UNESCO : entrance for the colloquium at 125 av. de Suffren, 75015 Paris
Monday 18th : room XII
Tuesday 19 : room IV

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(read in french)

The status of women in the Muslim world has been the subject of considerable study and debate, often provoking polemics, nourishing prejudices, and evoking stereotypes that are often disconnected from a far more complex reality. Less known or discussed is the discourse and emerging movement known as Islamic feminism.

The colloquium seeks to draw attention to the work of the increasing number of Islamic feminists – among them Americans, Pakistanis, Indians, Spanish, Nigerians, Malaysians and French – and their involvement in social change, particularly in connection with the struggle against patriarchy and gender inequality, which is carried out from within a Muslim framework but is part of the global women’s rights movement. The colloquium will provide insights from research and personal experiences, presented by participants from different parts of the world who will engage in an intercultural dialogue while also sharing their reflections on Islam and women’s rights with the public.

Around the world, women intellectuals and activists search for and develop strategies to challenge inequalities in their societies. Strategies and priorities may differ, but there is consensus that education is the key to women’s empowerment. Islamic feminists question women’s status in Muslim societies and provide an alternative concept of women’s rights in Islam, based on a return to the original sources and their own reading and interpretation of the holy texts. This is an endeavor by women that has taken place in other religions, too. As such, the colloquium provides insights into the dialogues that have occurred among religious women and secular feminists from diverse social and national backgrounds, who have addressed concepts of rights and freedoms in religion and in society.

It is important to follow the debates on Islam and women’s rights, and in particular to become familiar more people with Islamic feminism. In Europe, the issue of women’s position and role in Muslim society often has been misunderstood or misrepresented. Deconstructing the stereotypes and understanding the discourse and emerging movement of Islamic feminism is an objective of the colloquium.

Monday 18 September, 2 p.m. - 6 p.m.

Opening of the Colloquium by Françoise Rivière, Assistant Director-General for Culture at UNESCO and Alain Gresh, President of the Commission Islam et Laïcité

Women, Religions, and Rights : Examining Discourses and Movements

  Françoise Gange (France)

 Mathilde Dubesset, (France)

 Margot Badran (United States)

 Valentine Moghadam (Iran and United States)

Moderator : Bénédicte du Chaffaut

Tuesday 19 September, 10 a.m. - 5.30 p.m.

Testimonies and Points of View : Muslim Women Interpret the Texts

10 a.m. – 1 p.m.

  Amina Wadud (United States)

 Asmaa Bekada (Qatar)

 Nadia Yassine (Morocco)

Moderator : Siham Andalouci

2.30 p.m. – 5.30 p.m.

 Norhayati Kaprawi, Sisters of Islam (Malaysia)

 Nouzha Guessous (Morocco)

 Malika Hamidi (Brussels)

Moderator : Ismahane Chouder

About the Participants

Françoise Gange, philosopher and sociologist, has studied myths. She is the author of many books such as Avant les Dieux, la Mère universelle, Alphée and Jésus et les Femmes, a very censured book in France.

Mathilde Dubesset, historian, lecturer at the Institut d’études politiques of Grenoble, is a specialist in women and gender history, especially in the domain of religion.

Margot Badran, is historian, women’s studies scholar, Senior Fellow at Prince Alwaleed Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding at Georgetown University) and Associate Professor at Northwestern University. She is the author of Feminism beyond East and West : New Gender Talk and Practice in Global Islam ; Feminists, Islam, and Nation : Gender and the Making of Modern Egypt ; and, as editor, Gender and Islam in Africa : Discourses, Practices and Empowerment of Women (forthcoming). She also is the co-editor (with Miriam Cooke) of the celebrated book Opening the Gates : An Anthology of Arab Feminist Writing (2nd edition).

Valentine Moghadam, is a sociologist and chief of the Gender Equality and Development section at UNESCO. She is the author of Modernizing Women : Gender and Social Change in the Middle East (1993 ; second edition 2003), Women, Work and Economic Reform in the Middle East and North Africa (1998), Globalizing Women : Transnational Feminist Networks (2005). Her 1994 edited book Identity Politics and Women : Cultural Reassertions and Feminisms in International Perspective was the first to examine fundamentalisms in a comparative and cross-cultural approach. She is the author of an article on the Iranian debate on Islamic Feminism, which appeared in the American feminist journal Signs (2002).

