In recent years, feminists and Islamists have found each other as political partners. Their unprecedented cooperation became most visible in the “Women’s March” against Donald Trump. One of the co-chairs of the organisation “Women’s March” is a headscarf-wearing Muslim of Palestinian descent, Linda Sarsour, who has been praised by Bernie Sanders for her role in the anti-Trump protests (1), and “recognized as a ‘champion of change’ by the Obama White House” (2). Sarsour has made headlines because of her Islamist views and actions such as propagating “jihad”, the ‘holy war against non-Muslims’ (3), championing Shariah, the Islamic law (2), her meeting with the black racist and Islamist Louis Farrakhan together with two other leading organisers of Women’s March, Tamika Mallory and Carmen Perez (4;2), and her barbaric remarks against the anti-Islamist feminist Ayaan Hirsi Ali “insisting she is ‘not a real woman’ and confessing that she wishes she could take away Ms. Ali’s vagina – this about a woman who suffered genital mutilation as a girl in Somalia” (2).
Another example which made headlines, though fewer, was the case of Oldoz Javidi, an Iranian born Swedish actress. She was one of the “Feminist Initiative” party’s parliamentary candidates in the 2018 Swedish general elections. In summer 2018, Javidi participated in a ship sail to Gaza Strip which attempted to break Israel’s blockade (5). The Gaza Strip is controlled by Hamas, an Islamist group which aims to eliminate all Jews. Article 7 of the Hamas Charter says: “The time [Judgment Day] will not come until Muslims fight the Jews and kill them and until the Jew hides behind the rocks and trees, and [then] the rocks and trees will say: ‘Oh Muslim, oh servant of Allah, there is a Jew hiding [behind me], come and kill him”.
Aboard the ship, “while sailing with other pro-Palestinian activists in the direction of Gaza”, Javidi made an interview in which she suggested Israeli Jews should be deported to the United States in order to achieve a “solution” to the ‘Jewish problem’ (5).
The cooperation between feminists and Islamists seems strange, considering feminism’s dedication to women’s rights and sexual freedoms which contrast Islamic ideologies. However, feminists and Islamists share some ideological features that make a partnership between them possible: Both movements are anti-capitalist and share the idea that capitalism degrades women to sex objects. Both are anti-American, opposing US domestic and foreign policies in general, and in respect to women’s issues both see the American media industry as harmful to women, though from different perspectives.
And surprisingly, both advocate gender segregation, though at different levels. Apart from those feminist extremists in the 1960s and 1970s who saw any contact to males as evil, and were even not willing to have any contact with their own male children, most Western feminists advocate some forms of gender segregation, because they believe that men undermine women’s self-confidence and hinder their development and progress. Thus, there are many feminists who think gender segregation in schools would help girls to achieve better. Most feminist organisations do not accept men as members, activists, or even supporters. Most feminists ridicule men who consider themselves feminists, and argue that a man can never be part of the feminist movement. Most ‘public’ events organised by feminist organisations such as seminars, speeches and parties, prohibit males’ entry, and many of the feminist (book-) shops do not allow males to enter their premises.
Though the reasons underlying Islamists’ and feminists’ anti-capitalism, anti-Americanism and gender segregation may differ, in their battle they share the same enemies and follow the stupid axiom that ‘the enemy of my enemy is my friend’.
References:
(1) https://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/entry/linda-sarsour-womens-march-attacked-online_us_58865134e4b0e3a7356adbb2, accessed 06/01/2019
(2) https://www.nytimes.com/2017/08/01/opinion/womens-march-progressives-hate.html, accessed 06/01/2019
(3) http://time.com/4848454/linda-sarsour-jihad-comments-donald-trump, accessed 06/01/2019
(4) https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2018/dec/26/linda-sarsour-womens-march-leader-downplays-louis-/, accessed 18/01/2019
(5) https://www.timesofisrael.com/swedish-parliamentary-candidate-suggests-deporting-all-jews-from-israel, accessed 06/01/2019
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