About this guide
Welcome to your Cornell University Library research guide: Women in Islam!
Here you will find general background and also in-depth information sources on a broad range of topics covering women’s issues in Islam and the Muslim World. Click on the tabs above for links to resources and specific information on the religion and its ideology dealing with issues such as feminism, dress code, family and marriage, women’s legal status, etc. This Guide aims to provide links to selected sources, which offer diverse, objective, balanced and rational perspectives of the topics. Your first point of contact with these resources should be the Library Discovery Tool (online catalog). This is where you will find information on all types of materials and how to get them. You will also find information on your loans, opening hours, and subject specialists who can answer your questions.
Disclaimer of Endorsement: The University does not necessarily agree with assertions and opinions expressed in the resources listed in this guide. These are provided for the researcher to discover, contrast and compare.
Terms & Concepts
What is Islam? Check the Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary for a definition and the Encyclopedia Britannica for information on the history, principles and practices of Islam.
Sunnis and Shia: Islam's ancient schism - BBC, UK.
Crescent (symbol of Islam) WHAT is the origin of the crescent moon symbol seen throughout Islamic cultures? Source: theguardian.com
Islam - Muslim - Moslem - Islamist
Islam vs Muslim: When and why do we use the different terms?
Muslim vs Moslem: Why do people say Muslim now instead of Moslem?
'Muslim' vs 'Islamic' - DAWN.COM
Muslims vs. Islamists Washington Institute for Near East Policy.
Ten Things Everyone Needs to Know about Islam - Excerpts from Esposito, John L. What Everyone Needs to Know About Islam. New York, NY: Oxford University Press, 2002.
Critical Concepts in Islamic Studies - Taylor & Francis Concepts in Islamic Studies series spans a number of subject areas that are closely linked to the religion.
Intro to Islam Research Paper Lynette White, Jessica Alsobrooks, et al.
Women's Rights
Do Muslim Women Need Saving? by
Frequent reports of honor killings, disfigurement, and sensational abuse have given rise to a consensus in the West, a message propagated by human rights groups and the media: Muslim women need to be rescued. Lila Abu-Lughod boldly challenges this conclusion. An anthropologist who has been writing about Arab women for thirty years, she delves into the predicaments of Muslim women today, questioning whether generalizations about Islamic culture can explain the hardships these women face and asking what motivates particular individuals and institutions to promote their rights. In recent years Abu-Lughod has struggled to reconcile the popular image of women victimized by Islam with the complex women she has known through her research in various communities in the Muslim world. Here, she renders that divide vivid by presenting detailed vignettes of the lives of ordinary Muslim women, and showing that the problem of gender inequality cannot be laid at the feet of religion alone. Poverty and authoritarianism--conditions not unique to the Islamic world, and produced out of global interconnections that implicate the West--are often more decisive. The standard Western vocabulary of oppression, choice, and freedom is too blunt to describe these women's lives. Do Muslim Women Need Saving? is an indictment of a mindset that has justified all manner of foreign interference, including military invasion, in the name of rescuing women from Islam--as well as a moving portrait of women's actual experiences, and of the contingencies with which they live.
Call Number: Olin HQ1170 .A346 2013ISBN: 9780674725164Publication Date: 2013-11-12
Qur'an of the Oppressed by
This study analyses the commentaries of four Muslim intellectuals who have turned to scripture as a liberating text to confront an array of problems, from patriarchy, racism, and empire to poverty and interreligious communal violence. Shadaab Rahemtulla considers the exegeses of the SouthAfrican Farid Esack (b. 1956), the Indian Asghar Ali Engineer (1939-2013), the African American Amina Wadud (b. 1952), and the Pakistani American Asma Barlas (b. 1950). Rahemtulla examines how these intellectuals have been able to expound this seventh-century Arabian text in a socially liberatingway, addressing their own lived realities of oppression, and thus contexts that are worlds removed from that of the text's immediate audience. Through a close reading of their works, he underlines the importance of both the ethico-social content of the Qur'an and their usage of new and innovativereading practices.This work provides a rich analysis of the thought-ways of specific Muslim intellectuals, thereby substantiating a broadly framed school of thought. Rahemtulla draws out their specific and general importance without displaying an uncritical sympathy. He sheds light on the impact of modern exegeticalcommentary which is more self-consciously concerned with historical context and present realities. In a mutually reinforcing way, this work thus illuminates both the role of agency and hermeneutical approaches in modern Islamic thought.
