ABSTRACT
“Personal is political” is the main framework of the feminist perspective, indicating that women’s personal experiences cannot be separated from their sociopolitical conditions, contextual factors, and everyday realities. Feminist family therapy’s emphasis is on empowering women in families in order to change women’s conventional positions that obstruct their progress and growth. Feminist therapy was influenced by the women’s movement in the late 1960s in the US and other Western countries. However, an authentic and grassroots movement has grown in Muslim countries and has been helping women redefine themselves in family relationships (Daneshpour, 2009). Overall, feminist therapy’s main emphasis is on supporting women to have higher level of confidence, learn to communicate their needs better, understand their relational dynamics, and learn to respect themselves while staying connected with family members. This approach is very useful in working with Muslim families because of the way it defines gender dynamics and challenges traditional family relationships. Feminist therapists advocate for the development of equal and reciprocal relationships in families. The therapist must believe that the client is the expert and should be helped to develop the needed skills to function independently to reach her own unique potential.