Bénédicte du Chaffaut, sociologist and Catholic theologian specialized in Islamic studies, is a member of the Commission islam et laïcité.

Amina Waddud, Professor of Islamic studies in the United States, is the author of the new book Inside the Gender Jihad, OneWorld Publisher, and the much-discussed book Qur’an and Woman.

Asmaa Bekada, producer of TV programs on Al Jazeera. Between 2001 and 2005 she directed the TV program « For Women Only », where she treated subjects such as Muslim feminism, which she also presented at various international conferences. She has studied political science and international relations.

Nadia Yassine, writer, has studied political science. She is the spokesperson of the Moroccan Islamic movement Al-Adl wal Ihsan (Justice and Spirituality) and the director of the "women section" she funded.

Siham Andalouci is a member of Présence musulmane, Collectif des Féministes pour l’égalité and Commission islam et laïcité.

Norhayati Kaprawi is currently the Programme Manager for a Malaysian women’s organisation , Sisters in Islam (SIS). She is in charge of the public education programmes, communication, resource and media.

Nouzha Guessous, member of the advisory commission in charge of the reform of the Moudawana in Morocco, is a professor, medical biologist, president of the International Bioethics Committee (UNESCO), and member of the Comité d’éthique de la recherche biomédicale of Casablanca and the Moroccan Association of Bioethics. Activist for the Human Rights and the Women’s rights, fundator of the Organisation Marocaine des Droits de l’Homme (Marrocan Organisation for the Human Rights), she is also an adviser for NGOs working in the field of defense of women’s rights.

Malika Hamidi, researcher in Education and Social Science at University of Lille 3, is coordinator of the European Muslim Network, the working group on Islam in Europe, and an activist.

Ismahane Chouder, member of Participation et spiritualité musulmanes and Commission islam et laïcité, is Vice-president of the Collectif des Féministes pour l’égalité.

Background Note

Promoting Cultural Change for Gender Equality

Valentine M. Moghadam
Social and Human Sciences, UNESCO

“Islamic feminism” has been the subject of analysis and debate for close to a decade. The term was coined by expatriate Iranian feminists in the early 1990s to describe a new discourse among believing women in the Islamic Republic of Iran, who put their ideas in print in a magazine called Zanan (Women). A debate ensued, revolving around questions such as : Is Islam compatible with feminism ? Can there be such a thing as a feminism that is framed in Islamic discourse ? Is Islamic feminism an alternative to fundamentalism, or is it a threat to secular discourses and movements ?

Scholarly research came to define Islamic feminism in Iran as a reform movement that permitted dialogue between religious and secular feminists while also opening the door to new possibilities for gender equality and women’s involvement in religious doctrine and practice. In the pages of Zanan, it was argued that gender asymmetries had a social rather than a natural (or divine) basis, and that much of what was known as Islamic law constituted patriarchal interpretations of the Qur’an and early Muslim history. This raised the issue of ijtehad (independent reasoning, religious interpretation) and the right of women to (re)interpret Islamic law. In Iran and elsewhere, the discourse of Islamic feminism was accompanied by movements to challenge discriminatory Islamic family laws.

Islamic feminism is a discourse of educated urban women (and a few men) who re-read the Qur’an and early Islamic history to recuperate their religion from patriarchal and violent interpretations, to make the case for women’s participation and rights in a religious idiom, and to give theological legitimacy to the movement for women’s rights in the Muslim world. Islamic feminists claim the right to ijtihad along with the right to take part in prayers and even to lead prayers. This trend is not accepted by all within the Islamic community. But it is part of a larger reform movement within Islam.

Along with Islamic feminists, many Muslim scholars are engaged in a kind of religious reformation, some of which is Qur’an-centered and some of which addresses issues such as Islam and democracy, Islam and human rights, and Islam, science, and philosophy. Islamic feminism has arisen on the cusp of this new alternative formulation and religious reformation.

In addition to its theological enterprise, Islamic feminism may be seen sociologically as a response or a reaction on the part of women who have been either disappointed with the promises of Islamic movements or who rejected the fundamentalist project at its inception and sought to recuperate their religion from what they regarded as a flawed or dangerous political movement.

