American Muslim Women Challenging Conventional Understanding of Islam

Nimat Hafez Barazangi

American Muslim Women Challenging Conventional Understanding of Islam

Kendal of Ithaca (September 28, 2009)

Abstract

Muslim women all over the world have been mostly viewed as secondary and/or complementary in the structure of all Muslim societies. In order to challenge and transform these un-Islamic views, women needed to retake their principal role and reinterpret the primary source of Islam, the Qur’an. In doing so during the past two decades, some American Muslim women, including myself, are challenging the conventional understanding of Islam in the hope to implement a fundamental aspect of the social justice contract between Muslims and Islam. Indeed, this was the first essential step toward accomplishing the comprehensive human rights for ourselves, as well as challenging the unwarranted authority, the hijacked Islamic authority, by Muslim men for about 14 centuries. Although the conditions during the last decade of the 20th century were right for Muslim women peaceful revolution that is firmly grounded in the Qur’an, the drastic change in the global political landscape since 2001 reversed these conditions for the majority of Muslim women. There is no simple solution, and there is no hope for any meaningful reform in the near future. Both Muslims and Westerners are to blame.

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