Why is gender justice such an important topic? There are a few reasons. One, gender (not to be confused with sex) is an indelible aspect of our identity. Gender refers to norms and behaviours that we are expected to conform to because of being assigned male or female at birth. Those norms and behaviours are encapsulated in the masculinity and femininity that men and women are expected to portray. Individuals who may not identify with the sex they were assigned at birth are also familiar with these gender norms. Secondly, gender determines how we are treated by people in our private lives and in the larger public. In the former, parents may have separate expectations for their sons and daughters. An example of the latter is how much prestige and attention men’s soccer is given compared to women’s soccer, reflecting how certain sports and practices are more strongly associated with men than with women. Lastly, the state of gender relations in a society (especially its treatment of women) is a reflection of how much that society embraces equality. The more rights women have in any society, the more likely that society takes equality seriously.
For a long time, women have been at the forefront in efforts to advocate for gender justice, with the #MeToo movement serving as an example in relatively recent memory. Over time, men also became involved in the movement, contributing to its broader impact. For instance, actor Terry Crews opened up about an incident where he was inappropriately touched by a Hollywood executive. In Singapore, the Young Women Muslim Association (PPIS) focuses on women’s empowerment, family support, and early childhood education. In neighbouring Malaysia, women have spoken out against the moral policing of women, domestic violence, and matrimonial rights. Sisters in Islam, an NGO, has worked to address legal injustices faced by Muslim women while upholding the democratic principles as laid out in the Federal Constitution.
Whether we use terms such as feminism, gender justice, gender equality, and gender equity, these social movements are associated with women because it is they who lead these movements. One hardly thinks of a man when they hear the word ‘feminist’. After all, feminism started out as a movement addressing discrimination faced by women; men do not face the same discrimination that women do.
What are men’s roles in fighting for a more gender egalitarian society, if it is a role they wish to undertake? On the surface, one could simply equate patriarchy and male privilege with men. After all, it is men who possess this male privilege. In the sphere of gender relations, even privilege itself could be associated with men. Nobody talks of female privilege because women, more than men, bear the brunt of patriarchal ways of thinking. However, men do have a role to play in advocating for more equal gender relations, depending on how much they are willing to confront male privilege. This role is a delicate one and raises a few questions.
How does a man acknowledge he has privilege and show an openness in dealing with this privilege? What incentive does he have in order to deal with this privilege and get out of his comfort zone? Can he talk about his own negative experiences of patriarchy without implying that his and a woman’s experience are similar? Men have spoken up, both in favour of supporting women’s rights and retaining what they think is a lost masculinity and male privilege. In the former case, men have been collaborating with women on issues such as violence prevention and reproductive health. In the latter case, men’s rights activists such as Men Going Their Own Way (MGTOW) have been vocal in claiming that feminism has stripped men of their rights.
In the Muslim world, there are men who do and have spoken in favour of interpretations of Islam that accord equal respect to men and women. Ali Ashgar Engineer, an Indian activist, argued that women and men are “co-partners” in looking after their families and financially supporting themselves. Engineer further argues that because of this, women will no longer tolerate being subjugated to men like before.[1] Syed Syeikh Al-Hadi, a Malay-Arab writer and publicist, expended his efforts on women’s emancipation as an important part of social reform. According to him, “the progress of a community depends on a number of factors, but the most essential factor is the state of progress of the women in the community”.[2]
Mohammad Naciri is UN Women’s Chief of Staff, the United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women. He is also the first man to occupy both the roles of Regional Director and Chief of Staff at UN Women. Like other communities, Muslim communities require the voices of both women and men if communities are to improve their treatment of women’s rights. The human rights organisation Muslims for Progressive Values, which was founded in the US, launched the #ImamsForShe campaign to encourage Imams to voice their support for Muslim women’s rights and to challenge interpretations of Islamic scripture that seemingly place women in an inferior position.[3] The campaign expanded to Malaysia in 2017, taking on the name #UlamaBersamaWanita, roughly translated as ‘religious scholars for women’.
In 2021, news came out that there was an online poll ranking female asatizah (Islamic religious teacher), in Singapore for their sexual attractiveness. The poll showed at least 12 asatizah being ranked, with The Straits Times reporting that at least 20-30 were being ranked.[4] 1,005 people took part in the poll. The act of organising such a poll is no doubt abhorrent, but there are also deeper questions to be asked about the kinds of masculinity men espouse as they treat women as sexual objects. If the problem lies in masculinity, so too does the solution.
