The Islamic Feminism Role in Political in Palestine

This study examines the subject of Islamic Feminism and its role in political development in Palestine, the understanding of the concept of Islamic Feminism, as well as its formation, the controversy around its designation, and the conditions under which it appeared in Palestine. In its first chapter, the study discusses the understanding of feminism in the West, its formation and the intellectual trends the feminist movement is based upon in its defense of women and demand for women’s social and political rights. It mentions some exemplary trends as well as the image of women in Western thought with its theological and philosophical origins in different historical periods, including the European Renaissance and women’s situation in it. The study further examines, in its second chapter, the term feminism from an Islamic perspective as well as the understanding of Islamic feminism, its meaning, formation, and the controversy around its designation. Furthermore, it discusses the Western impact on this label as a new and contemporary term, which is surrounded by great controversy in Islamic circles, ranging from acceptance to complete rejection. The study, moreover, examines the image of women in some Islamic movements and the differences between them. It illustrates the position of women in the Qur’an and the Hadith as well as in Islamic history between discourse and practice, and its relation to Islamic feminist thought. The study then moves on to examine Islamic feminism in the Arab world, the activities of Islamic feminists to assure their existence since the beginning of the 21st century, the qualitative leaps that occurred in the situation of Islamist women on the political level, and what happened after the Arab Spring in terms of the participation of Islamic feminists in official political organisations during elections. In the third chapter the study makes space for the history of the Palestinian women’s movement, describing the components of the movement and the roles of Palestinian women from the beginning of the 20th century to the present, divided into periods labeled according to the nature of the respective period. It then discusses the appearance of Islamic feminism in Palestine represented by organisations that bear the label Islamic as well as the relationship between secular feminism, whose point of reference are the decisions and documents of the United Nations, and Islamic feminism, whose point of reference is Islamic Law. The conclusion provides a summary of the differences in feminist ideologies in the Palestinian context, which is epitomized in the Islamic Association of Palestinian Women as an Islamic feminist body analogue to the General Union of Palestinian Women. The study concludes that Palestinian Islamic feminism was able to impose its existence in the Palestinian context and in the work of organisations, and that it was able to enter the political system in tune with the general Islamic feminist movement in the Arab world, except for the political situation that was caused by the split between Fatah and Hamas, which has later led to a situation without continuity for the work of Islamic feminists under official titles.