Feminist discourses in the Islamic world

Project manager: Prof. Dr. Susanne Schröter

Since the beginning of the 20th century, gender orders have been in flux around the world, with national and transnational movements emerging that strive for equality between men and women, but also counter-movements that defend gender difference as an expression of a natural or divine order and want to restrict women primarily to the role of mothers and wives. While the idea of gender equality has now been enshrined by the United Nations and a convention against the elimination of all forms of discrimination against women has been signed by almost all states, voices that reject gender equality as un-Islamic have gained influence, particularly in Islamic societies. Moreover, they believe that the West is using the discourse of equality as a weapon against Islamic societies, destroying their culture and recolonizing them to a certain extent.

Historically, discussions about the emancipation of women, the order of the sexes and the modernization of societies developed in the “Orient” and “Occident” at the end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th century at the same time and partly with reference to each other. Names such as Huda Sharawi and Qasim Amin in Egypt or Mirza Fath Ali Akhundzadeh and Sedighe Doulatabadi in Iran stand for this. In the course of the 20th century, authoritarian rulers in a number of post-colonial Muslim states adopted the ideas of feminist thinkers and developed a rigid state feminism, which met with opposition from religious actors and the poorer sections of the population influenced by them. Since the Islamic Revolution in Iran, this opposition has gained influence. Progressive gender orders are once again under discussion. This is primarily due to the rise of Islamist organizations and parties, in which women are also fighting as activists for the implementation of an Islamic gender order and Islamic law. Parallel to this development, which in some countries has led to a withdrawal of rights already granted to women, the opposite can also be observed, namely the gradual implementation of reforms initiated by civil society actors. The adoption of a new personal status law in Morocco, which is now one of the most progressive in the Islamic world, is an example of such changes that has received much media attention.

The research project examined the discourses of feminist actors on the transformation of gender orders in Morocco, Tunisia, Indonesia, Palestine and Syria. Particular emphasis was placed on conflicts between so-called secular feminists and religious, often Islamist actors, as well as on the potential of Islamic feminism, which sees itself as a third way between the antagonistic poles. The researchers investigated current processes using ethnographic methods. Based on this data, the project attempted to model a prototypical development.

The most important publications in the research project include Schröter, Susanne (2013): “Gender and Islam in Southeast Asia. An overview”, in: Schröter, Susanne (ed.): Gender and Islam in Southeast Asia. Negotiating women’s rights, Islamic piety and sexual orders , Leiden: Brill, 7-54; Schröter, Susanne (2013): Tunisia. “From state feminism to revolutionary Islamism”, in: Schröter, Susanne (ed.): Gender justice through democratization? Transformations and restorations of gender relations in the Islamic world Bielefeld: Transcript, 17-44 (together with Sonia Zayed) and Schröter, Susanne (2013): “Herausbildungen moderner Geschlechterordnungen in der islamischen Welt”, in: Andreas Fahrmeir/Annette Warner (eds.): The diversity of normative orders. Conflicts and dynamics from a historical and ethnological perspective Frankfurt/M.: Campus, 275-306.

The following events were held as part of the research project: International Conference on “New mobilities and evolving identities. Islam, youth and gender in South and Southeast Asia”, from April 20-21, 2012 at Humboldt University, Berlin (together with Nadja-Christina Schneider, Asien-Afrika-Institut, HU, and Gudrun Krämer, Berlin Graduate School Muslim Cultures and Societies); Conference on “Islam, Gender, gesellschaftliche Transformationen. Gender justice through democratization?”, from 2 – 3 December 2011 at the Forschungskolleg Humanwissenschaften in Bad Homburg and the panel by Susanne Schröter on “Sexuality, morality and power. Normative gender orders and their dislocations” at the conference of the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Völkerkunde in Frankfurt, 30.9.-3.10.2009.