Customer Reviews

Windows of Faith: Muslim Women's Scholarship Activism in the United States (Women & Gender in North American Religions)

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Muslim women are one of the most misunderstood and misinterpreted groups of people in the western world. This book offers a refreshingly realistic view by Muslim women themselves. It is a candid and honest analysis by an eclectic mix of professionals. They tackle issues from birth control, spirituality, culture versus religion, identity, and more. These essays will educate and enlighten anyone seeking true information about a religion that has been demonized and women who have been blanketly labeled oppressed.

Contrary to one reviewer who is obviously not a Muslim woman therefore is lacking in empirical data nor is that person an Islamic scholar. In Iran there are more women in parliament than there are women in the US Senate and Congress combined. Muslim women are equal to Muslim men in intellect, soul, work, etc. This is Islam. This person relies on a weak hadith and does not know the difference between Islam and culture that has been superimposed onto Islam. Why in the home of the free are so many minds imprisoned and simply parrots of the media? For those who are not blind, read this book and learn.

It is not useful to debate here whether this book is "Islamic enough" or whether Muslim women are oppressed in other countries. This book is a collection of articles by Muslim scholars in North America who are working to bring an alternative understanding of what Islam means in women's lives. It is not about what should be or what is in other places, it is about what is happening within a group of scholars in North America. And it does a good job of summarizing their scholarship, which in many ways is groundbreaking in the study of Islamic law and texts.

In the Introduction to this 2000 book, editor Gisela Webb writes, "The purpose of this book is to give evidence of, and voice to, the diversity of expressions that constitutes contemporary Muslim women's scholarship and activism in the United States. What makes this collection of essays unique and of critical importance in understanding the current situation of Muslim women's studies in America can be understood by looking at the genesis, methodology, and goals of this volume. In summary, these women's writings can be seen as the product of the gradual but steady emergence of a movement among many---perhaps a critical mass of---Muslim women who insist that their religious self-identity not be dismissed and that, in fact, it be affirmed in the midst of their acknowledgement of and strivings toward solving what they see as serious problems that have faced and continue to face women in both Muslim and non-Muslim societies and communities around the world."

Here are some quotations from the book:

"The absence of the female voice with regard to the Qur'an has severely affected the very notions many Muslims hold of the Creator and, consequently, of the notion they have about the purpose and role of humankind in creation." (Pg. 13)
"Women did not fare as well in the commentaries on the Qur'an, all written by male writers. The commentaries are very important, for they are part of the jurist's reference in explaining the legal aspects of the verses of the Qur'an." (Pg. 82)
"In the spring of 1995, the grand shiekh of al-Ahzar issued a religious ruling stating that female genital mutilation is 'a duty on every Muslim woman,' arguing that the ritual checks a woman's sexual drive and, thus, makes her more virtuous. The law on banning female circumcision, which thousands of women worked to have introduced into their legislative process, was supported by Egypt's ministers of population and justice. None, however, chose to discredit publicly the grand shiekh's views." (Pg. 219)

Muslim women in America enjoy the intellectual and personal freedom to "invent" their own Islam, to remake their tradition into something a little less oppressive.
Make no mistake about it, Mohammed was quoted in the Bukhari Hadith as stating that "women are deficient in intellect." Mohammed offered this as his explanation of why the Koran holds women's testimony to be worth half of that of a man.
This book is wishful thinking made possible by the freedom of America. In Islam Central, Saudi Arabia, women cannot drive. In Kuwait they cannot vote. IN Jordan they can be killed with impunity by a male relative. In Bangladesh a discussion of women's rights can elicit attack by Islamic vigilantes.
Muslim women are oppressed, it it not just our imagination, and it isn't a "Myth" cooked up by the West.