Muslim Feminism & Women's Rights in Islam
The debate over women's rights and Islam is often politicized and riddled with stereotypes. Muslim women are not all 
victims, renegades or standard-bearers for religious or cultural authenticity. They are not foils with which to bash Islam or through which sympathetic Westerners can congratulate themselves on their cultural superiority. True solidarity with women in the Muslim realm means paying less attention to self-serving male rulers and to cosmetic official initiatives and more to the lively, often contentious debates taking place within Muslim societies. True solidarity means paying more attention to the diverse voices of women and to their ideas of how they want to advance their own cause. These voices are secular and religious, young and old; they are also often critical of Western policies in the region.
Muslim Women Activists and Leaders
Photo: Nawal El Saadawi during a women’s march / Source: Wikipedia
Fatema Mernissi, a Founder of Islamic Feminism [www.nytimes.com] * Remembering Islamic Feminist Fatema Mernissi [NPR]
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Where are they now? Noushin Ahmadi Khorasani [Iranian Noushin Ahmadi Khorasani, talks about changing discriminatory laws against women.]
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WISE Muslim women [The Women’s Islamic Initiative in Spirituality and Equality (WISE) is a global program, social network and grassroots social justice movement led by Muslim women. WISE is empowering Muslim women to fully participate in their communities and nations and amplifying their collective voices.]
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A Thousand Years of the Persian Book Women Writers ("A Thousand Years of the Persian Book" exhibition at the Library of Congress)
Veiled Superheroes by
This groundbreaking study examines Muslim female superheroes within a matrix of Islamic theology, feminism, and contemporary political discourse. Through a close reading of texts including Ms. Marvel, Qahera, and The 99, Sophia Rose Arjana argues that these powerful and iconic characters reflect independence and agency, reflecting the diverse lives of Muslim girls and women in the world today.
Call Number: Olin PN6712 ‡b .A75 2018ISBN: 9781498536523Publication Date: 2017-11-01
Women As Constitution-Makers by
That a constitution should express the will of 'the people' is a long-standing principle, but the identity of 'the people' has historically been narrow. Women, in particular, were not included. A shift, however, has recently occurred. Women's participation in constitution-making is now recognised as a democratic right. Women's demands to have their voices heard in both the processes of constitution-making and the text of their country's constitution, are gaining recognition. Campaigning for inclusion in their country's constitution-making, women have adopted innovative strategies to express their constitutional aspirations. This collection offers, for the first time, comprehensive case studies of women's campaigns for constitutional equality in nine different countries that have undergone constitutional transformations in the 'participatory era'. Against a richly-contextualised historical and political background, each charts the actions and strategies of women participants, both formal and informal, and records their successes, failures and continuing hopes for constitutional equality.
ISBN: 9781108686358Publication Date: 2019-03-25
One Woman's Jihad by
... a most welcome addition to the body of scholarship on the Sokoto Jihad and Caliphate." --Religious Studies Review The fascinating life and times of Nana Asma'u (1793 - 1864), a West African woman who was a Muslim scholar and poet. As the daughter of the spiritual and political leader of the Sokoto community, Asma'u was a role model and teacher for other Muslim women as well as a scholar of Islam and a key advisor to her father as he waged a jihad to bring Islam to the population of what is now northwestern Nigeria.
Call Number: Olin PL8234.A85 Z77 2000ISBN: 9780253213983Publication Date: 2000-05-22
The Struggle for Modern Turkey by ISBN: 9781788313575Publication Date: 2019-06-27
Sisters in the Mirror by
A crystal-clear account of the entangled history of Western and Muslim feminisms. Western feminists, pundits, and policymakers tend to portray the Muslim world as the last and most difficult frontier of global feminism. Challenging this view, Elora Shehabuddin presents a unique and engaging history of feminism as a story of colonial and postcolonial interactions between Western and Muslim societies. Muslim women, like other women around the world, have been engaged in their own struggles for generations: as individuals and in groups that include but also extend beyond their religious identity and religious practices. The modern and globally enmeshed Muslim world they navigate has often been at the weaker end of disparities of wealth and power, of processes of colonization and policies of war, economic sanctions, and Western feminist outreach. Importantly, Muslims have long constructed their own ideas about women's and men's lives in the West, with implications for how they articulate their feminist dreams for their own societies. Stretching from the eighteenth-century Enlightenment era to the War on Terror present, Sisters in the Mirror shows how changes in women's lives and feminist strategies have consistently reflected wider changes in national and global politics and economics. Muslim women, like non-Muslim women in various colonized societies and non-white and poor women in the West, have found themselves having to negotiate their demands for rights within other forms of struggle--for national independence or against occupation, racism, and economic inequality. Through stories of both well-known and relatively unknown figures, Shehabuddin recounts instances of conflict alongside those of empathy, collaboration, and solidarity across this extended period. Sisters in the Mirror is organized around stories of encounters between women and men from South Asia, Britain, and the United States that led them, as if they were looking in a mirror, to pause and reconsider norms in their own society, including cherished ideas about women's roles and rights. These intertwined stories confirm that nowhere, in either Western or Muslim societies, has material change in girls' and women's lives come easily or without protracted struggle.
