Towards a Feminist Interpretation of Islam: Faith and Gender in the Work of Fatima Mernissi.

Abstract

Most recently, religious identification has taken on political significance in post-colonial Arab Countries. Social, economic, military and political failures have galvanised, reactionary religious responses to western domination and globalization. This paper is concerned with Islamic/ Arab feminism, and seeks to analyze its contributions, with the focus on the work of one Arab feminist, Fatima Mernissi. By bringing in issues of faith, identities, colonialism and culture to feminism, she has made a substantial contribution to the enrichment of feminist thought. To analyse Fatima Mernissi's thought I shall go through her sociological and feminist works. A Moroccan by birth, Mernissi's primary concern has all along been with the position of women in the rapidly changing Muslim communities in the Arab world, in particular, Morocco.