Muslim feminists in Brussels: dynamics of (im)mobilization in intersectional activism

The relation between Islam and gender plays a central role in the creation of the opposition between the free, gender equal West and the anachronistic patriarchal Muslim world. This differentiation continues to play a crucial role in the current debates on Muslims in the west. This article investigates how these dominant discourses impact decolonial feminist and intersectional activism of young Muslim women in Brussels . By drawing on qualitative research with young Muslim women in Brussels and particularly those organized in feminist collective Imazi Reine, this contribution engages with intersectional decolonial feminist practices that move beyond the duality of the so called ‘vexed relationship’ of Islam and the West. The article particularly focuses on “dynamics of (im)mobilization” by exploring the Hijabis Fight Back protest in June 2020 in which more than 4000 people came out to the streets to protest against headscarf bans and to claim equal rights and particularly the right to education and the right to self-determination and the 'queer women of color' event of December 2020, which aimed to create a safe space for queer women of color to address issues of how to advance their societal position as minorities but which was highly contested because it supposedly ‘discriminated’ white heterosexual men. By analyzing these dynamics, this article seeks to unravel the influence of privilege and oppression in the creation and the evolution, possibilities, and challenges of intersectional activism and solidarity.