ISBN: 9780520342514Publication Date: 2021-08-24
Social - Gender Issues
- Women, Islam & Equality (National Council of Resistance of Iran)
- Women in Islam versus Women in the Judaeo-Christian Tradition: The Myth & the Reality (by Dr. Sherif Abdel Azeem)
- Arab Woman : Potentials and Prospects (The three articles that follow are reprints of original pieces published by Arab Perspectives in its October, 1980 issue, Vol. 1, No. 7)
- In Egypt, Women Have Burdens but No Privileges (NY Times, Published: July 13, 2010)
- Unfulfilled Promises: Women’s Rights Nemat Guenena and Nadia Wassef
- HarassMap (A system in Egypt for reporting incidences of sexual harassment via SMS messaging. This tool will give women a way to anonymously report incidences of sexual harassment as soon as they happen. By mapping these reports online, the entire system will act as an advocacy, prevention, and response tool, highlighting the severity and pervasiveness of the problem).
- HarassMap Blog
- Definitions of Algerian Women: Citizenship, participation and exclusion (The third Nordic conference on Middle Eastern Studies: Ethnic encounter and culture change Joensuu, Finland, 19-22 June 1995)
- Islam and Women's Equality (by Mrs. Maryam Rajavi)
- "Women and politics in the Islamic republic of Iran"
- Women, Islam & Equality (National Council of Resistance of Iran)
- In Iran, More Women Leaving Nest for University (The New York Times, July 23, 2000)
- Runaway Youths a Thorn in Iran's Chaste Side (NYT,November 5, 2000)
- Love Finds a Way in Iran: 'Temporary Marriage'
Feminism & Rights
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Muslim Women's Quest for Equality: Between Islamic ... - JSTOR
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Why Do We Need “Islamic Feminism”? - Al-Raida Journal [y Z Mir-Hosseini · 2020 — Publication support provided by eScienta (www.escienta.com). Al Raida Journal. Vol. 44, Issue 2, 2020 pp 85-91.]
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Islamic Feminism [Vol. 44 No. 2 (2020): Islamic Feminism | Al-Raida Journal]
- Revisited: Muslim Women's agency and feminist anthropology of the Middle East.Sep 23, 2017 - Contemporary Islam. pp 1–20
- Lindsey, Ursula (11 April 2018). "Can Muslim Feminism Find a Third Way?" New York Times. Retrieved 11 April 2018.
- Zahra Ali, Féminismes islamiques / Damien Simonin
- Islamic Femenism [Article by Dr. Margot Badran of Georgetown University]
- Re-defining Feminism/s, Re-imagining Faith? Margot Badran.
- Islamic Feminism [New World Encyclopedia]
- Academics from around globe assess state of feminism in Arab world [The Daily Star, Lebanon, 2009.]
- Dilemmas of Islamic and Secular Feminists and Feminisms [Journal of International Women’s Studies Vol. 9 #3 May 2008.]
- Women in Islam | International Association of Sufism.
- Dr Ziba Mir-Hosseini: What is Islamic Feminism - YouTube
- Gender Equity in Islam [islam101.com. Source: World Assembly of Muslim Youth]
- Egypt's feminists prepare for a long battle [Al Jazeera, 7 Feb 2012.]
- Female futures in the MENA region (Women have been actively participating in recent political protests in the Middle East and North Africa, and as a consequence, international audiences are becoming more aware of the discrimination women face. This blog discusses what roles these women might play in the rebuilding of future governance systems in the region.)
- In the wake of Arab spring [Article by Tayyibah Taylor from Azizah magaine.]
- Women and the Arab Spring: A Missed Opportunity? [2013]" March 2013, Friday / ÖZLEM MADİ, BİLKENT UNIVERSITY
- WOMEN AND PARTICIPATION IN THE ARAB UPRISING
- Arab Spring and Women's Rights
- Islamic feminism: what's in a name? [Al-Ahram Weekly Online, 17 - 23 January 2002.]
- Muslims Women’s Rights in the Global Village: Challenges and Opportunities [By Azizah Yahia al-Hibri, June 2010.]
