Modernity, feminism and islam

Abstract

Feminism is one among multiple perspectives of analysis that seek to make explicit the social and contingent origin of borders that (like the one we erect between the public and the private), appear to us as natural, and that contribute to reproduce social hierarchies. In some of its aspects it is usually associated with a secular perspective of politics in general, and of gender hierarchies in particular. Not in vain the term with which feminism describes the historical subordination of women (patriarchy), has Biblical reminiscences.
Although understandable given the history of feminism in Europe and the United States, sometimes that association could lead to not fully appreciate experiences of women’s empowerment associated with certain cultural traditions, in general, and certain religious traditions, in particular. This, unlike an intersectional feminism that, reinterpreting the religious traditions from mainly Muslim societies, aims to develop a discourse of gender equality based on the cutlural tradition itself.