Islamic feminists’ view on muslim women’s equality and empowerment

Abstract

This paper aims to focus on gender equality, especially on women’s equal rights, opportunities and empowerment from Islamic feminists’ point of view. The Qur’an is generally alleged as a main source of women’s subordination or oppression. Islamic feminists argue that there is no single verse in the entire Qur’an that subordinates women. For them, the Qur’an is the main source of women’s empowerment and gender equality. However, the patriarchal society has interpreted and represented the Qur’anic teaching in a wrong way throughout the centuries. Thus, Islamic feminists rise with contextual interpretation of the Qur’anic verses to substantiate their own view. They show that male and female both are equal in all respects. They both are moral individual agents, and for this, they earn equal recompense for their duties. Islamic feminists argue that women’s empowerment is not possible if both male and female are not equally treated in rights and opportunities. Thus, they give importance to build gender equality in Islam.