Women in Islamist Movements: Toward an Islamist Model of Women's Activism

Publication Date: July 2007

Publisher: Carnegie Endowment for International Peace

Author(s): Marina Ottaway; Omayma Abdel-Latif

Research Area: Culture and religion; Politics

Type: Report

Abstract:

Islamist women are increasingly involved in political processes and could spawn a full-fledged Islamist movement for women's rights, finds a new study by the Carnegie Endowment. In Women in Islamist Movements: Toward an Islamist Model of Women's Activism, Carnegie scholars Omayma Abdellatif and Marina Ottaway argue that women's participation in Islamist movements reflects a growing trend toward women's activism in the Arab world, though quite different from Western norms.

Through interviews and conversations with women belonging to Lebanon's Hizballah, Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood, and other Islamist organizations across numerous Arab nations, the authors found an energetic debate among women activists on their newfound role as political actors.