Women and Gender in Islam. [12][14], Homosexual activity is illegal in Syria, and is punishable by at least three years in prison,[19] and it is uncommon for gay Arabs to be open about their sexuality.

[70] Many scholars agree that there is no scripture that requires women to wear the hijab but many still do as an act of religious piety.

He said: Then who? Another issue that concerns Muslim women is the dress code expected of them. Women and Gender in Islam. [20] Although Syria's human rights record is among the worst in the world, according to Human Rights Watch,[20] the character of Amina wrote openly about her sexual orientation, experiences, and aspirations.

[49] Their mission is to promote the principles of gender equality, justice, freedom, and dignity of Islam and empower women to be advocates for change. [71] Islamic feminists have begun to protest this, advocating for women to be allowed to pray beside men without a partition, as they do in Mecca. [84] The Quran says: [85] "fear your Lord who created you from a single soul and of its kind created its mate, and from them twain spread many men and women." He said: Again it is your mother. Turner is married to his wife Amina Garner. [citation needed] Her famous feminist piece Beyond the Veil exploits the oppressive status of women in Islam, sexual ideology and gender identity through the perspective of Moroccan society and culture.

However, she debates the term “Islamic Feminism” is unnecessary since feminism is a “social practice, not merely of personal identity.”[14] Seedat believes the convergence of both Islamic and feminism creates more conflict and opens more doors for “Islamists” to interpret or misinterpret the Qur'an to suit their political needs. "[12], According to American bisexual activist and author Minal Hajratwala, MacMaster (as Amina) wrote to Hajratwala in May 2011, asking for advice regarding a book Amina was writing. Bagaria recalled being told. Let not the scribe refuse to write as Allah has taught him, so let him write. Turner is best known for playing the main character, Kaydee "Caine" Lawson, in the 1993 film Menace II Society. Hesse explained "If [MacMaster] had not been so emotionally resonant, so detailed, so seemingly 'real,' nobody would have cared so much when Amina disappeared, and nobody would have worked so hard to figure out what might have happened to her, and nobody would have learned that she was a pale man from Georgia. According to currently existing traditional schools of Islam, a woman cannot lead a mixed gender congregation in salat (prayer). MacMaster fleshed out the character's background, and he said that he began writing a novel based on the character. [1] MacMaster said that few would have paid attention to the blog if he had started it in 2010. Feminist philosophers such as Luce Irigaray also note that the veil can take on the role of empowerment regarding a woman's sexual difference from man.

She states in her essay the importance of sharing with the rest of the world what Islam has to offer feminism, and to show the true image of Islam by not referring to themselves as Islamic feminists. [12], One of Amina's close online friends, a real person named Sandra Bagaria (who later admitted that she never met Amina in person or virtually) explained on June 7 that Arraf had been hiding in "four or five different apartments in four or five different cities" across Syria since two young men appeared at her home in Damascus several weeks before.

Musawah advocates for feminist interpretations of Islamic texts and calls on nations to abide by international human rights standards such as those promulgated in the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women.

"[40], Liz Henry, who had recommended some of the posts made by MacMaster when he worked under the Amina character, stated "He's stealing the voice of a marginalized person. Egyptian, Turkish, Iranian, Syrian and Lebanese women and men had been reading European feminist magazines even a decade earlier, and discussed their relevance to the Middle East in the general press. Turner played the central character in Janet Jackson's 1989 long-form music video for her single Rhythm Nation. [17] For example, new Islamic jurisprudence is emerging that seek to forbid social evils like female genital mutilations, and equalize family codes (Personal law), clergy, administration-level equal-participatory opportunities in mosques for women, equal opportunities for Muslim women to become judges in civil as well as religious institutions. New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 1992. pp.136-137.

[18], On the blog, MacMaster posted as "Rania Ismail", Amina's fictional cousin, reporting the event: "Amina was seized by three men in their early 20s. On June 12, The Electronic Intifada published evidence for its claims that Amina was the product of Tom MacMaster of Edinburgh, formerly of Atlanta, Georgia. In her view, conservative Muslim men manipulated the religious texts of the Quran to preserve their patriarchal system in order to prevent women from sexual liberation; thus enforcing justification of strict veiling and limitation rights. It sparked a controversy within the Muslim community because the imam was a woman, Wadud, who also delivered the khutbah. [5], Advocates refer to the observation that Muslim majority countries produced several female heads of state, prime ministers, and state secretaries such as Lala Shovkat of Azerbaijan, Benazir Bhutto of Pakistan, Mame Madior Boye of Senegal, Tansu Çiller of Turkey, Kaqusha Jashari of Kosovo, and Megawati Sukarnoputri of Indonesia. Within six month of its relaunch as an online magazine, sister-hood won Espoke Living Best Website at the 2016 Asian Media Awards for highlighting female equality as well as creating awareness of issues affecting Muslim women. [16] The Lede Blog (of The New York Times) noted that Amina's draft of her biography indicated "very deep" American roots. Some Islamists advocate women's rights in the public sphere but do not challenge gender inequality in the personal, private sphere. [37], Thomas "Tom" MacMaster was raised in Harrisonburg, Virginia.

MacMaster said that he was going to stop using the persona by then. In his work, Amin criticized some of the practices prevalent in his society at the time, such as polygyny, the veil, and purdah, i.e.

Attention increased after the blog character described her experience with the Syrian state internal police.