#ScholarChat Islamic Feminism Video Series

Feminist Islamic Troublemakers of North America or FITNA is a collaborative space for Muslim feminists and allies. Our name takes back the Arabic term fitna, variously translated as temptation/sedition/discord/corruption, which is often used to describe Muslim feminists by detractors in the Muslim community. We redefine the term fitna as constructive disruption around gender issues in the Muslim community, such as by promoting gender-just interpretations of Islam.

Given the significant coverage that Muslim women receive in the U.S. media, topics of gender and Islam are of interest to the general public. Unfortunately, there are a lot of misconceptions held about these topics not just by non-Muslims but also by Muslims.

While gender-egalitarian interpretations of Islam exist, they are not easily accessible. Non-sexist scholars of Islam are not given platforms in mainstream or Muslim outlets. Currently, any google searches on a random topic related to Islam and gender generates results that are dominated by patriarchal interpretations of Islam that are misleading, discouraging, and even harmful to people impacted by those interpretations. 

FITNA attempts to correct these problems by showcasing non-patriarchal interpretations of Islam grounded in compassion and justice for all genders while still being rooted in Islamic sources. With your help, we aim to further our work towards this goal by creating short videos with experts on Islam and gender on various topics that are seldom discussed in a gender egalitarian way. These topics include female prophets, women’s marriage to non-Muslims, same-sex relations, female leadership, menstruation and ritual purity in Islam, and the hijab, to name a few. For this project, we plan to invite five experts for an interview style discussion on such topics, edit these videos, and promote them on social media. We have already produced one such video as a proof of concept that we invite you to view to get a sense of the kind of resources we seek to create for public consumption. While this video was produced by volunteers, we’re seeking funds to scale the project and hire professional production services and compensate our speakers.

In addition to producing a proof of concept video, we have already solicited common questions people have about topics in Islam and gender & made a list of potential scholars to invite. Our goal is to produce one video per month starting July 2021.

After receiving funds, for each video we will:

- Contact scholars to arrange participation 

- Record interviews with each scholar 

- Edit & caption videos for accessibility 

- Share and promote each video as it is made on social media 

Muslim women and LGBTQIA+ Muslims are the ones most affected negatively by the current dominant interpretations and practices of Islam which are patriarchal, transphobic, homophobic etc. While gender-just interpretations of Islam exist, they are not widely available or accessible to lay Muslims or the general public. Additionally, non-Muslim allies are not exposed to the ways that Muslim feminists deal with questions of gender, sexuality, feminism, and religion. 

Our goal is to empower lay Muslims with knowledge about Islam from a gender justice perspective and to help teach allies about important topics about Islam and gender to aid in coalition building for feminist activism affecting multiple communities. 

We will not be generating new interpretations of Islam. What we aim to do is showcase the work of scholars who are well known in academic circles. Their work often appears in academic journals or books but these are not accessible to a lay audience. Additionally, mainstream Muslim and interfaith spaces that cater to a lay audience do not often provide platforms to gender justice scholars. This problem is then compounded as event organizers want to invite speakers with an existing body of accessible work that they can review. What we hope to do with this project is both provide an online platform and share knowledge in an accessible format and also provide a resource to event organizers looking for speakers. 

The FITNA team leading this project includes experts on Islam and gender and the study of religion. We have the qualifications, the expertise, and the commitment to justice to pursue this project and contribute to the mainstreaming of feminist Islam.