Somali Islamic Feminism and Women’s Bargaining Power

Through the perceptive eyes of Somali minority women living in Bergen, Norway, this book explores ‘the Somali Muslim woman’ as imagined by the public and the reality of Muslim women’s lives, with a major focus on how Somali women use their version of Islamic feminism to call on patriarchal practices and attitudes condoned or demanded in Somali culture in the name of Islam which are, in fact, not Islamic. This ideal, Somali Islamic feminism, has clear associations with the conventional political movement of Islamic feminism, but it is also clearly unique and distinct, due to its origins among Somali women themselves.I argue that empowered by Education,these brave women embark on a gender-tuned interpretation of the Quran to challenge patriarchy and by so doing, they gain bargaining power, create grassroot change, as well as a ray of hope for the next generation of Somali women.