Muslim #MeToo: Towards a Decolonial Islamic Liberation Theology

Islamic Liberation Theology recognizes that margins shift. The #MeToo Movement has been the locus of one such margin: the sexually abused. Focusing on iterations of #MeToo amongst Muslim societies, this paper finds that while both Islamic Liberation Theology and Muslim #MeToo are committed to the Islamic tradition, neither substantively engage Islamic Law, representative of a larger pattern within Islamic feminism. Additionally, analysis of the neoliberal discourse underlying the #MeToo Movement and how it has informed #Muslim MeToo responses is missing. This paper seeks to begin a conversation on these limitations, namely, the sidestepping of Islamic Law and inattentiveness to decolonial concerns. Instead of dismissing Islamic Law as irrational or irredeemably patriarchal, I argue that engaging its indigenous interpretive methodology (ʾuṣūl al-fiqh) addresses the decolonial concerns of external co-option and epistemic delinking, while providing an avenue for the Islamic Liberation Theology component of praxis inspired reinterpretation.