The Women of Karbala Ritual Performances and Symbolic Discourses in Modern Shi`i Islam by Kamran Scot Aghaie, ed. (Austin: University of Texas Press, 2005. 304 pages.)

Abstract

This beautifully produced work provides a gendered reading of the centrality
of the Karbala commemorations among Shi`i communities. There is
a strong Persian(ate) bias in the selections (only two papers really deal with
practices in an Arab context). However, it represents the maturity of the state
of Shi`i studies, having moved beyond the sensationalism of political obsessions
following the Iranian revolution of 1979 and the textually based
Orientalism of an earlier generation to considerations of actual practices,
performances, understanding of texts, and enactments of doctrines. The Women of Karbala is a significant contribution to the study of Shi`i
Islam in practice. Most of the papers are based on anthropological fieldwork
in majoritarian communities. The collection could have benefited from some
more historical studies (there are two studies on the Qajar period), textual
studies, and examinations of Arab communities, as well as the increasing
significance of the Shi`i diasporic communities in Europe and North America
(one paper does nod in that direction). Another feature that would have
enhanced the collection would be to interpret Shi`i more widely. For example,
there is one paper on Bohra practices but none on the Zaydis and recent
developments in the Yemeni highlands that have made Shi`i commemorations
critical junctures of conflict ...