Most American feminists (since those are the communities I know most about) do not want women to be men. This is a common misconception, fueled mostly by anti-feminists and the mainstream media. That said, there *is* an aversion to gender essentialism among American feminists that I do not see among others. I share this aversion, since in my work as a research psychologist I am aware of how much of a role culture plays in the “creation” of gender, and gender differences. This does not mean I see men and women as the same. I just don’t believe that the differences are that great.

So yes, I think that saying “I am a Muslim feminist” can be entirely accurate—and such a feminism is vitally necessary for us to accomplish our goals. I think the world needs feminism grounded in, and growing from, every single culture and religion.

Being a feminist simply means you think men and women should be equal, legally and socially, and acknowledging that they are not. Culture, creed and even gender don’t come into it. There’s no such thing as “Muslim feminism,” or “Western feminism,” just like there is no such thing as “Muslim science” or “Western science.”

To be honest, my main experience of feminists in the West has been one of cultural relativism, a very self-conscious move away from being perceived as culturally imperialist. Which means, imho, they often turn a blind eye to some serious forms of misogyny, such as stoning of rape victims and child brides, and some slightly less serious forms of misogyny such as the niqab and the burqa, and doctrinal subordination of wives to husbands.

Feminists from all over the world should unite against misogyny in all its forms. In order to do this we need to move past the divisive discourse of Orientalism vs Occidentalism, and not play into the hands of those power brokers who would keep us divided. I hope we can.

“I have yet to come across a serious feminist movement in the west that doesn’t bash Islam or women under Islam.”

Interesting. My experience has been the opposite. I’ve mainly come across feminism that DOESN’T bash Islam or Muslim women. My experiences with feminism have been very positive and feminists I’ve met stand in solidarity with minority women, including religious minorities.

“My problem with feminist women (not all), regardless of religion is in the fact that they always set men to be the standard of everything…”

Society does this, not feminists. Feminists just acknowledge, critique and challenge it. Some feminists try to be like men, but many feminists try to challenge what it means to be of a certain gender.

“what is incompatible is some contemporary feminist thought about ‘gender roles’ prevalent in the west.”

This would depend upon which interpretation of Islam one follows. I’m a practicing Muslim but I don’t believe that men and women have inherent gender roles. I believe gender roles are socially constructed. And I believe that is perfectly compatible with Islam. Others would not agree with me.

Having said all that I do sympathize when feminism critiques religion. Most religions today have very misogynistic interpretations, including Islam. In my opinion, the most common interpretations of Islam followed today are quite sexist. So as a Muslim feminist I wouldn’t dismiss this critique. It is valid. I just choose to follow an egalitarian interpretation of Islam.

I’ve been trying to read feminist literature for a while and everything I’ve read is actually from a western perspective as opposed to a eastern perspective. I believe some of our struggles will always be the same but our goals and ambitions will be different but I doubt we share the same struggles today. I support some feminist movements in the East but I have yet to come across a serious feminist movement in the west that doesn’t bash Islam or women under Islam.

My problem with feminist women (not all), regardless of religion is in the fact that they always set men to be the standard of everything, and why should we? Are we not capable of being the height of some form of standard, perhaps even better than men?

Do we all? There´s also something called Occidentalism.

I wonder, does the muslim feminist movement like MMW have any ambitions at all to unite with other women in a future, also western women – or is this as a lot of other things first of all a identityproject where lines are drawn between the good muslim feminist and the weird western feminist?

Being exposed to Pakistani media for as long as I have (and I’ve lived in Canada my whole life therefore removed from a Pakistani context) would make one realize that these reporters have not done any research on Pakistani culture.