- Real reform for women a must in Muslim world [The Australian, May 21, 2012.]
- The Course & Future of Islamic Feminism [Margot Badran is one of the most widely-known scholars of Islamic feminism. Reset DOC, 13 October 2010.]
- The Rise of the Islamic Feminists [The Nation, December 4, 2013.]
- Feminist critique and Islamic feminism: the question of intersectionality / Dr. Sara Salem © Copyright 2015 The Postcolonialist.
- Factbox-Women's rights in the Arab world Thomson Reuters Foundation - Tue, 12 Nov 2013. Links to many other interesting articles.
- How to challenge the patriarchal ethics of Muslim legal tradition 13 May 2013.
- Save the Muslim girl Article from Rethinking Schools, Volume 24 No. 2 - Winter 2009-10.
- Stolen voices of Muslim women April 26, 2005.
- Why do they hate us ? The real war on women is in the Middle East FP, 2012.
- Women in the Middle East: Progress or regress? The Middle East Review of International Affairs, Volume 10, No. 2, Article 2 - June 2006.
- “Steps of the Devil” : Denial of Women’s and Girls’ Rights to Sport in Saudi Arabia Human Rights Watch report on the ban on women's participation in sport in Saudi Arabia.
- *Democracy, women’s rights, and public opinion in Tunisia / Robert Brym & Robert Andersen.
- Islam's other half. What does Islamic feminism have to offer? Where does it come from? Where is it going? [https://www.theguardian.com]
- A Thousand Years of the Persian Book Women Writers ("A Thousand Years of the Persian Book" exhibition at the Library of Congress)
- Woman Life Freedom Movement: Iran 2022- 2023, Collection of Digital Artwork [iran protest movements - iran protest]
Literature. (Recommended Readings)
The Rise of the Islamic Feminists | The Nation [2013]
Is there such a thing as Islamic Feminism? / Ghulam Esposito Haydar (Islam21c.com)
Feminism and Islam: Legal and Literary Perspectives is the title of Saudi scholar Mai Yamani's 1996 book comprising the essays of a substantial number of women scholars who are articulating an emerging Islamic feminism. (Published for CIMEL by Ithaca Press, 1996).
Women Living Under Muslim Laws (WLUML) Dossiers
Women Living Under Muslim Laws (WLUML) Newsletters
Islamic Law & Law of the Muslim World eJournal
Feminism Inshallah : the story of Arab feminism. New York, NY : Woman Make Movies, [2014] Filmmaker and author Feriel Ben Mahmoud tracks the progress of Arab women in their long march to assert their full rights and achieve empowerment. 1 videodisc (52 min.) In Arabic and French subtitled in English. [@ Dean Room Videodisc 6065--Uris Library Hours/Map].
Contesting female, feminist and Muslim identities : post-socialist contexts of Bosnia and Herzegovina and Kosovo / edited by Zilka Spahic-Siljak. "Prepared in the framework of the Regional Research Promotion Programme in the Western Balkans (RRPP), which is run by the University of Fribourg upon a mandate of the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation, SDC, Federal Department of Foreign Affairs" Foreword / Margot Badran -- Introduction / Zilka Spahić-Šiljak -- Women and politics / Lamija Kosović and Zilka Spahić-Šiljak -- Feminisms and Islam / Zilka Spahić-Šiljak -- The contexts of BiH and Kosovo / Gorana Mlinarević, Jasmina Čaušević, Ardiana Gashi [and others] -- Being a woman / Zilka Spahić-Šiljak and Lamija Kosović -- Becoming a feminist? / Zilka Spahić-Šiljak -- Conclusion / Zilka Spahić-Šiljak.
