Abstract
This article examines how Russian-speaking Muslim female bloggers use social media to construct gender-justice narratives and contest religious interpretations they perceive as patriarchal. Drawing on qualitative thematic discourse analysis of publicly available content on YouTube, Instagram, Telegram, and TikTok, the study conceptualizes these practices as digital counter-preaching: the public contestation and reframing of existing religious messages through alternative Islamic arguments. The findings identify several strategies, including framing women’s rights as divinely grounded entitlements, distinguishing Islam from patriarchal cultural practices, promoting economic resilience, challenging selective gendered accountability, and emphasizing reciprocity in marital relations. Digital counter-preaching emerges from perceived interpretive injustice, women’s lived vulnerabilities, and opportunities for public intervention provided by social media. Audience responses further reveal contestation over feminism, religious knowledge, and women’s legitimacy to challenge established interpretations. The article argues that these developments represent gendered interpretive pluralization rather than the displacement of established Islamic authority: digital media expand women’s participation in negotiating religious meaning while existing hierarchies of religious expertise remain consequential.
Recommended Citation
Rakhmetkyzy, Kymbat and Bagasharov, Kudaiberdi
(2026)
"Russian-Speaking Muslim Female Bloggers and the Rise of Gender-Justice Religious Narratives,"
Occasional Papers on Religion in Eastern Europe: Vol. 46
:
Iss.
9
, Article 14.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.55221/2693-2229.2916
Available at:
https://digitalcommons.georgefox.edu/ree/vol46/iss9/14