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Vol. 8 No. 2 (2020)
Space and Culture, India

Special Articles

Muslim Women’s Haji Ali Movement in Mumbai: Reimagining Feminism and Piety in Islam

https://doi.org/10.20896/saci.v8i2.845

Published 2020-09-28

  • Esita Sur

Esita Sur
Assistant Professor, Scottish Church College, Kolkata, India

Abstract

Muslim women’s engagement with Islam through Haji Ali Movement in Mumbai highlights an interesting as well as conflicting encounters between Islam, feminism, and women’s rights. It not only disturbs the quintessential images of them but also opens up an array of possibilities to comprehend that Muslim women can develop their own critique of religion and cultural practices from within. The study argues that the Muslim women’s Haji Ali movement or the mosque movement offers a surprising trade-off between Islam, feminism, and women’s rights by challenging the long-established idea that these are mutually exclusive entities and the distance cannot be bridged. Therefore, the study not only tries to find out the origin, nature, and unique characteristics of the movement but also the new ways of exploring the dialogue between Muslim women’s religious subjectivity, rights, and feminism in India.

Keywords

Piety, Islamic Feminism, Gender Equality, Muslim Women, India

pdf

Author Biography

Esita Sur

Assistant Professor in Political Science

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