Islam, Democracy and the Status of Women

Islam, Democracy and the Status of Women PDF Author: Helen M. Rizzo
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1135873895
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 142

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Book Description
This book examines the relationship between religion, democracy, and women's organizations in Kuwait. More specifically, it looks at whether these organizations are working toward achieving formal political rights for women. Helen Rizzo examines how interpretations of religion affected the goals and activities of the organizations in terms of women's empowerment and if the organizations were pushing the democratization process. Much of the recent literature on the relationship between Islam, democracy, and women's rights has been negative and pessimistic. Instead, this book examines the complicated relationship between these three things, arguing that some women in Kuwait are using Islam in their discourse to justify women's right to equality and public participation, thus countering the arguments that see Islam, democracy, and women's rights as inherently and culturally incompatible.

Islam, Democracy and the Status of Women

Islam, Democracy and the Status of Women PDF Author: Helen M. Rizzo
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1135873895
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 142

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Book Description
This book examines the relationship between religion, democracy, and women's organizations in Kuwait. More specifically, it looks at whether these organizations are working toward achieving formal political rights for women. Helen Rizzo examines how interpretations of religion affected the goals and activities of the organizations in terms of women's empowerment and if the organizations were pushing the democratization process. Much of the recent literature on the relationship between Islam, democracy, and women's rights has been negative and pessimistic. Instead, this book examines the complicated relationship between these three things, arguing that some women in Kuwait are using Islam in their discourse to justify women's right to equality and public participation, thus countering the arguments that see Islam, democracy, and women's rights as inherently and culturally incompatible.

Islam, Gender, and Democracy in Comparative Perspective

Islam, Gender, and Democracy in Comparative Perspective PDF Author: Jocelyne Cesari
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 019878855X
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 320

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Book Description
This collection reframes the debate around Islam and women's rights within a broader comparative literature that examines the complex and contingent historical relationships between religion, secularism, democracy, law, and gender equality.

The Women's Movement in Pakistan

The Women's Movement in Pakistan PDF Author: Ayesha Khan
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
ISBN: 1786735237
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 420

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Book Description
The military rule of General Zia ul-Haq, former President of Pakistan, had significant political repercussions for the country. Islamization policies were far more pronounced and control over women became the key marker of the state's adherence to religious norms. Women's rights activists mobilized as a result, campaigning to reverse oppressive policies and redefine the relationship between state, society and Islam. Their calls for a liberal democracy led them to be targeted and suppressed. This book is a history of the modern women's movement in Pakistan. The research is based on documents from the Women's Action Forum archives, court judgments on relevant cases, as well as interviews with activists, lawyers and judges and analysis of newspapers and magazines. Ayesha Khan argues that the demand for a secular state and resistance to Islamization should not be misunderstood as Pakistani women sympathizing with a western agenda. Rather, their work is a crucial contribution to the evolution of the Pakistani state. The book outlines the discriminatory laws and policies that triggered domestic and international outcry, landmark cases of sexual violence that rallied women activists together and the important breakthroughs that enhanced women's rights. At a time when the women's movement in Pakistan is in danger of shrinking, this book highlights its historic significance and its continued relevance today.

Islam And Democracy

Islam And Democracy PDF Author: Fatima Mernissi
Publisher: Basic Books
ISBN: 0786731001
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 226

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Book Description
Is Islam compatible with democracy? Must fundamentalism win out in the Middle East, or will democracy ever be possible? In this now-classic book, Islamic sociologist Fatima Mernissi explores the ways in which progressive Muslims--defenders of democracy, feminists, and others trying to resist fundamentalism--must use the same sacred texts as Muslims who use them for violent ends, to prove different views. Updated with a new introduction by the author written in the wake of the September 11 terrorist attacks on the United States, Islam and Democracy serves as a guide to the players moving the pieces on the rather grim Muslim chessboard. It shines new light on the people behind today's terrorist acts and raises provocative questions about the possibilities for democracy and human rights in the Islamic world. Essential reading for anyone interested in the politics of the Middle East today, Islam and Democracy is as timely now as it was upon its initial, celebrated publication.

