Feminism and Islam
Legal and Literary Perspectives
edited by Mai Yamani with additional editorial assistance from Andrew Allen
(published for CIMEL by Ithaca Press, 1996)
Full text of the book's Introduction by Dr Mai Yamani
In an age when Western feminism is constanly undergoing redefinition, this book offers to the worldwide debate several authoritative contributions from the surprising setting of Muslim countries. These studies address the feminist modes of expression in relation to, or as a challenge to, Islamic laws and traditions.
This book shows how women have become more actively involved not only in learning their rights under the shari'a, but in re-reading the law in order to improve their status and their fight to gain more equality and freedom. As the book illustrates, this is an age in which we will see an increasing number of women scholars in Islamic law.
List of Chapters
1. Introduction Mai Yamani
I. Beginnings and History
2. Entrepreneurial Women Afaf Lutfi al-Sayyid Marsot
3. Law and the Desire for Social Control: An Insight into the Hanafi Concept of Kafa¹a with Reference to the Fatawa ŒAlamgiri (1664–1672) Mona Siddiqui
4. Women, Islam and Patriarchalism Ghada Karmi
5. Women in Islamic Law Raga¹ El-Nimr
II. The Language of Literature and Culture
6. The Political Agendas and Textual Strategies of Levantine Women Writers Liz McKee
7. Crimes of Honour and the Construction of Gender in Arab Societies Lama Abu-Odeh
III. The Politics of Interpretation
8. Islam and Feminism: An Analysis of Political Strategies Haleh Afshar
9. Gender and the Politics of Religion in the Middle East Maha Azzam
10. The Mythology of Modernity: Women and Democracy in Lebanon Jean Said Makdisi
11. Gulf Women and Islamic Law Munira Fakhro
12. Some Observations on Women in Saudi Arabia Mai Yamani
IV. The Confines of Law
13. Stretching the Limits: A Feminist Reading of the ShariŒa in Post-Khomeini Iran Ziba Mir-Hosseini
14. Statutory Discrimination in Lebanon: A Lawyer¹s View Souad Mokbel-Wensley
15. Islamic Family Legislation: The Authoritarian Discourse of Silence Najla Hamadeh
16. The Women¹s Convention in the Muslim World Jane Connors
To obtain this book
Contact Ithaca Press via Garnet Publishing Limited, 8 Southern Court, South Street, Reading, Berkshire, RG1 4QS, UK
