Yes I Can Be Muslim And Feminist

Different people come from different backgrounds that hold certain diverse situations that inevitably help form the person for who they are today, each person who decided they would become a feminist to fight for equality for both genders would have had to be affected with a situation to open their minds at the inequality that is faced. Saying that, not everyone has an easy way into becoming a feminist, despite everything there will always be people who oppose your opinions that you have come to realize by yourself. I am a Muslim, I am a woman, and I am a feminist, one of the most ideal combinations to serve myself on a golden platter of harassment and judgment from not only those who are around me, but from everyone who opposes the idea of feminism.

While growing up I’ve been told countless of times the same old gender based statements begging from ‘how can you play with boy toys’ all the way up to ‘help in the kitchen because you’re the girl and your brothers are men’ and while society and culture has taught my parents and those before them that saying such statements and acting on them is normal, I beg to differ. As a Muslim I live with the ideals of my religion just as much as Christians, Jews and everyone else do and according to my culture that has been taught down to us from one generation to another, the woman must be the one to perfect everything in order for her to find a husband and start a family. Do note that I refer to the culture and not the religion.

As you see, such ideals or plans of the future as my family would like to call it, aren’t so welcomed by me because I wish to be more than that, in defiance to my father’s earlier wish I continued on to study medicine to which he objected to at the start with the statement ‘medicine wasn’t made for girls, you’d spend the rest of your life studying and ending up not getting married at all’ and while I love my father deeply and have so much respect for him, his beliefs that he was taught were completely against my own wish.

My culture believes that a woman’s place is in the kitchen, and to make matters worse when I introduce myself to others as a feminist in order to explain my own beliefs I am attacked with the same sentence that ‘Islam and feminism don’t work together’ which is the most ridiculous thing I have ever heard in my life. Islam is one the first religions to ever allow women rights before and after marriage and here are examples:

• Inheritance

• Owning and managing their own property

• Divorce

Women were allowed to call for a divorce for many reasons, down to divorcing their husbands if they don’t sexually please them

• Custody of children

• Access to Education

• Women had the right to accept the spouse, have the right to refuse you if they find you unable to satisfy to what they want

• Women were allowed to keep their maiden name

It’s a choice that each woman makes individually if she would like to keep her name or take her husband’s name and no one can force her otherwise

• Equal participation in Political process

• Any money a woman makes is hers to keep

There are so much more to add on, but I’ll make my list short. The Qur’an states that men and women have the same spirit and there is absolutely no superiority in the spiritual senses between men and women [Noble Qur’an 4:1, 7:189, 42:11]. More than 1300 years earlier the right to own one’s property for women was established in Islam while in Europe it wasn’t until the 19th century until they were allowed to own any of their properties and when they would marry, their properties would either be transferred to the husband or she would not be allowed to dispense of anything without the approval of her husband. While in Britain, it was at least in the 1860’s when they gave women some of their property by creating a law called “Married Women Property Act”, all that happened so late in the years while Islamic law allowed it from the very beginning.

Meanwhile so many families and people would state that Islam is a religion that restricts a woman and that it doesn’t allow a woman to work but forces her to stay inside and all that is pure misinformed information and falsely created talks. There is absolutely no restriction in Islamic law that states a woman cannot work nor have any profession and that she is obliged to stay at home. To put those horrendous rumors to rest, by Islamic law there must be women physicians, nurses and teachers etc… They also must receive equal pay.

It boggles my mind when such proof is found in our holy Qur’an and yet still people refuse to believe that a woman has so many rights that were passed down to her more than 1300 years ago while in America it hasn’t even been a hundred years since women were even allowed to vote in a country that is supposedly the best in the world.

I wrote this to show everyone a glimpse of exactly how much Islam allows women rights and to shut down anyone who tries to tell me that being a feminist would ‘stop me from finding a husband’ and that me being ‘too opinionated’ will get me hated on by men. Well I’d like to tell you something, I am proud to be a woman, I am proud to be a Muslim and I am damn proud to be a feminist and fight for everyone’s equality no matter who they are, no matter what they face, and no matter what background they come from because we are all people and we are all beautiful and the next time someone tries to tell me I’m only worth being a wife and a mother and that my religion is against me being a feminist I’ll shove my doctor’s degree in their face and stand proud of what I am. Nothing will ever stop you from being someone who will fight for those who have no one left, and if they try to say anything to put you down, then you’re on the right path.