Call Number: olin BP173.7.R29 2017ISBN: 9780198796480Publication Date: 2017-04-16
Women, Gender, Islam and Feminism | Source: Encyclopedia of Women & Islamic Cultures
The Rise of the Islamic Feminists | Source: The Nation
The reality and future of Islamic feminism | Source: Al Jazeera English
Muslim Women's Quest for Equality: Between Islamic Law and Feminism | Source: Critical Inquiry 32 (Summer 2006) 2006 by The University of Chicago [pdf]
“The Secret Slaves of the Middle East”
The story of how poverty leads unprivileged women from developing countries to be deceived and trafficked into slavery.
Questions?
Women in Islam: Introduction to the Topic
This guide highlights resources that are part of the discourse on Islam and women, including some that are useful for background information and others that provide research, analyses and opinions considering various social, political, historical and cultural frameworks. The scope encompasses women and Islamic cultures in every region where there have been significant Muslim populations. “Islam” comprises close to half of all Africans, one-third of Asians and growing numbers of Europeans and Americans, representing a wide diversity of cultures, races, ethnicities and languages.
In Muslim majority countries, where Islamic beliefs and cultures are prevalent, complex relationships between women and Islam are generally defined and influenced by Islamic texts, as well as by the historical, cultural and social contexts.
It is often difficulty to draw a clear delineation in attempting to identify what is a culture-bound custom and what is truly an Islamic provision as found in the canons of the Qur’an (Oxford ISO), Islam’s holy book.
An examination of roles established both for and by Muslim women relies on Islam’s foundational sources.
Historically, the interpretation of Islam has been largely a male endeavor. Although the first convert to Islam was a woman (Muhammad's first wife, Khadijah), and women played an important role in the transmission of Hadith (transmission of prophetic sayings and deeds) and the development of Sufism.
For Muslim women there are four legal sources of influence (in matters of personal law): The first two, the Qur’an and Hadith, are considered primary sources, while the other two are secondary and derived sources that differ between various Muslim schools of legal thought. The secondary sources of influence include Qiyas(deduction of legal prescriptions), Ijma'(consensus or agreement) and, in forms such as Ijtihad“independent reasoning,” as opposed to Taqlid(imitation) and Fatwa(authoritative legal opinion given by a mufti or legal scholar). [More: On the Sources of Islamic Law and Practices Journal of Law and Religion].
Use, by country, of Sharia for legal matters relating to women:
Sharia plays no role in the judicial system
Sharia applies to Muslims in personal status issues only
Sharia applies in full, including criminal law
Regional variations in the application of sharia
@2013 Freedom House world map.svg
'Women in Islam’ is an issue that engenders widely varying opinions, interpretations and beliefs. Literature on this subject should be used with caution, as sources, especially on the Internet, range in authority and quality from rigorous research to deliberate misinformation.
Great women in Islamic History: a forgotten legacy - FUNCI
World Hijab Day Organization, Inc. (Non-Profit)
Spotlights*Current Interest Topics
The Making of a Salafi Muslim Woman by
The spread of Salafism - often called "Wahhabism" - in the West has intrigued and alarmed observers since 9/11. Many see it as a fundamentalist interpretation of Islam that subjugates women and fuels Jihadist extremism. According to this view, Salafi women are the unwilling victims of apatriarchal, fanatical version of Islam. Yet, in Britain, growing numbers of educated women - often converts or from less conservative Muslim backgrounds - are actively choosing to embrace Salafism's literalist beliefs and strict guidelines, including full veiling, wifely obedience, and seclusionfrom non-related men. How do these young women reconcile these demands with their desire for fulfilling careers, university degrees and suitable husbands? How do their beliefs affect their love lives and other relationships? And why do they become Salafis in the first place?Anabel Inge has gained unprecedented access to Salafi women's groups in the UK to provide the first in-depth and vivid account of their lives. Drawing on more than two years of ethnographic fieldwork and interviews in London, she probes the reasons for Salafism's appeal among young Somalis,Afro-Caribbean converts, and women from other backgrounds. She also reveals how the women's lives are fraught with personal dilemmas. This ground-breaking, lucid, and richly detailed contribution will be of interest to policy-makers, journalists, scholars, and general readers.
