To many, being a Muslim woman and a feminist means existing as an oxymoron. The media disproportionately presents Muslim women as women who are married to ISIS soldiers, wear burqas, or are involved in honour killings. All of these conversations are important and should be discussed, but Muslim women are also scientists, world leaders, activist, politicians, and ordinary people. Yet we are rarely viewed this way.
By comparison, feminists in the West are viewed as women who fight period poverty, fight to #freethenipple, and fight for the right to not wear heels at work. I fight for for these things too, but that fight is not seen as mine, despite me being a woman who lives in the West. People find it difficult to see how these two identities — being a Muslim and a feminist — can co-exist, but they can.
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