Islam has been defended by many Muslims (often classified and derided in the West as ‘Islamic apologists’) as well as by various scholars both within occidental and oriental nations. Many of the recent attacks in both Islamic countries such as Nigeria, Iran, and in non-Islamic countries such as France, the United States and Belgium have been attributed to the work of Islamic extremists. This has led to the condemnation of Islam as a religious practice. These commentators use the Islamic text – the Koran – and the lives of Islamic extremists as points of reference. This criticism of Islam, particular in the Western media, has intensified in the post-9/11 period. These largely propagandist representations of Islam have, paradoxically, granted space to a series of arguments and counter-arguments about the tenets of Islam. Writers of fictional and non-fictional texts have entered the debate in defense of the tenets of Islam. In this paper, I explore one such example, namely South African post-apartheid playwright, Nadia Davids’ 2006 play, At Her Feet. I read the play as a post-9/11 response to both Islamic patriarchy and western Islamophobia. In this way, I look at the play as an example of internal criticism of particular tenets of Islam with regards to gender; I also explore the ways in which it simultaneously addresses the problem of western prejudice in relation to Islam. While the play argues for what it terms, ‘Afro-Marxist Feminism’, I suggest that it is more accurately understood as an example of Islamic feminism, a feminist concept that employs both western feminism and the Koran as a basis for achieving gender equality for Muslim women. The play’s exploration of controversial Islamic practices such as ‘honour killing’ and veiling are seen as key examples of the play’s Islamic feminist stance.
Keywords: Islam, Islamic feminism, Afro-Marxist feminism, South African drama, Nadia Davids, At Her Feet