“A white feminist is someone who refuses to consider the role that whiteness and the racial privilege attached to it have played,” Zakaria writes. And you do not have to be white to be a white feminist, she contends. This necessary book is a critique of how whiteness (not white women) has infiltrated feminism and how it should be razor-bladed out of the current form.

An essential piece of reading that holds a mirror up to White Feminism. Great for readers who enjoyed the work of Reni Eddo-Lodge.

I can't recommend this book enough. If you read one non fiction this year please let it be this as it's eye opening and thought provoking content will make you consider feminist action and how to make it more inclusive.

I was really impressed by this book. As a white woman I learned a lot and will take lots of this and hopefully use it to become a better person.

Such an interesting read! I've been picking up more books like this recently, and the strength of Zakaria's voice really makes this book stand out among the multitudes. Coupled with such a visually striking cover, this made for an engrossing read, one I will recommend to my friends in the days to come.

"It is crucial that white women realize that being white and being a feminist are not what makes a woman a white feminist; it is refusing to recognise white privilege."

I am white and I am a feminist and I'm so pleased that I had the opportunity to read this book. It's thoroughly researched, thought-provoking and eye-opening and the way in which Zakaria interweaves the academic with personal experience, insight and anecdotes ensures this text is engaging and a pleasure to read throughout. It also, in my opinion, means that this text is accessible to a broad age range - I think anyone from GCSE age upwards would benefit from reading this!

"By and large, there is a division within feminism that is not spoken of but that has remained seething beneath the surface for years. It is the division between the women who write and speak feminism and the women who live it... While this dichotomy does not always trace racial divides, it is true that, by and large, women who are paid to write about feminism, lead feminist organizations and make feminist policy in the Western world are white and middle-class."

Naturally, engaging with this text led to much introspection and consideration of my own understanding and experience of feminism. The vast majority of the feminist texts I studied at school and university were written by white, middle-class women and we were taught about the four waves of feminism. So, I particularly enjoyed Zakaria's critique of Simone De Beauvoir's 'The Second Sex', among other feminist texts considered seminal within mainstream feminism, as well as her anecdote about abandoning the idea of the waves of feminism in her teaching and writing altogether.

I also found the exploration of historical Indian feminism particularly interesting (and want to learn more about it), as well as her critique of NGOs, the depoliticisation of women's empowerment and the role white feminism played in the US invasion of Afghanistan.

Overall, this was an excellent read and I highly recommend it, especially to other white people!

"You might think that womanhood is a fairly powerful shared experience around which to build a collective, but it bears the taint of having meant specifically and only white womanhood since long before the moment Sojourner Truth asked 'Ain't I a woman?' and right up until the world we see today."

I am so glad I read this and encourage everyone to read this. I am a white woman myself, the book goes onto explain that a white feminist isn't always white and someone can be white, and a feminist, without being a white feminist. A white feminist is one who doesn't consider the privilege they have and how white feminist issues have become ‘all feminist issues’. This is such a thought provoking read , I enjoyed the fact the book such an all encompassing and global look at feminism compared to other books I’ve read. Zakaria writes with passion, clarity and hope, she provides not only historical and modern context, but is thought-provoking without being provocative, and it’s so well-researched. Overall, an important book demanding feminism to become more intersectional.

Thanks to netgalley and the publisher for a free copy for an honest opinion

This book is a call for feminism to expand its campaign focus to include the needs of all women. It calls for campaigns around Racism and poverty. I recommend this book.

This is an excellently-researched, eye-opening book about the impact of 'white feminism' on feminism itself. As a white woman myself I am so glad I read this book and think it's something everyone would gain something from reading. An important definition at the start of the book explains that a white feminist isn't always white - and someone can be white, and a feminist, without being a white feminist. A white feminist is someone who doesn't consider the privilege that comes with being white, and how white feminist issues have become equivalent to all feminist issues.

The book covers a range of topics, some especially difficult to read. One general topic that was mentioned throughout was how white feminists often don't consider the beliefs and practices of other cultures and automatically apply their opinions and beliefs of what is 'right or wrong'. This often actually leads to the the people affected becoming worse off than they were at the start.

A truly great book - thank you.

Such a thought provoking book opening with exploring white feminism's colonial legacy and links, whilst showing us that Brown and Black women were successfully pushing feminist agendas until the colonialisers' arrived. Too, the in the moment, ways that issues relevant for South Asian and Black women are repeatedly sidelined in feminism, in favour of issues relevant for white women. Most of the time this is well argued and shines some much needed light on key issues, for example, it's hard to argue against Rafia's offsetting of FGC and the West's obsession with plastic surgery. Overall, an important book imploring feminism to become more intersectional.

With thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Against White Feminism by Rafia Zakaria is a collection of essays which explores how what the mainstream perceives as feminism is actually a whitewash of the theories put forward by Black and Brown women, and often detrimental to those women in the West feminist thought claims to be saving.

Written through the lens of being of Pakistani origin and living in the United States of America, Zakaria explored how the feminist movement has waged white privilege against other oppressed women around the world. I found this to be an interesting position to take as we have all witnessed how the war on terror had blonde poster girls from the US armed forces juxtaposed against the images of veiled Muslim women.

I particularly enjoyed the section where the commoditisation of the LGBTQIA was explored. It is something all of us have seen as we walk down the high streets during Pride month particularly

The labelling of honour killing being exclusively a Black/ Brown phenomenon was also something that challenged my own thoughts. We have seen women of all races killed by the men in their lives, however terms such as honour killing have othered Black or Brown women and made the crime seem like something unique to us.

As someone who has read books challenging feminist thought from a Black perspective, so it was refreshing to see feminism challenged from an Asian/ Muslim perspective. Against White Feminism is definitely not a book that is anti white women, but does ask that our intersections are taken into consideration.

I also enjoyed the fact the book was more global than other books I have read on this subject, and it tackled themes that were both contemporary and historical in equal measure. I would definitely recommend the Against White Feminism to anyone one interested in critical race theories, feminist thought and the intersectionality within it. The book will be challenging for some who think they are already allies but are not displaying true allyship.

***Thank you Netgalley and Penguin Books for this ARC in exchange for an honest review.***

Against White Feminism is comprehensive exploration on how white feminism has co-opted feminism across the world, and the detrimental effects it has created.

Throughout the book Rafia Zakaria interweaves her own experience being on the receiving end of white feminism alongside more mainstream examples such as the discourse surrounding women and the Iraq war. The book is hugely insightful, and allows a reader to examine their own experiences and how they have contributed to this particular form of feminism. Zakaria provides a number of examples and examines each as a case study almost, which allows to really examine the nuances of each situation.

Overall this is a really powerful read, and one for anyone trying to make their feminism more intersectional and less exclusionary. Highly recommend.

Against White Feminism is a collection of essays Zakaria wrote to prove that, among other topics, feminism too has been permeated by whiteness, where whiteness is not to say that someone who’s born white is necessarily “bad”, but whiteness indicates a certain approach to these topics that is typical of people born and raised under the white supremacy.

One of the main complaint Zakaria wants to highlight is the ambivalence of feminist representation: white women feel entitled of representing all women (even when it comes to specific Brown or Black women’s experiences), but Brown and Black women can only speak of themes strictly related to them. If even that.

Zakaria’s reasoning is that this entitlement comes from the colonialist attitude white men developed towards colonies, deciding to ignore the local cultures they encountered and wiping off their history to replace everything with their way of living. White women were subjugated (and still are) but they feel like they can claim some of that power back by taking charge of the feminist movement and deciding who can participate and how, and who’s not good enough to joint in the merits of liberating women.

This is definitely a strong position but Zakaria brings excellent points to the conversation around feminism and helps to open our eyes (where “our” is white women’s, like myself) on some behaviours we have, most of them unintended and unconsciously carried on.

The way forward, according to these essays, is intersectionality. Not all women have the “privilege” to be discriminated against only based on the fact they’re women. A large number of women have to face discrimination also based on the colour of their skin, gender, economic status, or religion.

Of course Zakaria is not against white women, but a specific attitude that she calls whiteness. The solution is pretty easy: being inclusive, asking the right questions to the right people instead of improvising knowledge that doesn’t belong to us, and work all together towards equality and justice for all women.

I've not read very much non-fiction about feminism, and I think that this is book is a good place to start as it is not that long. It is an essential critique of the way that women of colour are left out of mainstream feminism that I would recommend to anyone who wants to read more on this topic.

Reading this definitely wants me to pick up more non-fiction about feminism in the future!

"Being white and a feminist is not what makes a woman a white feminist; it is refusing to recognize white privilege".

Wow, this book packs a punch. Zakaria manages to weave together all the points throughout feminist history that have lead us to today and to white feminism. Against White Feminism does not berate feminist women who are white but looks at what whiteness has done for feminism and for white women and what needs to happen in order for real change and equality to occur.

Zakaria blends personal experience, historic and contemporary data and academic works seamlessly and the result is a truly accessible work that I hope proves useful for many as a guide on how to do (and be) better. Against White Feminism is a book I will come back to time and time again.

