The label feminist has always been a touchy word that generally invokes negative connotations. Over the years it has been used as a way to provoke, and perhaps insult people who are concerned for the rights of women.
Many women and men unfortunately define a feminist as an angry, over-thinking, bitter, and undesirable woman who blames society and men for her own shortcomings. But that’s putting it nicely. For example, one male identified feminists as “fat and ugly” who “nobody likes” so she “joins a group to bitch about everyone’s rights”. Such an opinion is ignorant at its best.
History and religion are saturated by male interpretations; women are demeaned by individuals, and systemically oppressed by institutions. But unfortunately some men don’t understand women and sadly do not have an interest in understanding women or their concerns. Some men ascribe to the popular notion that women are from Venus thus losing interest in actively taking time to identify with women. This attitude in itself can never be described as one the noble Prophet took. But sadly this attitude is played out in the token representation of males in university classes and Islamic lectures about women. Men are difficult to find in lecture halls when topics focus on the rights, histories, contributions, and oppression of women. Would that be the case if the lecture was about the obedient wife? Certainly, the same can be said about women – many more will attend a lecture about ‘how to be an obedient wife’ rather than a lecture which questions the traditional notions defining a woman by what she must and must not do.
Lacking an understanding, some people use the word feminist as an insult to diminish a woman’s credibility. Being anti-feminist is sometimes equated to being pro-Islam, which is truly a dishonour to the feminism within Islam; a feminism that has given women unparalleled rights.
Academics and activists have spent years shaping, understanding, and living the various forms of feminism. Within these various articulations of feminism, there are three grounding common principles shared by Radical, Liberal, Socialist, Third wave, and Islamic feminists:
Women are human beings.
Therefore they deserve to be treated decently (like any other human being).
And if they are treated as inferior, it’s due to socially-constructed factors and not their biology.
These principles easily fit the humanist and Islamic way of thought, which are shared even by those who do not understand feminism. Of course there are significant differences in the way feminism is expressed, but these underlying principles are at the core of feminist thought.
Lucretia Mott once said, “in the degradation of women the very fountains of life are poisoned at their source”. And we have seen this reality played out whether women are degraded in the east or the west. This has largely been the result of failing to realize the struggles of women, and misunderstanding the purpose of feminism.
Perhaps these confusions can be elevated if we educate ourselves about feminism. Maybe then we can assertively make an educated conclusion whether to use feminism as the f* word, or as a term to label those concerned for the expanding half of this world: women.
Book: A vindication of the rights of woman. By Mary Wollstonecraft
Article: Liberal, Socialist, and Racial Feminism: An introduction to three theories about women’s oppression and social change. By Shana L. Calixte, Jennifer L. Johnson, and J. Maki Motapanyane
Meet the new f* word: feminist. 
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