Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-gb8f7 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-20T09:23:57.921Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Islamist Feminism: Constructing Gender Identities in Postcolonial Muslim Societies

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 September 2011

Jeffry R. Halverson  and
Amy K. Way
Jeffry R. Halverson*
Affiliation:
Arizona State University
Amy K. Way*
Affiliation:
Arizona State University
*
Address correspondence and reprint requests to: Jeffry R. Halverson, Hugh Downs School of Human Communication, Arizona State University, P.O. Box 871205, Tempe, AZ 85287-1205. E-mail: jeffry.halverson@asu.eduor Amy K. Way, Hugh Downs School of Human Communication, Arizona State University, P.O. Box 871205, Tempe, AZ 85287-1205. E-mail: amy.way@asu.edu
Address correspondence and reprint requests to: Jeffry R. Halverson, Hugh Downs School of Human Communication, Arizona State University, P.O. Box 871205, Tempe, AZ 85287-1205. E-mail: jeffry.halverson@asu.eduor Amy K. Way, Hugh Downs School of Human Communication, Arizona State University, P.O. Box 871205, Tempe, AZ 85287-1205. E-mail: amy.way@asu.edu
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

This article analyzes the emergence of female Islamist leaders in the Middle East and North Africa, and the glaring contradictions between their feminist views and their roles as political activists for the Islamic State. The two Islamist leaders who form the primary focus of this analysis are Zaynab al-Ghazali (d. 2005) of Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood and Nadia Yassine of Morocco's Justice and Charity Society. Our analysis reveals the existence of “Islamist feminism,” distinguished from broader secular-oriented Islamic feminism, as a logical, albeit unique, extension, and expression of Muslim anti-colonial discourse rooted in the intellectual currents of twentieth century independence movements that still resonate today.

Type
Articles
Information
Politics and Religion , Volume 4 , Issue 3 , December 2011 , pp. 503 - 525
Copyright
Copyright © Religion and Politics Section of the American Political Science Association 2011

