The Role of the Women Muslim Activist on Islamic Global Narratives

Abstract

Even though it is the second largest religion in the world, the image of Islam is still always portrayed badly with various narratives including women’s issues, terrorism, intolerance and so on. Various Muslim actors from the level of international organizations such as the Organization of Islamic Cooperation, Muslim countries, Islamic groups to Islamic figures are actively involved in stemming this bad narrative and presenting positive Islamic ideas. This study will discuss the role of Muslim women figures and activists, especially in the West, in supporting efforts to build a positive image of Muslims globally through their actions, including in online media. The three figures in question are Nazma Khan, Haifa Younis, and Lauren Booth. These three figures and activists have different backgrounds and ideas in their activities. This study is a qualitative study by collecting secondary data from various online sources and analyzing it manually using the concept of Islamic activism in the study of social movements. This study found that these three figures were the driving forces of Islamic activism in terms of their principles and struggle process which always used Islamic narratives and symbols. However, it is the different backgrounds and basic ideas of their movement that make these three activists different from each other.