#MosqueMeToo: Islamic Feminism in the Twittersphere

In this paper I examine the impact of social media campaigns, using the trending hashtag #MosqueMeToo as an artifact to analyze the extent to which these visual codes (through their democratic modes of participation) provide Muslim women with an accessible way to share their lived experiences and claim space within a virtual forum. Through highlighting the widespread impact of the hashtag Islamic feminist movement, I argue for the benefits of having a carefully articulated and tentative convergence of contemporary feminism and religious belonging rather than a critical distance between the two. At the threshold of the third millennium, the status of women in Muslim societies was caught in the crosshairs of bias against the Islamic faith, the racialized Muslim, and women’s rights (AlSharmani 2014). In spite of the increasing integration of sexual, racial, class, and national difference within contemporary feminist theory, some Muslim women continue to be subjected to a dual problem linked to their gender belonging and their religious association and must consequently face distinct forms of discrimination and violence. In contrast to their male counterparts, they continue to be neglected by both Muslim civil rights advocacy organizations and women’s rights organizations-rendered invisible under international eyes (Pasha 2014). Confronting this marginalization head-on, Islamic feminists have passionately sought to secure their roles in their societies on their own terms by increasing their visibility in the digital world and situating themselves at the virtual center of their concerns and discourses (Cooke 2000). As such, it is imperative to consider the effects that new communication technologies have on feminist debate and activism, specifically in exposing the violence committed against Muslim women. Considering the fact that fourth-wave feminism focuses on online technology more so than previous feminist movements, the accessible and distributive nature of social media outlets such as Twitter not only provides a new mode of critique, but also a contemporary method of community building, namely through the sharing of collective experience. This intersection of online feminism and Islamic faith ultimately provides a grounding for the emergence of a new branch of feminist activism that not only expands on digital frontiers but also establishes an intersectional framework that accurately addresses the representation, treatment, and identities of Muslim women (Schenato 2017). In this context, this article examines the nature and impact of social media campaigns that focus on empowering Muslim women, using the trending hashtag #MosqueMeToo as an artifact to analyze the extent to which these digital identifiers (through their democratic modes of participation) provide Muslim women with an accessible way to share their perspectives and lived experiences within a virtual forum. Advancing this conversation, I seek to address how the #MosqueMeToo Twitter feed reveals the intimate linkages between feminism, knowledge production, and networked community building in the new media era, offering an exemplary case of the cultural and social work that hashtag feminism does in both online and offline spaces. Drawing from sources such as Tara L. Conley and Kimberlé Crenshaw, I explore the ways in which the syntactical mode of tagging and categorizing through hashtags ruptures conventional forms of knowledge production and intersectional awareness by dismantling hierarchies solely based on gender and race. Here, I argue for the benefits of having a carefully articulated and tentative convergence of religion and feminism rather than maintaining a critical distance between the two; in doing so, this paper acknowledges the significance of including an intersectional interplay of both paradigms, especially in holding the potential to advance Muslim women’s struggles for equality. Most importantly, it makes significant contributions to the current national debates regarding gender and Islam, race and ethnicity, and transnational