Author: Afiya S. Zia
Publisher: Liverpool University Press
ISBN: 1782846670
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 294
Book Description
Are secular aims, politics, and sensibilities impossible, undesirable and impracticable for Muslims and Islamic states? Should Muslim women be exempted from feminist attempts at liberation from patriarchy and its various expressions under Islamic laws and customs? Considerable literature on the entanglements of Islam and secularism has been produced in the post-9/11 decade and a large proportion of it deals with the Woman Question. Many commentators critique the secular and Western feminism, and the racialising backlash that accompanied the occupation of Muslim countries during the War on Terror military campaign launched by the U.S. government after the September 11 attacks in 2001. Implicit in many of these critical works is the suggestion that it is Western secular feminism that is the motivating driver and permanent collaborator -- along with other feminists, secularists and human rights activists in Muslim countries -- that sustains the Wests actual and metaphorical war on Islam and Muslims. The book addresses this post-9/11 critical trope and its implications for womens movements in Muslim contexts. The relevance of secular feminist activism is illustrated with reference to some of the nation-wide, working-class womens movements that have surged throughout Pakistan under religious militancy: polio vaccinators, health workers, politicians, peasants and artists have been directly targeted, even assassinated, for their service and commitment to liberal ideals. Afiya Zia contends that Muslim womens piety is no threat against the dominant political patriarchy, but their secular autonomy promises transformative changes for the population at large, and thereby effectively challenges Muslim male dominance. This book is essential reading for those interested in understanding the limits of Muslim womens piety and the potential in their pursuit for secular autonomy and liberal freedoms.
Faith and Feminism in Pakistan
Author: Afiya S. Zia
Publisher: Liverpool University Press
ISBN: 1782846670
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 294
Book Description
Are secular aims, politics, and sensibilities impossible, undesirable and impracticable for Muslims and Islamic states? Should Muslim women be exempted from feminist attempts at liberation from patriarchy and its various expressions under Islamic laws and customs? Considerable literature on the entanglements of Islam and secularism has been produced in the post-9/11 decade and a large proportion of it deals with the Woman Question. Many commentators critique the secular and Western feminism, and the racialising backlash that accompanied the occupation of Muslim countries during the War on Terror military campaign launched by the U.S. government after the September 11 attacks in 2001. Implicit in many of these critical works is the suggestion that it is Western secular feminism that is the motivating driver and permanent collaborator -- along with other feminists, secularists and human rights activists in Muslim countries -- that sustains the Wests actual and metaphorical war on Islam and Muslims. The book addresses this post-9/11 critical trope and its implications for womens movements in Muslim contexts. The relevance of secular feminist activism is illustrated with reference to some of the nation-wide, working-class womens movements that have surged throughout Pakistan under religious militancy: polio vaccinators, health workers, politicians, peasants and artists have been directly targeted, even assassinated, for their service and commitment to liberal ideals. Afiya Zia contends that Muslim womens piety is no threat against the dominant political patriarchy, but their secular autonomy promises transformative changes for the population at large, and thereby effectively challenges Muslim male dominance. This book is essential reading for those interested in understanding the limits of Muslim womens piety and the potential in their pursuit for secular autonomy and liberal freedoms.
Publisher: Liverpool University Press
ISBN: 1782846670
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 294
Book Description
Are secular aims, politics, and sensibilities impossible, undesirable and impracticable for Muslims and Islamic states? Should Muslim women be exempted from feminist attempts at liberation from patriarchy and its various expressions under Islamic laws and customs? Considerable literature on the entanglements of Islam and secularism has been produced in the post-9/11 decade and a large proportion of it deals with the Woman Question. Many commentators critique the secular and Western feminism, and the racialising backlash that accompanied the occupation of Muslim countries during the War on Terror military campaign launched by the U.S. government after the September 11 attacks in 2001. Implicit in many of these critical works is the suggestion that it is Western secular feminism that is the motivating driver and permanent collaborator -- along with other feminists, secularists and human rights activists in Muslim countries -- that sustains the Wests actual and metaphorical war on Islam and Muslims. The book addresses this post-9/11 critical trope and its implications for womens movements in Muslim contexts. The relevance of secular feminist activism is illustrated with reference to some of the nation-wide, working-class womens movements that have surged throughout Pakistan under religious militancy: polio vaccinators, health workers, politicians, peasants and artists have been directly targeted, even assassinated, for their service and commitment to liberal ideals. Afiya Zia contends that Muslim womens piety is no threat against the dominant political patriarchy, but their secular autonomy promises transformative changes for the population at large, and thereby effectively challenges Muslim male dominance. This book is essential reading for those interested in understanding the limits of Muslim womens piety and the potential in their pursuit for secular autonomy and liberal freedoms.
