Islam: The Empowering of Women

by Aisha Bewley

Reading historical sources throughout the centuries of Islamic history, we find lots and lots of women active in all areas of life, and then suddenly it stops. What happened? How and why have things changed in the last three hundred years to the extent that it is unusual to find women involved in Islamic sciences and, unlike in the past, very few Muslim men would even consider being taught by a Muslim woman? This is a phenomenon which requires in-depth research. It is time to re-examine the sources and re-assess how Muslim women in the past acted so that we can escape the limiting perspectives which have come to be the norm. To this end, we will examine three perspectives: the Scholarly Woman, the Political Woman, and the Spiritual Woman.

Genres: Islam, Nonfiction, Womens, Gender, Religion, Feminism

65 pages, Paperback

First published July 22, 2003

About the author

Aisha Abdurrahman Bewley, born 1948 in the United States. She holds a BA in French and MA in Near Eastern Languages from the University of California, Berkeley. She spent a year with a fellowship at the American University in Cairo and at the same time attended a seminar on Sufism and Islamic philosophy at Dar al-’Ulum. She is a student of Shaykh Abdalqadir al-Murabit, and also studied Ibn ‘Arabi with the late Sidi Fudul al-Hurawi in Fes, Morocco.

Aisha Bewley converted to Islam in 1968. She is the author and translator of many published and unpublished works, some available on her website. She is married to Hajj Abdalhaqq Bewley with whom she often translates and mother of three children.

http://murabitblog.wordpress.com/2009...

Reviews

[Sarah Lameche · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is certainly informative. unfortunately parts of it actually bored me as it felt like I was just reading a list of names with a couple of sentences adjoined. However the later part of the book I did find rather interesting. She talks about the spiritual side of a muslim. She basically says that today there seems to be to much rigidity in rules and the heart gets forgotten. I personally find this so true and that there is no point doing all the actions if your heart does not believe. In fact even though I wear the hijab my inner self is much more important than the outer. I must admit though the more I read the more I felt like I was just reading a book about Sufism rather than women in Islam? It's a nice quick read and handy to have if you know any Muslim men who takes away the rights of women. then again, men like that would not listen/read this book anyway. Shame

[Zainab Bint Younus · Rating 4 out of 5]

"Islam: The Empowering of Women" by Shaykha Aisha Bewley is an old but gold gem - written in 1998, though this is the first time I've ever read it!

It's a very short book - I finished it in less than two hours - and divided between a Preface and 3 chapters: The Scholarly Woman; the Political Woman; and the Spiritual Woman.

The first page made me weep with joy. She immediately calls out the obsession with "Islam and women" books that fixate on how Islam doesn't oppress women, but at the same time endlessly go on about Muslim women's inferiority in comparison to men. She calls out how early Islamic history is filled with stories of powerful Muslim women, and how this dramatically changed later on in Muslim history. She critiques obsessions with Muslim women's dress code at the expense of considering Muslim women holistically. The entire preface is CHEF'S KISS PERFECT. And it remains so apt today!

The Scholarly Woman and The Political Woman are also excellent chapters, detailing examples of female Islamic scholarship and politically influential Muslim women in history. I loved these chapters!

Chapter 3, The Spiritual Woman, takes a wild turn into hardcore Sufi propaganda, anti-Salafi slamming, and wild stories about Rabia al-Adawiyya and her magic carpet lmao. I have chosen to completely ignore this chapter in favour of the rest of the book lol.

[Moinuddin.95 · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book explores the different roles of women within Islam, namely, as scholars, political leaders and Sufis. This book is definitely concise therefore it doesn't satisfy any real curiosity and at times it felt as if though I was reading a list of names with a couple of sentences adjoined. However, certain parts of the book was definitely informative and Aisha has done well in describing how women played an active role in the early days of Islam alongside men and how they continued to do so centuries after.

[Jordan · Rating 2 out of 5]

There are so many avenues to explore regarding how impactful Islam was for women’s empowerment when it emerged, as well as how globalization and imperialism have influenced it, or how the hegemonic colonial world views have manufactured a representation of Islam toward the contrary. Maybe it’s a matter of weak translations at parts, but a vast majority of this book was actually not any explaining and just a list of women in Islamic history with a couple sentences on who they were. Some of the examples were even actually harmful in my opinion because they praised women for things like ‘having the head of a man’ (as if that’s the gold standard for intellect). I don’t find it reflective of the women’s empowerment I’ve seen and learned about so I recommend looking for a more nuanced perspective than this one if you’re in the early stages of exploring the topic.

[nova · Rating 4 out of 5]

another swift and easy read about women and islam !

i quite enjoyed this book, its short but comprehensive and i liked reading about specific examples of muslim women being scholars, warriors, leaders, etc. i was surprised to find out that muslims produced the most female leaders out of every group. overall i would recommend this to anyone new to reading about women and islam since this book is straight to the point and gives concrete examples of muslim women holding roles you may have never expected them to hold.

[Fatima]

Gift from Speeves, 2001

[Lumturi · Rating 5 out of 5]

Splendid book. I expected apologetics but it's divided into three sections exploring Muslim women as scholars, political leaders, and as Sufis. It's a short but excellent book!