Amir H. Payberah - 2026-06-26

“Am I a feminist?” This is a question I often ask myself. Of course, it is not only my question. I have heard many thoughtful friends ask the same thing. Despite their strong commitment to challenging sex- and gender-based inequalities, they still wrestle with this question internally. To explore it, I think we need to look at the historical roots and the meanings attached to the concept of feminism itself.

Many scholars and activists working from postcolonial, Black, and Indigenous perspectives argue that mainstream feminism, despite its universal language, has often reflected the experiences and priorities of white, middle-class women in the Global North. From this perspective, feminism can become a hegemonic framework that determines what counts as women’s oppression, whose voices are heard, and which forms of struggle are considered legitimate.

Scholars such as Gayatri Spivak and Chandra Mohanty argue that even well-intentioned Western feminist movements can sometimes speak for marginalized women rather than letting them speak for themselves. As a result, they may unintentionally reinforce unequal power relations and portray women in the Global South as passive victims, overlooking the diversity of their experiences and struggles.

Yet efforts to challenge gender inequality existed across the Global South long before feminism took its modern form. These movements did not necessarily call themselves feminist or follow Western feminist ideas. In the Chipko Movement in India, for example, rural women defended their communities and environment by embracing trees to prevent deforestation. Likewise, many Black women’s movements saw the struggle against sexism as inseparable from struggles against racism, poverty, and social exclusion. For these reasons, some people who actively challenge gender oppression do not identify as feminists, concerned that the label may reproduce forms of exclusion and hierarchy.

At the same time, bell hooks argued that feminism should not be abandoned but transformed. In “Feminist Theory: From Margin to Center”, she reimagined feminism by placing the experiences of those historically pushed to the margins at its center. So, rather than replacing one dominant voice with another, she envisioned a feminism capable of confronting multiple, interconnected systems of domination.

With all of this in mind, if I return to my original question, “Am I a feminist?”, perhaps I first need to ask a more precise question. When we talk about feminism, what kind of feminism do we mean, and whose experiences do we place at its center? If feminism is understood as a movement that seeks to expand justice, amplify marginalized voices, challenge patriarchal structures of power, and resist interconnected forms of domination, then my answer is clear: "Yes, I am a feminist".