The Women's Movement in Pakistan
Author: Ayesha Khan
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
ISBN: 1786735237
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 420
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.
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
ISBN: 1786735237
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 420
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.
Transforming Faith
Author: Sadaf Ahmad
Publisher: Syracuse University Press
ISBN: 9780815632092
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 0
Book Description
Over the last decade, there has been an increasing number of middle and upper-class urban Pakistani women actively turning toward Islam via Al-Huda, an Islamic school for women aiming to transform the women who absorb its message into “pious” subjects. Established in the early 1990s, Al-Huda is unique in its ability to attract a following among these women, a feat other religious groups have been unsuccessful in accomplishing. In Transforming Faith, Sadaf Ahmad deftly explores how Al-Huda is fostering a new generation of educated, urban, middle-class women to become veiled conservatives. She offers an engrossing and sensitive account of how the school’s aggressive recruiting methods through informal religious study groups and a one-year degree program combined with the school’s techniques of persuasive teaching methods have turned Al-Huda into a social movement. As a woman of Pakistani origin, Ahmad offers an in-depth look at the students and members of Al-Huda in ways that a cultural outsider would be excluded from doing. She reveals that although Pakistani women are better educated than ever before they still face social barriers that limit them from working or pursuing further education. Ahmad’s groundbreaking work demonstrates Al-Huda’s ever-widening teachings and influence in Pakistan and in its recent global extensions. More broadly, this book illuminates how Al-Huda uses the trappings of modernity to engage educated women in a kind of religious study that transforms their ideology, behavior, and lifestyle within a particular Islamic framework. Because of Al-Huda’s teachings, Pakistani society is changing, as is the rest of the Muslim world.
Publisher: Syracuse University Press
ISBN: 9780815632092
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 0
Book Description
Over the last decade, there has been an increasing number of middle and upper-class urban Pakistani women actively turning toward Islam via Al-Huda, an Islamic school for women aiming to transform the women who absorb its message into “pious” subjects. Established in the early 1990s, Al-Huda is unique in its ability to attract a following among these women, a feat other religious groups have been unsuccessful in accomplishing. In Transforming Faith, Sadaf Ahmad deftly explores how Al-Huda is fostering a new generation of educated, urban, middle-class women to become veiled conservatives. She offers an engrossing and sensitive account of how the school’s aggressive recruiting methods through informal religious study groups and a one-year degree program combined with the school’s techniques of persuasive teaching methods have turned Al-Huda into a social movement. As a woman of Pakistani origin, Ahmad offers an in-depth look at the students and members of Al-Huda in ways that a cultural outsider would be excluded from doing. She reveals that although Pakistani women are better educated than ever before they still face social barriers that limit them from working or pursuing further education. Ahmad’s groundbreaking work demonstrates Al-Huda’s ever-widening teachings and influence in Pakistan and in its recent global extensions. More broadly, this book illuminates how Al-Huda uses the trappings of modernity to engage educated women in a kind of religious study that transforms their ideology, behavior, and lifestyle within a particular Islamic framework. Because of Al-Huda’s teachings, Pakistani society is changing, as is the rest of the Muslim world.
Contesting Feminisms
Author: Huma Ahmed-Ghosh
Publisher: State University of New York Press
ISBN: 1438457944
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 294
Book Description
Contesting Feminisms explores how Asian Muslim women make decisions on appropriating Islam and Islamic lifestyles through their own participation in the faith. The contributors highlight the fact that secularism has provided the space for some women to reclaim their religious identity and their own feminisms. Through compelling case studies and theoretical discussions, this volume challenges mainstream Western and national feminisms that presume homogeneity of Muslim women's lives to provide a deeper understanding of the multiple realities of feminism in Muslim communities.
Publisher: State University of New York Press
ISBN: 1438457944
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 294
Book Description
Contesting Feminisms explores how Asian Muslim women make decisions on appropriating Islam and Islamic lifestyles through their own participation in the faith. The contributors highlight the fact that secularism has provided the space for some women to reclaim their religious identity and their own feminisms. Through compelling case studies and theoretical discussions, this volume challenges mainstream Western and national feminisms that presume homogeneity of Muslim women's lives to provide a deeper understanding of the multiple realities of feminism in Muslim communities.
When Women Speak...
Author: Moyra Dale
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781506475967
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 203
Book Description
The twentieth century should be remembered in missions as the time when women got lost. Over that time, the voices of women missionaries, leaders, and facilitators of new Christian movements were all too often excluded from missiological discourse and strategic mission discussion. It is hoped that this book signals a revival in the contribution of women to mission in a way that values what they have to offer.
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781506475967
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 203
Book Description
The twentieth century should be remembered in missions as the time when women got lost. Over that time, the voices of women missionaries, leaders, and facilitators of new Christian movements were all too often excluded from missiological discourse and strategic mission discussion. It is hoped that this book signals a revival in the contribution of women to mission in a way that values what they have to offer.
