Prospects for a Feminist Islam

Fatema Amijee (University of British Columbia)

Prospects for a Feminist Islam

Can Muslim values be reconciled with a feminist outlook? The question is pressing on both an individual level—for Muslim feminists—and on a political level—for the project of making Islamic practice compatible with the ideals of a just and liberal society. A version of this question arises specifically for the central Muslim text, the Quran: Can the message of the Quran be reconciled with a feminist outlook? There have, broadly speaking, been two approaches to this more specific question. I argue that both are inadequate. I then develop a novel approach to reconciliation that does not threaten the objective and universal normative force Muslims attribute to the Quran. My approach also demonstrates how the Quran provides the groundwork for developing an Islamic virtue ethics.

University of Birmingham campus, Alan Walter Building Lecture Theatre 1, G03