The views expressed in this article are astutely insightful and courageous. They are badly needed to break the hegemonic discourse of celebrating the religious as the only participatory, emancipatory and indigenous path to realizing rights for women living in contexts where religion plays a salient role in their lives and the lives of their communities.
These views are brave because of the particular political-historical conjuncture in which they are expressed: a post-9/11 world in which Islamophobia and reactionary religious forces simultaneously thrive. Feminists aware of the prevalence of orientalist and racist discourses on women living in the Muslim world are wary of writing critically on the negative dimensions of religion, out of fear of feeding into or being interpreted as Islamophobic.
Islamists (referring here to supporters of the Islamist state project) have been quick to condemn any critiques of the use of religion in society as driven by individuals who have sold out to the West and its values and ‘imperialist project’.
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