This research builds upon Islamic feminism as an alternative mean to the typical Western way of perceiving feminism, when looking into the situation of Muslim women in Sweden through a qualitative field study. Moreover, this is linked to the discussion of gender equality and diversity which is on the agenda in the West due to contemporary migration flows. Semi-structured interviews are conducted for the purpose of highlighting Muslim women's own religious and cultural experiences concerning identity, freedom and gender roles, which are later connected to the academic debate regarding women in Islam and Islamic feminism. Additionally, interpretations of often discussed verses from the Qur'an on this topic are made during the interviews, also connected to the core of this research which is to explore the possibility of an identity formation with feminism and Islam coexisting among the interviewed women in Sweden, constituting the research gap. Hayward's theory of de-facing power is further applied to the findings and examples illustrate a tension between the different value systems when comparing the women's earlier experiences to current ones in Sweden, but that feminist understandings are visible and practiced to some extent. Summarized remarks include that further research is necessary and particularly with more interviewees which would enable more of a generalization, yet underlining that the situation among and for Muslim women differs. Nevertheless, it is through facilitating to meet each other and involve women in the society it is possible to achieve progress of a mutual understanding.

The purpose of this study is to examine how two Muslim feminists perceive themselves to betreated by the Swedish majority society and within the secular feminist movement. Thesurvey was conducted using qualitative method with a total of two interviews. For the study'stheoretical perspectives, I have used postcolonialism and postcolonial feminism. The result ofthe survey and the analysis show that the informants say that they face an image of Muslimwomen as considered being under oppression. The informants believe that this stereotypicalimage has its origin from the colonial period. The question that is most important for themwithin feminism is to be treated as a feminist and as a Muslim without being questioned. Theyfeel like it's hard to identify with the Swedish secular feminism, but they also feel that thegroup of Swedish secular feminists have a difficulty identifying themselves with Muslimwomen too. Consider this, one of the informants does not feel welcome among Swedishsecular feminism while the other one never had an interest in becoming a member of itbecause she did not consider them to strive for the same goal as herself. The informantsclaims that there are opportunities for them to speak in the public debate, but as Muslimfeminists they are facing a bigger struggle.

This study examines Hamas’ policies and opinions on women’s rights and participation in the public sphere from a perspective of Islamic feminism. A theoretical framework of Islamic feminism is developed in this thesis and can be applied to other Islamist organisations and parties. The study shows that Hamas’ policies and statements on the topic of women’s rights and political participation have changed from not qualifying as feminist at all to showing tendencies of an Islamic feminism in line with the Legalist model presented. This is partly due to the democratic elements of Hamas, which points towards that this might be a possible future for other Islamist parties which have gained power democratically, such as from the Arab spring.

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Radical feminism is often associated with the 1970s and 1980s in the United States. Although powerful in its goals of solidarity and coalitions, the movement is often criticized for its lack of attention to intersecting systems of power. However, several contemporary feminist spoken word poets are reconceptualizing radical feminism in their political projects, using the theories and activist strategies while paying attention to race, class, and sexuality. This piece traces some of the history and literature of radical feminism, Woman of Color feminism, contemporary Islamic feminism, and spoken word poetry. Using these frameworks, I close-read three poems: "Womyn Before" by Alix Olson, "The Herstory of My Hips" by C.C. Carter, and "99 cent lipstick" by Suheir Hammad to discuss the manner in which each uses coalitions. Olson's poem provides an analysis of the performative and textual aspects of the poem as a way to envision an activist project grounded in old social movements. Carter's poem connects history and archives, using a Woman of Color framework, and through Hammad, the structural critiques of an unjust system that disadvantages minority youth are seen through lenses of Women of Color and Islamic feminism. While these poets gain some knowledge from radical feminism, they interpret it in their poetry in ways that address the intersections of identity. / text