Synopsis: A non-fiction book exploring what ‘white feminism’ is and the links between feminism and white supremacy, through history, feminist theory and Rafia’s lived experience.
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This is a seriously eye-opening review and critical analysis of everything about ‘white feminism’ - challenging everything I’ve grown up thinking about feminism, what we’re told in mainstream media, even what I’ve learnt in school about women’s suffrage. Each chapter is extremely comprehensive - if a bit long. (Subtitles would have helped to break up the text and structure each chapter a bit more.) But for anyone who thinks they know everything about feminism - even those who believe ‘their feminism’ is intersectional, as I did - this book is so important and broke my expectations, revealing just how flawed major Western feminist movements and ideas are in the fight for equality for all women.
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#AgainstWhiteFeminism
Free advance digital copy from #NetGalley

Against White Feminism is a timely, important and fascinating polemic and essential critique that argues for the transformation of feminist ideology to be inclusive of every woman regardless of race or background; equality for all women not only those who hold white feminist values. Upper-middle-class white women have long been heralded as “experts” on feminism. They have presided over multinational feminist organizations and written much of what we consider the feminist canon, espousing sexual liberation and satisfaction, LGBTQ inclusion, and racial solidarity, all while branding the language of the movement itself in whiteness and speaking over Black and Brown women in an effort to uphold privilege and perceived cultural superiority. An American Muslim woman, attorney, and political philosopher, Rafia Zakaria champions a reconstruction of feminism in Against White Feminism, centring women of colour in this transformative overview and counter-manifesto to white feminism’s global, long-standing affinity with colonial, patriarchal and white supremacist ideals.

Covering such ground as the legacy of the British feminist imperialist saviour complex and “the colonial thesis that all reform comes from the West” to the condescension of the white feminist–led “aid industrial complex” and the conflation of sexual liberation as the “sum total of empowerment,” Zakaria follows in the tradition of intersectional feminist forebears Kimberlé Crenshaw, Adrienne Rich, and Audre Lorde. Zakaria ultimately refutes and reimagines the apolitical aspirations of white feminist empowerment in this staggering, radical critique, with Black and Brown feminist thought at the forefront. This captivating analysis addresses how whiteness and white supremacist concepts, whether purposefully or not, have made their way into the feminist sphere and permeated feminist thought, therefore, undermining the fight for true egalitarianism. Blazingly incisive, meticulously detailed and unfalteringly humane, Against White Feminism is a devastating indictment of the failures of mainstream Western feminism and a manifesto for the radical change needed to redeem the movement.

The phenomenon of white feminism is an open secret: widely and persistently called out by women of colour, working-class and queer women, it remains glaringly, shamefully absent from feminist discourse. It traces feminism’s complicity with colonialism, capitalism, male hegemony and the military-industrial complex, from its earliest days to the modern world, while also drawing on case studies from the author’s work as an immigration attorney. I cannot think of a more necessary book to bring into the social and political consciousness right now. White feminism is an enormous subject to tackle and an essential one, and Zakaria’s proposal is note-perfect: steely and clear-sighted, accessible and persuasive. Her writing balances a commitment to holding its subjects (and readers) to account with a radical compassion and a capacity for hope. Highly recommended.

This non fiction look at white western feminism challenges the beliefs and actions of main stream feminism, pointing out the ways in which white feminists can ignore, discriminate against and harm feminists of colour and other marginalised identities in their fight for their own equality. Zakaria cleverly incisively critiques the White Supremacy present in feminism, the ways in which feminists of colour are dismissed or tokenised and the violence enacted by white feminists historically and today. She uses her own experience at university and working for the UN as well as just her lived experience to talk about micro and macro aggressions and wilful ignorance on the behalf of women who consider themselves feminist and the way these things harm the cause. She talks about sex positive feminism, choice feminism and capitalist feminism and the harm that these things can do, and the way that wester feminists look down on and are ignorant of the real expereince of being a woman from the global south. I loved the global nature of this book as I have found, much as Zakaria is saying, that many feminist books can be so focused on the UK/US and not look outside. It also seemed relevant at the moment with many of the discussions going on about women in afghanistan.

A very interesting read, pretty academic at times while also weaving in some personal experience. Based on the reviews, some white women are getting pretty defensive about this but acknowledging our privileges is a very important step we have to take. If you've never reflected on white feminism, I would probably not recommend this book as a starting point but it's definitely helpful to go more in depth on the subject and understand how strongly whiteness has influenced mainstream feminism.

Whilst I enjoyed learning about the topics and found Zakaria's thesis to be not just significant, but a great insight into the 'white feminist' and how we can combat it, the writing style was just a little too academic for me and I struggled to get through some of the heavier chapters. Otherwise, an important book with plenty of opportunities for discussion.