Feminist Movements in Egypt. Throughout the world, there have been a variety of marches, protests, events, and movements to encourage women's rights. Whether it be for voting rights, reproductive rights, or professional rights, women and their allies have had to fight for their place. In this article, Arab America contributing writer, Carrie Stewart, discusses Egypt as the most active Arab country with feminist movements. Read more
EGYPTIAN STATE FEMINISM ON THE SILVER SCREEN: THE DEPICTION OF THE “NEW WOMAN” IN NASSERIST FILMS (1954-1967) / Maro Youssef
Social Movements, Protest and Contention by ISBN: 9780816678327Publication Date: 2011-01-01How feminists and Islamists have constituted each otherOCOs agendas in Morocco"- Sisters in the Mirror by
A crystal-clear account of the entangled history of Western and Muslim feminisms. Western feminists, pundits, and policymakers tend to portray the Muslim world as the last and most difficult frontier of global feminism. Challenging this view, Elora Shehabuddin presents a unique and engaging history of feminism as a story of colonial and postcolonial interactions between Western and Muslim societies. Muslim women, like other women around the world, have been engaged in their own struggles for generations: as individuals and in groups that include but also extend beyond their religious identity and religious practices. The modern and globally enmeshed Muslim world they navigate has often been at the weaker end of disparities of wealth and power, of processes of colonization and policies of war, economic sanctions, and Western feminist outreach. Importantly, Muslims have long constructed their own ideas about women's and men's lives in the West, with implications for how they articulate their feminist dreams for their own societies. Stretching from the eighteenth-century Enlightenment era to the War on Terror present, Sisters in the Mirror shows how changes in women's lives and feminist strategies have consistently reflected wider changes in national and global politics and economics. Muslim women, like non-Muslim women in various colonized societies and non-white and poor women in the West, have found themselves having to negotiate their demands for rights within other forms of struggle--for national independence or against occupation, racism, and economic inequality. Through stories of both well-known and relatively unknown figures, Shehabuddin recounts instances of conflict alongside those of empathy, collaboration, and solidarity across this extended period. Sisters in the Mirror is organized around stories of encounters between women and men from South Asia, Britain, and the United States that led them, as if they were looking in a mirror, to pause and reconsider norms in their own society, including cherished ideas about women's roles and rights. These intertwined stories confirm that nowhere, in either Western or Muslim societies, has material change in girls' and women's lives come easily or without protracted struggle.
ISBN: 9780520342514Publication Date: 2021-08-24
Politics of Piety by
Politics of Piety is a groundbreaking analysis of Islamist cultural politics through the ethnography of a thriving, grassroots women's piety movement in the mosques of Cairo, Egypt. Unlike those organized Islamist activities that seek to seize or transform the state, this is a moral reform movement whose orthodox practices are commonly viewed as inconsequential to Egypt's political landscape. Saba Mahmood's compelling exposition of these practices challenges this assumption by showing how the ethical and the political are indelibly linked within the context of such movements. Not only is this book a sensitive ethnography of a critical but largely ignored dimension of the Islamic revival, it is also an unflinching critique of the secular-liberal principles by which some people hold such movements to account. The book addresses three central questions: How do movements of moral reform help us rethink the normative liberal account of politics? How does the adherence of women to the patriarchal norms at the core of such movements parochialize key assumptions within feminist theory about freedom, agency, authority, and the human subject? How does a consideration of debates about embodied religious rituals among Islamists and their secular critics help us understand the conceptual relationship between bodily form and political imaginaries? Politics of Piety is essential reading for anyone interested in issues at the nexus of ethics and politics, embodiment and gender, and liberalism and postcolonialism.
ISBN: 9780691086958Publication Date: 2004-11-14
From Victims to Suspects by
Drawing on interviews and examples from across the globe, this book tackles the shifting narratives surrounding Muslim women Once regarded as passive victims waiting to be rescued, Muslim women are now widely regarded as arbiters of "terror" and a potential threat to be kept under control. Drawing on interviews and examples from around the world including Afghanistan, Pakistan, Europe, and North America, Shakira Hussein shows how this shift in attitude has taken place and how it impacts feminism, multiculturalism, race, and religion on a global scale. She argues that alongside the fear of Islamic terrorism is a growing fear of Islam as a cultural hazard that is undermining Western society from within. Muslim women, the transmitters of cultural practices, are frequently seen to play a key role in this. Hussein's work makes for a compelling read, offering a unique perspective on what it means to be a Muslim woman post-9/11.
ISBN: 9780300230420Publication Date: 2019-02-26
Narratives of Muslim Womanhood and Women's Agency by
Portrayals of Islamic teachings in mass media, often present Muslim women as victims of patriarchal norms. Often covered in a full veil, and without individuality, they tend to be depicted using a monochrome image, across Muslim countries and regions. It does not portray the social reality and expectations of Muslim women, which are in fact diverse and contextual. This book consists of articles that attempt to answer the question, are Muslim women merely passive objects in constructing their role, despite the spread of social media and the Internet, the increased demands of earning disposable income for their families, and their migration to non-Muslim countries around the world? It closely examines women¿s agency in negotiating their role in Muslim-majority societies and in new places of settlement (Australia). These articles analyse Muslim women¿s narratives in a wide range of economic, political, social and cultural milieu and their relationship to identity construction and portrayal in the new millennium. This volume was originally published as a special issue of Islam and Christian-Muslim Relations.
