GOVT 345

Response 6
A problem when speaking about groups of people who share a similar trait in this case Muslim
women in Islamist groups who share the same faith is that oftentimes these groups are believed to
possess the same way of thinking and the same goals. Such a monolithic approach is obviously harmful,
for it reduces the many nuances that exist among these women, thus preventing a study that actually
depicts the reality of their positions and goals. Rather, it is important to not only study the different
ways that womens rights are conceived of in various strands of Islamist thinking, but also to situate
these various conceptions within their respective local contexts as well as within a global context.
A common misconception that surrounds the study of Islamist women is that they are merely
products of the Islamist groups in which they are a part of, and thus they are devoid of their own
agency. This view, held my many in the West, but also by many secular Arab feminists, begins with the
assumption that Islamist organizations are incapable of being concerned about raising the status of
women, for such organizations are part of a tradition that has historically oppressed women
(Abdellatif & Ottaway, 1). As such, women who are a part of these organizations are only defined by the
stigma of the history they are associated with and are viewed as unable to pursue an authentic push for
womens rights, as the battle for womens rights is being fought by secular, modern organizations (1).
Not only do proponents of this view conflate all Islamist organizations by overlooking the nuanced views
each holds and the various roles that Islamist women play, but they also pass an overarching judgment
on the religion of Islam, by operating under the assumption that Islam is by nature incompatible with
womens rights. As such, the term Islamist feminist should be employed carefully, for it can be
considered an oxymoron. The term seems to suggest that Islam by its very nature denies the idea that
women possess equal dignity as human beings to men; and in this sense, the term is similar to the
negative term political Islam which implies an inherent conflict between Islam and politics.
It is certainly the case that men in many Islamist movements view women members as a means
to an end in that they are viewed as possessing valuable political and social capital (Abdellatif &
Ottaway, 5), allowing the organizations to receive more votes and gain political and international
legitimacy. However, because male leaders of some of these movements may pay mere lip service to
the cause of womens rights does not mean that the only function Islamist women serve is that of a
symbol. Rather, many Islamist women are challenging the status quo and are forging new roles for
themselves in their organizations. The fact that many of these women are pioneering for greater roles,

such as being involved in making decisions (6), reveals that it is certainly not the case that Islamist
women lack their own agency. Contrary to being appropriated by the male members of their respective
organizations, many Islamist women are able to create their own intellectual spaces in which they are
initiating a far-reaching debate about womens roles, concerns, and rights from within an Islamist
frame of reference, which challenges both dominant interpretations of Islamic views of women and the
Western view of a universally valid definition of womens rights (6).
The impact of this debate being initiated by Islamist women is crucial, because it challenges us
to consider the impulse of many secular Western and Arab feminists to search for a universal definition
of womens rights accompanied with universally applicable criteria and standards. As such, the potential
for Islamist women to redefine what should be considered the realm of womens rights is enormous.
However, it is important to note that there is no one Islamist feminist position on womens rights.
Rather, Islamist women remain divided on many issues: many refuse to resign to an interpretation of
Islam that relegates women to a subordinate social and political condition while many are critical of
some feminist ideas and demands (Abdellatif & Ottaway, 7). Following this, one question that still
remains to be addressed is how do the positions of some of these women differ from the mainstream
Western view of womens rights?
To address this question, a distinction must be made between what can be termed as Western
patriarchy and Muslim patriarchy. Many secular Western feminists consider equality as the universal
standard from which to measure womens rights. Under this standard, they regard women as being
equal to men not only in worth, but also in outward expressions as well. Thus, their battle is against a
patriarchy that denies equality to women. On the other hand, many Islamist women, such as those who
are a part of Hizbollah or the Egyptian MB, are battling against a patriarchy that denies them justice,
rather than equality in every sense of the word. These women are concerned with the entire
community, which they want to be just and egalitarian within an Islamic framework, recognizing not
only the intrinsic equality between men and women but also the different roles they play (Abdellatif &
Ottaway, 9). As such, their concern is not with the elevation of individualism and renunciation of familial
obligation in lieu of womens equality with men, which they consider the cornerstones of the Western
battle against patriarchy; rather, they emphasize the complementarity of roles between the sexes (9)
which they understand to vary based on differing cultural, social and political environments.
Ultimately, rather than disregarding the emerging and varying voices of Islamist women as
incapable of offering anything to the discussion of womens rights, it is more fruitful to pause and reflect
upon how these women are expanding and challenging the dominant conceptions of womens rights,

equality, and cultural relativism. A critical contribution that can be recognized from this reality is the
value and progress that can come from recognizing and respecting differences-precisely as products of
different histories, as expressions of different circumstances, and as manifestations of differently
structured desires (Abu-Lughod, 787), as opposed to measuring others views against dominant, yet
biased, definition and standards, which are also products of their own cultural and social settings. To
operate under the understanding that justice for women is a universal ideal but that there might be
different ideas about justice and that different women might want, or choose different futures from
what we envision as best (788), will not only further expand the discussion of human and womens
rights, resulting in more solutions, but will also help to remind us that we do not stand outside the
world, looking out over this sea of poor benighted people, living under the shadow-or veil-of oppressive
cultures; we are part of that world (789).