Shattering the Stereotypes Muslim Women Speak Out by Fawzia Afzal-Khan, ed. (Northampton, MA: Olive Branch Press, 2005. 338 pages.)

Abstract

Ever since the West’s initial contact with the East, Muslim women have
occupied center stage as highly politicized subjects who the West has
claimed to liberate from the oppressive East and who the East has claimed
to protect from the hedonistic West. Despite their central role as pawns in
this political struggle, women have been strikingly silent subjects. This
book belongs to an emerging collection of books that seek to give voice to
these silent subjects. Nawal El Saadawi, in her emotionally charged
“Foreword,” captures the book’s tone quite well in her expression that “the
personal is political” (p. x). Through personal stories, this anthology seeks
to dissociate Islam from both terrorism and the oppression of women.
Fawzia Afzal-Khan’s anecdotal introduction reveals that her goal is
twofold: first, to connect various strands of conversation between Muslim
American women from different backgrounds since 9/11, and, second, to
enlighten both Muslim and non-Muslim readers of the varied realities of the
“Muslim Woman.”
This anthology is divided into six sections. Section 1, “Non-Fiction,”
contains several personal accounts of Muslim American women’s encounters
with 9/11. In her piece “Unholy Alliances,” Afzal-Khan vents her frustration
on several targets, including Israel, American foreign policy, Salman
Rushdie, women who choose to wear the hijab, as well as the Montclair
University Muslim Students’ Association and the Global Studies Institute.
Nadia Ali Maiwandi, Zohra Saed, and Wajma Ahmady reflect on the
responses they encountered and experienced amidst the Afghan-American
community in the aftermath of 9/11. Eisa Nefertari Ulen’s genuinely tolerant
article encourages Muslim and non-Muslim women to work together.
Writing from her perspective as an African-American convert, she identifies
issues of gender and religion as mere smokescreens used by the “oppressor”
to separate women (p. 50). Humera Afridi’s witty and refreshing work functions
as a social commentary on the climate of New York City after the 9/11
attacks. One of the most edifying pieces is Rabab Abdulhadi’s “Where is
Home?” This piece, written as a series of journal entries, captures the struggles
of identity faced by an exiled Palestinian woman as she tries to make a
home in New York City in the aftermath of 9/11 ...