Feminism and Islam: a conference to counter prejudice

The main  goals of this Congress, which took place in Barcelona from October 24-27, was to eliminate the negative stereotypes, to assert the rights and religion and to bring an end to the prejudice that links Islam to misogyny.

The Congress, which was organized by the Junta Islamica Catalana (Islamic council of Catalonia),  gathered together twenty feminists from different Islamic nations and brought 400 participants in Barcelona in order to campaign  against the social, economic and political repression of women in several  Islamic countries.

“We want to demonstrate that Islamic women are not forced to choose between their rights and their religion” explain the participants. It’s not an out-out.

The Congress aims also to give visibility to this movement which seems to be invisible. The director of the Congress, Abdennur Prado, explains that Islamic feminism is “a transnational movement which proposes a radical reform of discrimination laws and of the way that the traditional theology interprets the Qur’an.”

The vice president of the Islamic Council of Catalonia, Ndeye Andùjar, stood up to those who identify feminism as an western movement and argued that the very oppression within  many Islamic societies causes women to embrace feminism  spontaneously.

Many people working alone

“Islamic feminism has to work on two levels: in Islamic countries and in the western ones where Muslims are a minority,” said Andujar.

In an western context, she continued, it seems easier to equalize the rights of the women with the ones of men, especially when you compare it with countries that allow lapidation or ablation. But she also added that not all Muslim countries are the same.  

“In this movement there are lots of people who work alone, isolated. And from inside the Congress they give their contribution to the movement at global level helping people to feel supported”    said Abdennur Prado.

During the congress they will analyse how Islamic feminism may contribute to the construction of a new global social society based on the culture of Human Rights  and on the main values of the quranic messages: democracy, social justice, freedom of consciousness and gender equality.

The present edition of the International Congress of Islamic Feminism welcomed more than 20 lecturers who offered their points of view in order to improve the situation of Muslim women. Among the the special guests: Bouthaina Shaaban, the Syrian minister for Refugees, candidate for the Nobel peace prize; Baroness Uddin, the first Muslim woman to enter the British House of Lords; and Subhasini Ali’, the president of the feminist section of the Indian Communist party.

Find out more: www.feminismeislamic.org

Translated by Rassmea Salah. Source: www.canalsolidario.org