There's a really weird trend of people choosing to exclusively support women's rights activists abroad (Saudi, Iran etc) OR those in the west & classifying one group to be the "real feminists" over the other. Surely this division can only be counterproductive? Western feminists often operate with a harmful blindspot when it comes to international women's rights movements & stay silent much more often than they should. I have no hesitations in condemning that or any of the other individual issues that have derailed the broader movement.

This is one of the reasons I have doubts about reform. Believing that the purpose of this life (dunya) is a test of your comittment to divine law is a serious barrier to change. When you're warned that compromising the doctrine earns you a ticket to hell, why would you risk it?

https://twitter.com/kiaudn/status/1124261872537165824

I used to think exactly like this & didn't see myself as extreme at all. I just thought I was fulfilling my duties as a servant of Allah & doing the bare minimum to avoid hell. Man-made ideas such as LGBT rights didn't fit into that equation so I just blocked it out.

Thread:
@jessesingal has disputed my interpretation of Gay's stance on the relationship between western feminism & Islamic misogyny,
Reading back through the audio transcript he provided as evidence, I stand by my original statements. If anything, my portrayal was too generous.

https://twitter.com/jessesingal/status/1120824785842376704

To me, Gay's quoted response is a weak deflection that allows her to avoid addressing oppressive Islamic norms directly. Although it may appear to harmlessly advocate for cautionary intervention, it's riddled with cultural relativism that hides behind woke activist buzzwords.

@Darryl_Annison @CHSommers Thanks for reading. Liberals have become obsessed with white guilt & western oppression, so they're only interested in social justice issues that pit minorities against westerners. They can't process a scenario that falls outside those boundaries. @Darryl_Annison @CHSommers This is my understanding anyway. .@CHSommers brought up the Charlie Hebdo attack & the evidence that Islam is given special treatment regarding critisism & free speech. Roxane responded by saying that Christianity is the dominant oppressor so critisising it is punching up

Thread
1/ I just came out of a feminist event with Roxane Gay & @CHSommers & am left with a real crisis of faith in Western feminism & the mainstream left, both of which I have been an active supporter of. I'd like to discuss some key problems that I am now painfully aware of. 2/ Prior to the event, reports emerged that Roxane had classed @CHSommers as a white supremacist. She clarified tonight by saying that she was "white supremacy adjacent" for appearing alongside @MiloYiannopoul1 & failing to adequately disavow his problematic views.

My mum became very devout and married at 16. Since then, the demands of being the perfect Muslim woman has gradually wittled away at her confidence, her individuality & her human dignity. Not only does Allah demand complete submission to Him, he demands a woman to submit to men. She started breaking during her engagement, crying in front of family and strangers in bewilderment at the degrading treatment she recieved. But she knew that she was expected to value my dad's piety above all else. If he obeyed Allah, then he had to be good to her right?

#WhenIwasaMuslim From a young age I was the antithesis of the ideal Muslim woman: stubborn, arguementative, loud and opinionated. When we went to the mosque, I wanted to run around and play with the boys, not sit hidden away in the back room as a 'dignified' lady should I hated the hijab from the outset, bothered by the heat and extra material that was forced on me at every religious ceremony or ritual. I simply couldn't understand what it was about my body and my behaviour that was inherently wrong that it needed to be so crudely erased.