By Richard Morin
The Washington Post
WASHINGTON — Talking about Islamic feminism isn’t easy. The very idea strikes some people as a contradiction in terms. It angers the leaders of many Middle Eastern countries. It alienates some Western secular feminists who say religion shouldn’t be mixed up with women’s rights. And it even frustrates many of the Muslim women working on such causes in countries such as Iran.
Yet, the reality behind the label fascinates Nayereh Tohidi and other scholars who gathered here recently for a conference on "Middle Eastern Women on the Move."
Tohidi, a new research scholar at the Woodrow Wilson Center’s Kennan Institute and a professor at California State Northridge, is the author of "Feminism, Democracy and Islamism in Iran." In the 1996 book, she fleshed out the theory and theology of the nascent Islamic feminist movement. It was later reprinted by an underground press inside Iran without her knowledge.
"The book came about because I noticed how a growing number of Muslim women activists were becoming disillusioned with the Islamist state, especially feeling frustrated with the patriarchy within the clergy and the Islamist ruling circles," Tohidi said. "These were women who had been mobilized in the revolution, who were promised an egalitarian society."
Many were working to change laws on divorce, legalized polygamy and child custody. Some also asked whether they needed a cleric to mediate between themselves and God, a question that threatens what Tohidi calls the "male clerical monopoly over religion."
Surprisingly, some opposition came from the left. "I was arguing mostly with some of my secular feminist friends in the West who dismissed Muslim women, as if whoever is religious is stupid," Tohidi said.
At the same time, fundamentalist forces inside Iran opposed the movement, and many of the women involved rejected being categorized as feminists. "Even in the United States, many people don’t like to call themselves feminists, never mind in a traditional Muslim society," Tohidi said.
At last week’s gathering, there was a general call for a cease-fire in the labeling wars.
"We had Muslim feminists sitting next to secular feminists like myself, talking about the problems of women in Iran. Which shows we have come a long way, after spending years seeing each group as the enemy of the other," Tohidi said. "We are showing we don’t have to fight over ideology — we can have a coalition around issues."
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