Comments on: Women’s History Month: Feminism and Art http://blog.oup.com/2007/03/womens_history_/ Academic insights for the thinking world. Wed, 22 May 2013 20:11:30 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.4.2 By: Askia http://blog.oup.com/2007/03/womens_history_/#comment-156717 Askia Sun, 14 Feb 2010 11:52:22 +0000 http://216.110.190.15/2007/03/womens_history_month_feminism_and_art/#comment-156717 while this article is very well written It has 2 critical errors. One the extreme generalizations about African indigenous societies and the coming of Islam to Africa. The other error is in using the word Feminism, which is better avoided. Womens rights = feminism is debatable. I would say constant borrowing of words which are loaded weakens our agency as African people. But on the 1st point. Islam is far too dynamic to be placed in the context the writer tries to do. It is basically taking a very Western position (i.e. Islam removes Womens rights) and placing it in Ancient African history. There was far more Justice for the African women under Islamic rule of Songhai than in pre-Islamic Mali. This is beyond debate. There is far more justice with Sharia in Sokoto than in any other part of history. Didn't Uthman Dan Fodio pave the way for this so-called debate around women equality? Was he not a hardcore Muslim. So we must be careful in how we approach history and how we use terms like Arab invasion. Because there was also an Ethiopian invasion of Arabia so we lose our objectivity if we continue to inherit these little phobias and perceptions. while this article is very well written It has 2 critical errors. One the extreme generalizations about African indigenous societies and the coming of Islam to Africa. The other error is in using the word Feminism, which is better avoided. Womens rights = feminism is debatable. I would say constant borrowing of words which are loaded weakens our agency as African people.

But on the 1st point. Islam is far too dynamic to be placed in the context the writer tries to do. It is basically taking a very Western position (i.e. Islam removes Womens rights) and placing it in Ancient African history. There was far more Justice for the African women under Islamic rule of Songhai than in pre-Islamic Mali. This is beyond debate. There is far more justice with Sharia in Sokoto than in any other part of history. Didn’t Uthman Dan Fodio pave the way for this so-called debate around women equality? Was he not a hardcore Muslim. So we must be careful in how we approach history and how we use terms like Arab invasion. Because there was also an Ethiopian invasion of Arabia so we lose our objectivity if we continue to inherit these little phobias and perceptions.

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