Rethinking “Religious Feminism” through Intersectionality: How Ultra-Orthodox (Haredi) Feminists in Israel Transform Themselves, Haredi Society, and Feminisms

In recent decades, significant economic, cultural, social and political transformations have rocked the haredi (ultra-Orthodox) society in Israel, even giving rise to what seemed until recently an unthinkable oxymoron – “Haredi Feminism”. This paper, based on a qualitative study of leading haredi feminists, offers a profile of their novel feminist activism, portraying its central goals, methods, narratives, and challenges. I analyze the emergence of this movement, contextualizing its development within broader communal transformations and national trends affecting the haredi community. I also highlight how this movement seeks to connect to, build upon, critique and distance itself from other streams in Israeli feminism and how it challenges the boundaries of religious/secular, ethnic, national, and class lines that have historically shaped Israel’s women’s movements.
The importance of this study lies in expanding our understanding of paths religious women take towards becoming agentic political and religious subjects. The haredi feminist case invites a re-examination of assumptions about how gender relations can be collectively transformed within conservative religions and modern nation-states, a question which is too often articulated through binaries limited by lingering notions of secularization, emancipation and modernization. Moreover, by juxtaposing this case with Modern Orthodox (dati) feminism in Israel, and Muslim/Islamic Feminism, I problematize the analytic category of “religious feminism” (Jewish and otherwise), and challenge how this term is often used. Reflecting critically on current scholarship, including my own previous work, I suggest a conceptual reframing that is more nuanced, contextualized, and adopts an intersectional lens, differentiating between religious feminisms informed by liberal, post-colonial, or post-secular politics.









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