WOMEN’S ISSUES AND WHAT IT MEANS TO BE A MUSLIMAH: THE RELIGIOUS ORIENTATIONS OF FEMALE MUSLIM ACTIVISTS IN MALAYSIA

Abstract

Utilizing Mannheim’s sociology of knowledge approach, this thesis explores the religious orientations of female Muslim (Muslimah) activists in Malaysia. These orientations are important to study as they determine how the activists discuss women’s issues, women's roles, and the influence these discussions could have on the Malaysian public. I explore their religious orientations as modes of thinking that are illustrated in their (1) Attitudes towards different sources of knowledge; (2) Approaches to specific marital issues; (3) Perceptions of a woman’s role in Islam. This thesis argues that Muslimah activists in Malaysia generally adopt a neo-modernist mode of thinking when discussing various sources of knowledge and specific marital issues but demonstrate a diversity in modes of thinking where they can interchangeably pick and choose positions that correspond to either neo-traditionalism or neo-modernism when explaining a woman’s role in Islam.