AN ABSTRACT OF THE THESIS OF Azadeh Ghanizadeh for the degree of Master of Arts in English presented on May 13, 2019. Title: Islam, Feminism, and Third-Worldism: Gender Equality in Muslim Spaces. Abstract approved: ______________________________________________________ Elizabeth Sheehan Ana Milena Ribero This project investigates the ways in which conceptions of women and gender in Islam are articulated within discourses of modernity, freedom, and justice. Considering the ways in which third-world literature and scholarship interacts with, and creates, multiculturalist discourse, this paper examines representation, spokesmanship, and the role of the cosmopolitan humanities in creating and uncovering “other” knowledge. Approaching this study from a decolonial and Islamic feminist perspective, I look to Persepolis as an example of how neoconservative ideologies in Iranian women’s diaspora writing aid the maintenance of racial hierarchies in third- and first-world societies. Narratives like Persepolis, I argue, conceal neoconservative ideologies in multiculturalist disguise while providing a false sense of communion with the “other.” Viewing Persepolis in its distinctly feminist projections, I suggest that the rhetoric of the eternally oppressed Muslim woman is recycled in this text representing Muslim women as victimized in yet another instance of pandering to a decidedly anti-Islamic Western readership. Against this trend, I turn to the Palestinian context in examining the role and representation of women in Islam as it bears upon conceptions of freedom within “traditional” and “modern” societies. Palestinian film Bar Bahar illustrates how feminist critique can avoid colluding with the colonialist forces by illustrating how patriarchal colonialism and masculinist Islam as relying on the same Orientalist frameworks to falsely agitate for women’s liberation. Emphasizing the need for alternative cosmologies and worldviews in a continually homogenizing world, I argue for new directions in feminism, namely, Islamic approaches to feminist thinking, to avoid white-dominant feminism and prioritize the liberation of all women. Examining Iranian women’s diaspora writing and feminist Palestinian cinema, I argue for the necessity and viability of a feminist Islam to avoid both colonialism and masculinist Islam. ©Copyright by Azadeh Ghanizadeh May 13, 2019 All Rights Reserved Islam, Feminism, and Third-Worldism: Gender Equality in Muslim Spaces by Azadeh Ghanizadeh A THESIS submitted to Oregon State University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts Presented May 13, 2019 Commencement June 2019 Master of Arts thesis of Azadeh Ghanizadeh presented on May 13, 2019 APPROVED: Co-Major Professor, representing English _____________________________________________________________________ Co-Major Professor, representing English Director of the School of Writing, Literature and Film Dean of the Graduate School I understand that my thesis will become part of the permanent collection of Oregon State University libraries. My signature below authorizes release of my thesis to any reader upon request. Azadeh Ghanizadeh, Author ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS The author expresses sincere appreciation to Dr. Elizabeth Sheehan and Dr. Ana Milena Ribero for their patience, dedication, and support in the making of this project. TABLE OF CONTENTS Page 1 Introduction...…………………………………………………………………….1 2 Article One: “Iran, Revolution, Diaspora: An Islamic Feminist Perspective on Iranian Women’s Writing………………………………………………………….7 3 Article Two: Islam, Feminism, and Third-Worldism: The Case of Palestine….33 DEDICATION To the people of the Third World. Ghanizadeh 1 Introduction Islam, Feminism, and Third-Worldism: Gender Equality in Muslim Spaces. This project examines feminist discourse from an Islamic feminist perspective. The two major forces involved in this study of feminist discourse about Muslim women, are global colonialism and the various patriarchal ideologies that presume to contest it. While larger economic and political forces are often ignored in Western gender-equality debates, Islamic feminism, in the ethic of women of color feminism, understands patriarchy in its connection to global hierarchies of wealth and power.1 The ruthless appropriation of third-world resources, by first-world nations, is of central concern in this study of women’s freedom in Muslim spaces.2 In this vein, I view any discussion about sexism in Muslim spaces as susceptible to colonialist manipulation and agree with Muslim feminist scholars’ approach to feminism as a project that, if related to Muslim women’s issues, must be articulated within an Islamic framework. In this approach, both Western patriarchal feminism and mindless traditionalism