Islamic feminist discourse, which has its roots in nineteenth-century Egypt's feminist movement, has made a strong comeback in the 1990s. The label "Islamic feminism" has been applied to a global movement broadly defined as a reevaluation of religious sources to promote gender equality within an Islamic framework. Since the Qur'an is the founding text of Islam, some of the most provocative reinterpretations have focused on verses dealing with women, most notably those related to personal status and family law, with practices such as polygamy and the veil generating intense debates. Amidst this renewed attention to Qur'anic scripture from a gendered point of view, one verse has received little attention: the one that refers to the failed attempt by Potiphar's wife to seduce the prophet Joseph: "Kaidakunna 'adhimoun" [your (women) wiles are great] (XII: 28). The Muslim imaginary has retained this verse as a condemnation of a negative characteristic attributed to women, both in popular and high culture. In this talk, I examine how two Francophone Maghrebian women have endeavored to challenge and counter the negative impact that this verse continues to have in creative works that appeared in the late 1990s. Farida Benlyazid, the most established female Moroccan film maker, released her second full-length feature film, Keid Ensa (Women's Wiles) in 1999. Assia Djebar, a renowned Algerian writer, published La beaut, de Joseph [Joseph's beauty], a short narrative, in 1998. This talk analyzes how these works can be seen as partaking in Islamic feminism, regardless of the faith and personal position of the authors. Whether they happen to be Muslim and feminist (and therefore using Qur'anic reinterpretation of the Holy book as a strategy to improve women's lives), or whether they are Islamic feminist (Muslim believers working within their faith to achieve gender equality or parity), Djebar's and Benlyazid's works demonstrates a stance that improving Muslim women's lives must take into account the Muslim component rather than simply repudiate it. In addition, I show that Benlyazid's and Djebar's tackling of verse XII: 28 demonstrates a commitment to both the global and the local. Through her blend of Qur'anic exegesis accompanied with references to both high and popular Arab culture, Benlyazid's film engages in Islamic feminism grounded in Moroccan culture. Similarly, Djebar's book is tied to Algeria's devastating civil war of the 1990s.