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.