Muslim Men Need to Stop Trying to Silence Muslim Women
Equality is inherent in Islam
I placed my teacup on the kitchen cabinet as I scrolled through my twitter feed a few days ago, curiously taking in the responses to the Republic article titled “Between Feminism and Islam”. It had aroused the curiosity of lots of Muslim men and they had celebrated the writer as their “hero”.
The article, which selectively based its findings on two extremely contrasting views, had challenged Muslim feminism on the ground that it is incompatible with Islam, drawing on a unitary narrative, rejecting the plurality of views on what feminism means to diverse Muslim women and wrapping all Muslim women under one umbrella.
Apart from the fact that I find faulty generalizations very disturbing, as it only seeks to shove the realities and narratives of many women into the bin, what I found most disturbing was that lots of Muslim men were trying to silence Muslim women, throwing around the phrase “You can’t be Feminist and Muslim at the same time” as a religious blackmail to get Muslim women to keep quiet.
And even when Muslim women go ahead to advocate for rights already granted to them in Islam without identifying with the feminist label, the knee — jerk reaction is “You’re just a feminist and you’re trying to corrupt the ummah”.
