Colonial feminism framed Islam as innately oppressive to women

Evidence

Broadly speaking, the thesis of the discourse on Islam blending a colonialism committed to male dominance with feminism—the thesis of the new colonial discourse of Islam centered on women— was that Islam was innately and immutably oppressive to women, that the veil and segregation epitomized that oppression, and that these customs were the fundamental reasons for the general and comprehensive backwardness of Islamic societies. — Carl W. Ernst, Islamophobia in America_ The Anatomy of…, 504

Categorization

• DEFINE: Quotes Ahmed’s thesis defining the colonial discourse of Islam as anti-woman and backward.
• XREF: Directly connects to the reader’s article on complaints about immodesty and moral panics over dress as political signaling. — connects to: A narrative about Muslim women’s oppression only emerged with European colonialism; Socioeconomic and political conditions affect women’s rights far more than Islam itself — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of…, 289; Imperial feminism framed Muslim women as needing rescue by a liberal West (+5 more)
• ADDENDUM: Supplies the nineteenth-century colonial genealogy that grounds the ‘Complaints About Immodesty’ piece in imperial feminism.