Imperial feminism frames saving Muslim women as the West’s civilizing mission

Evidence

The CNN interview with Aslan (described in the beginning of this chapter) captures well this ubiquitous ideological framework developed over two centuries in the West. Many scholars have written about what has variously been called “colonial feminism,” “gendered Orientalism,” and “imperial feminism.” With its origins in European colonialism (see Chapter 1), this ideological framework rests on the construction of a barbaric misogynistic “Muslim world” that must be civilized by a liberal, enlightened West. As postcolonial studies scholar Gayatri Spivak famously put it, the narrative was of “White-men-saving-brown-women-from-brown-men.” Commenting on Europe’s nineteenth-century obsession with Muslim women, Lockman states that there “is no subject connected with Islam which Europeans have thought more important than the condition of Muslim women.” The dominant narrative presented Muslim women as either objects of desire in the harem or as severely subjugated, oppressed, and little more than slaves. Just as the Muslim despots tyrannized their subjects, it was argued, they also tyrannized their wives and daughters. — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of Empire, 294

Categorization

• DEFINE: Clearly defines colonial/imperial feminism and gendered Orientalism, anchored by Spivak’s canonical formulation.
• XREF: Spivak’s ‘white men saving brown women from brown men’ connects to postcolonial theory generally and to broader rescue-narrative critiques. — connects to: Imperial feminism framed Western intervention as rescuing Muslim women from Muslim men; Imperial feminism framed Muslim women as needing rescue by a liberal West; Colonial feminism used saving Muslim women to justify imperialism (+18 more)
• ADDENDUM: Directly parallels the ‘Complaints About Immodesty Go Way Back’ article’s theme of Western moralizing about the dress/condition of Eastern women.

Broader Connections

• Imperial feminism framed Western intervention as rescuing Muslim women from Muslim men #expands (0.95)
• Imperial feminism framed Muslim women as needing rescue by a liberal West #exemplifies (0.95)
• Colonial feminism used saving Muslim women to justify imperialism #corroborates (0.92)
• Feminist positioning becomes a justification for imperial invasion of Muslim lands. #corroborates (0.92) — Sherene Razack, Casting Out, 62
• Humanitarian concern for Muslim women weaponizes their bodies for imperial agendas. #corroborates (0.92) — Carl W. Ernst, Islamophobia in America_ The Anatomy of…, 50
• Some American feminism serves imperial goals toward Muslim women. #exemplifies (0.90)
• The imperative to save Muslim women functions as a colonial governance tool #expands (0.88) — Sherene Razack, Casting Out, 56
• Western feminist rescue politics serves empire by marking Muslims as premodern #expands (0.85) — Sherene Razack, Casting Out, 58
• Western feminism’s emancipatory desire is complicit with colonial power #expands (0.85) — Sherene Razack, Casting Out, 194
• Veil bans revived imperialist narratives about Muslim women needing saving #exemplifies (0.85) — Khaled A. Beydoun, The New Crusades_ Islamophobia and the…, 712
• First ladies and prominent women legitimized war through saving Muslim women #exemplifies (0.85) — Evelyn Alsultany, Arabs and Muslims in the Media, 520
• Western feminist outrage over the burka served imperial war aims #exemplifies (0.82) — Saba Mahmood, Politics of Piety, 1303
• Even Western feminist solidarity movements reproduced Orientalist hierarchies toward Muslim women #complicates (0.80) — Carl W. Ernst, Islamophobia in America_ The Anatomy of…, 506
• The rescue-of-Muslim-women narrative originated in European colonialism #expands (0.80) — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of Empire, 306
• Islamophobic discourse uses Muslim women as pawns to serve imperial and domestic agendas #expands (0.80)