Introduction

Abstract

Many people, particularly since September 11, 2001, seem to think that Islam is inherently oppressive to women. But what do Muslim women in majority Muslim countries think about these issues? Do they consider themselves oppressed by their religion? And why do so many of them still wear the veil? This book tackles and untangles several commonly misunderstood paradoxes current in majority Muslim countries today. A case study of Kuwaiti elites and college students illustrates these paradoxes at the cutting edge of a contemporary women’s suffrage movement. Using data from in-depth interviews with Kuwaiti cultural elites, we begin to unravel the logic that makes Islamic feminism a thriving approach to understanding the sociological importance of community, politics, and religion in majority Muslim countries. This book is a sociological window into Islamic feminism and serves as a model to understand social reform for women’s rights in other majority Muslim contexts. It explores the subject of women’s political participation in Kuwait as a means to understanding larger social reform issues. It is an updated search for examples of a recon-ciliation between Islam and feminism that comes out of an in-depth look at the evolving political roles for women in Kuwait.¹