All of us, including Muslim men, cannot do away with gender, but we can redefine what it means to be masculine. Masculinity need not, and should not, entail treating women as objects and degrading them by ranking them according to their looks and sexuality. Neither should it involve staying silent on other instances of sexual harassment. One does not need to get involved in gender justice advocacy to speak out on these issues and show a commitment to gender justice. However, as mentioned, there are men who are active in gender justice advocacy, and their involvement presents both opportunities and challenges.
Very recently, sociologist Emily Carian wrote a book titled “Good Guys, Bad Guys:
The Perils of Men’s Gender Activism”.[5] Focusing on the US, she argues that both feminist men and men’s rights activists have one goal in common: to be perceived as “good men”. They adopt “privilege renegotiation strategies” to deal with being called out for their privilege. These strategies allow them to distance themselves from their complicity in gender inequality. She adds that activism for feminist men becomes more of an individual identity formation project rather than a project aimed at addressing structural inequality. Hence, even the feminist men with good intentions can only do so much to address gender injustice. They might perpetuate it, even if unintentionally.
It is scholars such as Carian that guide my own thinking about Muslim men and their roles in gender activist spaces. Similar questions can be asked of all men. Are there certain types of masculinities that they espouse, and if so, where do they get their ideas about masculinity? For Muslim men in the Malay world, perhaps Malay and Islamic cultural traditions are sources of inspiration. Then, there is the broader, global influence where Muslim men may be learning from an international exchange of ideas about masculinity and what it means to be a male activist in gender activist spaces.
Additionally, when focusing on Muslim men, one must ask how they interpret gender norms within an Islamic framework. They may interpret gender roles as complementary and thus focus on advocating for the rights of women as caregivers, for example. Or they may interpret gender roles within a framework of equality so that they advocate for rights to be given to women that have long been accorded to men. When engaging in activism, which issues matter to them? What motivates them to care and what do they consider as activism? These are important questions to ask when exploring the potential for men in Muslim communities to be supporters of women’s rights.
When we look at Muslim men involved in gender justice advocacy, we should also consider how these men identify themselves, rather than impose terms such as ‘feminist’ or even ‘profeminist’ on them. There is a considerable amount of scholarship on what it means to achieve gender justice within an Islamic framework. One set of ideas that takes this framework into account is Islamic feminism. Margot Badran (p. 242) suggests the following definition of Islamic feminism: “Islamic feminism, which derives its understanding and mandate from the Quran, seeks rights and justice for women, and for men, in the totality of their existence”.[6] Not every Muslim will identify as an Islamic feminist, for various reasons. Some may argue that women’s rights are already guaranteed in Islam, making the label “Islamic feminist” redundant. Or they might associate feminism with Western cultural imperialism. For Muslim men who do believe in gender justice, they might not identify themselves as feminist.
As I mentioned earlier, gender justice advocacy has traditionally been female-dominated. Men who enter these spaces may sincerely want to address gender inequality, but power dynamics also exist within activism. Women in NGOs may feel hesitant to air any frustrations about men’s participation in gender justice advocacy due to the expectation that one should be grateful to men for participating. Are men’s participation in gender justice advocacy a privilege women should be grateful for? To use an everyday example, should women thank men for doing the dishes at home?
It is hard for anyone to confront their privilege, whether we are talking about racial, economic, or gender privilege. Admitting that you are privileged is hard, but the costs to men for putting their privilege under scrutiny is lower than the costs of an unequal society.
[1] Engineer, A.A. (2004). The Rights of Women in Islam. 2nd ed. Elgin, IL: New Dawn Press Group, 190.
[2] Al-Hadi, S. S. (1930). “Changes in the Upbringing of Girls are Urgent.” Pp. 226-28 in The Real Cry of Syed Shaykh al-Hady with Selections of His Writings by His Son Syed Alwi al-Hady (1999), edited by Alijah Gordon. Kuala Lumpur: MSRI.
[3] Muslims for Progressive Values. (2019). “#IMAMSFORSHE.”
[4] Baharudin, H. (2021). “Police investigating offensive poll ranking female Islamic teachers; president Halimah and other leaders criticise poll.”
[5] Carian, E. (2024). Good guys, bad guys: The perils of men’s gender activism. New York: New York University Press.
[6] Badran, M. (2009). Feminism in Islam: Secular and religious convergences. Oxford: Oneworld Publications, 242.
Imad Alatas is currently pursuing his PhD in Sociology at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. His main research interests are in gender and religion, topics on which he has written for Singaporean and Malaysian publications.
