Fighting Hislam

Women, Faith and Sexism

Susan Carland

• Publisher: Melbourne University Press Digital
• Year: 2017
• ISBN:
  9780522870367
• Topic: Social Sciences
• Subtopic: Feminism & Feminist Theory
• Index: Social Sciences

The Muslim community that is portrayed to the West is a misogynist's playground; within the Muslim community, feminism is often regarded with sneering hostility.
Yet between those two views there is a group of Muslim women many do not believe exists: a diverse bunch who fight sexism from within, as committed to the fight as they are to their faith. Hemmed in by Islamophobia and sexism, they fight against sexism with their minds, words and bodies. Often, their biggest weapon is their religion.Here, Carland talks with Muslim women about how they are making a stand for their sex, while holding fast to their faith. At a time when the media trumpets scandalous revelations about life for women from Saudi Arabia to Indonesia, Muslim women are always spoken about and over, never with. In Fighting Hislam, that ends.

INDEX

Abduh, Muhammad 31

Adrienne (pseud.)

biography 45

on domestic violence 93

motivation for fighting sexism 76

refusal to be trapped by double bind 118

on support from her partner 91

Afghanistan, invasion of 14–15

Africa, nego-feminism 92

African-American converts to Islam 98

aid projects 28

Aisha (wife of Prophet Muhammad) 17

Al-Nisa’iyyat (Nasif) 19

Albrecht, Lisa 137

Alexander, Jacqui 137

Ali, Kecia 131

AltMuslimah 48–9, 79, 83

Aly, Waleed 93–4

Amani Services 59, 84

American Society for Muslim Advancement (ASMA) 50

An-Na’im, Abdullahi 133

Arab Feminist Union 19

Arabiat, Abdul Latif 28

Astarabadi, Bibi Kahanum 20

Ataturk, Kemal 31, 32

Australia, Muslim population 38–9

Azizah magazine 58, 80–1, 86–8, 119

Bad Ass Muslimahs 57

Badran, Margot

on dichotomy between Islam and modernity 30

on Egyptian feminism 31

on Islamic feminism 33–4, 39

on middle space between feminism and Islamism 127

on Muslim views of fighting sexism 40

on Muslim women as feminists 126–7

on patrimonial home of feminism 19

on secular feminism in the Middle East 35

on secular feminism versus religious feminism 130

Baktiar, Laleh

biography 54–5

criticism of her scholarship 95, 99

dismissive suspicion from other Muslims 98

on domestic violence 120

translation of Qur’an from woman’s perspective 54–5, 73

Barazangi, Nimat 77, 135

Barlas, Asma

biography 48

on community attitudes toward fighting sexism 103

on importance of theology 21

on non-Muslim concerns about sexism 104

on projection of misogyny onto scripture 124

on working within an Islamic framework 134

‘Believing Women’ (Barlas) 48

benevolent sexism 24–5, 103

Beyond the Veil blog 50–1, 53

Blair, Cherie 15

Bunting, Annie 22–4

Bush, Laura 14–15

Canada, Muslim population 38

censorship 40, 109

censure of women, for challenging status quo 85–6

Chesler, Phyllis 14

colonialism, association with feminism 27, 28, 29–32

criticism of Muslim women’s fight

against sexism

by Muslim men 89–90

‘Muslim women behaving badly’ 94–7

questioning of religious legitimacy of their work 95–6

for ‘shaming the community’ 93–4

suspicion of converts to Islam 98

Cromer, 1st Earl (Evelyn Baring) 14, 30

de facto feminism 34

discriminati...