This article looks at the trajectory from secular feminism to Islamic feminism to Muslim holistic feminism, examining the changing meanings of ‘the secular’ and ‘the religious’ and the ways they intersect in the different modes of feminism. It contrasts the open, inclusive nature that typifies the secular feminisms Muslim and non‐Muslims created in the twentieth century in contexts of anti‐colonial struggle and early nation‐state building with the communalism of the new Muslim holistic feminism now emerging in global space at a time when religious identity is fore‐fronted and there is an international preoccupation with Muslim women's rights. The article argues that the communalisation of women's rights activism or the privileging of Muslim women's rights occurring at the global level and being exported to local terrain can be divisive and threatening national unity.