Gender and Islamism: Three Generations of Women’s Perspectives

Abstract

Having surveyed the male perspectives, I shall focus here on those of the Islamist women activists. I first elaborate why I chose these specific women and then I present and analyse the works of the selected Islamist women activists starting with the eldest. The women chosen are Zaynab Al-Ghazali, Safinaz Qazim and Heba Ra’uf. This chapter does not attempt to map out all the intricacies and details of Islamist women’s lives and work methods comprehensively. In fact, as in the previous chapters, it is the voices of some of these Islamist feminists that are chosen to highlight their viewpoints on certain issues, such as feminism or Qadiyyat al-Mar’a (‘the woman’s issue’), Islamisms and the state. As such, the chapter sketches continuities and changes in their ideas and actions, and highlights the characteristics and particularities of Islamist feminisms.