Religious Feminism Periphery Within The Semi-Periphery In The Balkans
Religious Feminism Periphery Within The Semi-Periphery In The Balkans

Summary/Abstract: In the period of post-war transition, knowledge production on gender and feminism remained the focus of individual scholars and activists who had a difficult time attempting to integrate it into the educational system, with the exception of a few gender and women studies programs that were largely supported by international donors. Believing that knowledge should inform activism and that in return, activism can provide feedback on knowledge impact and relevance, the entire course of my scholarly and activist work was about bridging the gap between academia and civil society organizations, but also about bridging the secular– religious divide in the Balkans region. I argue that feminist knowledge production in the Balkans semi-periphery is artificially divided between secular and religious feminist circles. Just as feminists from the center marginalize feminists in the Balkans with neocolonial approaches and cultural hegemony, secular feminists in the semi-periphery ignore religious feminism with similar fashion. Multiple exclusion made religious feminist knowledge production invisible and unrecognized in academia and women’s activism. Only in rare cases did secular feminists ally themselves with religious feminists and showed sensibility and the need to involve them equally with their own arguments in feminist knowledge production, because many believed religion to be one of the main causes of gender discrimination and irreconcilable with feminist agendas. Many religious feminists, however, were standing shoulder to shoulder with secular feminists in their struggle for gender equality.

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