In this fascinating book, Taj. I. Hashmi takes a long historical view of the position of women in society in general and that of Muslim women under Islam in particular. He argues that women have been under male domination in all societies ever since the days of Socrates and that this is not particular to Islam or Muslim societies. Then he explores how women in urban and rural Bangladesh are persecuted at the behest of the self-proclaimed custodians of Islam or mullahs. NGOs active in the country are also not free from the accusation of exploiting women in the name of empowering them. Nor has militant feminism done much good to the cause of their liberation. The author finds hope in the work of a large body of educated Bangladesh men and women in eradicating not only poverty but also illiteracy and religious fanaticism as a surer way to women's liberation from male domination.
Taj Hashmi (Taj ul-Islam Hashmi)was born in 1948 in Assam, India, to North Indian (U.P.) and Assamese parents, who moved to East Pakistan (Bangladesh since 1971)in the early 1950s.He holds an MA and BA (Hons.) in Islamic History and Culture from Dhaka University and a Ph.D. in modern South Asian history from the University of Western Australia.
He taught Islamic and modern South Asian history and cultural anthropology at universities in Bangladesh, Australia, Singapore and Canada. Since 2007, he is working as professor of security studies, teaching adult education courses for military and civilian officers for forty-odd countries, at the Asia-Pacific Center for Security Studies in Honolulu, Hawaii.
Hashmi has authored scores of academic and popular essays and articles on various aspects of society, religion, politics, culture and security issues in the Middle East and South Asia. His major publications are: a)Women and Islam in Bangladesh: Beyond Subjection and Tyranny, Palgrave-Macmillan Press, 2000; b)Islam, Muslims and the Modern State (co-edited),Palgrave-Macmillan Press, 1994 and 1996; c) Pakistan as a Peasant Utopia, Westview Press 1992 and d) Colonial Bengal (in Bengali), Papyrus, Calcutta 1985. His Women and Islam in Bangladesh was among Barnes and Nobles' best sellers and was awarded the Justice Ibrahim Gold Medal (Bangladesh) in 2001. Currently he is working on a book titled Islam in Postcolonial Global Setting: Beyond the Muslim Heartland.
He is a Fellow of the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and an editorial board member of the journal, Contemporary South Asia since 1996.
