Mohammed Hijab – Feminist Asks_ Why Are You Not a Feminist

			My first question was,
		

			you said that if you put yourself for one second only in a feminist shoes, you'd be able to come to
all of these conclusions and all the reflections you did come to. But if we consider feminism for
what it is, as in like the dictionary definition, like the whole equality, like political, social,
and sexual equality of the sexes, why would you need to put yourself for one second in the shoes of
the feminine? Not one?
		

			Okay, it's a good question. It's actually a really good question. I like your contribution.
		

			And it's clear that you've been doing your own studies here, and Queen Mary, and another place. I
will say to you that
		

			first of all, as Muslims in the Quran, it says in chapter 41, and for answers facilite
		

			is so Manasa Nicola Minh and died Allahumma salli. ala in Nanaimo muslimeen says who is better in
speech than the one who does good deeds? Sorry, the one who is better in speech in the Quran, it
says, who's better in speech than the one who does good deeds and Who says I'm one of the Muslims.
So the way that Muslims are told and taught to identify themselves from a Quranic perspective is as
Muslims, because Islam we can guarantee is something which comes from God.
		

			As for any of the Western philosophies, or Eastern philosophies, we cannot guarantee that any of
those
		

			have a full
		

			I have a full monopoly on the truth in that sense. So within feminism, as you kind of alluded to,
there are different strands, radical feminists and Marxist feminist and liberal feminists. And for
me to concede that I'm a feminist would would, in essence, in my view, mean I would concede
		

			that I would take on board the the cultural and academic tradition of the feminists, which I cannot
do, because of my objection to many of the things that feminists believe in, and I'll give you some
examples. But having said that, moving forward, I do believe that there is a great deal of
		

			there is a great deal of overlap between the Islamic tradition and the feminist tradition. And no
doubt, one of the main things is what the prophet Mohammed Salah solo said, and Hadith, which is,
which is authentic, and yourself shakai. Richard, where he said, certainly men or women are equal to
men. And this is something which is found in our tradition. And we do have exceptions to this rule,
just like feminists have exceptions to this rule as well. So you'll find that feminists do believe
in social political and economic equality in the first instance, but and they will see that there is
a need at times to give women more rights than men. And clearly if this is not done from a feminist
		

			perspective, than the patriarchy will no doubt persist. So the only way to deal with inequality is
to to enhance the inequality in the sense to enhance the inequality by by positively discriminating
for women, at least in the short term. And this would be why we believe a contradiction, because if
the premise is, is equality, and the prescription is inequality, then the premise has contradicted
the prescription, and more Moreover, you'll find that in books like the feminist Mystique, which was
written in 1963,
		

			where the writer says in a very famous quote, she believes that the house or the household is a
comfortable concentration camp. I believe this is an over exaggeration, and a mellow dramatization.
And something which is unsubstantiated philosophically, or psychologically or sociologically, no
doubt, are no less scientifically. And you'll find that this kind of terminology, does nothing but
demean and degrade the status of women generally, it does nothing but demean and degrade the status
of mothers who actually have to, for whatever social, political, or economic reason, sometimes stay
at home and look after their children. So either I don't necessarily subscribe to the feminist
		

			tradition because of its attack and onslaughts. In the first instance, on Mother's and belief. You
mean, in the Islamic tradition, there is a great emphasis on motherhood. In fact, mothers are more
important than fathers. In fact, mothers are venerated in an incredible way. And so when a feminist
writer comes Brenda Friedman and says that the house is a comfortable concentration camp. That is
for me an offensive statement because that is to suggest that the relationship style built in the
house, including a mother, son relationship, mother daughter relationship is also part of the
torture
		

			I would say that that is an offensive thing to do. And in fact, I will go one step further and say,
the majority of things a woman can do of all the things a woman can do, or or a man can do, the best
thing they one of the best things they can do is become a parent, and raise their children and do so
honorably. And so when, when a mother is being compared to a holocaust victim, really think about
that a holocaust victim, that's actually an offense to Holocaust victims, in many ways, people that
have really felt the sting of a concentration camp. So this kind of rhetoric steers me away from
feminism, and brings me closer to the fair minded approach of Islam, which is a fair minded
		

			approach, which honors and venerates women generally speaking, but doesn't go into extremes. And
also one more thing, so is a wrap up. Okay, I'll tell you one more thing, which is an interesting
thing. I feel that there are contradictions within the western narrative. And I'll tell you where
and how these contradictions lie. I believe that sometimes an atheistic woman with believing in any
philosophical as well as a psychological Darwinism can also subscribe to feminism. Well, if you look
at the dissent, written by Charles Darwin, a book that he himself was one of the main seminal works
that he wrote, no doubt Charles Darwin believed that men he said as clearly as this was superior to
		

			women. And he believed in his theory, that men were superior to women because of women's ability to
to be more intuition intuitive, and all these kinds of data that he could, extrapolated, and you'll
find that even to this day, you'll find evolutionists saying the same thing. So when an atheist
evolution is feminists, feminist comes forward and says, I subscribe to all three, I believe she is
actually contradicting herself, because in one go talk about evolution. And one way if you think
about evolution, as a theory, evolution is a theory which actually says that two things are most
important. A reproductive capacity, functionality and the survival of functionality. And the second
		

			one is more important than the first called the survival of the fittest. So if that is the case, may
not be the patriarchy is not evidence against men, it would be an evidence for their superiority and
their ability to subjugate women into the in the weaker position, because they are the fittest, and
that would be a contradiction. So I think when a woman says that she is a feminist, she has to think
twice, especially if she's living in the West, and especially if she's an atheist, and especially
and this is another point, if she believes in the theory of evolution, psychologically and
philosophically, I would say, the best the best bet for a woman who is who wants to affirm right,
		

			the equality of men and women, is to do so using an objective reality, which can only be done if she
subscribes to one of the more traditions because there's no objectivity in atheism. This is very
well documented, very well understood. Look at the works of meetcha, Beyond Good and Evil, gay
science, look at the works of Jacques Derrida. Look at the works of Bertrand Russell, look at the
works of even the new atheists, Sam Harris, and Richard Dawkins. All of these people don't believe
in an objective reality. Therefore, feminism is not grounded on a premise which is objective, which
means it cannot be said to be completely true. Therefore, according to an atheistic, humanistic
		

			perspective, it makes more sense for a woman to be a feminist woman to look for a way that she can
say objectively that men or women are equal, because science is not helping her according to Darwin,
and atheism is not helping her according to all of the postmodernist and atheist thinkers, she
should be looking at Islam. Thank you very much.