Muslim Women: Between Culture and Feminism

Women’s rights in Islam became a major subject after the third feminist
movement in the United States. When feminism spread globally, many Islamic scholars
connected it to Islam. Islamic feminism is a term that takes most of its ideologies from
the two primary sources of Islam – the Quran and the Sunnah. This qualitative research
explained the bias directed towards women in Islam by using objective reasoning
through examples as well as by encompassing any misinterpretation of views regarding
women’s rights in Islam. The method used was a content analysis. The findings were
that Islam is a feminist religion. While Islam provides Muslim women with full rights,
U.S. and Saudi Arabian cultures have impeded Islamic feminism. Lastly, the U.S.
feminism started as a movement by women to empower women. However, Islamic
feminism first focused on the rights of all human beings, then concentrated on women in
Islam.