Gender, Politics and Islam By Therese Saliba, Carolyn Allen, Judith A. Howard, eds. (Chicago and London: University of Chicago Press, 2002. 354 pages.)

Abstract

Though women’s studies and Islamic studies have not often met in scholarly
discourse, Gender, Politics and Islam is evidence that they should. This
book is a testament to the breadth and quality of scholarship in Muslim
women’s studies. All of its articles originally appeared in Signs: Journal of
Women in Culture and Society, of which Therese Saliba, Carolyn Allen, and
Judith A. Howard, previously served as editors and associate editors.
Saliba’s competent introduction summarizes the articles and promptly
debunks simplistic understandings of Muslim women and their lives, and highlights their diverse and complex engagements with religion, politics,
society, and culture. Not only does this introduction speak for and to
nuanced understandings of Islam and Muslims, it also links feminist struggles
transnationally and explicitly positions itself against the exceptionalism
of Muslim women.
Although all nine chapters were previously published, this volume
merits separate publication for several reasons. First, it promotes good
scholarship on Muslim women. Second, it undoubtedly will reach a larger
audience as a collection than as individual articles. This audience includes
not only those outside academia, but also academics who might not normally
read specialized women’s studies journals – many in the field of
Islamic studies, traditionally defined, for example. Moreover, the book
could be used effectively in teaching Islamic studies and women’s studies;
indeed, some of its articles are already being used this way. Though the
articles were not written for a general audience, many could easily appeal
to the interested nonspecialist.
Finally, these serious, scholarly essays complement each other and represent
a breadth of disciplinary approaches (e.g., literary studies, sociology,
history, anthropology, and political science), geographical regions (e.g.,
Iran, Pakistan, Palestine, Lebanon, Yemen, Bangladesh, and Canada), and
issues (e.g., legal rights, religious rituals, political empowerment, reception
politics, and Islamic feminism, among many others). Despite this breadth,
each essay speaks extremely well to at least several others and highlights
Muslim women’s strategies and practices of crafting spaces for action and
engagement in politics and society.
Valentine Moghadem’s “Islamic Feminism and its Discontents:
Towards a Resolution of the Debate” provides an overview of Iranian
women’s many contrasting positions in relation to their rights in the
Islamic Republic. She also draws useful comparisons between U.S. liberal
feminists and Iranian Islamic feminists, thereby providing an analysis
of current trends, issues, and debates. “The Politics of Feminism in
Islam,” by Anouar Majid, continues this inquiry into women crafting a
feminist theory and practice that engages Islam. Like Moghadem, he sees
a positive side to Iran’s Islamic feminist movement, as it resists “the
effects of global capitalism and contributes to a rich egalitarian polycentric
world” (p. 87) ...