Feminism in Islam

April 2009. Scarsdale High School, grades 11-12. Collaborating teacher: Lauren Tallevi.

Students in Lauren's feminist class were first asked to reflect on the meaning of feminism, Islam, and the relationship between Islam and feminism. A lot of them were surprised to learn that Islam was, at least, more feminist than what they had thought before. 

The early Islam in the 6th century, for instance, showed that women gained more rights under Islamic civilization, for instance the rights to approve man to marry, the rights to divorce, and the inheritance rights. It can be said that it was a very progressive move in those years, and even the Western civilization only picked up the inheritance rights for women long after that, in the 18th century. Early Muslim women were active as educators and teachers in the 8th-13th centuries, an image very different from the stories about Taliban.