Choice Review
This is a major contribution to both feminist and Islamist studies. Rather than critiquing fundamentalist views regarding the status of Muslim women from outside Islamic thought, Shehadeh (cultural studies, American Univ., Beirut) highlights the inner contradictions and inconsistencies of nine modern Muslim fundamentalist thinkers. The author also contrasts the fundamentalist positions with those of normative Islam, and only in the concluding chapter is criticism from non-Islamic thought brought to bear. The fundamentalists range from theoreticians to those who have been able to carry out their political programs (as in Iran and Sudan), from a woman fundamentalist to an apparently moderate Tunisian political theorist, from Sunni to Shi'ite, Arab and non-Arab. Although there are elements common to all those whose views are being examined, this work is careful to consider the nuances as well. One important finding is that apparently open-minded fundamentalist reformists who espouse relatively liberal views on women in order to obtain power invariably succumb to traditionalist behavior once in charge. Shehadeh's presentations are couched in historical, social, and biographical analyses of each writer under consideration. Though the work is presented as a survey, individual chapters can be read profitably on their own. ^BSumming Up: Recommended. Upper-division undergraduates through practitioners/professionals. S. P. Blackburn Hartford Seminary
Library Journal Review
Shehadeh (American Univ. of Beirut) carefully studies the lives and writings of nine 20th-century Islamic fundamentalist ideologs, a group encompassing both Shi'ites and Sunnis and even one Egyptian woman, Zaynab al-Ghazali. Three of those represented are from Egypt, two from Iran, and one each from India, Sudan, Tunisia, and Lebanon. They all agree that the patriarchal family is essential to the reform of the Muslim community, or ummah, though they differ on the means. And while asserting that women are spiritually equal, they all share the belief that women's primary role is in the home, that gender is the source of universal social and intellectual differences, and that women are inherently dangerous, undermining masculine rationality simply by being present. Revealing contradictions between what is advocated for urban women and what is advocated for rural women who must work in the fields, between al-Ghazali herself and her recommendations for other women, Shehadeh synthesizes her findings and constructs a powerful theory of gender dynamics in contemporary Islam. Important for its political as well as its religious and gender insights, this book is highly recommended for all academic collections in politics and religion.-Carolyn M. Craft, Longwood Univ., Farmville, VA (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
![Cover image for The idea of women in fundamentalist Islam [electronic resource] / Lamia Rustum Shehadeh.](/client/assets/5.1326/ctx//client/images/no_image.png "Cover image for The idea of women in fundamentalist Islam [electronic resource] / Lamia Rustum Shehadeh.")