Two themes in Decolonizing Universalism

Abstract

Serene Khader's recent book Decolonizing Universalism is an important contribution to a number of strands of thought, activism, and scholarship. It is also an ambitious one: the book sets out a tall order for itself. On the one hand, it is an intellectual contribution to the thought and practice of transnational feminism, specifically. This paper aims to draw out lessons from the book by focusing on two of the secondary points Khader makes. The first is her response to gender complementarianism, the second critically responds to her discussion of social progress towards justice. The latter inspires a critical question for Khader and her readers: how can we square the criticism of the lack of attention to cultural context exhibited by ‘missionary feminists’ with critical attention to the context that produced their inattention? The essay concludes with a call for Khader's overarching project of ‘nonideal universalism’.