Mohammad Qutub – Investigating Feminism

			Thank you Prof. Smith, candelabra with me. So that was
		

			mighty. send prayers and blessings upon Prophet Muhammad set alarm systems number family writers
companions and ordered from them with the right guidance until the Day of Judgment, Amin,
		

			Professor, Sister, I'm sorry if I forgot the names and said how are they going to live on their own
can to all of you distinguished guests?
		

			Thank you for this lovely invitation. It's always nice to discuss controversial topics, why not?
		

			If it's not controversial, it will be very interesting, right? It's gonna be the same old, just, you
know, repeating and regurgitating? This is a controversial issue. Absolutely. And I think it's
something that we need to talk about, right? And we need to discuss
		

			and to try to clarify because guess what, if you don't have sessions like this, where we have
inshallah trustworthy people with expertise and knowledge to talk about it, people are going to get
it from all kinds of places, and they're going to hear all kinds of things. Okay. I think I'm going
to leave if you allow me profit, the history of the movement to Prof, I think she's an expert
already. I will say that
		

			women have been trying to get their rights.
		

			I would say maybe not for a very long time. And correct me if I'm wrong, Prof. But when you talk
about women struggling and fighting for the rights, you might be talking just about one or two
centuries ago, you know, where it really started and really started to get a move on before that. It
was the same old, you know, and this, as we will see in the discussion only makes
		

			the Islamic heritage and the Islamic empowerment of women that much more interesting. So this is not
something that happens so far.
		

			Behind we're talking about 19th century, 19th century and then 20th century, the beginning the first
first wave feminism sometime in the I believe in the 19th century with the suffragettes trying for
to get women trying to get their legal rights, we're not talking quite yet about political rights,
and then later on getting voting rights and political rights, and so on, and so forth. So if you're
talking about something that's only a century or a century and a half old, in the with the backdrop
of history, this is a very short time. So this is something very, very new. Okay. And that's why
when we talk about Islam, empowering women, over 14 Centuries ago, people have to stop and think,
		

			especially if we present this properly to non Muslims, that look at what Islam did to women more
than 14 centuries ago.
		

			I think the definition of feminism is one thing.
		

			You have the denotation. And then you have the connotation, the denotation of feminism actually
seems quite palatable. Why not?
		

			promoting equality, gender equality between women, men and women, economically and politically and
socially. Sounds kind of nice. Right? Yeah. But then when you come to the connotation,
		

			that's a different world altogether. You started seeing something, I would say very ugly. Okay. Now,
again, it is a controversial topic. So you will hear people from Islamic backgrounds at one side of
the spectrum,
		

			destroying
		

			something called feminism and then you will hear others say no, actually feminism, empowered women
and I am, they will say a product of the feminism movement, and I am a practicing Muslim, or Muslim
for that matter. I think that the movement has a lot to offer. So you will hear these, the spectrum
of opinion and that's why it's important to touch on Islam and feminism movement. What is the
difference? Feminism feminism? Well, I mean, I think the feminism movement is just the the attempt
the grassroots effort and attempt to put feminism into practice, right.
		

			But like I said, there's a huge difference between what we define as feminism and then the way it
actually manifests itself. So now, when you talk about feminism, forget about Muslims, even amongst
non Muslims. You will hear non Muslim women bashing feminism left and right and saying feminism
destroyed us and we are against feminism and we
		

			men against feminism and feminism created amongst women, a hatred for men and created this divide
between men and women as if they are two columns. Well, two opponents that are trying to kill each
other, you know, and this will remain, you know, until the end of time. And I think, especially for
Muslims, especially, you know, the more you read about this stuff, I was thinking the whole time to
myself. What is this war that is going on between the sexes Wallahi, as a Muslim, I've never
experienced it. I've never read this in the Quran. I've never read this in the sermon or in the
stories of the Sahaba this war between the sexes, you know,
		

			so, and by the way, x one extreme begets another.
		

			Remember this seen one extreme begets another, so if there was something called male supremacy, this
then brought about the other extreme female supremacy and in this way, you just keep jumping and
hopping between extremes. And you know what the solution is
		

			to find the happy middle.
		

			Once you find that happy middle,
		

			which is our Islam.
		

			This is when you will see that this extreme will lose, you know, their argument completely, and the
other extreme as well.