Among the most prominent Islamic feminists are Shahla Sherkat of Iran ; Amina Wadud, Asma Barlas, Riffat Hassan, Azizah al-Hibri, Leila Ahmed, and Margot Badran, who are based in the United States ; and Ziba Mir-Hosseini of the UK and Iran. Important scholarly contributions have been made by the Moroccan sociologist Fatima Mernissi. The Malaysian women’s group Sisters in Islam and the Nigerian women’s group Baobob are affiliated with the transnational feminist network Women Living under Muslim Laws. In working for women’s human rights, they draw on both Islamic norms and international conventions.

The First International Congress on Islamic Feminism was organized in Barcelona, 27-29 October 2005, by the Junta Islamica Catalan with the support of the UNESCO Catalan Center in Barcelona. Women and men from Muslim communities across the globe came to discuss – with their Spanish co-religionists – the need for a liberal, pluralist, egalitarian and emancipatory Islam. In the same spirit, Junta Islamica calls for a gender jihad.

In March 2005, and at the invitation of the U.S.-based group Muslim Wake-Up, the African-American Muslim scholar Amina Wadud led a mixed prayer service in New York. This path-breaking act was criticized by conservatives and applauded by reformists. Professor Wadud attended the Barcelona congress, and her presentation there showed the depth of her faith along with her strong belief in women’s equality.

Reflecting the continuing analysis of Islamic feminism, the promotion of women’s participation and rights, and UNESCO’s interest in cultural diversity and change, a conference on Islamic Feminism will be held at UNESCO Headquarters on 18-19 September 2006, co-sponsored by UNESCO and Commission Islam et Laïcité. Participants will come from Egypt, France, Iran, Morocco, Malaysia and the United States. Associations represented will include Sisters in Islam, Commission islam et laïcité, Collectif des Féministes pour l’égalité, Participation et spiritualité musulmanes, Présence musulmane, the Moroccan Islamic movement Al-Adl wal Ihsan, the European Muslim Network, the Alwaleed bin Talal Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding.

At the dawn of the 21st century, a “critical mass” of educated, enlightened, and empowered Muslim women has emerged, and their fundamental questions about Islam, women, and rights may help to realize gender justice, transform Islamic laws, and bring about modern, egalitarian Muslim societies.

Texts around colloquium [in French]

 Quand les femmes s’approprient les sources..., par Asma Lamrabet
 Féminisme islamique : qu’est-ce à dire ?, par Margot Badran
 Le féminisme islamique revisité, par Margot Badran

