The national liberation struggle and Islamic feminisms in South Africa

Abstract

This article is an investigation of the impact of the national liberation struggle on the rise of Islamic feminisms in South Africa. Muslims in South Africa form less than 2% of the population [Vahed, Goolam & Jeppie, Shamil (2005). Multiple communities: Muslims in post-apartheid South Africa. In: John Daniel, Roger Scuthall, Jessica Lutchman (Eds.) States of the nation: South Africa 2004–2005 (pp. 252–286) Pretoria: Human Sciences Research Council]. Yet, their minority status has not meant their exclusion from political life—including the anti-apartheid struggle. Their involvement in ‘the struggle’ had many consequences for this community, including encouraging the emergence of Islamic feminist tendencies. I argue in the article that the development of political Islam in South Africa in the 1980s, and its interaction with the national liberation struggle, helped give rise to Islamic Feminisms which flourished from 1990 to 1998 (when the Islamic feminist tendency began to decline).