‘Forced Modernization’ Reshaping Muslim Family Life, Scholar Says
In an interview with Al Jazeera Net, Dr. Noura Bouhannache, a philosopher and professor of moral philosophy at the University of Constantine, warns that rapid and “forced modernization” has reshaped the Muslim family and weakened its spiritual core.
Bouhannache argues that many Muslim societies now imitate a Western family model “with a religious appearance” but without its moral and spiritual substance.
“We are witnessing a version of the Western family dressed in religious form, yet emptied of its deeper meaning,” she says.
She places contemporary debates on women within a broader intellectual history. Feminist thought, she explains, emerged in reaction to Christian and Aristotelian interpretations that depicted women as inferior.
As Simone de Beauvoir wrote, “One is not born, but rather becomes, a woman.” This idea, she says, encouraged Western women to reject traditional roles such as motherhood and marriage, entering public life “in a one-sided confrontation with men.”
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Today’s radical feminist currents, she adds, go further by claiming that gender differences are socially constructed rather than rooted in nature—an idea that deepens conflict rather than fostering harmony.
Scholars such as Abdelwahab El-Messiri, she notes, argue that feminism reflects a deeper Western shift away from transcendent moral and religious frameworks, leading to “a hidden materialist totality.”
Bouhannache stresses that ethics are innate, while religion reinforces and elevates them. Faith, she says, provides a metaphysical foundation that gives moral action meaning and offers practical guidance through the Quran and Sunnah.
The moral breakdown in many modern societies, she argues, stems from losing both.
She warns that many Muslims live in a “distorted secularism,” separating religious rituals from moral conduct and selectively using religion for worldly gain.
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This, she says, produces “fake religiosity” and fuels extremism by severing the link between faith and good character.
Regarding women, Bouhannache says they suffer from male domination yet often seek liberation in Western feminist discourse, which can lead to the rise of “Islamic feminism.”
But she argues that attempts to merge Western feminist principles with Islamic texts create contradictions and weaken the family.
“Our real crisis is the crisis of forming the human being,” she stresses.
Without strong values, she says, technology—and especially artificial intelligence—can deepen isolation within families.
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The solution, she insists, is rebuilding the human being through a solid moral system that enables societies to use technology wisely rather than be consumed by it.
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