Fatema and the Demons of War and Militarism: Towards a Decolonial Feminism

In this context of genocidal horrors and colonial terror perpetrated against the Palestinian people, in which we have seen once again the weaponization of feminism, and/or its complicity, questions such as how has feminism ended up providing bullets for such weaponization, or how has it become an escort to colonial wars, a cheerleader of military invasions, and an agent of neoliberal imperialist projects, became open again for discussion. In Morocco and the region, the question has often been formulated as: do we need feminism in the first place? Is it at all relevant? One way of answering these questions has been in the affirmative, while identifying the culprit as being a colonial, Orientalist, liberal, white feminism, and recognizing the necessity of delinking from this tradition; that is, constructing (or reconstructing) a decolonial feminism. The objective of this paper is to contribute to this discussion by invoking the example of Fatema Mernissi undeniably one of the most important figures of feminist theory in the region. The examination of Mernissi’s work from the perspective of decolonial theory is doubly interesting as, on the one hand, it allows us to identify the sort of bullets that a well-meaning feminist such as Mernissi unwittingly supplied to neoliberal imperialism, and, on the other hand, it helps us recognize inspiring decolonial concepts and strategies.