Islamic feminism in Iran is defined as the radical rethinking of religious and sacred texts from a feminist perspective. The purpose of this research is to show how an Islamic feminist discourse developed in Iran, and to outline the differences between the reformist and traditionalist epistemological foundations of women’s rights discourse in Iran.This study, using documentary research methods, demonstrates that central to the development of Islamic feminism is the development of the reformist movement in Iran. Moreover, it is shown that the main impedance to women’s equality in Iran is the traditionalist epistemology in religious law. While reformists believe that employing justice in Islamic law requires absolute equality regarding both men and women’s rights, traditionalists present a different interpretation of the notion of justice. According to the traditionalist discourse, since men and women have natural and inborn differences, two separate kinds of law are needed to regulate their lives.

The purpose of this thesis is to compare the works of contemporary Arab British and Arab American women novelists with a view toward delineating a poetics of the more nascent Arab British literature. I argue that there is a tendency among Arab British women novelists to foreground and advocate trans-cultural dialogue and cross-ethnic identification strategies in a more pronounced approach than their Arab American counterparts who tend, in turn, to employ literary strategies to resist stereotypes and misconceptions about Arab communities in American popular culture. I argue that these differences result from two diverse racialized Arab immigration and settlement patterns on both sides of the Atlantic. Chapter One looks at how Arab British novelist Fadia Faqir's My Name is Salma and Arab American novelist Diana Abu-Jaber's Arabian Jazz define Arabness differently in the light of the precarious position Arabs occupy in ethnic and racial discourses in Britain and in the United States. Chapter Two examines how Arab British women writers Ahdaf Soueif and Leila Aboulela valorize trans-cultural and cross-ethnic dialogues and alliances in their novels The Map of Love and Minaret respectively through engaging with the two (interlocking) strands of feminism in the Arab world: secular and Islamic feminisms. In Chapter Three, I demonstrate how the two novels of Arab American women writers Diana Abu-Jaber's Crescent and Laila Halaby's West of the Jordan explore the contradictions of Arab American communities from within and employ strategies of intertextuality and storytelling to subvert stereotypes about Arabs. As this study is interested in exploring the historical and socio-political contexts in which Arab women writers on both sides of the Atlantic produce their work, the conclusion investigates how the two sets of authors have represented, from an Arab perspective, the events of 9/11 and the ensuing war on terror in their novels.

This thesis delves into the relationship between religion and feminism in the context of Muslim women residing in Mallorca. The study conducts a qualitative analysis to evaluate the impact of defined gender roles on their everyday experiences. We compare Islamic and secular feminist theories with the viewpoints of young women in Mallorca to determine how individuals engage with religious ideals that may contain misogynistic content. We also examine whether women are disproportionately affected by societal judgment, its impact on their sexual autonomy, and the role of marriage in reinforcing or challenging structural gender inequalities. The conclusions of this research shed light on the complex experiences of these women as they navigate their place in a society shaped by faith, culture, and evolving feminist discourse.

The idea of women's economic empowerment in the developing world has been growing in momentum throughout the past decades. Today, it is a force that is dramatically redefining the concept of economic development and transforming the economic and political landscape of the Middle East. Women in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region are finding innovative ways to participate in the labor market. As a result, they are becoming agents of change in their political, economic, and social environments. However, despite the tremendous amount of growth that has realized throughout the years, women in MENA face significant hurdles to realize their potential. This study will highlight the social, political, and economic developments that have taken place within the last decade, and describe how they have improved, or worsened economic conditions for women in the region. It will also describe the issues associated with previous developments, and their missing dimensions. The analysis will provide case studies to compare levels of women's empowerment in Jordan and Palestine. The concept of women's economic empowerment will be analyzed through a multidisciplinary lens in which factors such as religion, ideology, culture, politics, and economics are merged to understand the foundation of the problems facing women in MENA. The study will emphasize the importance of a sociocultural base in the analysis of women's labor force participation rates. These factors will also be analyzed from various levels of analysis: individual, state, and global.

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