“People Like Us” in Pursuit of God and Rights: Islamic Feminist Discourse and Sisters in Islam in Malaysia

Authors

Yasmin Moll

Abstract

This paper attempts to critically situate the discourse of Islamic feminism and its activist incarnations such as the Malaysian group Sisters in Islam within an analytical framework that seeks to look beyond the all-too-common trope of “multiple modernities.” The paper examines the conditions of possibility enabling such groups and discourses, looking in particular at the modern nation-state, and the imbrications of social discourses of rights and religious discourses of individual belief within this state. I argue that the repertoires of reasoning called forth by Sisters in Islam partake in the objectifying rationalities of the Malaysian state when it comes to religious knowledge, with this knowledge now situated as a legitimate object of civic, legal and state intervention.

Author Biography

Yasmin Moll is a PhD candidate in cultural anthropology at New York University. In addition to Islamic feminism and Qur’anic hermeneutics, her research interests include Islamic televangelism and neoliberalism in the Middle East.

Recommended Citation

Moll, Yasmin (2009) "“People Like Us” in Pursuit of God and Rights: Islamic Feminist Discourse and Sisters in Islam in Malaysia," Journal of International Women's Studies: Vol. 11: Iss. 1, Article 4.
Available at: https://vc.bridgew.edu/jiws/vol11/iss1/4