The rescue-of-Muslim-women narrative originated in European colonialism

Evidence

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.” — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of Empire, 306

Categorization

• DEFINE: Defines ‘colonial/imperial feminism’ — the ideological frame in which a supposedly barbaric Muslim world must be saved by a liberal West — a concept central to the reader’s comparative thesis.
• XREF: connects to: A narrative about Muslim women’s oppression only emerged with European colonialism; Imperial feminism frames saving Muslim women as the West’s civilizing mission — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of…, 294; Imperial feminism framed Muslim women as needing rescue by a liberal West (+11 more)

Broader Connections

• Imperial feminism framed Western intervention as rescuing Muslim women from Muslim men #corroborates (0.95)
• Colonial feminism used saving Muslim women to justify imperialism #corroborates (0.92)
• Reading Muslim women’s plight as cultural corruption has colonial roots #corroborates (0.92) — Peter Morey, Islamophobia and the Novel, 209
• Reading Muslim women’s plight as proof of Islamic depravity traces to colonial feminism #corroborates (0.90) — Peter Morey, Islamophobia and the Novel, 209
• Colonial feminism framed Islam as innately oppressive to women #expands (0.90) — Carl W. Ernst, Islamophobia in America_ The Anatomy of…, 504
• Western feminist rescue politics serves empire by marking Muslims as premodern #expands (0.90) — Sherene Razack, Casting Out, 58
• The imperative to save Muslim women functions as a colonial governance tool #corroborates (0.85) — Sherene Razack, Casting Out, 56
• The medieval monster narrative of Islam was cemented by colonialism and Orientalism #corroborates (0.80) — Sophia Rose Arjana, Muslims in the Western Imagination, 36
• The imperilled Muslim woman trope structures Western responses to Sharia #complicates (0.75)
• European awareness of Islam stems from direct colonial and demographic experience #corroborates (0.72) — Edward W. Said, Covering Islam, 126