Selected Bibliography on Islamic Feminism

 Abbas-Gholizadeh, Mahboubeh. 2001. “The Experience of Islamic Feminism in Iran.” Farzaneh [special edition on reform and the women’s movement], vol, 5. No, 10 (winter 1379/2001) : 3-6. [en persan]
 Afkhami, Mahnaz. 1995. “Introduction.” Pp. 1-6 in Mahnaz Afkhami, ed., Faith and Freedom : Women’s Human Rights in the Muslim World. Syracuse University Press.
 Afshar, Haleh. 1996. "Islam and Feminism : An Analysis of Political Strategies." In Feminism and Islam : Legal and Literary Perspectives, ed. Mai Yamani. NY : New York University Press.
 Afshari, Reza. 1994. “Egalitarian Islam and Misogynist Islamic Tradition : A Critique of the Feminist Reinterpretation of Islamic History and Heritage.” Critique, vol. 4 : 13-33.
 Ahmadi-Khorassani, Noushine. 2002. “Islamic Feminism in Zan Newspaper and Zanan Magazine.” In N. Ahmadi-Khorassani, ed., Women under the Shadow of Patriarchy. Tehran : Women’s Cultural Center. [en persan]
 Ahmed, Leila. 1992. Women and Gender in Islam : Historical Roots of a Modern Debate. New Haven : Yale University Press.
 Al-Hibri, Azizah. 1982. “A Study of Islamic Herstory : Or, How Did We Ever Get into This Mess ?” Women’s Studies International Forum, Special Issue : Women and Islam, vol. 5, no. 2.
 Badran, Margot. 1999. “Toward Islamic Feminisms : A Look at the Middle East”, in : Hermeneutics of Honor : Negotiating Female “Public” Space in Islamicate Societies, ed. Asma Afsaruddin. Cambridge, Mass. : Harvard University, Center for Middle Eastern Studies.
 Barlas, Asma. 2002. “Believing Women” in Islam : Unreading Patriarchal Interpretations of the Qur’an, Austin : University of Texas Press.
 Bodman, Herbert and Nayereh Tohidi (eds.). 1998. Women in Muslim Societies : Diversity Within Unity. Boulder, CO : Lynne Rienner Publishers.
 Cooke, Miriam. 2001. Women Claim Islam : Creating Islamic Feminism through Literature, New York : Routledge. El-Sohl, C. Fawzi, and Judy Mabro (eds). 1994. Muslim Women’s Choices : Religious Belief and Social Reality. Oxford : Berg.
 Farhi, Farideh. 2001. “Religious Intellectuals, the ‘Woman Question’, and the Struggle for the Creation of a Democratic Public Sphere in Iran”, International Journal of Politics, Culture and Society, vol. 15, no. 2 (Winter) : 315-333.
 Gresh, Alain. 2004. L’Islam, la République et le monde. Paris : Fayard.
 Hassan, Riffat. 1999. “An Islamic Perspective.” In Sexuality : A Reader, ed. Karen Lebacqz. Cleveland, Ohio : The Pilgrim Press.
 Karam, Azza. 1998. Women, Islamisms and the State, London : MacMillan.
 Majid, Anouar. 2002. “The Politics of Feminism in Islam”, in Gender, Politics, and Islam, edited by Therese Saliba, Carolyn Allen, and Judith Howard. Chicago : University of Chicago Press.
 Mir-Hosseini, Ziba. 1996. "Women and Politics in Post-Khomeini Iran : Divorce, Veiling, and Emerging Feminist Voices." In Women and Politics in the Third World, ed.
 Haleh Afshar. London and New York : Routledge. 1999. Islam and Gender : The Religious Debate in Contemporary Iran. Princeton : Princeton University Press.
 Motiee, Nahid. 2003. “Islam, Women’s Rights, and Islamic Feminism.” Farzaneh, volume 11 (spring) : 107-110. [In Persian]
 Moghadam, Valentine M. 2003. Modernizing Women : Gender and Social Change in the Middle East. Boulder, CO : Lynne Rienner Publishers. 2nd edition.
 2002. “Islamic Feminism and its Discontents : Towards a Resolution of the Debate.” Signs : Journal of Women in Culture and Society, vol. 27, no. 4 (Summer) : 1135-1171. [Reprinted in Gender, Politics, and Islam, edited by Therese Saliba, Carolyn Allen, and Judith Howard, Chicago : University of Chicago Press, 2002, pp. 15-52.]
 Najmabadi, Afsaneh. 1998. "Feminism in an Islamic Republic : ’Years of Hardship, Years of Growth’." In Women, Gender, and Social Change in the Muslim World, eds. Yvonne Y. Haddad and John Esposito, 59-84. New York : Oxford University Press.
 Ramadan, Tariq. 2005. “Les Musulmans et la laïcité.” 1905-2005 : les enjeux de la laïcité. Paris : L’Harmattan.
 Roald, Anne Sofie. 1998. “Feminist Reinterpretation of Islamic Sources : Muslim Feminist Theology in the Light of the Christian Tradition of Feminist Thought”, in : Women and Islamization : Contemporary Dimensions of Discourse on Gender Relations, eds. Karin Ask and Marit Tjomsland, 17-44, Oxford : Berg.
 Shahidian, Hammed. 2002. Women in Iran : Emerging Voices in the Women’s Movement. Westport, CT : Greenwood Press.
 Tohidi, Nayereh. 1997. "’Islamic Feminism’ : A Democratic Challenge or a Theocratic Reaction ?" Kankash (13) : 106. [en persan]
 1999. "Gender, Modernity, and Democracy." Parts 1 and 2, Jenss-e Dovvom 1378 (nos. 3-4). [en persan]
Wadud, Amina. 1999. Qur’an and Woman : Rereading the Sacred Text from a Woman’s Perspective, 2nd Edition. Oxford : Oxford University Press.
 2006. Inside the Gender Jihad : Women’s Reform in Islam, Oxford : Oneworld Publications.
Yamani, Mai (ed.). 1996. Feminism and Islam : Legal and Literary Perspectives. NY : New York University Press.
 Zanan. 2005/1384. “Eight Years’ Work for Women : Interview with Zahra Shojai.” Zanan (May). [en persan]