ISBN: 9781138560666Publication Date: 2017-11-30
Muslima Theology by
This pioneering volume defines the contours of the emerging engagements of Muslim women scholars from around the world with the authoritative interpretive traditions of Islam, classical and contemporary. Muslima theology, here broadly defined to encompass a range of interpretive strategies and perspectives arising from multiple social locations, interrogates Islamic scripture and other forms of religious discourse to empower Muslim women of faith to speak for themselves in the interests of gender justice. Contributions provide an overview of the field at this juncture-ranging from pioneering Muslim scriptural feminism to detailed analyses of legal and mystical texts by a new international cohort of Muslim women academics and activists. Contemporary female Muslim "constructivist" approaches articulate concerns with diversity, including race and religious pluralism, paralleling developments in womanist and mujerista readings of religious texts.
ISBN: 9783631628997Publication Date: 2013-07-10
A Genealogy of Islamic Feminism : pattern and change in Indonesia by
A Genealogy of Islamic Feminism offers a new insight on the changing relationship between Islam and feminism from the colonial era in the 1900s to the early 1990s in Indonesia. The book juxtaposes both colonial and postcolonial sites to show the changes and the patterns of the encounters between Islam and feminism within the global and local nexus. Global forces include Dutch colonialism, developmentalism, transnational feminism, and the United Nations¿ institutional bodies and their conferences. Local factors are comprised of women¿s movements, adat (customs), nationalism, the politics underlying the imposition of Pancasila ideology and maternal virtues, and variations of Islamic revivalism. Using a genealogical approach, the book examines the multifaceted encounters between Islam and feminism and attempts to rediscover egalitarianism in the Islamic tradition¿a concept which has been subjugated by hierarchical gender systems. The book also systematizes Muslim women¿s encounters with Islam and feminism into five phases: emancipation, association, development, integration, and proliferation eras. Each era discusses the confluence of global and local factors which shape the changing relationship between Islam and feminism and the way in which the discursive narrative of equality is debated and contextualized, progressing from biological determinism (kodrat) to the ethico-spiritual argument. Islamic feminism contributes to the rediscovery of Islam as the source of progress, the centering of women¿s agency through spiritual equality, and the reworking of the private and public spheres. This book will appeal to anyone with interest in international women¿s movements, interdisciplinary studies, cultural studies, women¿s studies, post-colonial studies, Islamic studies, and Asian studies.
Call Number: ASIA HQ1752 .A79 2018ISBN: 9781138723306Publication Date: 2018-03-29
Divine Words, Female Voices: Muslima explorations in comparative feminist theology by
The relationship between Islam and feminism is complex. There are many Muslim scholars who fervently promote women's equality. At the same time, there is ambivalence regarding the general norms, terminology, and approaches of feminism and feminist theology. This ambivalence is in large part aproduct of various hegemonic, androcentric, and patriarchal discourses that seek to dictate legitimate and authoritative interpretations. These discourses not only fuel ambivalence, they also effectively obscure valuable possibilities related to interreligious feminist engagement. Divine Words, Female Voices is the follow-up to Jerusha Lamptey's 2014 book, Never Wholly Other, in which she introduced the idea of "Muslima" theology and applied it to the topic of religious diversity. In this new book, she extends her earlier arguments to contend that interreligious feministengagement is both a theologically valid endeavor and a vital resource for Muslim women scholars. She introduces comparative feminist theology as a method for overcoming challenges associated with interreligious feminist engagement, reorients comparative discussions to focus on the two "DivineWords" (the Qur'an and Jesus) and feminist theology, and uses this reorientation to examine intersections, discontinuities, and insights related to diverse theological topics. This book is distinctive in its responsiveness to calls for new approaches in Islamic feminist theology, its use of themethod of comparative theology, its focus on Muslim and Christian feminist theology in comparative analysis, and its constructive articulation of Muslima theological perspectives.
ISBN: 9780190653378Publication Date: 2018-10-15
Contesting Female, Feminist and Muslim Identities: Post-socialist Contexts of Bosnia and Herzegovina and Kosovo by ISBN: 9958704293Publication Date: published by: Centre for Interdisciplinary Postgraduate Studies of the University of Sarajevo (CIPS)
Sexual Jihad the role of Islam in female terrorism by
Female terrorists are a rare phenomenon. Less than ten terrorist organizations throughout the world have women. These terrorist groups are either Marxist (atheist) or Jihadist in their ideologies. This book ascertains, "What is the role of Islam in female terrorism?" It explores the roles of women in eight jihadist case studies including: Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigade, the Chechen Separatists, Boko Haram, HAMAS, Hezbollah, ISIS, the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood, and Al Qaeda. Secondary sources and primary sources are used including research conducted on Palestinian women in Israeli prisons who have been convicted of terrorism. It is argued that are three roles for women in Jihadist terrorism: the disposable, the domestic, and the secretary. The theory posited in this book is that the role of women in terrorist groups is similar to their cultural/religious roles in society.
