Féminisme et islamisme dans le monde arabe: essai de synthèse

Abstract

This article attempts to analyse the relations between feminism and Islamism in the Arab world, that is between the principal contemporary Arab discourses on the Arabic woman. It does so sociologically by considering them as social movements, with due consideration of country contexts. The sociological approach employed is ideal-typical, and falls into two main parts. The first describes the fundamental opposition between feminism and Islamism, structured particularly in the domains of space and power without ever being simply reduced to them. The struggle between them produces stereotypes which make the opposition between feminism and Islamism an opposition of men/women, left/right, or West/East. The second part attempts to identify the social origins and forms of institutionalization of feminism and Islamism. More concentrated, leading inevitably to its organization into associations, feminism appears to occupy a position of weakness in relation to a hegemonic Islamism which draws strength from an increasing awareness of political underdevelopment. The article concludes with a critique of the strategy employed by both movements, each attempting to assimilate the other, and proposes ways towards a true reconciliation between modernity and Islam, towards finding in the law and in the sacred texts an Islamic theory of the equality of the sexes.