Making Islam Democratic

Making Islam Democratic PDF Author: Asef Bayat
Publisher: Stanford University Press
ISBN: 9780804755955
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 324

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Book Description
This book looks anew at the vexing question of whether Islam is compatible with democracy, examining histories of Islamic politics and social movements in the Middle East since the 1970s.

New Thinking in Islam

New Thinking in Islam PDF Author: Katajun Amirpur
Publisher: Gingko Library
ISBN: 190994274X
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 248

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Book Description
In Rethinking Islam, Katajun Amirpur argues that the West’s impression of Islam as a backward-looking faith, resistant to post-Enlightenment thinking, is misleading and—due to its effects on political discourse—damaging. Introducing readers to key thinkers and activists—such as Abu Zaid, a free-thinking Egyptian Qur’an scholar; Abdolkarim Soroush, an academic and former member of Khomeini’s Cultural Revolution Committee; and Amina Wadud, an American feminist who was the first woman to lead the faithful in Friday Prayer—Amirpur reveals a powerful yet lesser-known tradition of inquiry and dissent within Islam, one that is committed to democracy and human rights. By examining these and many other similar figures’ ideas, she reveals the many ways they reject fundamentalist assertions and instead call for a diversity of opinion, greater freedom, and equality of the sexes.

Bargaining for Women's Rights

Bargaining for Women's Rights PDF Author: Alice J. Kang
Publisher: U of Minnesota Press
ISBN: 145294427X
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 294

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Book Description
Gender relations in Muslim-majority countries have been subject to intense debate in recent decades. In some cases, Muslim women have fought for and won new rights to political participation, reproductive health, and education. In others, their agendas have been stymied. Yet missing from this discussion, until now, has been a systematic examination of how civil society groups mobilize to promote women’s rights and how multiple components of the state negotiate such legislation. In Bargaining for Women’s Rights, Alice J. Kang argues that reform is more likely to happen when the struggle arises from within. Focusing on how a law on gender quotas and a United Nations treaty on ending discrimination against women passed in Niger while family law reform and an African Union protocol on women’s rights did not, Kang shows how local women’s associations are uniquely positioned to translate global concepts of democracy and human rights into concrete policy proposals. And yet, drawing on numerous interviews with women’s rights activists as well as Islamists and politicians, she reveals that the former are not the only ones who care about the regulation of gender relations. Providing a solid analytic framework for understanding conflict over women’s rights policies without stereotyping Muslims, Bargaining for Women’s Rights demonstrates that, contrary to conventional wisdom, Islam does not have a uniformly negative effect on the prospects of such legislation.

Civil Democratic Islam

Civil Democratic Islam PDF Author: Cheryl Benard
Publisher: Rand Corporation
ISBN: 0833036203
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 89

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Book Description
In the face of Islam's own internal struggles, it is not easy to see who we should support and how. This report provides detailed descriptions of subgroups, their stands on various issues, and what those stands may mean for the West. Since the outcomes can matter greatly to international community, that community might wish to influence them by providing support to appropriate actors. The author recommends a mixed approach of providing specific types of support to those who can influence the outcomes in desirable ways.

Women, Islam and the State

Women, Islam and the State PDF Author: Deniz Kandiyoti
Publisher: Springer
ISBN: 1349211788
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 285

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Book Description
Political projects of modern nation-states, the specificities of their nationalist histories and the positioning of Islam vis-a-vis diverse nationalisms are addressed in this volume with respect to their implications and consequences for women through a series of case studies.

The Awakening of Muslim Democracy

The Awakening of Muslim Democracy PDF Author: Jocelyne Cesari
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1107513294
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 441

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Book Description
Why and how did Islam become such a political force in so many Muslim-majority countries? In this book, Jocelyne Cesari investigates the relationship between modernization, politics, and Islam in Muslim-majority countries such as Egypt, Iraq, Pakistan, Tunisia, and Turkey - countries that were founded by secular rulers and have since undergone secularized politics. Cesari argues that nation-building processes in these states have not created liberal democracies in the Western mold, but have instead spurred the politicization of Islam by turning it into a modern national ideology. Looking closely at examples of Islamic dominance in political modernization, this study provides a unique overview of the historical and political developments from the end of World War II to the Arab Spring that have made Islam the dominant force in the construction of the modern states, and discusses Islam's impact on emerging democracies in the contemporary Middle East.