Feminism and the family

Over the past century, feminist movements have changed how many societies think about marriage and the family. Feminists argued that the home is not a purely private space but a place where power is exercised, a view summed up in the slogan “the personal is political”. Islam, by contrast, treats the family as the cornerstone of society. This paper sets the two views side by side and says it aims for a balanced comparison rather than taking sides.

On the feminist side, the authors survey thinkers from Mary Wollstonecraft to Simone de Beauvoir, Betty Friedan and Shulamith Firestone, and the trends that accompanied the spread of feminist ideas in the West: later marriage, more cohabitation, higher divorce rates, smaller families and more varied household forms. They note that feminists themselves read many of these changes positively, for example as women no longer being trapped in abusive marriages, while recognising problems such as the “double shift” of working mothers.

On the Islamic side, the paper centres on hifz al-nasl, the preservation of lineage, one of the five higher aims of Islamic law. It cites the Qur'an's description of spouses as a source of tranquillity, with “affection and mercy” placed between them (30:21), of marriage as a “solemn covenant” (4:21), and the command “Do not approach adultery” (17:32). From al-Ghazali's writing on marriage and the hadith collections it draws sayings such as “Marriage is my sunnah” and “The best of you are the best to their families”, along with the duty to keep ties of kinship. The husband's qiwamah (4:34) is presented as financial responsibility and protection, bounded by justice, consultation and compassion, while women keep their own property, their mahr and access to divorce.

The authors find the two frameworks different at the root: feminism centres the family on individual fulfilment and choice, while Islam sees it as a civilisational institution for passing faith and morals from one generation to the next. Some feminist positions, such as same-sex marriage or abortion as an unconditional right, they say, remain incompatible with Islamic law. Yet both condemn domestic abuse, value women's education and care about children's welfare. They call for a contextual ijtihad, careful independent reasoning, that separates fixed Islamic principles from cultural habit, and useful feminist insights from what they call ideological excesses.