Border Crossing January-June 2021 Volume: 11, No: 1, pp. 77 - 91 ISSN: 2046-4436 (Print) | ISSN: 2046-4444 (Online) journals.tplondon.com/bc Border Crossing All rights reserved @ 2011-2021 Transnational Press London Received: 8 June 2020 Accepted: 8 June 2021 DOI: https://doi.org/10.33182/bc.v11i1.1042 From Secular Muslim Feminisim to Islamic Feminism(s) and New Generation Islamic Feminists in Egypt, Iran and Turkey Zeynep Banu Dalaman 1 Abstract In dominantly Muslim societies, there have been two major feminist paradigms referred to as “secular Muslim feminism” emerging at late nineteenth century and “Islamic feminism(s)” arising after the 4th women world congress in Beijing in 1995. They evolved in historical contexts where new subjects and identities were being re/fashioned out of shifting combinations of religious, class, ethnic, and national affiliations. On the one hand, secular Muslim feminism joined the western oriented first wave of liberal feminism including secular nationalists, Islamic modernists, humanitarian/human rightists, and democrats. Islamic feminism, on the other hand, is expressed in a single or dominantly religiously grounded discourse taking the Qur'an as its core text. In this article, I reflect on the roots of feminism in the Middle East with a particular emphasis on Egypt, Iran and Turkey. I discuss secular feminism and Islamic feminism, and what makes them distinct. Finally, I discuss whether a new wave of Islamic feminism has been formed with the criticisms of a new generation of Islamic feminists. Keywords: Islamic feminism; secular Muslim feminism; intersectionality; new generation Islamist feminists Interpreting Islamic women's organizations with a Western approach has always been the most common mistake, which in the end disregards the influence of Islam and the role of the state in studies on women living in Muslim states (Kandiyoti, 1997). Furthermore, Western feminists ignore the experiences and struggles of women in these countries. Muslim women are described as “misty eyes looking behind burqas”; yet it is never understood that the problem is never the burqa, but the women’s rights in public sphere. Thus, women’s real problems are not taken into consideration. Women need to be considered and understood as individuals, rather than discussing women's movements as a non-existing religion or a culture in Islamic states. Thus, in order to better understand the feminist movement, how these women are being organized and what issues they are attempting to address ought to be examined. It would be appropriate to point out a confusion that arises in the evaluations about women living in Muslim societies. From a Western perspective, “Muslim woman” refers to all women, whether they are secular or religious living in a Muslim society. However, it is necessary to distinguish between women who see religion as the essential element of their identity and those who have adopted a secular worldview. In other words, it is necessary to reveal the difference between a woman who has made Islam a part of her daily life and pursuing a life 1 Zeynep Banu Dalaman, Istanbul Ayvansaray University, Department of Political Science and International Relations, İstanbul, Turkey. E-mail: banudalaman@ayvansaray.edu.tr