He drops this bombshell in the midst of his article then moves away from it way too quickly...yet it is the entire driving force behind the feminism he decries:
"For some, especially some Muslim men, allegations that normative Islam reinforced notions of female natural inferiority may appear outrageous at first. One, however, must contend with blatantly male chauvinistic declarations like that of the 12th century Andalusian scholar Qadi Abu Bakr b. al-‘Arabi (d. 1147) who said, “And the superiority of men over women is no secret to any intelligent person even were it only for the fact that the woman was created from the man. So he is her origin.”8 Even more damaging is the statement of the 20th century Mauritanian exegete, Muhammad al-Amin al-Shinqiti (d. 1973) that “…masculinity is nobility and perfection, while femininity is a natural physiological imperfection.”9
Statements like these are rife in the exegetical literature, questioning the relative worth, social utility, and intelligence of women. That those views were ubiquitous prior to the rise of modern feminism and in many places still today corroborates this particular claim of feminists that men have reinforced female inferiority.
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^ I thought this was a great comment.