The status of women in Islam is one of the most hotly debated and misunderstood aspects of the Islamic world in the West today, both in academia and in popular media, with the wearing of the hijāb (veil) being the most obvious target.  Employing Western values and standards of discourse, stereotypes of oppression, discrimination, and even brainwashing are routinely assumed in the media, popular culture, and many writings in the West regarding Muslim women.

However, many ideas expressed by Fethullah Gülen and the Gülen Movement in regards to the role of religion and society in not only the broader cultural context but also at a personal level, are principles also espoused by Western writers, and in neither the East nor the West are such values gender-specific.  Within this common foundation, Gülen’s emphasis on the use of dialogue to promote tolerance and understanding between peoples of different religious and cultural traditions can be useful in assisting Americans learning about Islamic society and culture.  Specifically on the subject of women, dialogue can be encouraged to consider not only the issue of the hijāb but also the commonalities of life between women in the East and the West, the diversity of the Islamic experience, and then at a deeper level in distinguishing between religious and cultural practices, the role of patriarchy, and study of the historical realities of the Muslim world that have more to do with poverty, political instability, and the legacies of colonialism that affect not just women but all peoples of the region.

In this project, I propose to use relevant principles in common between the Gülen Movement and the Western tradition, including the importance of toleration of differences and dialogue between peoples, freedom of choice, as well as the role of education as a transformative process to consider a new approach in the West for a discussion concerning Muslim women, firstly regarding the most obvious issue of the veil but also at a secondary level with more complex religious and cultural issues that are commonly misunderstood in the Western world.  With the establishment of a universality of values resulting in a common foundation between East and West, the resulting dialogue opportunities can assist in educating Western societies about more accurate depictions of Muslim women and the veil, as well as many other issues facing the Islamic world today.

April L. Najjaj holds Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in History from the University of Arkansas in Fayetteville (1988, 1991) and a Ph.D. in History from Boston University, Boston, Massachusetts (2005).  Her research areas include Islamic architecture, women in Islam, and cross-cultural and –religious studies.  She is an Associate Professor of History and Director of International Studies at Greensboro College in Greensboro, North Carolina.  She spent the summer semester 2009 teaching Middle East History and Islamic Studies at the Pädagogische Hochschule Ludwigsburg in Ludwigsburg, Germany.  She gives lectures on a regular basis to area churches and civic organizations to assist in educating Americans about Islam and the Muslim world.