Shuja Mushtaq

Across history, ideological movements have emerged under the guise of “liberation,” claiming to elevate humanity while covertly dismantling the very moral frameworks that ensure its survival. Feminism, though widely celebrated as an emancipatory doctrine for women, must be understood with discernment, particularly within the context of Islamic civilization. Beneath its polished rhetoric lies an ideological undercurrent that does not merely seek to uplift women but to unmoor them from their God-ordained essence, roles, and responsibilities.

Feminism was born not in a moral vacuum but within the theological and civil decay of post-Enlightenment Europe—a civilization wherein the woman, for centuries, was subjected to systemic subjugation, ecclesiastical misogyny, and intellectual erasure. Within the medieval Church, the woman was denigrated to the status of a temptress—viewed as the original transgressor, the gate through which sin entered the world. Devoid of legal autonomy, educational access, or economic independence, Western women had indeed suffered long.

Yet, rather than correcting historical injustice through spiritual reform or ethical recalibration, feminism emerged as a secular insurrection—an ontological rebellion that rejected not merely oppressive men but the sacred order itself. It redefined womanhood not in harmony with her nature but in competitive imitation of masculinity. Thus, in the name of freedom, the Western woman was summoned to erase her femininity, to discard modesty, motherhood, and moral restraint for the sake of careerism, hedonism, and self-governance.

It is this very ideology, incubated in the broken crucible of Western modernity, that now infiltrates Muslim societies, seducing them through the portals of academia, media, and law. Under slogans such as “equality” and “empowerment,” feminism seeks to erode the very architecture upon which Islamic civilization rests—namely, the complementary harmony between man and woman as designed by the Divine.

Islamic doctrine does not deny women their rights; rather, it defines those rights within the framework of divine justice, not secular sameness. The Qur’an, in its perfection, ascribes to women the highest station: as mothers, they are the gateway to Paradise; as wives, they are partners in tranquillity; as daughters, they are blessings; and as sisters, they are sanctified bonds of loyalty and compassion. Islam was the first global civilizational force to give women legal standing, financial autonomy, and spiritual agency—without requiring them to renounce their femininity, modesty, or family-centeredness.

Feminism, however, offers a counterfeit version of dignity. It convinces women that their worth is contingent upon being like men—that femininity is weakness, and that motherhood, chastity, and domesticity are archaic burdens rather than spiritual honors. Under this lens, the very roles which Islam exalts become targets of mockery: the hijab is seen as oppression; obedience to a husband as servitude; modesty as repression. In doing so, feminism does not simply challenge misogyny—it challenges Islamic metaphysics.

The philosophical error at feminism’s core lies in its denial of sexual dimorphism—not merely biological but existential. Men and women were not created identical in capacity or function; they are equal in spiritual worth but distinct in roles and responsibilities. Feminism collapses this distinction, insisting that justice means sameness. In doing so, it demands women exit the home, compete in masculine domains, delay or forgo childbirth, and relinquish their nurturing instinct in exchange for financial productivity and ego-centric self-definition.

The result is not liberation but existential dislocation. When a woman is torn from her home to chase careers, when her children are raised not in her lap but in institutional daycares, when she measures her worth by visibility rather than virtue—she loses the very axis around which her soul is meant to orbit. She becomes fragmented, anxious, and estranged from both her Lord and her own self. This is not theoretical: one need only look at the West. There, marriage rates have plummeted, childbirth is in demographic collapse, and women—though more “empowered” than ever—report record levels of depression, loneliness, and dissatisfaction.

Feminism has failed the Western woman. And yet, paradoxically, it now presents itself as the savior of Muslim women. Through NGOs, university curricula, and cultural propaganda, it whispers: “Your religion oppresses you. Your modesty is backward. Your family structure is patriarchal. Your obedience is slavery.” Tragically, some Muslim women—estranged from Islamic scholarship and enamored with Western acclaim—begin to internalize these ideas, unaware that they are being colonized not geographically but intellectually and spiritually.

What feminism offers is not dignity but deconstruction. It dismantles the woman’s spiritual core, recasts her as a consumer, and detaches her from the familial and religious roots that nourish her. Islam, on the other hand, constructs womanhood upon truth: that a woman is not an economic unit or a political pawn but a vicegerent of God with unique gifts—compassion, modesty, sacrifice, wisdom, and generational influence.

It must be stated unequivocally: Islam does not fear empowered women. Rather, it fears disempowered femininity masquerading as freedom. True empowerment is not loudness, rebellion, or imitation. It is inner stillness, moral clarity, and submission to the Creator, not the creation. A woman who knows her worth in the eyes of Allah has no need for the applause of feminists.

Let us ask:

What has feminism built?

Has it produced happier homes, nobler men, or wiser children?

No. It has produced delayed marriages, childless homes, commodified sexuality, and fractured souls. In contrast, Islam—when practiced holistically—builds strong families, balanced communities, and spiritually rooted societies. The woman in Islam is not a subject of experimentation but a cornerstone of civilization.

Thus, Muslim women must resist the seductive call of Western feminism. Not because they deny injustice, but because they know justice cannot be rooted in rebellion against God. They must reclaim their Islamic identity with conviction: veiled not in shame but in honor, obedient not out of subjugation but out of love for divine wisdom, mothers not as an afterthought but as a mission. They must recognize that their liberation does not lie in aping men, but in embracing the roles designed by their Creator—the roles that dignify, not degrade.

In a time of epistemic chaos and cultural collapse, the Muslim woman must emerge not as an imitator but as a model—of strength in humility, of voice in modesty, of leadership in nurturing, and of honor in obedience. Her jihad is not against masculinity but against materialism, not against family but against fragmentation, not against religion but against rebellion.

Feminism has offered the world a lie wrapped in the language of rights. Let not Muslim women become its next casualty. The Qur’an has already spoken the eternal truth: “And the male is not like the female.” (Aal-e-Imran: 36). That difference is not inequality; it is the very key to harmony. To erase it is to destroy the equilibrium of humanity itself.