Exploring Muslim Feminisms: A Response to Orientalist Discourses About Muslim Women

Does having women’s positions and rights as a core focus of discussion make some movements feminist—a term that has historically been rejected by Muslim women fighting for recognition of women’s rights? Moreover, if these movements are taking place in Muslim countries or have associations with Muslim cultures, communities and women, does that define them as Muslim feminist? In this thesis, I demonstrate that there are multiple types of Muslim feminisms and each type is not restricted to any specific geographic location but rather as feminist theories, span the globe. Using a post-colonial, anti-racist, anti-Orientalist feminist theoretical framework to investigate literature on Muslim feminisms and the ways in which issues of violence against women, such as honour killings, are discussed within this literature, I aspire to introduce and include Muslim feminist voices among transnational and global feminist theorists within the academic field of Women’s and Gender Studies.