Feminism and Islam: Legal and Literary Perspectives [Paperback]

Mai Yamani (Editor)

Book Description

Publication Date: December 1, 1996 | ISBN-10: 0814796818 | ISBN-13: 978-0814796818

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.

Editorial Reviews

Review

'the fusion of ... the legal and the literary, has a way of forcefully opening one's eyes to some of the horrendous realities that some women face daily in the Muslim world' Middle East 'a highly recommended read' East Magazine --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

About the Author

The first Saudi Arabian woman to ean a docorate from Oxford, Mai Yamani is Research associate at the Center of Ixlamic and Middle Eastern law at the School of oriental and African Studies of the University of London.

Product Details

• Paperback: 392 pages
• Publisher: NYU Press (December 1, 1996)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0814796818
• ISBN-13: 978-0814796818
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,550,740 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Islamic Feminism 1990s, March 21, 2010

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William Garrison Jr. (Bellevue, WA United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Feminism and Islam: Legal and Literary Perspectives (Paperback)

"Feminism and Islam" edited by Mai Yamani "the first Saudi Arabian woman to earn a doctorate degree from Oxford." Chapter titles include: "Entrepreneurial Women In Egypt"; "Law and the Desire for Social Control: An Insight into the Hanafi Concept of Kafa'a with Reference to the Fatawa Alamgiri (1664-1672)"[equality in marriage: Kafa'a]; "Women, Islam and Patriarchalism in Morocco" [sexual segregation, female abuses 1980s]; "Women in Islamic law" [kinship; sharia; muhsinat; qawwamun; polygamy]; " The Political Agendas and Textual Strategies of Levantine Women Writers" [since 1850s, novels; al-Sabbar; PLO; Hamidah Na'na]; "Crimes of Honour and the Construction of Gender in Arab Societies" ; "Islam and Feminism: An Analysis of Political Strategies" [Iran 1980s]; "The Mythology of Modernity: Women and Democracy in Lebanon" [1980s decline]; "Gulf Women and Islamic Law" [Egyptian Abdul-Halim Abu Shaqqa 1980s]; "Some Observations on Women in Saudi Arabia" [the veil, segregation, commercial law]; " A Feminist Reading of the Sharia in Post-Khomeini Iran" ; "Islamic Family Legislation" [divorce, motherhood rights]. The main shortcoming of these articles is that they tend to be short, and therefore tend to be briefly `generic' in their pro-feminist perspectives. Most of the articles refer to tradition as noted in the ahadith, but there is no extensive in-depth analysis of any particular topic between the various religious-law schools. But this is a useful book in beginning to understand the complaints by Muslim women as to how they believe Islamic ahadith have been `improperly' interpreted in curtailing the rights of women in having greater freedom - whether that be political, social, or economic - but I saw no discussion as to how women should have some new rights in influencing Islamic religious thinking.