Call Number: olin BP195.S18 I54 2016ISBN: 9780190611675Publication Date: 2016-10-11
Rebellious Wives, Neglectful Husbands: Controversies in Modern Qur'anic Commentaries by
Rebellious Wives, Neglectful Husbands brings into conversation the distinct fields of tafsīr (Qur'anic exegesis) studies and women's studies by exploring significant shifts in modern Qur'anic commentaries on the subject of women. Hadia Mubarak places three of the most influential, Sunni Qur'anic commentaries in the twentieth century- Tafsīr al-Manār, Fī Zilāl al-Qur'an, and al-Tahrīr wa'l-Tanwīr - against the backdrop of broader historical, intellectual, and political developments in modern North Africa. Mubarak illustrates the ways in which colonialism, nationalism, and modernization set into motion new ways of engaging with the subject of women in the Qur'an. Focusing her analysis on Qur'anic commentaries as a scholarly genre, Mubarak offers a critical and comparative analysis of these three modern commentaries with seven medieval commentaries, spanning from the ninth to fourteenth centuries, on verses dealing with neglectful husbands (4:128), rebellious wives (4:34), polygyny (4:3), and divorce (2:228). In contrast to assessments of the exegetical tradition as monolithically patriarchal, this book captures a medieval and modern tafsīr tradition with pluralistic, complex, and evolving interpretations of women and gender in the Qur'an. Rather than pit a seemingly egalitarian Qur'an against an allegedly patriarchal exegetical tradition, Mubarak affirms the need for a critical engagement with tafsīr studies among scholars concerned with women and gender in Islam. Mubarak argues that the capacity to bring new meanings to bear on the Qur'an is not only an intellectually viable one but inherent to the exegetical tradition.
ISBN: 9780197553305Publication Date: 2022-05-06
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- Qur'an of the Oppressed by
This study analyses the commentaries of four Muslim intellectuals who have turned to scripture as a liberating text to confront an array of problems, from patriarchy, racism, and empire to poverty and interreligious communal violence. Shadaab Rahemtulla considers the exegeses of the SouthAfrican Farid Esack (b. 1956), the Indian Asghar Ali Engineer (1939-2013), the African American Amina Wadud (b. 1952), and the Pakistani American Asma Barlas (b. 1950). Rahemtulla examines how these intellectuals have been able to expound this seventh-century Arabian text in a socially liberatingway, addressing their own lived realities of oppression, and thus contexts that are worlds removed from that of the text's immediate audience. Through a close reading of their works, he underlines the importance of both the ethico-social content of the Qur'an and their usage of new and innovativereading practices.This work provides a rich analysis of the thought-ways of specific Muslim intellectuals, thereby substantiating a broadly framed school of thought. Rahemtulla draws out their specific and general importance without displaying an uncritical sympathy. He sheds light on the impact of modern exegeticalcommentary which is more self-consciously concerned with historical context and present realities. In a mutually reinforcing way, this work thus illuminates both the role of agency and hermeneutical approaches in modern Islamic thought.
Call Number: olin BP173.7.R29 2017ISBN: 9780198796480Publication Date: 2017-04-16
The Unforgettable Queens of Islam : Succession, Authority, Gender by
In this landmark study, Shahla Haeri offers the extraordinary biographies of several Muslim women rulers and leaders who reached the apex of political systems of their times. Their stories illuminate the complex and challenging imperatives of dynastic succession, electoral competition and the stunning success they achieved in medieval Yemen and India, and modern Pakistan and Indonesia. The written history of Islam and the Muslim world is overwhelmingly masculine, having largely ignored women and their contributions until well into the 20th century. Religious and legal justifications have been systematically invoked to justify Muslim women's banishment from politics and public domains. Yet this patriarchal domination has not gone on without serious challenges by women - sporadic and exceptional though their participation in the battle of succession has been. The Unforgettable Queens of Islam highlights lives and legacies of a number of charismatic women engaged in fierce battles of succession, and their stories offer striking insights into the workings of political power in the Muslim world.
