Imperial feminism framed Muslim women as needing rescue by a liberal West

Evidence

Western feminists fail to see their own implication in the neoliberal politics of empire, understanding only that they are more enlightened than their worse-off sisters in the South. Gender operates as a kind of technology of empire enabling the West to make the case for its own modernity and for its civilizational projects around the globe. Where gender is relied upon in this way, Muslim women find themselves stranded between the patriarchs of their own community and the empire’s bombs. — Sherene Razack, Casting Out, 58 (#expands, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Suffragists argued women’s rights would strengthen Britain’s empire — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of…, 149; Imperial feminism frames saving Muslim women as the West’s civilizing mission — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of…, 294; Imperial feminism framed Western intervention as rescuing Muslim women from Muslim men (+15 more)

Broader Connections

• Imperial feminism framed Western intervention as rescuing Muslim women from Muslim men #corroborates (1.00)
• Colonial feminism used saving Muslim women to justify imperialism #corroborates (0.95)
• Western feminist rescue politics serves empire by marking Muslims as premodern #expands (0.92) — Sherene Razack, Casting Out, 58
• Feminist positioning becomes a justification for imperial invasion of Muslim lands. #corroborates (0.92) — Sherene Razack, Casting Out, 62
• Even Western feminist solidarity movements reproduced Orientalist hierarchies toward Muslim women #expands (0.88) — Carl W. Ernst, Islamophobia in America_ The Anatomy of…, 506
• Islamophobic rhetoric frames itself as feminist rescue rather than prejudice #corroborates (0.88) — Carl W. Ernst, Islamophobia in America_ The Anatomy of…, 555
• The rescue-of-Muslim-women narrative originated in European colonialism #expands (0.87) — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of Empire, 306
• Feminist rescue of Muslim women masks the West’s containment of immigrants #expands (0.85) — Sherene Razack, Casting Out, 292
• Some American feminism serves imperial goals toward Muslim women. #exemplifies (0.85)
• Colonial feminism framed Islam as innately oppressive to women #expands (0.85) — Carl W. Ernst, Islamophobia in America_ The Anatomy of…, 504
• Western feminist outrage over the burka served imperial war aims #exemplifies (0.82) — Saba Mahmood, Politics of Piety, 1303
• Victorian feminism was weaponized to justify colonial rule over Muslim societies #exemplifies (0.80) — Saher Selod, Forever Suspect_ Racialized…, 35
• The imperilled Muslim woman trope structures Western responses to Sharia #expands (0.80)
• Islamophobic discourse uses Muslim women as pawns to serve imperial and domestic agendas #expands (0.80)
• Well-meaning feminist rescue of Muslim women can itself destroy life worlds #expands (0.78) — Carl W. Ernst, Islamophobia in America_ The Anatomy of…, 585