Feminism In Islam
There will come a time when holding on to your Iman will be like holding on to hot coals. - Prophet Muhammad
A marketing executive at Google and a self-diagnosed “Internet Addict,” Whael Ghonim scored a Klout of 80. Klout uses a complex algorithm to measure Internet influence. Score a Klout of 100 and you’re a virtual autocrat. Ghonim 's Facebook reaches 720,000 followers. Casual, technical, or political, Ghonim’s Facebook activity generates thousands of impressions.
Raw and mangled, Khaled Said’s inert body divulged the blows he sustained from Egyptian police officers. On June 8, 2010, Ghonim came across a posthumous photo of the 28-year-old and created the Facebook page “Kullena Khaled Said” — “We Are All Khaled Said.” Two minutes after going live, the page earned 300 likes. By August, the number had ballooned to 250,000. The page quickly became a forum for political debate, inspiring “an uprising that led to the resignation of President Hosni Mubarak and the dissolution of the ruling National Democratic Party” (Vargas). Mubarak’s abdication testified to the influence of social media and made Whael Ghonim, then imprisoned, a celebrated hero.
Social media and broadcast innovations are responsible for connecting billions of people across the world. Post a status on Facebook; your friend in Egypt will see it instantly. Or, if you choose, start an uprising of your own design. In the next few paragraphs, I will address Western stereotypes of Middle Eastern, namely Egyptian, women, notions of female autonomy, and divergences, or contradictions, in interpretations of gender roles, all as influenced by “modern” thought and technologies. I will consult the works of Lila Abu-Lughud, Leila Ahmed, and Elizabeth Fernea, feminists with similar, but idiosyncratic views on the aforementioned topics, and juxtapose their reasonings, observations, and findings.
Rise of Feminism
As early as the 1870s, feminists, as al-Tahtawi and ‘Abdu, lobbied for reforms in divorce and
A marketing executive at Google and a self-diagnosed “Internet Addict,” Whael Ghonim scored a Klout of 80. Klout uses a complex algorithm to measure Internet influence. Score a Klout of 100 and you’re a virtual autocrat. Ghonim 's Facebook reaches 720,000 followers. Casual, technical, or political, Ghonim’s Facebook activity generates thousands of impressions.
Raw and mangled, Khaled Said’s inert body divulged the blows he sustained from Egyptian police officers. On June 8, 2010, Ghonim came across a posthumous photo of the 28-year-old and created the Facebook page “Kullena Khaled Said” — “We Are All Khaled Said.” Two minutes after going live, the page earned 300 likes. By August, the number had ballooned to 250,000. The page quickly became a forum for political debate, inspiring “an uprising that led to the resignation of President Hosni Mubarak and the dissolution of the ruling National Democratic Party” (Vargas). Mubarak’s abdication testified to the influence of social media and made Whael Ghonim, then imprisoned, a celebrated hero.
Social media and broadcast innovations are responsible for connecting billions of people across the world. Post a status on Facebook; your friend in Egypt will see it instantly. Or, if you choose, start an uprising of your own design. In the next few paragraphs, I will address Western stereotypes of Middle Eastern, namely Egyptian, women, notions of female autonomy, and divergences, or contradictions, in interpretations of gender roles, all as influenced by “modern” thought and technologies. I will consult the works of Lila Abu-Lughud, Leila Ahmed, and Elizabeth Fernea, feminists with similar, but idiosyncratic views on the aforementioned topics, and juxtapose their reasonings, observations, and findings.
Rise of Feminism
As early as the 1870s, feminists, as al-Tahtawi and ‘Abdu, lobbied for reforms in divorce and
Cited: Abu-Lughod, Lila. Remaking Women: Feminism and Modernity in the Middle East. Princeton, NJ: Princeton UP, 1998. Print. Ahmed, Leila. The Discourse of the Veil. New Haven, CT: Princeton UP, 1992. Print. Vargas, Jose Antonio. "Spring Awakening." The New York Times. The New York Times, 19 Feb. 2012. Web. 14 Nov. 2012. . "A Veiled Revolution." A Veiled Revolution. N.p., n.d. Web. 14 Nov. 2012.