Make Sure You Include Muslim Women in Your Feminism This WHM

For Muslims, the holy month of Ramadan is a time of personal reflection, gratitude, and community. This year, Ramadan coincided with Women’s History Month, a time to celebrate the contributions of women throughout history and contemporarily, as well as recognize the ongoing fight for women’s rights. But, what many don’t know, is that Muslim women have been historically left out of feminist and women’s empowerment circles. The achievements and accomplishments of Muslim women are often left uncelebrated and overlooked during a month that should be about all women. 

Muslim women in general, are often stereotyped as oppressed, forced to wear the headscarf by their father or another male authority figure. These stereotypes often appear in television, movies, and the media. The hijab is presented as something that a woman is trying to escape, or an obstacle that she is trying to overcome. But, this representation suggests that Muslim women lack agency on their own, “also serv[ing] to further alienate and marginalize Muslim women who choose to wear hijab and reinforces the idea that they are somehow ‘different’ or ‘other.’” (Medium) This alienation and marginalization of  Muslim women simply for the way that they choose to dress and the assumption that they have no ability to think for themselves, is in itself a form of sexism. Sexism that intersects with Islamophobia under the guise of feminism. 

This is not empowerment, this is something feminist movements are meant to be fighting against. 

This exclusionary form of feminism is non-intersectional feminism—sometimes criticized as “white feminism”—feminist thought that silences and marginalizes the voices of women of color, as well as ignoring the ways that for women of color, gender inequality and racism very often go hand-in-hand. Obviously, not every feminist who is white is a non-intersectional feminist, or racist, or ignores and marginalizes the voices of women of color. Non-intersectional feminism simply frames feminism as a movement for white women, inspiring the phrase “white feminism.”

The labeling of the practice of hijab—something Muslim women wear—as “backwards” and something the Muslim woman needs to be saved from is non-intersectional feminism. Womanhood is not a monolith, and “‘White feminism acts to homogenise feminism: to assert mainstream dominant feminism as The Feminism, which is not true; this is an act of white supremacy’…‘this dynamic often means that where the needs of women of colour, transgender women, disabled women, or Muslim women conflict with that of white supremacy…’” (Mashable) In short, if your feminism does not include everyone, it is not real feminism, because we cannot reach true gender equality unless every woman is included in it. 

Out of the exclusion from non-intersectional feminists emerged a feminist movement known as “Islamic feminism,” whose principles come from interpretations of the Holy Quran and are specific to the empowerment of Muslim women. While who coined the term first is seemingly lost to history, Islamic feminism has appeared in the writings of female Islamic scholars, Muslim feminist authors, and activists who believe that feminism and women’s empowerment can come from Islam rather than in spite of it. The movement’s unique feminist thought is put into practice through groups like Musawah—Arabic for “equality”— a global movement of women who “work for the advancement of human rights for women in Muslim contexts, both in their public and private lives” (Musawah) as well as advocating for the interpretation of Islamic texts and principles from the perspective of women and their empowerment. Musawah advocates for women’s equality in the Muslim family and Muslim family laws, rejecting the notion that men in a family have authority over women, arguing that this is not in line with Quranic principles. 

 But despite this, the inequality that Muslim women face has the potential to become systemic, notably through various hijab bans in sports, schools, and public spaces that disproportionately affect Muslim women. For example, France’s hijab bans are rooted in “the principle of laïcité…It instituted the separation of church and state, the free exercise of religion by French citizens, and respect for all citizens before the law, regardless of belief. Secularism imposed neutrality on the French state and on public institutions, but did not require personal neutrality from citizens.” (The Guardian) 

But, as the years went on, lacïté devolved from a guaranteeing of freedom of religion, a governmental practice that has drawn criticism from human rights groups for harming it. Apparently, modern hijab bans are not the first case in French history of the government promoting assimilation and “forward-thinking” Western culture by discrimination, with “patronising of women of colour and their supposed ‘submission…’traced to the French colonial era. Public unveiling ceremonies of colonised Algerian women were organised by the military in the 1950s to promote ‘assimilation’ and even ‘civilization.’” (The Guardian) This way of thinking is counterintuitive. Feminism is meant to be about choice, and the government taking the option of hijab away in certain spaces because it is “forced” upon women is in reality a violation of personal freedoms.

Muslim feminists exist all around the world, and their identity is not a paradox. From Musawah, to the world’s first university being founded by Fatima Al-Fihri before the common era, to breakdancer Manizha Talash’s display of solidarity and support for Afghan women at the 2024 Summer Olympics, the contributions of Muslim women to feminist movements and women’s rights deserve their flowers. A lack of intersectionality holds feminism back from creating an equal world for all women. The Muslim woman should not have to change who she is according to someone else’s standards of what a feminist “should” be, when feminist values can come from one’s culture and religion rather than in spite of it. This Ramadan, Women’s History Month, and every day, I encourage you to remember the Muslim women who have had just as much of an influence on creating a brighter world for all women.

• feminism
• ramadan
• Women's History Month