A strong female voice for Islam

The International Conference on Islamic Feminism currently underway in Barcelona calls "gender jihad" to sexist readings of Islamic sacred texts. Here is an excerpt from Abdennur Prado's keynote call to arms:

"Opposing this internal criticism (deconstruction of the patriarchy based on the sources of Islam), we consider that Western culture's claim to superiority is not an effective adversary against fundamentalism, as this attack fails in his objective and tends to inflame even further these opposing stances. The more aggressive the pro-westernisation stance is and the more it relies on arguments based on a fear of Islam, the more strength is gained by the fundamentalist movements that present themselves as defenders of their religion in the face of these attacks 'from outside'.

Nor are attempts at 'social engineering' effective, such as that of Kemal Ataturk, put in practice in Turkey - banning the veil, closing the sufi associations, substituting the Arabic alphabet for the Latin alphabet, repressing all public expression of religious acts, etc. The failure of this policy could not be more spectacular. The social engineering and spread of anti-religious secularism carried out has not achieved its aim. In fact, Turkey has gone from being a region characterised by syncretism, the mixing of cultures and religious pluralism, to be a country in which traditional Islam is threatened by political Islam (Islamism)."