Concealed and revealed: women and feminism in Islam and Judaism

Rules governing women’s behavior, definitions of gender, and anxieties regarding sexuality have shaped religious and national lives and communities for Jews and Muslims in ways that demonstrate important parallels and influences as well as distinctiveness of both Islam and Judaism from Christianity.

Feminist thinkers and their opponents in all three religions have sought to respond to the challenges of European modernity and the Enlightenment. Their efforts and the ensuing controversies – in both Judaism and Islam – have exposed weaknesses in each religion’s foundations even as they have won important religious opportunities for women in their communities.

My lecture will discuss some of the parallels between Islamic and Jewish feminist thought and suggest ways in which we might be helpful to one another.