Synopses & Reviews
Synopsis
"This is the book I've been waiting for--only it's richer, deeper, and more intriguing than I could have imagined. A Road Unforeseen is a major contribution to our understanding of feminism and Islam, of women and the world, and gives me fresh hope for change." --Barbara Ehrenreich, author of Nickel and Dimed and Living With a Wild God
In war-torn northern Syria, a democratic society--based on secularism, ethnic inclusiveness, and gender equality--has won significant victories against the Islamic State, or Daesh, with women on the front lines as fierce warriors and leaders.
A Road Unforeseen recounts the dramatic, underreported history of the Rojava Kurds, whose all-women militia was instrumental in the perilous mountaintop rescue of tens of thousands of civilians besieged in Iraq. Up to that point, the Islamic State had seemed invincible. Yet these women helped vanquish them, bringing the first half of the refugees to safety within twenty-four hours.
Who are the revolutionary women of Rojava and what lessons can we learn from their heroic story? How does their political philosophy differ from that of Iraqi Kurdistan, the Islamic State, and Turkey? And will the politics of the twenty-first century be shaped by the opposition between these political models?
Meredith Tax is a writer and political activist. Author, most recently, of Double Bind: The Muslim Right, the Anglo-American Left, and Universal Human Rights, she was founding president of Women's WORLD, a global free speech network of feminist writers, and cofounder of the PEN American Center's Women's Committee and the International PEN Women Writers' Committee. She is currently international board chair of the Centre for Secular Space and lives in New York.
Synopsis
Readers will be moved by this story of an ethnic minority whose women are leading the struggle against the Islamic State. While these armed Kurdish women have been widely photographed, their politics and history have received little coverage. This book offers their first complete history and a lucid overview of the contenders, stakes, and complex relationships in Middle Eastern politics.
Meredith Tax has been writing on the conflict between Islamism and feminism since 1994 when, as founding chair of the International PEN Women Writers Committee, she defended Bangladeshi writer Taslima Nasrin. Tax's 2013 treatise Double Bind was one of the first explorations of the troubling alliances between Western radical movements and Islamist militants and she has published other articles about these issues in the Nation and openDemocracy. Her 2015 Dissent magazine article, "The Revolution in Rojava," is the basis for this book.
BLP is developing a strong reputation for human rights titles through its publication of books such as The Cage: The Fight for Sri Lanka and the Last Days of the Tamil Tigers and Then They Started Shooting: Children of the Bosnian War and the Adults They Become, as well as the Dayton Literary Peace Prize-winning novel The Sojourn.
Synopsis
A secular feminist army courageously challenges the Islamic State
In war-torn northern Syria, a democratic society--based on secularism, ethnic inclusiveness, and gender equality--has won significant victories against the Islamic State, or Daesh, with women on the front lines as fierce warriors and leaders.
A Road Unforeseen recounts the dramatic, underreported history of the Rojava Kurds, whose all-women militia was instrumental in the perilous mountaintop rescue of tens of thousands of civilians besieged in Iraq. Up to that point, the Islamic State had seemed invincible. Yet these women helped vanquish them, bringing the first half of the refugees to safety within twenty-four hours.
Who are the revolutionary women of Rojava and what lessons can we learn from their heroic story? How does their political philosophy differ from that of Iraqi Kurdistan, the Islamic State, and Turkey? And will the politics of the twenty-first century be shaped by the opposition between these political models?