Synopses & Reviews
In Iran, hundreds of women are producing blogs, sharing their ideas in an Islamic republic that still limits women’s expression. In Malaysia, members of Sisters in Islam are challenging sexist interpretations of Islamic theology and law. And throughout the Arabic-speaking world, satellite TV stations like Al-Jazeera have spawned “new Scheherazades”—women journalists and hosts whose voices have a powerful impact on the public discourse.
This unique, cutting-edge book of essays—the first to include work by 2003 Nobel Peace Prize-winner Shirin Ebadi—explodes Western stereotypes about Middle Eastern women. Here, writers from across the Islamic world describe how women are claiming their full voice in politics, religion, and culture, making powerful use of new media—and sometimes facing powerful backlash.
Review
"Fourteen distinguished scholars discuss how the interconnected web of economic globalization, transnational networks in new information technology, and the revival of Islam have opened up new opportunities for, and have in turn been transformed by, Muslim women. An underlying common theme of the contributors is their challenge to the colonially rooted, monolithic representation of Muslim women as voiceless and invisible victims (âÂÂbehind-the-veilâÂÂ) of the Islamic patriarchy in both traditional and modern eras.
Toward this end, the book competently shows how new global technologies have empowered Muslim women by providing novel channels through which to make themselves seen and heard, thereby to explore their identities as they remake the public sphere. This exploration takes place especially in negotiating the gender-neutral interpretation of their religion as well as in their struggle against patriarchy and struggle for full citizenship through greater participation in civil society. It is interesting to note that the authors take no pains to prove misogyny among Islamist movements and instead look at how Islamist women negotiate their gender identity within the movements they belong to, which in a sense facilitate public actualization of their agency. Along with calling attention to these avenues for empowerment, this anthology establishes how Muslim women already have had rich histories of activism and of resistance to subordination. Its authors confront both the traditional patriarchy in the Muslim lands especially that of womenâÂÂs relationship with the holy text and emancipatory Western feminism, particularly its teleological and Western-centric notions of modernity and secularity.
Added to its theoretical potency for emphasizing equally the empowering effects of structural forces and the priority of womenâÂÂs agency, On Shifting Grounds is a fresh addition to feminist studies not merely for its unique theoretical statement and rich case materials but for its challenge to the universalist presumptions of Western feminism." Reviewed by Halil Ibrahim Yenigun, Virginia Quarterly Review (Copyright 2006 Virginia Quarterly Review)
Synopsis
Premier women scholars speak out on politics, religion, media, and popular culture in the Middle East.
About the Author
A native of Iran, Fereshteh Nouraie-Simone is a Scholar-in-Residence at the Center for Global Peace at American University, and has taught at George Washington University and the University of Tehran. She is the founder of the Women International Network for Community Leadership and a Member of the Board of Directors of the Women International Center for Democracy and of Nonviolence International.