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

REFERENCES

Acker, Joan. 1990. “Hierarchies, Jobs, Bodies: A theory of gendered organizations.” Gender and Society 4:139–158.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ahmed, Leila. 1992. Women and Gender in Islam: Historical Roots of a Modern Debate. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.Google Scholar
Al-Banna, Hasan. 2000. Memoirs of Hasan al-Banna Shaheed. Trans. Shaikh., M. N.Delhi: Markazi Maktaba Islami.Google Scholar
al-Ghazali, Zaynab. 2006. Return of the Pharaoh: Memoir in Nasir's Prison. Trans. Guezzou, Mokrane. Leicester, UK: The Islamic Foundation.Google Scholar
Ali, Souad T. 2009. A Religion, Not a State: Ali Abd al-Raziq's Islamic Justification of Political Secularism. Salt Lake City, UT: University of Utah Press.Google Scholar
al-jazeera.net. 2007. “Nadia Yassine interviewed by al-jazeera.net.” http://www.nadiayassine.net/en/page/print/12196.htm.Google Scholar
Ashcraft, Karen L., and Mumby, Dennis K.. 2004. Reworking Gender: A feminist communicology of organization. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Baker, Raymond W. 2003. Islam without Fear: Egypt and the New Islamists. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Baten, Shahnaz. 2005. “Zaynab Al-Ghazali Life Inspires Area Muslims.” http://www.muslimlinkpaper.com/index.php/community-news/community-news/191-Zaynab%20Al-Ghazali%20Life%20Inspires%20Area%20Muslims.html (Accessed on June 20, 2011).Google Scholar
Brown, Daniel W. 1999. Rethinking Tradition in Modern Islamic Thought. New York, NY: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Buhrke, Robin A. 1988. “Factor Dimensions across Different Measures of Sex Roles Ideology.” Sex Roles 18: 309–321.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Burgat, François. 2003. Face to Face with Political Islam. New York, NY: I. B. Tauris.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Choueiri, Youssef M. 1997. Islamic Fundamentalism. New York, NY: Continuum.Google Scholar
Cooke, Miriam. 1994. “Zaynab al-Ghazali: Saint or Subversive?” Die Welt Des Islam 34:1–20.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cooke, Miriam. 1995. “Ayyam min Hayati: The Prison Memoirs of a Muslim Sister.” Journal of Arabic Literature 26:147–164.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cota, Albert A., and Xinaris, Skevoulla. 1993. “Factor Structure of the Sex-Role Ideology Scale: Introducing a Short Form.” Sex Roles 29:345–358.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Davis, Shannon N., and Greenstein, Theodore N. 2009. “Gender ideology: Components, Predictors and Consequences.” Annual Review of Sociology 35:87–105.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Feminist Majority Foundation. 2009. “Stop Gender Apartheid in Afghanistan.” Feminist.com. http://www.feminist.com/activism/take_genderap_decOO.html (Accessed on July 20, 2011).Google Scholar
Gallab, Abdullahi. 2008. The First Islamist Republic. New York, NY: Ashgate.Google Scholar
Halverson, Jeffry R. 2010. Theology and Creed in Sunni Islam: The Muslim Brotherhood, Ash‘arism, and Political Sunnism. New York, NY: Palgrave Macmillan.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Harris, Christina Phelps. 1964. Nationalism and Revolution in Egypt. The Hague: Mouton.Google Scholar
Kepel, Gilles. 2003. Muslim Extremism in Egypt: The Prophet and Pharaoh. Trans. Rothschild, Jon. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press.Google Scholar
Kroska, Amy. 2000. “Conceptualizing and Measuring Gender Ideology as an Identity.” Gender and Society, I 14:368–394.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Larsen, Knud, and Long, Ed. 1988. “Attitudes toward sex-roles.” Sex Roles 19:1–12.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lia, Brynjar. 1998. The Society of the Muslim Brothers in Egypt: The Rise of an Islamic Mass Movement 1928–1942. Reading, UK: Ithaca Press.Google Scholar
Lindlof, Thomas R., and Taylor, Bryan C.. 2002. Qualitative Communication Research Methods. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.Google Scholar
Lincoln, Bruce. 2003. Holy Terrors: Thinking about Religion after September 11. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Mahmood, Sabah. 2005. Politics of Piety: the Islamic Revival and the Feminist Subject. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Martinez, Emmanuel. 2008. “Islamic Feminism” http://joumal.altematives.ca/eng/our~organisation/our-publications/alternatives-international-journal/2008-558/vol-01-no-06-october-2008/article/islamic-feminism?lang=fr (Accessed July 20, 2011).Google Scholar
Mernissi, Fatima. 1991. The Veil and the Male Elite. Trans. Lakeland, Mary Jo. New York, NY: Perseus Books.Google Scholar
Mumby, Dennis K. 2005. “Theorizing Resistance in Organization Studies: A Dialectical Approach.” Management Communication Quarterly 19:19–44.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Potuchek, Jean L. 1992. “Employed Wives’ Orientations to Breadwinning: A Gender Theory Analysis.” Journal of Marriage and the Family 54:548–558.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Qutb, Sayyid. 2002. Milestones. New Delhi, India: Islamic Book Service.Google Scholar
Ridgeway, Cecelia L., and Correll, Shelley J. 2004. “Unpacking the Gender System: A Theoretical Perspective on Gender Beliefs and Social Relations.” Gender and Society 18:510–531.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Roy, Olivier. 1994. The Failure of Political Islam. Trans. Volk, C.. New York, NY: I.B. Tauris.Google Scholar
Ruthven, Malise. 2006. Islam in the World, Third Edition. New York, NY: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Stryker, Sheldon. 1980. Symbolic Interactionism. Menlo Park, CA: Benjamin-Cummings.Google Scholar
Sunder, Madhavi. 2007. Gender and Feminist Theory in Law and Society. New York: Ashgate.Google Scholar
Trethewey, Angela. 1997. “Resistance, Identity, and Empowerment: A Postmodern Feminist Analysis of Clients in a Human Service Organization.” Communication Monographs 64:281–301.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Utvik, Bjørn Olav. 2003. “The Modernizing Force of Islamism.” In Modernizing Islam: Religion in the Public Sphere in the Middle East and Europe, eds. Esposito, John L., and Burgat, Francois. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press.Google Scholar
Wadud, Amina. 1999. Qur'an and Woman: Rereading the Sacred Text from a Woman's Perspective. New York, NY: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Yassine, Abdessalam. 2007. “On Being a Moslem Woman.” http://www.nadiayassine.net/en/page/print/12111.htm (Accessed on September 17, 2009).Google Scholar
Yassine, Nadia. 2007. “Is there an Islamic feminist movement?” http://www.nadiayassine.net/en/page/11776.htm (Accessed on September 17, 2009).Google Scholar