Religion, Gender and Citizenship
Author: Line Nyhagen
Publisher: Springer
ISBN: 1137405341
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 282
Book Description
How do religious women talk about and practise citizenship? How is religion linked to gender and nationality? What are their views on gender equality, women's movements and feminism? Via interviews with Christian and Muslim women in Norway, Spain and the UK, this book explores intersections between religion, citizenship, gender and feminism.
Publisher: Springer
ISBN: 1137405341
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 282
Book Description
How do religious women talk about and practise citizenship? How is religion linked to gender and nationality? What are their views on gender equality, women's movements and feminism? Via interviews with Christian and Muslim women in Norway, Spain and the UK, this book explores intersections between religion, citizenship, gender and feminism.
Voices of Resistance
Author: Sarah Husain
Publisher: Seal Press
ISBN: 9781580051811
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 320
Book Description
A diverse collection of personal and political narratives and prose by Muslim women includes pieces by writers from a wide range of cultures and includes such tales as a woman's remembrance of a beloved cousin killed in a suicide bombing, a transsexual who remembers the veil he no longer wears, and a woman's confrontation of sexism and hypocrisy on a pilgrimage to Saudi Arabia. Original.
Publisher: Seal Press
ISBN: 9781580051811
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 320
Book Description
A diverse collection of personal and political narratives and prose by Muslim women includes pieces by writers from a wide range of cultures and includes such tales as a woman's remembrance of a beloved cousin killed in a suicide bombing, a transsexual who remembers the veil he no longer wears, and a woman's confrontation of sexism and hypocrisy on a pilgrimage to Saudi Arabia. Original.
Zina, Transnational Feminism, and the Moral Regulation of Pakistani Women
Author: Shahnaz Khan
Publisher: UBC Press
ISBN: 0774841184
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 162
Book Description
The Zina Ordinance is part of the Hadood Ordinances that were promulgated in 1979 by the military dictator General Zia-ul-Haq, a self-proclaimed president of Pakistan. Since then, tens of thousands of Pakistani women have been charged and incarcerated under the ordinance, which governs illicit sex. Although most of these women are subsequently released for lack of evidence, they spend months or years in jail before trial. To date, these laws still remain in effect, despite international calls for their repeal. Over a five-year-period, Shahnaz Khan interviewed women incarcerated under the zina laws in Pakistan. She argues that the zina laws help situate morality within the individual, thus de-emphasizing the prevalence of societal injustice. She also examines the production and reception of knowledge in the west about women in the third world, identifying a productive tension between living in the west and doing research in the third world. She concludes that transnational feminist solidarity can help women identify the linkages between the local and global and challenge oppressive practices internationally. This analysis will appeal to scholars and students of gender, law, human rights, and Islamic/Middle Eastern studies.
Publisher: UBC Press
ISBN: 0774841184
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 162
Book Description
The Zina Ordinance is part of the Hadood Ordinances that were promulgated in 1979 by the military dictator General Zia-ul-Haq, a self-proclaimed president of Pakistan. Since then, tens of thousands of Pakistani women have been charged and incarcerated under the ordinance, which governs illicit sex. Although most of these women are subsequently released for lack of evidence, they spend months or years in jail before trial. To date, these laws still remain in effect, despite international calls for their repeal. Over a five-year-period, Shahnaz Khan interviewed women incarcerated under the zina laws in Pakistan. She argues that the zina laws help situate morality within the individual, thus de-emphasizing the prevalence of societal injustice. She also examines the production and reception of knowledge in the west about women in the third world, identifying a productive tension between living in the west and doing research in the third world. She concludes that transnational feminist solidarity can help women identify the linkages between the local and global and challenge oppressive practices internationally. This analysis will appeal to scholars and students of gender, law, human rights, and Islamic/Middle Eastern studies.
Windows of Faith
Author: Gisela Webb
Publisher: Syracuse University Press
ISBN: 9780815628514
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 332
Book Description
This collection of essays brings together voices from the most recent development in Muslim women's studies, namely, the burgeoning network of Muslim women working on issues of women's human rights through engaged revisionist scholarship in such areas as theology, law and jurisprudence, and women's literature. The essayists are leading Islamic women scholars in North America who affirm their religious self-identity in their acknowledgment of, and striving toward solving, serious problems women have faced in Muslim societies and communities around the world. Their approach is designated as "scholarship-activism" because it comes from the common conviction that to look at women's issues from within the Islamic perspective must unite issues of theory and practice. Any theory or analysis of women's nature, role, rights, or problems must include attention to the practical, "on-the-ground" issues involved in actualizing the Qur'anic mandate of social justice. Concomitantly, any considerations of practical solutions to problems and injustices faced by women must have a solid theological grounding in the Qur'anic world view. Contributors include representatives from the variety of constituents of Islam in America" immigrant" and "indigenous"—whose works are in the forefront of Islamic discussion and reform today: Amina Wadud, Nimat Hafez Barazangi, Maysam J. al-Faruqi, Azizah Y. al-Hibri, Asifa Quraishi, Riffat Hassan, Aminah Beverly McCloud, Mohja Kahf, Rabia Terri Harris, and Gwendolyn Zoharah Simmons.
