it was launched in february at a global meeting in kuala lumpur malaysia and initiated by the malaysian muslim feminist group sisters in islam the movement was a transnational response to the equally transnational problem of the use of islam to resist womens demands for equality musawah comprises ngos activists scholars legal practitioners and policymakers across the globe and approaches gender equality in the muslim family along three axes knowledgebuilding capacitybuilding and international advocacy musawah starts from the premise that equality is a founding principle of islam and gender equality is therefore in line with islam rather than opposed to it