{"id":43,"date":"2020-01-24T05:35:07","date_gmt":"2020-01-24T05:35:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.scu.edu\/wgst106lv\/?p=43"},"modified":"2020-01-24T21:34:31","modified_gmt":"2020-01-24T21:34:31","slug":"intro-feminism-and-contemporary-islam","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.scu.edu\/wgst106lv\/2020\/01\/24\/intro-feminism-and-contemporary-islam\/","title":{"rendered":"Intro: Feminism and Islam in the West"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

CLAIM: We could decrease the violence faced by Muslim women by including the religious culture of Islam – a religion that at its core is empowering to women – into our feminist movement instead of condemning it. <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Fun fact for the day: Americans are more likely to die from their clothes catching on fire than an immigrant-related terrorist attack, according to a risk analysis reported by the CATO Institute. Despite this fact, terrorism is ranked second as America\u2019s biggest perceived threat (Survey of American Fears, 2016), and Muslim people, especially Muslim women who wear the Hijab<\/em>, are largely the target for this stereotype. While I am interested in the discrimination faced by Muslim people in the USA, I am most intrigued by the experiences of Muslim women <\/em>as they face overt sexism that is magnified by Islamophobia. They also experience sexism by the Western feminist community, facing constant rhetoric condemning the use of their religious Hijab<\/em> because \u2018it is oppressive\u2019 or \u2018a way to compensate for men\u2019s sexual desires\u2019. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

But the covering of a Muslim woman\u2019s hair through the religious veil is far from an attempt to compensate for the desires of men. A quick glance at the Qur\u2019an, the Holy Book of Islam and documented words of the Muslim god Allah himself, reveals that the Hijab<\/em> is contextual and in fact gender-inclusive. In Chapter 24 (an-Nur), Verse 30, the Qur\u2019an commands Muhammod (the first Muslim prophet and founder of Islam) to \u201csay to the believing woman\u2026 they should place their khumur over their bosoms\u201d (Al Islam, 2013). The khumur<\/em> in arabic is analogous to the veil, a garment historically worn by commoners in the Middle East. It is this verse that draws the attention of feminists, as Muslim woman are to modestly cover their chest with a veil. The veil in this Qur\u2019anic context though is a symbol of modest dress, not a forced outfit. Many western feminists also overlook the fact that this concept of modesty, or Hijab<\/em>, also applies to men. The 30th verse continues with an idea of \u2018Hijab of the eyes\u2019, which encourages both men and women to \u201ccast down their glances and guard their private parts\u201d (Q:24:30). Not only is the concept of modesty applied to men as well, but both men and women are held accountable for their dehumanizing gazes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If we were to actually read an entire translation of the holy book of Islam, we would find countless examples of gender equality and female empowerment. Thus, the burning question in my mind remains: if the core of Islam is so empowering to woman, why do westerners portray female Muslims as oppressed? I am interested in dissecting Islamophobia from a feminist lens, and analyzing westernized Muslim women\u2019s perspective on modesty and self-respect in a world that exploits the sexualization of women. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

https:\/\/www.cato.org\/publications\/policy-analysis\/terrorism-immigration-risk-analysis<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

https:\/\/www.al-islam.org\/hijab-muslim-womens-dress-islamic-or-cultural-sayyid-muhammad-rizvi\/quran-and-hijab<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

CLAIM: We could decrease the violence faced by Muslim women by including the religious culture of Islam – a religion that at its core is empowering to women – into our feminist movement instead of condemning it. Fun fact for the day: Americans are more likely to die from their clothes catching on fire than an immigrant-related terrorist attack, according to a risk analysis reported by the CATO Institute. Despite this fact, terrorism is ranked second as America\u2019s biggest perceived threat (Survey of American Fears, 2016), and Muslim people, especially Muslim women who wear the Hijab, are largely the target for this stereotype. While I am interested in the discrimination faced by Muslim people in the USA, I am most intrigued by the experiences of Muslim women as they face overt sexism that is magnified by Islamophobia. They also experience sexism by the Western feminist community, facing constant rhetoric condemning the use of their religious Hijab because \u2018it is oppressive\u2019 or \u2018a way to compensate for men\u2019s sexual desires\u2019. But the covering of a Muslim woman\u2019s hair through the religious veil is far from an attempt to compensate for the desires of men. A quick glance at the Qur\u2019an, the Holy Book of Islam and documented words of the Muslim god Allah himself, reveals that the Hijab is contextual and in fact gender-inclusive. In Chapter 24 (an-Nur), Verse 30, the Qur\u2019an commands Muhammod (the first Muslim prophet and founder of Islam) to \u201csay to the believing woman\u2026 they should place their khumur over their bosoms\u201d (Al Islam, 2013). The khumur in arabic is analogous to the veil, a garment historically worn by commoners in the Middle East. It is this verse that draws the attention of feminists, as Muslim woman are to modestly cover their chest with a veil. The veil in this Qur\u2019anic context though is a symbol of modest dress, not a forced outfit. Many western feminists also overlook the fact that this concept of modesty, or Hijab, also applies to men. The 30th verse continues with an idea of \u2018Hijab of the eyes\u2019, which encourages both men and women to \u201ccast down their glances and guard their private parts\u201d (Q:24:30). Not only is the concept of modesty applied to men as well, but both men and women are held accountable for their dehumanizing gazes. If we were to actually read an entire translation of the holy book of Islam, we would find countless examples of gender equality and female empowerment. Thus, the burning question in my mind remains: if the core of Islam is so empowering to woman, why do westerners portray female Muslims as oppressed? I am interested in dissecting Islamophobia from a feminist lens, and analyzing westernized Muslim women\u2019s perspective on modesty and self-respect in a world that exploits the sexualization of women.  https:\/\/www.cato.org\/publications\/policy-analysis\/terrorism-immigration-risk-analysis https:\/\/www.al-islam.org\/hijab-muslim-womens-dress-islamic-or-cultural-sayyid-muhammad-rizvi\/quran-and-hijab<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2627,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"qubely_global_settings":"","qubely_interactions":"","kk_blocks_editor_width":"","_kiokenblocks_attr":"","_kiokenblocks_dimensions":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-43","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-research-project"],"gutentor_comment":0,"qubely_featured_image_url":null,"qubely_author":{"display_name":"lverheyden","author_link":"https:\/\/blogs.scu.edu\/wgst106lv\/author\/lverheyden\/"},"qubely_comment":0,"qubely_category":"Research Project<\/a>","qubely_excerpt":"CLAIM: We could decrease the violence faced by Muslim women by including the religious culture of Islam – a religion that at its core is empowering to women – into our feminist movement instead of condemning it. Fun fact for the day: Americans are more likely to die from their clothes catching on fire than…","post_mailing_queue_ids":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.scu.edu\/wgst106lv\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.scu.edu\/wgst106lv\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.scu.edu\/wgst106lv\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.scu.edu\/wgst106lv\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2627"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.scu.edu\/wgst106lv\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=43"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.scu.edu\/wgst106lv\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":52,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.scu.edu\/wgst106lv\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43\/revisions\/52"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.scu.edu\/wgst106lv\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=43"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.scu.edu\/wgst106lv\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=43"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.scu.edu\/wgst106lv\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=43"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}