Publisher: Syracuse University Press
ISBN: 9780815628514
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 332
Book Description
This collection of essays brings together voices from the most recent development in Muslim women's studies, namely, the burgeoning network of Muslim women working on issues of women's human rights through engaged revisionist scholarship in such areas as theology, law and jurisprudence, and women's literature. The essayists are leading Islamic women scholars in North America who affirm their religious self-identity in their acknowledgment of, and striving toward solving, serious problems women have faced in Muslim societies and communities around the world. Their approach is designated as "scholarship-activism" because it comes from the common conviction that to look at women's issues from within the Islamic perspective must unite issues of theory and practice. Any theory or analysis of women's nature, role, rights, or problems must include attention to the practical, "on-the-ground" issues involved in actualizing the Qur'anic mandate of social justice. Concomitantly, any considerations of practical solutions to problems and injustices faced by women must have a solid theological grounding in the Qur'anic world view. Contributors include representatives from the variety of constituents of Islam in America" immigrant" and "indigenous"—whose works are in the forefront of Islamic discussion and reform today: Amina Wadud, Nimat Hafez Barazangi, Maysam J. al-Faruqi, Azizah Y. al-Hibri, Asifa Quraishi, Riffat Hassan, Aminah Beverly McCloud, Mohja Kahf, Rabia Terri Harris, and Gwendolyn Zoharah Simmons.
Infidel Feminism
Author: Laura Schwartz
Publisher:
ISBN: 9780719097287
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 256
Book Description
Infidel feminism is the first in-depth study of a distinctive brand of women's rights that emerged out of the Victorian Secularist movement. Anti-religious or secular ideas were fundamental to the development of feminist thought, but have, until now, been almost entirely passed over in the historiography of the Victorian and Edwardian women's movement. In uncovering an important tradition of Freethinking feminism, this book reveals an ongoing radical and free love current connecting Owenite feminism with the more 'respectable' post-1850 women's movement and the 'New Women' of the early twentieth century. Schwartz looks at the lives and work of a number of female activists associated with organised Secularism, whose renunciation of religion encouraged and shaped their support for women's emancipation. These self-proclaimed 'infidel' feminists championed moral autonomy, free speech, and the democratic dissemination of knowledge. Alongside their rejection of god-given notions of sexual difference and a critique of the Christian institution of marriage such Freethinking principles provided powerful intellectual tools with which to challenge dominant and oppressive constructions of womanhood. Their contribution to the wider feminist movement was significant at a time when the issue of women's rights was integral to the creation of modern definitions of 'religion' and 'secularism' and when feminists and anti-feminists, Christians and Freethinkers battled over who had women's best interests at heart. This book will be invaluable to both scholars and students of social and cultural history and feminist thought, and to interdisciplinary studies of religion and secularisation. Its accessible style will also ensure that it appeals to those interested in the history of women's movements more broadly.
Publisher:
ISBN: 9780719097287
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 256
Book Description
Infidel feminism is the first in-depth study of a distinctive brand of women's rights that emerged out of the Victorian Secularist movement. Anti-religious or secular ideas were fundamental to the development of feminist thought, but have, until now, been almost entirely passed over in the historiography of the Victorian and Edwardian women's movement. In uncovering an important tradition of Freethinking feminism, this book reveals an ongoing radical and free love current connecting Owenite feminism with the more 'respectable' post-1850 women's movement and the 'New Women' of the early twentieth century. Schwartz looks at the lives and work of a number of female activists associated with organised Secularism, whose renunciation of religion encouraged and shaped their support for women's emancipation. These self-proclaimed 'infidel' feminists championed moral autonomy, free speech, and the democratic dissemination of knowledge. Alongside their rejection of god-given notions of sexual difference and a critique of the Christian institution of marriage such Freethinking principles provided powerful intellectual tools with which to challenge dominant and oppressive constructions of womanhood. Their contribution to the wider feminist movement was significant at a time when the issue of women's rights was integral to the creation of modern definitions of 'religion' and 'secularism' and when feminists and anti-feminists, Christians and Freethinkers battled over who had women's best interests at heart. This book will be invaluable to both scholars and students of social and cultural history and feminist thought, and to interdisciplinary studies of religion and secularisation. Its accessible style will also ensure that it appeals to those interested in the history of women's movements more broadly.