ISBN: 9781498557511Publication Date: 2019-06-15
Separate and Dominate by
An examination of how mainstream feminism has been mobilized in support of racist measures Feminist Christine Delphy co-founded the journal Nouvelles questions féministes with Simone de Beauvoir in the 1970s and became one of the most influential figures in French feminism. Today, Delphy remains a prominent and controversial feminist thinker, a rare public voice denouncing the racist motivations of the government's 2011 ban of the Muslim veil. Castigating humanitarian liberals for demanding the cultural assimilation of the women they are purporting to "save," Delphy shows how criminalizing Islam in the name of feminism is fundamentally paradoxical. Separate and Dominate is Delphy's manifesto, lambasting liberal hypocrisy and calling for a fluid understanding of political identity that does not place different political struggles in a false opposition. She dismantles the absurd claim that Afghanistan was invaded to save women, and that homosexuals and immigrants alike should reserve their self-expression for private settings. She calls for a true universalism that sacrifices no one at the expense of others. In the aftermath of the Charlie Hebdo massacre, her arguments appear more prescient and pressing than ever.
ISBN: 178168880XPublication Date: 2015-06-09
Beyond the Veil by
"Required reading... " --Elizabeth Fernea, The University of Texas at Austin "If a reader were to select only one book in order to gain insight into women's status and prospects in Islamic society, this study should be the one chosen for its clarity, honesty, depth of knowledge and thought-provoking qualities." --Arab Book World In this expanded and updated edition, with a new introduction on Muslim women and fundamentalism, Mernissi argues that Islamic fundamentalism is in part a defense against recent changes in sex roles and perceptions of sexual identity.
ISBN: 0253204232Publication Date: 1987-04-22
Women's Rebellion and Islamic Memory by
Chronicling ten years of research, this book presents a sustained analysis of the position of women in the world of contemporary Islam. The book first explores some of the concrete issues fundamental to the status of Muslim women, such as the production of statistics which mask women's contribution to the economies of the Arab States. The author also looks at a variety of demographics, including education and literacy. Mernissi shows their importance, not only for empowering women, but also for improving their health. She analyzes the role of the State in prescribing women's roles, activities and spheres, and explores the insidious consequences of state-supported inequality, not only for women but for the creative and spiritual life of a culture.
ISBN: 1856493970Publication Date: 1996-07-15
Dreams of Trespass by
”I was born in a harem in 1940 in Fez, Morocco...” So begins Fatima Mernissi in this exotic and rich narrative of a childhood behind the iron gates of a domestic harem. InDreams of Trespass, Mernissi weaves her own memories with the dreams and memories of the women who surrounded her in the courtyard of her youth--women who, deprived of access to the world outside, recreated it from sheer imagination.Dreams of Trespass is the provocative story of a girl confronting the mysteries of time and place, gender and sex in the recent Muslim world.
ISBN: 9780201489378Publication Date: 1995-09-04
Doing Daily Battle by
Interviews with Moroccan Women
ISBN: 9780813514185Publication Date: 1989-05-01
Secular and Islamic Feminist Critiques in the Work of Fatima Mernissi by
This book presents a detailed critical analysis of the work of Fatima Mernissi. Mernissi is considered to be one of the major figures in Feminist thought for both Morocco and Muslim society in general. This work discusses Mernissi's intellectual trajectory from 'secular' to 'Islamic' feminism in order to trace the evolution of so-called Islamic feminist theory. The book also engages critically with the work of other Muslim feminists, using frameworks and approaches developed in the works of Muslim reformist thinkers, namely Mohammad Arkoun and Nasr Abu Zaid, with the aim of engaging the theorization of this emerging feminism.
ISBN: 9789004176164Publication Date: 2009-10-30
Feminism and Islam by
In an age when Western feminism is continuously undergoing redefinition, the struggles of women in Muslim countries are often overlooked. This volume illustrates how women in Islamic societies have become more actively involved not only in learning their rights under the sharia (Islamic law) but in rereading this law to improve their status and gain increased equality and freedom. Surveying Iran, Saudi Arabia, Lebanon, Egypt and Arab societies in general, the essays in feminism and Islam focus on such subjects as crimes of honor and the construction of gender in Arab societies; law and the desire for social control; women ad entrepreneurship; family legislation; and the political strategies of feminists in the Islam world.
