A Critical Assessment of Turkish Islamic Feminism: A Simone de Beauvoirian Perspective

From the early years of the Turkish Republic to the end of the 1990s, the individuals who constitute the Turkish Islamic feminist movement have been the ‘other’ to Kemalist secular women. In the mid-2000s, having found a solution to the ‘headscarf question’, Muslim women started to express their demands, ranging from equal opportunities in education to the transformation of patriarchal structures and the reconstruction of female identity. The article’s main objective is to develop arguments for how dilemmas can be transcended in the process of identity-building. The main hypothesis put forward is that the participants in the Turkish Islamic feminist movement, who could turn their dilemmas into advantages if they managed to establish their relationship with the ‘other’ in line with the universal secular values of equality and freedom, will achieve their existential freedom only to the extent that they are able to act from an existential perspective.

Islamic Revolution and Women’s Issues in Iran in the Aspect of Social Communication

Nowadays the problems of socio-cultural communication covers the gender issue and changes in the role of women in society in particular. Traditionally, the women status in Muslim countries is most vulnerable. Despite this fact, there has emerged such a socio-cultural phenomenon as Islamic feminism in the Middle East. Islamic Revolution was the first time when Iranian women had declared themselves as a social and political force. Imam R. Khomeini used their social activity for his own political purposes. Despite the promises of the revolution leader, first actions of the new government differed from those the citizens expected: most of the rights and freedoms were restricted or eliminated. Iran is currently ranked 148th out of 153 countries on the gender gap index, overtaking only the countries with difficult internal political and economic situation, such as the DRC, Syria, Pakistan, Iraq and Yemen. The article analyzes the changes in the Iranian women status that have occurred in the following areas: civil status, education and science, economic activity, politics, art and sports. The positive measures taken in these spheres indicate that the society is undergoing a process of reconsidering the role of women, and the development of the women empowerment process in Iran will progress.

Mansour Fahmy, Pioneer of Islamic Feminism in Modern Egyptian Thought

Mansour Fahmy (1886-1959), one of the dramatic figures in modern Arab philosophical and social thought. He was the reformist and enlightenment figure in modern Arab history. He is also the owner of a notable current that was subjected to a violent attack that silenced him for a long time and forced him to "hide" physically. However, this did not eliminate the new opinions and positions that came at the beginning of the twentieth century towards the issue of women. He is the first to write with a scientific methodology - from the point of view of sociology - on Islamic discourse and its dealings with women. he sought to differentiate between religion and the religious establishment, between the personality of the Prophet Muhammad and what later prevailed in the books of jurisprudence and others. When he discussed the headscarf issue, he concluded that it was the product of traditions and customs that the Hijab is not from the Islamic religion. Islamic law has nothing to do with the Hijab. Mansour Fahmy's creativity was at one of the sensitive stages in Egypt's modern history in which the political, social, national, cultural, and revolution clashed in each one. All this, in turn, identified the problem of Mansour Fahmy's intellectual personality in the battles of thought and politics. This research's main task is to redraw the features of his actual personality and the reality of his intellectual, social, and political positions. Besides, this study seeks to uncover the effect of philosophy on crystallizing Mansour Fahmy's critical personality and its role in laying the foundations of the critical vision with its practical, reformist, and enlightening dimensions.

The Concept of Feminism in Islamic Education

The Spread of the Western feminism movement in parts of the world including Indonesia has had a fairly risky impact on Indonesian society, especially among women. The influence of western feminism is the equalization of positions between men and women in all respects so that not women in Indonesia forget their nature as women both when they become daughters, wives, and mothers so that this often leads to conflict in the family that are contrary to Islamic teachings. This article aims to find the real concept of feminism in Islam. To obtain answers to these problems, the researchers used literature studies namely reviewing various scientific articles related to Western and Islamic feminism as well as reciting verses from the Quran related to equality of men and women. The result obtained from the study stated that the concept of feminism in Islam aims to make women knowledgeable and insightful and not narrow their space of movement. But not just standing alone without needing a partner or a man. Both are creatures of Allah who need each other and were created to perfect each other. In Islam, the nature of men and women is different and there is a nature that can only be done by men or women. Therefore, feminism in Islam only demands equality of rights such as the right to study, the right to work, and the right to a career, not demanding gender equality.

Challenging Grand Narrative through Little Narrative: An Analysis of Fatima Mernissi’s Perspectives

In this post-modern world, intellectuals and visionary scholars putting together Little Narratives on a tactical basis for challenging the ‘Grand Narrative. Most recently, religious identification has taken the status of political grand narrative in post-colonial Arab Countries. Social, economic, military, and political failures have galvanized, progressive religious responses to western domination and globalization. Feminism and especially Islamic Feminism, playing its role as a little narrative for challenging the grand narrative of religious authoritarianism. This paper will focus on the work and ideas of Moroccan thinker, Fatima Mernissi in the theoretical framework of Carool Krestan’s Progressive Category. In this paper, the Analytical, critical and comparative research methodology will be adopted with the qualitative research paradigm.

From Secular Muslim Feminisim to Islamic Feminism(s) and New Generation Islamic Feminists in Egypt, Iran and Turkey

In dominantly Muslim societies, there have been two major feminist paradigms referred to as “secular Muslim feminism” emerging at late nineteenth century and “Islamic feminism(s)” arising after the 4th women world congress in Beijing in 1995. They evolved in historical contexts where new subjects and identities were being re/fashioned out of shifting combinations of religious, class, ethnic, and national affiliations. On the one hand, secular Muslim feminism joined the western oriented first wave of liberal feminism including secular nationalists, Islamic modernists, humanitarian/human rightists, and democrats. Islamic feminism, on the other hand, is expressed in a single or dominantly religiously grounded discourse taking the Qur'an as its core text. In this article, I reflect on the roots of feminism in the Middle East with a particular emphasis on Egypt, Iran and Turkey. I discuss secular feminism and Islamic feminism, and what makes them distinct. Finally, I discuss whether a new wave of Islamic feminism has been formed with the criticisms of a new generation of Islamic feminists.