About My Journey

As a female Muslim scholar and public speaker, I have studied feminism (both Islamic and non Islamic). At the beginning of my journey, before studying and exploring, I considered myself to be a firm feminist. For me, feminism seemed to represent what I was and still am – a strong working woman, independent and firmly against oppression of women in any form. For me, it seemed to fit perfectly into what I had learnt about Islamic teachings regarding women.

I then started to unwrap feminist history and values, as well as navigating my own life as a Muslim scholar and all those other roles we do in life. I began an incredible journey of reflection which in this series, I would like to share with you.

The bigger question we need to address in my mind is not, ‘Is Feminism compatible with Islam?” but “Is Feminism good for the Ummah?”

Now, this is not just a read for sisters – its very important that brothers also read this – not to convert you all into raving militant feminist bros, but to empower you; my beloved brothers and sisters, my Ummah, to understand that the values that we choose have an impact on us – by us I mean our Ummah, our communities, our families, our children. I don’t just mean value choices of feminism, I also mean other choices that we all make, that will last long beyond our lifetimes.

Ummah starts with ‘I’ but it must be about ‘we’.


I will take you through what I have seen of lived experiences of feminist values within our communities and how they are impacting our lives, the way we see the world and the way practice of our deen.

Often we think all this is separated from the deen – and doesn’t have an impact but it really does.

A Test: Sisters, when I say the word, ‘polygamy’, most of you will recoil in horror, run home and lock up your husbands. Did you ever wonder why we are so fiercely against polygamy, when it is something that Allah (swt) has made permissible in the Qur’an.

Don’t get me wrong, it is not a life choice that many of us would choose (brothers or sisters), and it is that – a life choice, however, just because we don’t choose to do polygamy, surely it is a problem if we oppose it, as this is opposing what Allah (swt) has made permissible.

Feminism – What is it?

Let’s begin with the complex field of feminism and feminist thought. It is so ironic to me that feminism has become a popular buzzword and even set of values in society yet although many Muslim women regard themselves as being a feminist; we usually have little knowledge of what feminism is. Why? Because it’s a populist trend that Western society frame as being a correct set of values (who gets to determine what correct of incorrect is?)


The first question for the ummah to reflect on:

Before I say, “I am a Muslim feminist or I support feminism”, shouldn’t I understand what feminism is and if it is compatible with my values as a Muslim?

I know these are big questions that are not easy to answer, but at least we can reflect on them.


Feminism can loosely be divided in different areas from the Western constructed academic field of women’s studies rooted in sociology, to the four waves of feminist movements ranging from the eighteenth century and continuing in current times with the ‘me too’ movement which began in 2006 but gained significant publicity in 2017.

The movements have been rooted in Europe and the States with more recent waves impacting other areas of the world as feminism spreads and develops but still in a Euro-centric format. Campaigns have included women’s right to vote and work; to have sexual freedom including the right to contraception, sexual freedom, abortion and rights for equality and independence.

Where communities of colour and especially different faiths sit within feminism has been an awkward area for feminism. The movements are rooted in European context and sit firmly within white secular values. The first two movements in particular were white, middle class led movements with no consideration for other cultures, races and beliefs or even classes. This was because the problems that the movements were trying to address were faced by white middle class women. Even the white working class women were not included in early feminist narratives and to some extent are still not.

This trend continues in many ways and although later movements have had some space for women of different colours and cultures, it has been sadly lacking in adapting for women of different faith values and it has always had a white, Western and secular frame. As faith and culture often intersect with one another, this can present a problem which will be explored in more depth in a later chapter.

What is Muslim Feminism?

In an attempt to adapt feminism to become Muslim compatible, Muslim feminism has been growing and developing in recent decades with academics such as Amina Wadood and Asma Lambaret who have written on women and feminist values presented in the Quran amongst other areas.

They have come up against varying levels of criticism due to this by traditional scholarship. At its root, the aim of Muslim feminism has been to challenge oppression faced by Muslim women. Some of these issues have been cultural such as challenging forced marriage, domestic violence or other culturally based traditions.

Others have challenged some scholarly interpretations of certain Hadiths and Quranic verses that are deemed to be contradictory to the Quranic and Prophetic attitude towards women and women’s rights.
This has included challenges and debates on matters of the right of a woman to divorce, the right to study or the acceptability of female scholars and teachers to teach mixed audiences.
It could be argued that these debates are moving Islamic scholarship into a new field that is moving much closer in line with the Prophetic, Sahabi and Tab’ai attitudes to women and their roles, however, one of the main critical points made by many has been that most of the Muslim feminist writers are academic Muslim scholars rather than having had a traditional Islamic education.

Next part, we will look at some of the tensions between Islamic and Feminist Values.