Theorizing the politics of 'Islamic feminism'

This article examines developments in 'Islamic feminism', and offers a crit ique of feminist theories, which construct it as an authentic and indigenou s emancipatory alternative to secular feminisms. Focusing on Iranian theocr acy, I argue that the Islamization of gender relations has created an oppre ssive patriarchy that cannot be replaced through legal reforms. While many women in Iran resist this religious and patriarchal regime, and an increasi ng number of Iranian intellectuals and activists, including Islamists, call for the separation of state and religion, feminists of a cultural relativi st and postmodernist persuasion do not acknowledge the failure of the Islam ic project. I argue that western feminist theory, in spite of its advances, is in a state of crisis since (a) it is challenged by the continuation of patriarchal domination in the West in the wake of legal equality between ge nders, (b) suspicious of the universality of patriarchy, it overlooks oppre ssive gender relations in non-western societies and (c) rejecting Eurocentr ism and racism, it endorses the fragmentation of women of the world into re ligious, national, ethnic, racial and cultural entities with particularist agendas.