ISBN: 081479680XPublication Date: 1996-09-01
Debating Sharia by
When the Islamic Institute of Civil Justice announced it would begin offering Sharia-based services in Ontario, a subsequent provincial government review gave qualified support for religious arbitration. However, the ensuing debate inflamed the passions of a wide range of Muslim and non-Muslim groups, garnered worldwide attention, and led to a ban on religiously based family law arbitration in the province. Debating Sharia sheds light on how Ontario's Sharia debate of 2003-2006 exemplified contemporary concerns regarding religiosity in the public sphere and the place of Islam in Western nation states. Focusing on the legal ramifications of Sharia law in the context of rapidly changing Western liberal democracies, Debating Sharia approaches the issue from a variety of methodological perspectives, including policy and media analysis, fieldwork, feminist examinations of the portrayals of Muslim women, and theoretical examinations of religion, Sharia, and the law. This volume is an important read for those who grapple with ethnic and religio-cultural diversity while remaining committed to religious freedom and women's equality.
ISBN: 9781442642621Publication Date: 2012-05-11
Islamic Fundamentalism, Feminism, and Gender Inequality in Iran under Khomeini by ISBN: 0761823883Publication Date: 2002-09-10In this book, utilizing the case of Iran under Khomeini, the author analyzes the relationship between Islam, Islamic fundamentalism and gender inequality.
Gender in Judaism and Islam by
Jewish andIslamic histories have long been interrelated. Both traditions emerged fromancient cultures born in the Middle East and both are rooted in texts andtraditions that have often excluded women. At the same time, both groups haverecently seen a resurgence in religious orthodoxy among women, as well asgrowing feminist movements that challenge traditional religious structures. In theUnited States, Jews and Muslims operate as minority cultures, carving out aplace for religious and ethnic distinctiveness. The time is ripe for a volumethat explores the relationship between these two religions through the prism ofgender. Gender in Judaism and Islam brings togetherscholars working in the fields of Judaism and Islam to address a diverse rangeof topics, including gendered readings of texts, legal issues in marriage anddivorce, ritual practices, and women's literary expressionsand historical experiences, along with feminist influences within the Muslimand Jewish communities and issues affecting Jewish and Muslim women incontemporary society. Carefully crafted, including section introductions by theeditors to highlight big picture insights offered by the contributors, thevolume focuses attention on the theoretical innovations that gender scholarshiphas brought to the study of Muslim and Jewish experiences.At a timewhen Judaism and Islam are often discussed as though they were inherently atodds, this book offers a much-needed reconsideration of the connections andcommonalties between these two traditions. It offers new insights into each ofthese cultures and invites comparative perspectives that deepen ourunderstanding of both Islam and Judaism.
ISBN: 9781479853267Publication Date: 2014-12-05
Feminism in Islam by
While many in the West regard feminism and Islam as a contradiction in terms, many Muslims in the East have perceived Western feminist forces in their midst as an assault upon their culture. In this career-spanning collection of influential essays, Margot Badran presents the feminisms that Muslim women have created, and examines Islamic and secular feminist ideologies side by side. Borne out of over two decades of work, this important volume combines essays from a variety of sources, ranging from those which originated as conference papers to those published in the popular press. Also including original material written specifically for this book, Feminism and Islam provides a unique and wide-ranging contribution to the field of Islam and gender studies. Margot Badran is a Senior Fellow at the Center for Muslim Christian Understanding, Georgetown University, US. She is currently Edith Kreeger Wolf Distinguished Visiting Professor in the Department of Religion, Northwestern University, US. She is the author of Feminists, Islam and Nation: Gender and the Making of Modern Egypt
ISBN: 9781851685561Publication Date: 2009-02-01
Voices and Veils by
In recent years, the figure of the Muslim Woman has loomed large over mainstream feminist debate in France. Cast alternately as a Frenchwoman-in-the-making or a veiled threat, the Muslim Woman has become emblematic of France's relationship to those identified as its cultural others. But throughout these debates, and in spite of their scale and passion, one view has been glaringly absent: the view of French Muslim women themselves.Drawing on sociological, polemical and literary writings, this thoughtful and wide-ranging study examines the unacknowledged colonial roots of French feminist discourses on Islam and femininity, before bringing to light examples of French Muslim women's writing and activism that suggest alternative ways of being both French and a feminist.Shortlisted for the 2012 Gapper Prize, awarded annually by the Society for French Studies for the best book of its year by a scholar working in French studies in Britain or Ireland.
