ABSTRACT
Asia is a vast region with the largest diversity in religion, ethnicity, politics, and cultural and socio-economic history worldwide. This diversity has historically played itself out through a discussion on women’s lives, status, and bodies. Added to this, representation of women in Asian societies through contemporary socio-cultural shifts in religiosity, mainly the practice of Islam, in recent decades has led to the questioning of piety, resistance, and representation of Islam in the region as reflected through Muslim women’s lived realities. In this paper, I deconstruct the homogenized concept of “the Muslim woman,” reflecting on how lives of Muslim women in Asia are impacted by two parallel and intersecting dynamics: on the one hand are their regional cultural and political histories and how this heterogeneity contributes to Islamic feminism in Asia. On the other hand are the various interpretations of Islamic feminisms, and the not-so Islamic feminisms. The paper engages with concepts of agency, feminism, piety, and gender equity as perceived by their practitioners.
