ABSTRACT
Is the concept of freedom practices Western-centric in character? Or does it involve a culturally plural notion that is present throughout cultures, and that, as such, allows for a critical reformulation of feminism in world perspective? ‘Feminism’ is often criticized for being inherently white and Western – a critique that largely corresponds with mainstream feminism’s claims that women in the West are the liberated, autonomous subjects that women from ‘other cultures’ are yet to become. Chandra Talpade Mohanty (1991) and Lila Abu-Lughod (1986, 2002) famously criticized Western feminists for a priori victimizing non-Western women, instead of approaching them as agents. Sawitri Saharso (2000), in a similar vein, argued that Western feminists should take different models of self into account, rather than imposing a Western view, in informal and formal, even violent ways. According to Saba Mahmood (2008), ‘feminism’ today ‘runs the risk of becoming more of a handmaiden of empire’ (Mahmood 2008: 82). Referring to the American invasion of Muslim countries to bring freedom and democracy, especially to their female inhabitants, she concludes that we face a ‘collusion of empire and feminism in this historical moment’ (84, cf. 89).
