But the humanitarian concern for the plight of Muslim women is often accompanied by rhetorical overtones that demonize Islam. Muslims, in response, imagine these efforts as attempts to antagonize them and to ridicule their Muslim beliefs. Muslims often perceive this as a double standard, which hurts the prospects for change. Muslims who are willing to work with Western agencies to improve the conditions of Muslim women feel forced to retreat in the face of these double standards. Unfortunately, Muslim feminists have not helped their cause either.
Muslim feminists are broadly of two types extremely westernized or too traditional.
Westernized Muslim feminists generate a style of rhetoric that mimics their Western counterparts. Their western worldview and lifestyle not only scares the traditional Muslim male but most Muslim women as well. As a result, the projects and goals they advocate are delegitimized by mainstream Muslims because of their manifest disregard and disrespect for Islam and traditional Muslim values. Of course they do win many supporters and admirers among western feminist and liberal establishment, but this does little to ameliorate the plight of Muslim women. The so-called Islamic feminists represent the other extreme of Muslim feminism.