By Lana Sirri

Publisher: Routledge

Publication Date: May 30, 2022

This book sets out a rationale for the compatibility of Islam and Feminism and shows that Islamic Feminism is a diverse and valuable lens through which to analyze religion and gender. In addition, including scholarship written in Arabic, it promotes the decolonization of knowledge production around Islam, gender and sexuality.

Islamic feminism is a field of study that has been marginalized both in contemporary Islamic discourse and in feminist discourse. This study counters this marginalization in two ways. Firstly, it enumerates the diversity of approaches used in Islamic feminist scholarship. Secondly, it foregrounds voices that are often neglected in discussions of Islam, gender and sexuality by highlighting and contrasting the work of two key scholars: Kecia Ali based in the USA and Olfa Youssef based in Tunisia. The book suggests that in addition to geo-political positioning, language, as a ‘prior-text’, also influences an individual’s personal interpretation of Islamic feminism. This comparison, therefore, enables broader issues to be dissected, such as the interrelationships between life experiences, strategies of resistance to patriarchal and other forms of oppression, and the production of knowledge.

About the Author

Lana Sirri is Assistant Professor in the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences at the University of Maastricht, The Netherlands.

Source: Routledge