Student full name: Tileubergen Symbat

Student ID: 210304123

The day of the lecture attending – Wednesday (10:00)

Link to the article: http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/articles/1314/2/islamic-

feminism-in-egypt-toward-a-reconceptualization-of-social-movement-theories

Critical review

To the article “Islamic Feminism in Egypt: Toward a Reconceptualization of

Social Movement Theories” by Sabrina Moro graduated in 2016 with a Masters
degree in Gender Studies Sociology from Ecole Des Hautes Etudes En Sciences
Sociales, Inquiries journal Social sciences, Art, & Humanities 2015, VOL. 7 NO.
11

In this critical review, I will discuss Sabrina Moro’s article that is written about
an appeal to the study of social movements to discuss the movement for women's
piety and Islamic feminism. In this work, we will consider the main stages of the
development of Islamic feminist hermeneutics, its methodological principles,
argumentation, specific interpretative solutions, as well as present a critical
analysis of feminism and our own program of feminist and gender studies of Islam.

Before talking about feminism, it is necessary to consider it from a philosophical

point of view, taking into account its history, concepts. Feminism can be defined as
a movement which advocates for the welfare of women and writes a about
women’s issues and condemns the injustice meted out to women in the current
situation. At the initial stage of its existence, Feminism was related only to specific
legal problems of women: the right to work and equal pay, political and civil
rights, etc. The main idea of feminism is to create equal opportunities for both men
and women in areas of society.The term “feminism” or “feminist” in Latin means
“women” or “having the qualities of women”.

What do they say about feminism in Islam? The Supreme created man the most
revered, the most special, the most important. The most unusual of the creations is
man. And he warned us in the Quran that people divide themselves into two parts-a
man and a woman. If Allah had wanted, He could have created a man in the whole
world, but Allah created a man and a woman together. This means that the
Supreme Supreme has power in everything. In the broadest sense, Islamic
feminism is a specific religious model of the struggle for women's rights and for
femininity as such. If we start from the paradigm of the Western feminist
movement, we can say that it contains both elements of first-wave feminism and
elements of third-wave feminism.

The author drew logical conclusions based on the so-called movement that
happened in Cairo is called the women's Piety movement and it is one of the
broader parts of the Islamic renaissance and began to spread through the Muslim
feast in the 1971's. The movement of women's piety in Cairo considers from
different points of view and draws conclusions that provide several explanations
for the emergence of Islamic revival in Egypt. Using this argument, Mahmoud's
explanation of the term "Islamic renaissance" refers "not only to political groups
oriented towards the state, but also in a broader sense to the religious ethos or
feeling developed in modern Muslim societies" gives readers the opportunity to
think broadly about this term and understand it well.

According to the author, this movement of women's mosques is an integral part

of a larger movement of piety and I fully agree with this statement. Up to the
present time, Muslim societies remain extremely patriarchal, and in many of them
artificial obstacles have been created for the education of women, especially in the
field of religious thought. As a result, the vast majority of Muslim women still do
not know anything about the rights that the Koran granted to people, in particular,
to female representatives.

Conducting research and considering the theories of other researchers, the author
argues that neither the da'wa movement nor Islamic feminism are social
movements, because they lack a clear socio-institutional position, as well as tactics
and methods of action. Islamic feminism is not at all identical to Western
feminism, it does not imply "Westernization", that is, blind copying of the Western
model. In her opinion, the Islamic ulama generally understand that Muslim society
must transform if it wants to be competitive in the modern world, but they do
everything they can to prevent such a transformation, because they do not have a
clear strategy for the development of society. This also concerns the problem of
social equality of men and women.

In fact, we can see another big topic about the author’s appeal to the study of
social movements to discuss the movement for women's piety and Islamic
feminism. The struggle for women's rights in Islamic societies has a long history.
The Koran gave women fairly broad rights in comparison with those that existed in
pre-Islamic Arabia. However, as rightly noted by a number of researchers, the
Quranic precepts were not always observed, and they were not deeply understood
by the ulema of the classical period. As a result, patriarchy and misogyny
(misogyny), which were characteristic of pre-Islamic Arabia, continued to exist in
subsequent Islamic societies and, in addition, received a legal justification based
on a specific interpretation of the Koran, hadith and misogynistic considerations of
a general plan. Despite the fact that some medieval thinkers expressed views close
to feminist, they were not taken into account by the majority of Muslims. Even
taking into account the fact that the position of a Muslim woman in medieval
Islamic societies, apparently, differed favorably from the position of women in
European, Indian and other major civilizations of that time, it can still be stated
that the pre-Islamic tradition of misogyny was deeply rooted in the minds of
Muslims and became associated with Islam as such.

In addition to these authors and works, it is necessary to mention the fact that in
2015 a group of Muslim activists, politicians and writers published a document
authoritative for the renewal movement - the "Declaration of Reform". This
document, among other things, expresses support for the struggle for women's
rights in Islam. It states: "We support equal rights for women, including the rights
to inheritance, witness, work, movement, personal law, education and work. Men
and women have equal rights in mosques, in political leadership, leadership and in
general in all spheres of public life. We reject sexism and misogyny".

Summing up this critical review, I can confidently recommend this article to

anyone who wants to learn more about feminism and Islamic feminist vision. The
article is written in great detail, given that the author has studied a large amount of
factual material, devoted such important sociological topics as the activities of the
feminist piety movement in Cairo and its conclusion. The author has developed
each topic well and was able to combine them with each other. Reading the article,
we see that the author was able to bring strong arguments from other books and
from other studies similar to this topic. For those who are interested in articles on
the topic of Islamic feminism, this article will be in favor.