Cosponsored by New Voices in Racial Justice Series, Diversity
Center, Women’s Center, and Women and Department of Women and Gender
Studies
Learn why the experiences of Muslim women within the #MeToo movement
matter to achieving its goals of empathy, support, and change! Saba
Fatima examines the significance of an intersectional lens to establish
the unique and specific challenges facing Muslim American Women within
the #MeToo movement. She investigates religious justifications used to
hinder the progress of #MeToo, such as appeals to the establishment of
an ideal society, segregation of sexes, and unity within the Muslim
ummah (nation) at the expense of Muslim women. Fatima also explores how
the movement is hijacked and co-opted within a Western political context
toward a neoliberal agenda that ultimately harms women in communities
of color. However, #MeToo places particular importance on ameliorating
the harms of sexual violence in Black communities and communities of
color. Thus, shaping #MeToo into a movement that can better realize its
vision depends on intersectional insights.
Saba Fatima, Associate Professor of Philosophy at
Southern Illinois University Edwardsville, focuses her research on
topics involving identities, especially issues of social and political
significance to Muslims. Her research interests include non-ideal
theory; social and political issues within prescriptive Islam;
Muslim/Muslim-American issues within a framework of feminist & race
theory, virtue ethics, and more recently, medical ethics. Fatima earned
her PhD in Philosophy from Social, Political, Ethical, & Legal
(SPEL) Philosophy Department at Binghamton University, NY.