ISBN: 9781107554894Publication Date: 2020-03-26
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
America’s most famous statue was Muslim [woman] before she became Lady Liberty
- Articles on Muslim women[The Conversation US]
- The forgotten women who helped to build British Islam
- Harlem’s Muslim History Is ‘Being Erased.’ She’s Trying to Keep It Alive.Many of the sites are gone or have been transformed, but one woman offers tours to help preserve a legacy at risk of being forgotten.
Women Living under Muslim Law WLUML is 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.
Olin Library BP190.5.S4 U46 2017
Why Does China Have Women-only Mosques? / Michael Wood (WORLD RELIGION NEWS - 28 Jun 2017)
Voices above the chaos: female war poets from the Middle East.The carnage in Turkey and Syria has led to a blossoming of poetry – with women at the forefront. Here, two of them, one Syrian and one Kurdish, tell their stories.
Women lead Friday prayers at Denmark's first female-run mosque
China's proud 300-year history of female-led mosques
Reinventing Moroccan Traditions: Women in Tbourida
Iran's Narges Mohammadi wins 2023 Nobel Peace Prize
Featured. New/Current Interest Themes
A video of a woman in a skirt sparks outrage in Saudi Arabia
After the video appeared on Snapchat, some Saudis called for the woman's arrest because her skirt stops above her knees and she is wearing a top that shows her midriff.
“Zan – Zendegi – Azadi”
“Woman – Life – Freedom”
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.
Saudi Arabia women hail end of driving ban - BBC News [27 Oct., 2017]
al-Sādis min Nūfimbir, al-marʼah wa-qiyādat al-sayyārah, 1990 M / ʻĀʼishah Muḥammad ʻAbd Allāh al-Māniʻ, Ḥiṣṣah Muḥammad ʻAbd al-Raḥmān Āl al-Shaykh.[6 November 1990 : Woman & driving * A book (Arabic) about the first women's protests for the right to drive, includes many documents]
[Also: Joyriding in Riyadh by Pascal Menoret]
Great women in Islamic History: a forgotten legacy - FUNCI
An Early Feminist: Al-Kahina, 7th Century North African Queen--Fact or Fancy?
Meet the Woman Who Outsmarted Boko Haram:A Nigerian woman kidnapped by extremists tells “The Weekly” how she resisted their attempts to make her a suicide bomber. Watch tonight at 10/9c on FX.
Women of the Islamic State : Amanifestoon womenby the AlKhanssaaBrigade/Translation and analysis by Charlie Winter
The Chief Eunuch of the Ottoman Harem by
Eunuchs were a common feature of pre- and early modern societies that are now poorly understood. Here, Jane Hathaway offers an in-depth study of the chief of the African eunuchs who guarded the harem of the Ottoman Empire. A wide range of primary sources are used to analyze the Chief Eunuch's origins in East Africa and his political, economic, and religious role from the inception of his office in the late sixteenth century through the dismantling of the palace harem in the early twentieth century. Hathaway highlights the origins of the institution and how the role of eunuchs developed in East Africa, as well as exploring the Chief Eunuch's connections to Egypt and Medina. By tracing the evolution of the office, we see how the Chief Eunuch's functions changed in response to transformations in Ottoman society, from the generalized crisis of the seventeenth century to the westernizing reforms of the nineteenth century.
ISBN: 9781107108295Publication Date: 2018-08-31
Middle East & Islamic Studies Curator
Contact:
174 Kroch Library
Cornell University
Ithaca, NY, 14853
USA
ah16@cornell.edu
(607) 254-1614
Website * Middle East & Islam * Kroch Library, Division of Asia Collections