Women's History Month
This resource was released to coincide with Women’s History Month which is celebrated across the world every March.
Women’s History Month in 2014 celebrates women of ‘character, courage and commitment,’ and is a time to question conventional accounts of the past.
Whether these are in relation to war, the arts, science, education or politics, these accounts will frequently have something in common and that is the absence of women.
We have history. But what of ‘herstory’?
Women’s History Month in 2014 celebrates women of ‘character, courage and commitment,’ and is a time to question conventional accounts of the past.
Whether these are in relation to war, the arts, science, education or politics, these accounts will frequently have something in common and that is the absence of women.
We have history. But what of ‘herstory’?
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Feminists highlight the need to make visible the invisible and read between the lines to attempt to uncover the accounts of women airbrushed from history books.
Women’s History Month has been used by women’s rights advocates across the world to tell the stories of unsung heroines. Presenting ‘alternative’ histories, focusing on the strength, contribution and leadership of women, can be a way to empower women and girls today. The absence of women in history can also be a strong prompt to reflect on gender relations in our societies today. Feminists in Muslim communities have also used this month as a time to remember prominent women in early Muslim history to show that Islam can and should support equality between men and women. |
Looking back and seeing how at different times in history Muslim women have excelled in every area of society – undermines the assumption that Islam and progressive rights for women are incompatible!
Women’s History Month is also a useful occasion to remember the efforts of Muslim women both today and in the past, many of whom identify as feminists, who have reassessed what Islam is supposed to say about gender, in order to secure steps forward. This has not always been easy. As Fatema Mernissi, an important contributor to Islamic feminism has said: ‘Delving into memory, slipping into the past, is a closely supervised activity, especially for Muslim women. A passport for such a journey is not always a right.’[1] |
Women’s History Month can therefore be important for understanding feminism in Islam in order to:
- Shine the spotlight on Muslim women in history who, like women in all histories, may have been forgotten or overlooked
- Celebrate the work of Muslim women who are feminists both today and in the past who have questioned accepted historical narratives to do with gender and Islam and provided new ones
[1] Fatema Mernissi, 'The Veil and the Male Elite: A Feminist Interpretation of Women’s Rights in Islam' (1991)
