ABSTRACT
Chapter 3 introduces and contextualises the two Islamic feminist scholars, Olfa Youssef and Kecia Ali. It establishes the comparative study that this book embarks on. This is done in order to examine how the different life experiences and geo-political positioning of the scholars generate and inform different ways of (re)conceptualising Islam, gender, and sexuality and lead to different knowledge production and different modes of resistance.
To this end, I undertake a comparative analysis and offer a critical examination of the work of the two scholars. The chapter discusses the importance of comparative studies for understanding the complexity of Islamic feminism.
Although these authors belong to the same generation, or wave, of Islamic feminism, they represent two radically different geo-political and linguistic contexts. The chapter discusses the socio-political contexts within which these two scholars operate: while Ali works in the United States, writes in English, and is mainly concerned with the Muslim minority there, Youssef works in Tunisia, writes in Arabic, and is mainly concerned with youth in Arab Muslim societies.
Before setting out their geo-political contexts, the chapter provides short biographies of both authors. Then, the chapter introduces the selected works by Youssef and Ali that in later chapters will be systematically compared and contrasted.
