Feminist Reflections

Hands-down, my favorite course this semester was Gender, Islam, & Society. It was taught by a great Moroccan professor who's spent years evaluating the work of momentous Moroccan feminist Fatima Mernissi and studying in Canada, so her perspectives were very interesting and incredibly well-informed. The course started with a discussion of the original Islamic discourses as to whether the Qur'an or Islam itself are misogynistic, whether the prophet Mohammed was a feminist, and how much Islam changed the lives of women in the lands it grew from. It moved on to a debate on the hijab and the basis of modesty in women's wear, then women's rights in Islam and the legal systems that have evolved out of Shari'a. Then we shifted into Islamic feminism and modern Islamic women's rights.

The course was eye-opening for me, and I really enjoyed it. My term paper revolved around the evolution of the hijab as a representative of something other than observance of modest Islamic dress.


This is an image that's come up in class quite a few times, and always gets quite a few interesting reactions:

 

What's yours?

More food for thought: The world is in uproar over France's ban of the burqa in public spaces (in addition to the hijab, and all forms of religious expression, in schools). France based their ban on centuries of state vs. religion upheaval and the right to shield their secular nation from public displays of religion (also, couched it in save-the-repressed-Muslim-woman banter, which I don't buy). However, no one denies the right of Saudi Arabia to enforce the wearing of modest dress and head coverings for female citizens and permanent residents, based on their status as a Muslim monarchy. Who, if anyone, has that right?