Women Claim Islam: Creating Islamic Feminism Through Literature

by Miriam Cooke

This provocative collection addresses the ways in which Arab women writers are using Islam to empower themselves, and theorizes the conditions that have made the appearance of these new voices possible.

Genres: Islam, Nonfiction, Religion, Feminism, Theory, Womens, Middle East

208 pages, Paperback

First published July 12, 2000

About the author

miriam cooke is Braxton Craven Professor emerita of Arab Cultures at Duke University. She has been a visiting professor in Tunisia, Romania, Indonesia, Qatar and Alliance of Civilizations Institute in Istanbul. She serves on several international advisory boards, including academic journals and institutions.

Her writings have focused on the intersection of gender and war in modern Arabic literature, Arab women writers’ constructions of Islamic feminism and Arab cultural studies with a concentration on the Arabian Gulf and Syria. She has published fifteen books and is currently working on a novel about World War II Palestine.

Three of her books (Women Claim Islam; Women and the War Story and The Anatomy of an Egyptian Intellectual: Yahya Haqqi) were named Choice Outstanding Academic Books. Several books have been translated into Arabic, Chinese, Dutch, French and German.

Reviews

[Issa Deerbany]

كتب يستقصي المطالبات النسوية في واقع النساء ما قبل الاستقلال وما بعد الاستقلال الى الوقت الحاضر من خلال كتابات بعض المؤلفات العربيات.

يلعب الدين دور أساسي في تحديد مطالب هؤلاء المؤلفات من أقصى اليمين الى أقصى اليسار.

ولكن الاتفاق بينهن انه لا لتهميش السيدات ودورهم في المجتمع الحالي.

[Jill]

very informed view of how women are treated/perceived in the Muslim world, from their point of view. Definitely changed how I thought about the position of women in Islam.

[إسراء]

كتاب جيد كمصدر لأسماء نساء عربيات كثر شاركوا بأشكال مختلفة في تكوين ما قد يسمى نسوية إسلامية، بمعنى نسوية مبنية على تبني أو نقد للقرآن أو السنة.
لا تنتظر من الكتاب ما هو أبعد ذلك، وبكل أسف رغم أن العنوان تحفففففة ويعد بما هو أكثر