The research topic of this Bachelor’s Thesis comprises feminism as a movement for women’s rights, the theory of feminism, the influences of religious aspects on the role of women in society, and the women’s fight for their own rights in the name of Christianity and Islam.
The thesis deals with conceptual distinctions of feminism in different cultural traditions and religious environments through the intersection of time, and it studies the consequences of the collision between the before mentioned cultures. The topic also refers to current challenges of the contemporary time in the light of prospects of the Western feminist movements, when Europe is facing with massive immigration through migration currents from the Muslim countries of the Near East and Africa with different, patriarchal values.
The Western feminist movement is predominantly fighting for the equality between man and woman, while the Islamic one is mainly striving for a better position of women in the patriarchal society, with the reinterpretation of Quran. The Islamic feminism was largely criticised by the Western feminists, who share the opinion that the Islamic version is only an oxymoron (i.e. two contradicting notions). On the other hand, the feminist drive for strengthened feminist ideas concentrating on the realization of the rights of women who were more or less supressed in the course of history, has contributed to the first appearances of bright historical breaking points, and to the prosperity of human rights in general. In the framework of the position of women in different cultures, it is important to understand the causal-consequential relationship with patriarchalism, which is the most prominent characteristics of all big monotheistic religions, and it refers to both, to Islam and Christianity. The Christian and Islamic feminists’ views are similar in the basic need for change. The relationships between the Muslims and the Europeans are carrying the burden of general relationships between the Western and the Islamic world, of the dogmatism pertaining to both religions, and of the feeling of affiliation to the wholesome world community of Islamic believers. Concerning the cultural collision on our territory, the Muslims have to face with the characteristics of laic or secular states, governed by democratic regimes, which is in opposition to their primary experience of religious dominance and often also of the autocratic or even theocratic state.
Essentially, the development of feminism has been carried out mainly under the influence of secularization, considering women’s rights, gender equality, and the power given to women by the democratic regimes, that are neglecting all kinds of discrimination. Religious dogmas have so far tried to preserve patriarchal systems.
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