Scholars have noted a history of categorizing Muslim women as imperiled and in need of saving (Ahmed 1992; Razack 2008; Abu-Lughod 2013). Ahmed argues that in the nineteenth century, Western understandings of Islam centered on the oppression of Muslim women. This narrative of the oppressed Muslim woman became popular during a colonial era where theories of race and culture were created to justify European imperialism. Ahmed refers to the use of feminism to support colonialism as colonial feminism. Victorian men argued that European feminism could save Muslim women from barbaric Muslim men, which justified colonialism of Muslim societies, including India and sub-Saharan Africa (Ahmed 1992). The presence of gender segregation and the hijab became telltale signs of women’s oppression rather than being understood as a religious or cultural practice. The equation of the hijab and the burqa with oppression ignores the agency that many Muslim women employ by choosing to wear the hijab.

XREF: Connects to contemporary 'white savior' critiques and debates about Western intervention framed as female liberation. QUESTION: How do contemporary Western feminist critiques of Islam echo this colonial framing today?

Saher Selod, Forever Suspect_ Racialized…, loc. 35