituting rights of property ownership, inheritance, education and divorce, gave women certain basic safeguards.' Haddad and Esposito state that 'Muhammad granted women rights and privileges in the sphere of family life, marriage, education, and economic endeavors, rights that help improve women's status in society.'