The Interpretive Feminism in the Arab World (Presentation and analysis)

The Arab and Islamic world experiences a new stage which has revealed a modern perspective about the doctrines of religions especially the teachings of the true religion of Islam, from which are the teachings related to woman and her values and rights in society according to a modern reading of the religious scriptures and the Islamic heritage. This movement has been named as “al-Nisaviyyah” meaning “Feminism” in the Arab world. There are many fallacies and misunderstandings about feminism and Islamic teachings while the Islamic feminism tries to introduce the idea of equality as a Qur’anic conception of equality among human beings, and calls to apply justice that was brought about by the Islamic teachings. We tried in the present theses to introduce the controversy about the status of Islamic Feminism and its different types in the Islamic discourse especially the “interpretive feminism” and studying its cognitive bases and methods and also introduce its prominent figures and their main thoughts. In addition, we present an analytical and critical view to this new call that the contemporary Islamic community has faced and concluded that this new reading of women’s rights is part of the Islamic general framework and does not believe in the blind and random tradition of Western culture, and it has its foundations and cognitive bases that it derived from the teachings of the Holy Qur’an, many of views expressed by some of the pioneers of the interpretive feminism may be far from accuracy and are personal interpretations and are opposed to the prevailing reading among the jurists and scholars and interpreters of the Qur’an, while other views need more and deeper reflection to reach a definitive conclusion in it.