Feminism is the set of movements whose main objective is equal rights and opportunities between men and women, so it seeks to end the supremacy of men and eliminate gender roles, although feminism seems to be an important movement in the West, it is worth highlighting the different types of feminism that have emerged in other parts of the world , an example of this is what we can find in feminist women in the Arab world.
At the beginning of the twentieth century, in Egypt, Syria and Lebanon there were a number of movements that sought to improve the inferiority of women, these active movements today have left feminist names as important as Malak Hifni Nasif, Huda Shaarawi, Hind Nawfal or Fay. Afaf Kanafani. However, these names did not acquire the relevance they deserved in the West. To change that, we remember the biography of some great feminist women in the Arab world.
Feminist women in the Arab world have left a mark that needs to be respected.
Durriya was an Egyptian academic, journalist, teacher and activist. Graduated from Cairo University and the Sorbonne, she became a leader in political struggle, even under house arrest. Durriya defended secularism and democracy, arguing that Islam speaks of women’s equality and requires no veil or domesticity.
Among its merits is the creation of a magazine with a section dedicated to promoting women’s political rights. She also founded a middle-class feminist association to promote women’s literacy and political rights. Durriya also even founded the political party “The Daughter of the Nile”. “, which would then be dissolved by the rest of the matches.
Her most acclaimed action was a hunger strike with which she managed to ensure the full political rights of women. The new constitution gives women the right to vote, although this only happens to those who have formally requested it.
Subsequently, a new hunger strike to protest Nasser’s dictatorship and the Israeli occupation of Sinai caused her to lose her support, she was denounced as a traitor and placed under house arrest. From that moment on, Durriya suffered continuous emotional crises that eventually led her to suicide. .
Egyptian writer Zaynab al-Ghazzali advocated the creation of an Islamic state governed by Sharia or Islamic law and argued that women would have their rights recognized by this law. At a very young age, Zaybab founded the Association of Muslim Women, which was an Islamist group – rejecting nationalism and semi-secular character.
Zaynab has maintained contact with other Islamist movements, such as the Muslim Brothers, when some of its members were arrested, was one of the women who served as a liaison between prisoners and would take the reins of the Islamist opposition, which led the government to arrest and torture her.
Nawal’s name was “Simone Beauvoir of the Arab world. “This mental health doctor has dedicated her professional career to defending women’s political and sexual rights.
His texts cost him the expulsion from his post at the Ministry of Health. For the same reason, she spent two months in prison, during which, using a roll of toilet paper and a makeup pencil, she wrote “Prison Memories. “for women. “
During his busy life, Nawal tried to found a women’s party and feminist ideology in Egypt, an idea that could not be accomplished because he was banned. Nawal was also co-founder of the Arab Association for Human Rights and founder of the Association for Solidarity with Arab Women.
Eventually, threats from Islamist groups led her to live outside her country, having returned in 2011 with the start of the Arab Spring.
Fatima Mernissi was one of Morocco’s leading feminists, a political science degree and a doctorate in sociology, and has presented hem as a global authority in the field of Coric studies.
After studying different versions of the Koran, Fatima argued that the Prophet Muhammad was a feminist and progressive man for his time, and indicated that it was not him, but other men, who began to regard the opposite sex as second-rate. Beings.
His theories can be found in the book “The Political Harem: The Prophet and Women. “The book was forbidden in Morocco for revealing that sacred texts had been misunderstood by authoritarian men, who supported their misogyny with manipulative religious arguments. It has all led to several awards, including the Prince of Asturias Prize (2003).
Feminists in the Arab world have had and have a large presence, at different times fought for women’s rights, although they paid a high price, whether they stand up for a more egalitarian religion, secularism or democracy, feminist women in the Arab world have left a mark that needs to be respected.
Islam is a group of movements that defend the union of politics with the religious norms of Islam.