Islamic feminism
form of feminist discourse concerned with the role of women in Islam; aims for the full equality of all Muslims, regardless of gender, in public and private life; advocates for women's rights, gender equality, and social justice grounded in Islam
Islamic feminism is a form of feminism concerned with the role of women in Islam. It aims for the full equality of all Muslims, regardless of gender, in public and private life. Islamic feminists advocate for women's rights, gender equality, and social justice grounded in an Islamic framework. Although rooted in Islam, the movement's pioneers have also utilized secular, Western, or otherwise non-Muslim feminist discourses, and have recognized the role of Islamic feminism as part of an integrated global feminist movement.
Advocates of the movement seek to highlight the teachings of equality in the religion, and encourage a questioning of patriarchal interpretations of Islam by reinterpreting the Quran and Hadith.
Prominent thinkers include Begum Rokeya, Amina Wadud, Leila Ahmed, Fatema Mernissi, Azizah al-Hibri, Riffat Hassan, Asma Lamrabet, and Asma Barlas.
Definition and background
Islamic feminists
Since the mid-nineteenth century, Muslim women and men have been critical of restrictions placed on women regarding education, seclusion, veiling, polygyny, slavery, and concubinage. Modern Muslims have questioned these practices and advocated for reform. There is an ongoing debate about the status of women in Islam. Conservative Islamic feminists use the Quran, the Hadith, and prominent women in Muslim history as evidence for the discussion on women's rights.
Begin with the source’s own compact description: “Islamic feminism” is form of feminist discourse concerned with the role of women in Islam; aims for the full equality of all Muslims, regardless of gender, in public and private life; advocates for women's rights, gender equality, and social justice grounded in Islam. The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through Islamic, feminism and form, not as a finished interpretation.
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Named sources, stable identifiers and responsible institutions provide the strongest route from overview to verifiable evidence. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 22, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q1518629. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference.
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This entry incorporates text from “Islamic feminism” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.