ISBN: 9781906540265Publication Date: 2010-09-10
Liberating Shahrazad by
Shahrazad, the legendary fictional storyteller who spun the tales of the 1,001 Arabian Nights, has long been rendered as a silent exotic beauty by Western film and fiction adaptations. Now, she talks back to present a new image of Muslim women. In Liberating Shahrazad, Suzanne Gauch analyzes how postcolonial writers and filmmakers from Algeria, Morocco, and Tunisia have reclaimed the storyteller in order to portray Muslim women in ways that highlight their power to shape their own destinies. Gauch looks at Maghrebian works that incorporate Shahrazad's storytelling techniques into unexpected and unforeseen narratives. Highlighting the fluid nature of storytelling, Gauch demonstrates how these new depictions of Shahrazad--from artists such as Moufida Tlatli, Fatima Mernissi, Tahar Ben Jelloun, Assia Djebar, Leïla Sebbar--navigate the demands of a global marketplace, even as they reshape the stories told about the Islamic world. In the face of both rising fundamentalism and proliferating Western media representations of Arab and Muslim women as silent, exploited, and uneducated victims, Gauch establishes how contemporary works of literature and film revive the voice of a long-silenced Shahrazad--and, ultimately, overthrow oppressive images of Muslim women. Suzanne Gauch is assistant professor of English and women's studies at Temple University.
Call Number: Olin Library PJ7519.W66 G384 2007ISBN: 0816648832Publication Date: 2006-12-07
Contemporary Arab Thought by
During the second half of the twentieth century, the Arab intellectual and political scene polarized between a search for totalizing doctrines--nationalist, Marxist, and religious--and radical critique. Arab thinkers were reacting to the disenchanting experience of postindependence Arab states, as well as to authoritarianism, intolerance, and failed development. They were also responding to successive defeats by Israel, humiliation, and injustice. The first book to take stock of these critical responses, this volume illuminates the relationship between cultural and political critique in the work of major Arab thinkers, and it connects Arab debates on cultural malaise, identity, and authenticity to the postcolonial issues of Latin America and Africa, revealing the shared struggles of different regions and various Arab concerns.
ISBN: 9780231144889Publication Date: 2009-11-19
For More Titles: Feminism Islam * Feminism & Islam
Featured Resources
- Middle East Women's Activism Digital archive is a collection of interviews with women of different generations in Egypt, Jordan etc. as well as maps.
- Woman, Life, Freedom Movement of Iran web archive. This web archive preserves material on, about, and from the Woman, Life, Freedom movement of Iran, which emerged in the wake of the 2022 police killing of Mahsa Jîna Amini. Her arrest by the morality police, on alleged grounds of non-compliance with the compulsory Hijab Law, ignited a series of protests that began in Kurdistan, spread across all levels of Iranian society, and reached other marginalized regions like Sistan-Baluchistan. This movement garnered international solidarity, with the Iranian diaspora and global activists demanding accountability from the Iranian government.
- "Men and Women's Rights in Islam: Equal or Equally Balanced?". www.call-to-monotheism.com.
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Women Living under Muslim Law an international solidarity network that provides information, support and a collective space for women whose lives are shaped, conditioned or governed by laws and customs said to derive from Islam.
- The reality and future of Islamic feminism : What constitutes an "Islamic feminism", and where is it headed? [Report and videos from Al Jazeera, January 2013.]
- I Can Be : Islam & Feminism [ [This resource explores the relationship between Islam and feminism from both an historical perspective and through the diverse lives of Muslim women today.]
- Islamic Feminism - Center for the Humanities
- A Thousand Years of the Persian Book Women Writers ("A Thousand Years of the Persian Book" exhibition at the Library of Congress)
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Feminist Movements in Egypt. Throughout the world, there have been a variety of marches, protests, events, and movements to encourage women's rights. Whether it be for voting rights, reproductive rights, or professional rights, women and their allies have had to fight for their place. In this article, Arab America contributing writer, Carrie Stewart, discusses Egypt as the most active Arab country with feminist movements. Read more
Controversies (issues & persons)
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The Women Bringing Sex Ed to the Arab World / The New York Times Thursday, November 18, 2021. Activists are using social media to do what Arab countries have failed to do: teach women about their bodies. They’re aiming for a cultural awakening.
- Why Muslim Feminists Aren't Celebrating Hirsi Ali.
- Ayaan Hirsi Ali: Enlightened intolerance | The Economist Apr 16, 2014
- Why Ayaan Hirsi Ali’s Criticism of Islam Angers Western Liberals
- "ayaa hirsi ali" www.loonwatch.com
- Ayaan Hirsi Ali - Harvard - Belfer Center
Islam & Feminism (Video/Streaming)
Islamic feminism | Malika Hamidi | TEDxFlandersSalon
This talk was given at a local TEDx event, produced independently of the TED Conferences. Islamic Feminism