Legal Reform and Women's Rights

I had a professor at Georgetown, somewhat famous for throwing chalk at us in fits of literary excitement, who was a Muslim woman. When we covered "women" briefly in her history of Islam class, she told us that most Muslim women viewed feminism as an exclusively western movement that would destroy families. I desperately wanted to talk about this further, but trying to cover the entire history of Islam in one semester is a bit daunting, so we moved right along.

I thought of her tonight when I read this article, and really wish I could discuss it with her in class (minus the flying chalk). There is often a discrepancy between law and practice, but I do still hold some belief that the laws on the books have some power. I felt encouraged by this article, especially the grass roots, localized movement that inspired the legal reform.