A Hermeneutical approach to interpreting Feminist Epistemic Agency in Christianity and Islam

Résumé

The current paper seeks to explore the feminist epistemological category of analysis in the study of religion and gender particularly as it relates to the study of Islam and Muslim societies. My approach is twofold. First, I present a critique of particular contemporary presentations of women’s experience and feminist subjectivities in relation to Islam. Second, I offer a creative and reconstructive feminist engagement with the category of "experience" in reading aspects of the Muslim tradition. The study seeks to explore the common stereotypes that have been established through the male-dominated field of hermeneutics and how women are beginning to participate in this area to regain help promote equal rights.  The goal of this research will be to prove that Faith and Feminism can coexist within the constructs of religious context. Highlighting the role sacred texts play in the interpretation of the gender functions. It will investigate what Feminists Theology is, and how the word “Feminism” can be taken into different context and be generated into a different meaning by different approaches to the use of discourse.