Liberal Feminists & Religion

Charlotte Butler (1995)

• Women are liberated when wearing hijabs & niqabs.
• They are liberated from society's beauty expectations & not judged on their appearance (especially when wearing the niqab)
• It gives them a sense of belonging, community, and identity.
• Renewed Vigour: women return to their belief in the wake of persecution.
• There is a movement from cultural to religious identity- women identify as Muslim rather than Pakistani/British/immigrant.
• Religion is increasingly more important to Muslim women because they treat it as a code of life, and the environment they grew up in strengthens their allegiance to the religion.
• Culture (its values&attitudes) oppresses women, not religion.
• Evaluation
• Many drawbacks:
• prejudice
• judgement
• assumptions
• practical limitations, eg jobs
• Western culture assumes Asian women are forced into arranged marriages and that Muslim women are suppressed and isolated, subordinate to their men and kept like prisoners in their homes.
• Many of these women's mothers and grandmothers didn't wear them, but they broke the tradition and did.

Linda Woodhead (2002)

• 'Religious forms of Feminism'
• Women are using religion to challenge patriarchal society.
• Therefore religion is liberating for women.
• For example, women are wearing niqabs to challenge the judgemental patriarchal society.

Helen Watson (1994)

• 'Women and the veil'
• women are empowered when wearing the niqab.
• They show that words are more important that looks, because they can communicate without having to worry about their looks/appearance.
• "The niqab helps avoid the 'lecherous stares' (male gaze)"
• - Nadia, a second generation Asian woman
• Criticisms:
• Three women in the study- very lacking in representativeness.
• None of the women in the study felt forced or a compulsion to wear a veil. Some women do.
• In some societies the practice is compulsory. Eg since the 1970s it is illegal for a woman to leave the house without wearing a hijab.

Issues/Conclusions

• Statistically, there are more women in religion.
• Why would there be more women in religions if it oppresses them?
• Are they there for maintenance of conflict? Or for solidarity and harmony?