are contested with the aim of making an anti-hegemonic feminism that prioritizes the freedom of women both as individuals and within the collective context of their communities. Inspired by the original non- alignment and Bandung movement, I understand feminist Islamic projects as diverging from both masculinist Islam and global colonialism in recognition of their mutuality and interdependence.3 To this end, I examine the Iranian graphic novel, Persepolis, and feminist Palestinian film Bar Bahar to illustrate the various ways in which feminist discourse can reproduce, or contest, hegemonic views of women’s liberation. I argue, ultimately, for the necessity and viability of an Islamic feminism, which seeks the liberation of Muslim women within the larger global and third-world context. Islamic feminism draws on the fundamentally anti-patriarchal message of Tawhid (divine unity) to articulate an anti-sexist ethos toward gender equality as bound to the freedom Muslim communities in the larger context of the third-world. Ghanizadeh 2 Women’s equality efforts, especially when they are informed by Western conceptions of freedom and white feminist ethics, often fail to produce anti-sexist outcomes. For women’s liberation to be effective, both patriarchy and Western hegemony must be contested, and their affinities must be made visible. Western feminist study and activism must recognize the ways in which the production of masculinist Islam relies on rhetorics of Western encroachment and exploitation to sustain legitimacy in the eyes of Muslim communities threatened by Western designs. Highlighting the ways in which imperialism and anti-imperialism are contested on the backs of Muslim women, an Islamic feminist analysis views gender and sexual politics as integral to both Western feminist discourse and Islamic teachings and practice. In this spirit, scholars such as Amina Wadud, Leila Ahmed, and Fatima Mernissi argue that Western feminists often articulate concerns for women from within an Orientalist framework in which “other” women are victimized by an eternally oppressive culture. These accounts are not simply reductive or misguided, they indicate larger ideological biases informed by trenchant anti-Islamic attitudes that prevent holistic understandings of women’s situation in Muslim spaces. Addressing the misapprehension of gender issues in Muslim spaces, Islamic feminist analysis critiques certain reactionary and masculinist versions of Islam in Muslim communities, demonstrating how this type of Islamic project, though viewing itself as anti-imperialist and liberatory, is implicated not only in the oppression of Muslim women, but by extension, the maintenance of third-world subjugation. In these masculinist versions of Islam, an implicit acceptance of colonial understandings of Muslim women’s role and representation in society is apparent and the psychological impacts of colonization (and the internalization of colonialist rhetoric by colonized peoples) are disclosed. While these two seemingly opposed forces (masculinist Islam and colonialist feminism) vie for control of Muslim women’s bodies, the third-world sinks Ghanizadeh 3 further into debt slavery, instability, and violence. To address this crisis, I argue that both believers and non-believers must realize the emancipatory potential within Islam and address the ongoing and increasing problem of imperialism as well as an androcentric monopoly on Islamic knowledge production and leadership. Ultimately, I argue, the gender question will decide the fate of the third-world. Gender issues in Muslim spaces must be viewed within the larger crisis of global capitalism as addressed by the Bandung and non-alignment movement, if gender and Islam are to be a productive site of ethical questioning in feminist academic spaces.4 Muslims are overwhelmingly located within the third-world context where war, famine, and financial dependency constantly shake the social fabric, making it difficult for women to agitate for gender-equality when the collective will and existence of their people is being constantly threatened by war and theft (Mernissi 6). Western feminists must recognize this third-world history and context, and its relationship to Western colonialism, if they are to genuinely mobilize for women’s rights and not just repeat the same bad-faith arguments which conceal political and economic forces behind cultural criticism. While addressing colonialist trends in Western feminist discourse, Islamic feminist scholarship engages with sacred texts, histories, and teachings and highlights the liberatory dimension of Islam in its uniquely anti-hierarchical ethics. As Amina Wadud argues, the principle of Tawhid forbids all forms of hierarchy and promotes balanced power relations